Media Messages and Critical Pedagogy #2

In this video advertisement, the message is from and paid for by a brand Nolan's Cheddar to sell their strong flavored cheese with humor and a memorable ad. The target audience is anyone who likes cheese with flavor and finds animations funny. Few children like strong cheese, so I think the target audience is ages 25+, European/Americans that enjoy different or flavorful foods. The text of the message is an animated mouse sniffing around and climbing on a mouse trap with sad music in the background, the screen goes black as we hear the trap spring sprung, another scene opens with mourning music as the mouse seems about to die, then workout music kicks in as the mouse bench presses the trap bar. The subtext is that the cheese advertised is so strong that it even makes a mouse strong enough to overcome the trap and even use it to workout with; this must be some strong cheese! An uncautious and adventurous life is shown. Humor, mood setting music and environments/background, and the "cute" factor of the mouse are used to sell the cheese.

A positive message is that working out is good. Adventurous people and flavor loving culinary enthusiasts would be drawn to this advertisement and empowered. The company is banking on these people to become interested in and buy their product. A part of the story not being told is how did the mouse eat the cheese before the trap was sprung to allow it to be strong enough to bench press the trap bar? The fate of the mouse is taken for granted, because if the mouse was really interested in the cheese on the trap, it is likely that it would have died trying to eat it. The cheese is related to physical power.