I feel like what we talked about in class today were the claims made by the commercials instead of the claims being made by the comedian. Advertisements are heavily based in the science of psychology; whatever references or connections were subtly made, they clearly worked, or at least were found to work in trials. I think the message the comedian was trying to make was along the lines of "ads aren't talking to you, they are talking to your subconscious."
Yes, the ads were blatantly targeted at women; yes, they fit certain gender stereotypes. The average person watching the ad in about 20 seconds would not have picked up on any of that though; all they would think was what the advertisers wanted them to think -- that they could really use some yogurt right about now.
Her point was not entirely that the ads were gender targeted and stereotypical; part of her sarcasm was directed towards the fact that people are falling for the marketing ploy. There's a very real sense of "its so ridiculous yet it works."
This is the course blog for the UC Berkeley Fall 2008 course English R1A/01, "Poetry and Language." This course teaches reading and composition through British and American poetry, with a special focus on style.
Instructor: Natalia Cecire (cecire at berkeley dot edu) Office hours: MW 10-11, 400 Wheeler Hall
There is also a course web site at bspace.berkeley.edu.
1 comment:
I feel like what we talked about in class today were the claims made by the commercials instead of the claims being made by the comedian. Advertisements are heavily based in the science of psychology; whatever references or connections were subtly made, they clearly worked, or at least were found to work in trials. I think the message the comedian was trying to make was along the lines of "ads aren't talking to you, they are talking to your subconscious."
Yes, the ads were blatantly targeted at women; yes, they fit certain gender stereotypes. The average person watching the ad in about 20 seconds would not have picked up on any of that though; all they would think was what the advertisers wanted them to think -- that they could really use some yogurt right about now.
Her point was not entirely that the ads were gender targeted and stereotypical; part of her sarcasm was directed towards the fact that people are falling for the marketing ploy. There's a very real sense of "its so ridiculous yet it works."
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