Previously in class, we viewed several environmentally charged advertisements. This sparked a very interesting discussion regarding harmony between man and machine, and how this utopia is often illusioned in banal media. Inspired still from this thought provoking dialogue, I decided to continue examining similar video clips and articles. What I found is that these companies are oblivious to many of the messages they convey to the public. For example, there is a fairly popular commercial for Jeep in which a man is cruising on a road surrounded by a dense forest.
There is music playing through the speakers of the car, when suddenly a squirrel makes his way through the window and onto the passenger seat. The rodent begins to sing along with the music, and the very surprised driver joins in. The squirrel, however, is not the only animal to join this man on his scenic venture, as other musically talented creatures such as birds and even a wolf later join him. My initial reaction was not that man and nature are an inseparable force, but rather than technology will always effect affect the environment and its non human inhabitants. Might Jeep also be implying, unintentionally of course, that man with technology and state of the art equipment can conquer the wild? There are, in fact, wild animals inside of this mans car. While this is most likely not the intended reaction desired by this company, the ad is available to the public, thus, free game to analyze as desired.The introduction of animals in this video, that are singing nonetheless, seems incredibly counterproductive. They sing and smile as if thrilled about this new Jeep Liberty, but how many animals have each and every one of you seen on the side of the road, dead due to a vehicle? Many. However, this thought would not have crossed my mind if the ad had been only a man driving through the woods. This commercial gave me the ammunition to consider these facts and realize that truly, many companies do not realize how their advertisements might be perceived.
Thanks for sharing the Jeep commercial. I found it on Youtube and included the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBwBTlt64jY I see what you’re getting at, about man, in this case the jeep driver, conquering nature. I think, however, that the commercial’s intent is harmony with nature. “Have fun out there!” The driver in the video seems initially struck with surprise, not exactly an expression of domination. But this theme of a car being in harmony with nature is really interesting because that’s essentially the same theme as the Prius commercial we watched in class.
I very much agree that companies tend to have a lot of ignorance of how people think. We do not always think of the good. I have also seen the Jeep commercial you are talking about and my nieces love it because of all the animals however, I also thought of how having this vehicle is not good for the environment and any of the animals. When I said something to my mother about it she told me I was being a pessimist because she liked that the commercial made the girls dance, sing and laugh. My small experience goes to show the differences that these types of commercials have.
I completely agree with the your view of this commercial. I too always found it ironic that the animals that were singing along with the man in the car were the typical animals to be run over and turned into road kill. The commercial’s message was surely “you’ll be one with nature.” But the way it was presented was less than satisfactory when looked deeply into.
Great post! You make a keen point about how certain aspects of a text (in this case the associations of the animals with roadkill) can suggest unintended meanings. That is the power of discourse and communication! It doesn’t always conform. I too think the commercial seems to be more about harmony with nature than it is about conquering nature. In fact, the whole commercial is about harmony, that is, the harmony of human and animals singing together on key. And when the wolf (or coyote?) eats the bird, the man looks back annoyed that the harmony has been interrupted. Of course, the coyote coughs up the bird and the commercial imagines that such interruptions are only momentary.