The Commercial (Discussion)
From Screenpedia
The Polysemy of Commodities
Group 2
- Luxury, leisure and conspicuous consumption
- Individualism
Group 3
- The natural
- Folk culture and tradition
Group 4
- Novelty and progress
- Sexuality and romance
Group 1
- Alleviation of pain, fear/anxiety and guilt
- Utopia and escape from dystopia
The Persuasive Style of Commercials
Group 3
- Metaphor
- Utopian style
Group 4
- Product differentiation and superiority
- Repetition and redundancy
Group 1
- Extraordinary and excessive style: “televisuality” and counter television
- Graphics and animation
Group 2
- Violating reality (special effects)
- Reflexivity and intertextuality
Commercial analysis
Each group will analyze two commercials from a 2013 episode of The Simpsons. You should first discuss the polysemy attached to the advertised commodity and then you should discuss the persuasive style used to present that polysemy.
http://tcf.ua.edu/EO/DV/Commercials_20130210SimpsonsEp.php
Bibliography
- Jeremy G. Butler, Television: Critical Methods and Applications (New York: Routledge, 2012).