Ann:
“The cynic in me objected to the implication that following the company message would enable an ostrich to fly and the human in me worried about the bird in the glasses - was it angry or afraid?”
Interesting, I had given your perspective a flash thought but moved beyond it. Certainly looking at it in the way you do causes me to see it through a very different lense. (Now that I’m thinking, I can also see it as a metaphor for the harming affects of technology on the human race. But I see, too, what you are saying.)
Some thoughts:
- Putting aside the fact that this is just a corporate message dressed up in sheep’s clothing, it seemed obvious to me that this was intended to be a big metaphor, a fairytale of sorts. The theme is “do what you can’t”. It’s an odd thought.
- I’m de-flowered (once again). It happens all the time. The Innocent (don’t call it ignorant) in me wants to see beyond – not through – the facade. I know quite well that innocence is often just ignorance and experience is so often disheartening. Knowledge on the other hand, will set you free. And freedom to dream.
- Would we think the same of Dickens (or Tolstoy or D.H. Lawrence) if we knew he had beaten his wife? (He did not, by almost all accounts). Are we best off to not know some things? Can we ever know everything?
- Your response reminds me of that response that some have to Disney. I guard against thinking that Disney films are misogynistic or tainted with racial or ethnic innuendo or riddled with hidden pictures of nakedness. On the other hand, I don’t like Disney films (or the whole Disney shtick for that matter) that much for the same reason I don’t like fast food.
- Ann, Do you ever chastise the cynic in you for being so cynical? Of course, you’re largely right about the methods of marketers to sucker us in. I assure you I never buy Samsung unless there is a good sale going on.
- What is cynicism? Maybe an illness of optimism? Or is it optimism’s antidote? What is the difference between cynicism and questioning?
- Perhaps, just maybe, nestled within the group of Samsung creatives is a poet, a visionary, who was able to perform some alchemic rendering by connecting corporate pabulum with imagination. A storyteller. He or she goes home at night thinking, “Why do I work for these schmucks?” but has to work to pay the bills.
Mark:
“There are a series of McDonald's ads on British TV that are filmed like mini heartwarming British social realist dramas. They make me feel physically sick. Give me a gaudy salesman shouting at me telling me to buy stuff anytime.”
The MacDonald's ads sound like bad art to me. Not surprising.
When the pitchman barks his pitch and tells me to
“Hurry! Time’s running out” and that I’d be a moron if I didn’t jump on the offer, I feel insulted by that. Much more so than I do the ostrich who may or may not be scared. That kind of gaudy capitalism that thinks we can be duped into buying is the worst kind of advertising.
I want advertising to show it’s artful side -- though not all attempts succeed. I would, on the other hand, be turned off if I found out that the ostriches were in any way mistreated during the filming of the commercial. But corporate messaging? I judge that on an individual basis.
I do like commercial art, whether it be TV ads, newspaper, magazine, online, billboard ads or whatever. When it’s done well it’s hybrid art. A bridge between the mundane and the sublime. I prefer to stay on the sublime side of the bridge, but spend most of my waking hours on the mundane side.
My mantra (though I have no real mantra) is:
Think like a child, be ready for correction.
Thanks for the correction. This is a grown up, literate and adroit forum and I posted the wrong topic for it.
(Disclaimer: It
was past my bedtime. When the commercial played I wasn’t paying any attention which is what I typically do during commercial breaks. My lovely wife had said to me, “
Did you see that commercial? Rewind that.” and so, because I adore my wife, I obeyed and saw it as a sweet story of the age-old
“I Think I Can” theme. But why I thought it would be a good thing to post here? Now that’s the real question… It was past my bedtime.)
Commercial advertising
I just happen to disagree with you. 
Hybrid Mode
