Commercial Perspective
Posted on | April 7, 2010 | No Comments
I’ve been mulling a post on perspective for quite some time. Anthropology of a certain genre focuses quite a bit on perspective, and I’ve always been quite taken with the concept of relativity, cultural or otherwise, especially when dealing with advertising.
As a consumer, and we are all consumers at this point, every ad you see every TV show you watch is working to change your perspective. They are all lovingly crafted to showcase, in most cases, a racially diverse group of people enjoying an experience with a product.
Some products target down to specific groups they are trying to reach, others work to include people of differing abilities and disabilities into their message, still others work to make sure that not only are gender roles equal in presentation but that the women or young girls in the situation feel empowered by the position similar actors to their own perspective are experiencing on the screen.
This is the business of TV and advertising as it stands, each piece of content is filtered shifted and cajoled to be as inclusive and sensitive to the message they are sending out as possible. I’d suggest an exercise, stop tuning out when the commercials come on, start trying to pick apart the 30 second narrative they play before you, what are they trying to sell, how are they trying to make you feel? What do they want you to do?
Once you start paying attention to the commercials, and which shows they choose to be seen with, it’s pretty eye opening.
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