I agree with both deconstructions, because of the strong language and coercion detailed in the first deconstruction and the great amount of detail given in the second cell phone plan commercial deconstruction. It baffles me that if so much information and discussion can result from one commercial, how much effort, research, and revision needed to occur to prepare the advertisement itself? It is amazing!
The Century Link ad is a big cover-up to show the service provider that it maintains its "values" and that customers are satisfied with the corporation and there are no problems (it's a family company, right?, slinkys cannot be evil, right?). This ad helps to cover-up the damage done to the economy and consumers' provider choices. Stereotypes are definitely present and projected in the Alltel ad, because the "American" family shows distaste for the other men and their chicken when there is no cause to do so (the men and chicken are not violent, unclean, or breaking laws).
I saw nothing wrong with the Alltel ad, until I watched the deconstruction. It is so easy to look down our noses at people from other cultures we do not understand or don't relate with. It was only until watching the deconstruction that I realized I was entertained by something so raciest and discriminatory.
By deconstructing these types of media, we can empower our students by letting them understand that there most likely is nothing wrong with their culture and not to hide from their identity and not to assimilate into the media's version of "America." Having minority students in a classroom with the majority populous and completing deconstructions together while holding discussions can open the eyes of our so easily swayed youth into understanding that these media can hurt, that they often bash/disenfranchise a minority, and that just by unwittingly watching and doing nothing is just as bad as actively damaging another culture and people.
Through active discussion while deconstructing the ads, our students can talk directly to each other about how the ads make them feel, how their views are either changed or reinforced by the media, and how "going with the crowd" is not a positive choice to make, especially if "the crowd" is the media itself. These active discussions can help define the cause of racial slurs, inequality, and segregation that can open the eyes of both the minority and majority group.
Traditional education systems focus on the jamming of ideological and culturally void (usually) information. Many times I find myself asking, "Where did this come from?" or "Does this really happen?" when reviewing before I teach either a new topic or the history of a topic well known to me. Our educational system seems void of flavor and bland facts or figures. The separation of facts and knowledge from those who discovered the information. The history of how we developed our knowledge is lost, along with the memory of the people and cultures who discovered it for us. Traditional education methods do not teach students how to think for themselves.
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