Hey guys--
I offered to create a class blog in lecture today, so here it is. If this fails horribly I won't be offended. I just think this is a more democratic and conversational approach to discussions outside of class. I hope you'll find this helpful. Plus, blogs are fun!
I've allowed everyone in the class to be a "publisher", which means you can make posts just like this one as well as comment on other people's posts.
So here goes!
We ended class today with an anecdote about a McDonald's advertisement in a BART station. This was in response to the idea of contextualized advertisements and how admen may strategically appeal to special groups of consumers based on socio-economics, location, etc. This reminded me of a Youtube video I recently watched:
My initial response was, 'Wait a minute. Why is Apple advertising the iPod to the deaf?'. The dancer uses real American Sign Language, which obviously appeals to the Deaf community. But honestly, how effective could this ad be? But then I had a flashback to a scene in the movie "Napoleon Dynamite" where Napoleon is sign-dancing for the Happy Hands Club, and the audience is supposed to be amused by its novelty. Are the hearing supposed to be amused by the novelty of this form of expression? Is Apple capitalizing on deaf culture in a way that appeals to both the hearing and deaf alike? This video makes such a huge statement about the strategies of advertisers and the scope of their advertisements. I am provoked to wonder what aspect of my life they will invade next, and whether or not I will even realize when or how they are doing it.
Your thoughts?
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2 comments:
Wow. At first glance, I thought it was a pretty insensitive product campaign..
I read some comments from others, and if you decide to go a few pages into it, you'll find out that the dancer is actually the video poster's wife, and that the clip was filmed in their living room. So it's not an actual Apple campaign, which changes my reception of it.
If Apple were to use this, I think it would definitely elicit mixed reactions. The media hardly represents the deaf community, so the ad could be welcomed in that sense. But it also is pretty ironic and would probably be seen as offensive, even if a lot of deaf people do have limited hearing and can thus listen to music.
Thanks for starting this blog, Ivy!!
Oh man! I should have looked at the comments. This changes everything.
But you're right--I was pretty offended at first. But the fact that I believed this was a real campaign still convinces me that this isn't too far-fetched of an idea.
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