Commercial Tie-Ins to Movies (And Why They Present Mixed Messages)

When I went to see The Lorax with a friend (it was either that or The Vow), I was severely disappointed. As an animation fanatic I was impressed by the visuals, but that didn't make up for the lazy writing, choppy three-act structure, and two dimensional characters (yes, I know I'm being very critcial of a children's movie, but it was an adaptation of one of my favourite books so I believe I have the right). It didn't even keep the same "anti-corporate" message of the book - it was expressed very plainly in the movie, but it was the commercial tie-ins that displayed the mixed message. A significant message in The Lorax was that slick advertising can compell people to buy things they don't need, a very modern message and very applicable to children growing up in a world revolving around the media. Except commercial tie-ins with The Lorax for companies like IHOP and Mazda, which exploit The Lorax characters for means of advertising, completely neutralize the plain message of the movie. Using characters from a movie portraying an anti-corporate message to advertise products seems very oxymoronic and presents mixed messages to the viewers. It seems as if the very company that created The Lorax, Illumination Entertainment, is using their own anti-corporate characters to fulfill their own corporate greed. And because of this, viewers are becoming more desensitized to messages in movies because they see them contradicted everywhere in real life.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/13/living/lorax-movie/index.html

Positive Feminist Progress in the Media

Even one hundred years after women have gained the right to vote, it disgusts me how we are still represented in the media. Advertisements featuring passive females, female characters being depicted with stereotypical “women” qualities ….the list goes on and on. In class we focused on the media’s suppression of the progress of women’s representations, but not on the media that has evolved women’s representations positively. The prime example that comes to mind is one of my favourite shows, ABC’s Once Upon a Time. The show features fairytale characters under a curse where they live in our modern world and don’t remember who they are. Fairytales—and more specifically, Disney’s portrayal of them—are often criticized for downgrading women by making the female characters “helpless” and dependent on men. Once Upon a Time, however, takes classic fairytales and manipulates them so that more often than not, it is the woman who is the saviour of the male character. A classic example of a passive fairytale character, Snow White, is portrayed as strong and independent, but also has very human emotions. This differs from some female characters in the media whose only redeeming quality is being “badass”, but has no emotion, making them a very inhuman and unrelatable character. Snow White in Once Upon a Time saves the prince even though he was holding her against her will, showing strength but at the same time good morals, great qualities in the hero of any classic story. All of the other female characters in this show demonstrate these traits to some degree, making them great role models for children growing up with fairytales. Taking previously passive female characters and redefining their roles into strong, identifiable heroines is an example of the positive progress the media’s representation of women.

Snow White in ABC's Once Upon a Time

Tis the Season for Consuming

As important it is to remind our parents how much we appreciate them, I am very cynical against the idea of "mother's day" and "father's day". It wasn't until this mother's day, while at my job at Harvest Moon restaurant I witnessed a line of people going out the door, eager for the day's "mother's day special", that I realized just how big of a marketing scheme these special "holidays" are. Yes, it's nice, even important, to have a special day dedicated to the parental figures in our lives. But that's not what mother's and father's day means anymore. The message marketers send to us is that we must buy something in order to show our appreciation. And sure, buying nice things for our moms and dads is a good way to show appreciation. But when the entire theme in a store for May is revolving around one Sunday in that month...that is when things begin to get out of hand. We live in a consumer society, and when marketers get any excuse to market their product, they jump on it. Mother's and father's day becomes less of a day to ponder why we appreciate these parental figures so much, but what can we buy to demonstrate this appreciation. These days are good representations of our consuming society and its connection with all holidays - Easter, Christmas. It's not about why we celebrate the holiday but what we can do to celebrate it. And our progressing consuming attitudes are playing right into the hands of marketers.

Nostalgia in the Media

In my opinion, there is hardly a feeling more complex than the emotions associated with nostalgia. There is the happiness of innocent memories but also the sadness that those times have passed. But, as complex as it is, nostalgia is a feeling we all crave. We all want to return to a simpler time, and marketers know this. A recent example I noticed was a Wendy's commercial, re-using the old catchline from when my parents were in high school, "Where's the Beef?" Nostalgia as a marketing tool is usually in advertisements targeted to an older audience, as that Wendy's commercial would not be understood by my generation (unless your dad has a story of getting kicked out of a Wendy's for saying that line to the manager when the server forgets to put a patty in his burger). I've noticed this tactic being used as a marketing technique in mediums other than advertisements. Movie or television remakes of nostalgic things are very effective. For me personally, The Avengers and the television show Once Upon a Time are hugely nostalgic for me and also happen to be some of my favourite things to watch. Sometimes I wonder if it is the quality of the shows or movies that influence my consumption, or if it is the reminder of simpler times they give me.

Wendy's used nostalgia as a marketing tool in its current Where's the Beef? commercial