Century Link
My first impression of the Century Link commercial was: This is a "cute, relate-able, middle class, caring" commercial. The music in the background is very catchy. It's pretty memorable. The "moving forward" message is a bit inspiring. I somewhat agree with the text deconstruction; it does present that Century Link gain a substantial amount of access lines, via the merger with Qwest. This large gain is reflected in the commercial. The only part that I disagree with in the deconstruction is the mention of rural areas having few lines to choose from giving Century Link little competition. It is not Century Link's fault that few companies exist in its rural areas. So they bought out Qwest; that is just one company. I do not think that this should be seen so negatively.
AllTel
At first glance at the commercial, I would not think of it containing a single racial stereotype. However, after Jessica Collins break the commercial down, I began to think how I might view the commercial if I was a "normal" middle-class member with the same ethnicity of room-renters. I could see how one might be offended at media advertisements that I have never found offensive. I imagine what my first impression might be if I switched the ethnicity of the middle-class family trying to save money and the eccentric room renters.
Yep, I definitely will never mindlessly watch commercials. My husband is going to be annoyed :).
One downside of becoming more critically media literate is that watching T.V is less relaxing and fewer people want to watch T.V with you. :)
ReplyDeleteI think the issue for Century Link is not that they are responsible for less competition but that do not adequately service people in rural areas because it is too expensive for them. So if you live in a rural area in N.M have a crappy or no Internet service the commercial seems hypocritical ....and rightly so.
ReplyDelete