As my friends and I were sitting in their room Thursday night, something both very interesting and very bizarre occurred. Following our weekly trend, we sat around talking and watched Jersey Shore. All seemed normal; Sam was munching on popcorn on her bed, Lindsay was simultaneously viewing the show and her Facebook page, and I sat on the floor with my coffee cup (yes, I have a caffeine addiction) in one hand and my cell phone in another. It was our typical Thursday night routine. Then it happened. A commercial came on TV for Wonderful Pistachios, and that’s when everything changed.
As we watched the commercial, we struck up a conversation about why the person making the commercial chose to put the tanning bed on the left and Snooki on the right. Did they have a reason for that? Why did they choose the colors green and black to symbolize their product? What made them decide to flash the words “Lowest Calorie Nut,” “Lowest Fat Nut,” and “Get Crackin’” so briefly? Are they really hoping to sell us their product, or are they just aiming to achieve a memorable commercial? Questions like the aforementioned and more began shooting out of our mouths, and before we became aware of it, we were unintentionally discussing the rhetorical situation of the commercial. Upon realizing what we were doing, we felt like nerds for conversing about class material during Jersey Shore. Eventually, though, that feeling of geekiness (made-up word) passed, and it started to register that what we are currently covering in class is completely relevant to our everyday lives. Despite the fact that we were already told that the information we learn in class is significant to each of us, it took us watching an eighteen-second nut commercial to fully comprehend that concept.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaZW-l8Ho-8
No comments:
Post a Comment