Popular
culture can allow an audience to have a better understanding of a variety of cultures.
According to Martin & Nakayama
in 2013, “popular culture is a new name for low culture, referring to those
cultural products that most people share and know about, including television,
music, videos, and popular magazines” (p. 361). Popular culture consists of well-known forms of media that
most audiences are aware of.
Martin & Nakayama (2013) believe that there are four significant characteristics
of popular culture: “it is produced by culture industries, it differs from folk
culture, it is everywhere, and it fills a social function” (p. 361). The provided definitions of popular
culture will contribute insight into popular culture texts that I regularly
consume and assist in the meaning-making process within the analysis of these
texts.
There
are many commercials that shine light on the relationships between pop culture
and stereotyping. This post will
explore two commercials that contain interracial families, a topic that can be
controversial to many. The two
specific commercials chosen contain themes of repetition, recurrence and
forcefulness. These themes can
assist in making sense of the data contained in these commercials and they
create certain representations and assumptions about cultural groups. The first cultural text is a Honey Maid
commercial that contains ‘gay dads,’ ‘wholesome family,’ and ‘interracial
marriage.’ The commercial begins
with two gay fathers caring for their baby, continues on to show a white couple
laughing and having fun with their white daughter, portrays an interracial
family on a walk, shows children of mixed races eating Smores, and concludes
with gay fathers and their two children, a family with a military father, and a
father and daughter hugging.
Images of family are constantly used and repeated, the idea of a
wholesome family kept occurring, and forcefulness was utilized throughout the
commercial in order to persuade the audience to purchase Honey Maid products. The idea of a Honey Maid wholesome
snack was compared to the idea of a wholesome family, which was portrayed
throughout the commercial.
The
second commercial is for Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches and contains an
interracial couple. The commercial
begins with an African-American male and a man dressed as a sunshine talking
about their difficult run, preparing and eating Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches,
and a white woman coming home and scolding them for eating her sandwiches. The idea that the sandwich is only 300
calories was repeated, the concept of breakfast recurred, and forcefulness was
used during the commercial to persuade the audience that Jimmy Dean breakfast
sandwiches are worth it.
These
themes can create certain representations and assumptions about cultural
groups. The underlying goal of
these commercials is to sell products, but they have a roundabout way of achieving this. The advertisers
used interracial families to attempt to appeal to an audience, as they are well
aware that audience members are a variety of races. The Honey Maid commercial contained happy families and
attempted to represent a variety of families that may make up the United
States. The Jimmy Dean commercial
contained an interracial couple and ended in the woman scolding the man for
eating her 300 calories breakfast sandwich. This idea can highlight the fact that many women seek to eat
healthy and some may even “control” their spouse or tell them what they can and
cannot do.
These
cultural texts and stereotypical messages might be resisted. This resistance is a complex process
and can occur in a variety of ways.
Some people may find a cultural text insulting, where as others do not
see an issue with it. This
difference highlights the idea that it is hard to please and satisfy
everyone. These specific
commercials constructed interracial families in undesirable ways.
Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2013). Intercultural communication in
contexts (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixEk-SmappU 
Hannah,
ReplyDeleteI really likes how you took the idea of pop culture from an advertisement perspective, what do we see more on television then commercials right? I really liked the commercials that you choose to post for both of your video clips. Both did a great job in proving your points across your post! I really enjoyed the "wholesome" honey maid commercial, as I was a big fan of it the first time I saw it! Great overall post!
Nice post. I liked the honey maid commercial, I'm glad you were able to use it to explain our chapter nine concepts!
ReplyDeleteI think that advertising really just reinforces stereotypes in older audiences while it begins to create them in younger audiences. These are both really good examples of how the stereotypes are shown. In reality, things like the commercials do happen (especially when the husband/boyfriend/significant other eat something you bought specifically for yourself!) but it needs to not make it seem like that is the only way things happen. I do like that at the same time they are trying to break what most consider to be the typical definition of "family" . Family is no longer just a Mom , Dad and a child(ren). Family can be so many different things and the Honeymaid commercial shows that and I love it!
ReplyDeleteI like how you used advertising as examples of pop culture and also stereotypes in the country. You did a good job of tying it all together in the end as well.
ReplyDeleteHannah,
ReplyDeleteI think these commercials are perfect when describing how pop culture portrays families that aren't the typical "white American" family. When I was younger I always used to wonder if commercials did that on purpose. These are really great examples of the lessons learned in this chapter so good job!