I think it is safe to assume that we all watch television—sometimes more than we like to admit. Sports, news, trashy reality; the variety of entertainment that comes from television truly is endless. Gone are the days of having to install a bulky satellite dishes on your roof to watch a big game. Or having to put tin foil on antennas and mercilessly beat the side of your 12 inch TV to catch a glimpse of your favorite show. Thanks to modern technology, we are able to stream any channel, movie, or sports event to our screens, even if we are not at home. I tend to switch back and forth between streaming services like Netflix and watching regular cable on Xfinity. In my opinion, there is something sweet about having the best of both worlds! Although times have changed with how we are able to watch television, one thing that remains constant is commercials. Some of my favorite nostalgic memories include television commercials; the McDonald’s, Gorton’s Fisherman, and Oscar Meyer’s jingles. Although the songs were catchy and fun, the ultimate purpose they served was to influence consumers to buy their food. This is what Deanna Sellnow would refer to as “mediated popular culture.” Mediated popular culture encourages a change in behavior or influence through “everyday objects, actions and events we experience through media” (Sellnow, 2013). I will be the first to admit that I have gone out or had food delivered solely because I saw a restaurant advertising their food on a commercial break. I have a few questions I would love to pose to the group : Have you been influenced to buy food from a commercial break recently? If so, where from?
Hello Kelsea,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your reflections on the use of fast food advertising during the commercial breaks on American broadcast television. Your use of Sellnow's definition of mediated popular culture clearly describes how these dominant companies can send subdued messages of hunger with their use of color psychology to imprint consumerism in our everyday primal life. I believe that these global brands have become so globalized and homogenized in their presence that they would be what Sellnow considers to be an artifact. I also believe that the artifact, like a food item through iconography, or a time of day when certain meals are mass blasted in broadcast commercials, are already imprinted in our minds throughout those times of day. Symbolic Convergence Theory Perspective can teach us that these commercials show a rhetoric that food is happiness and community.