Commercials

The first commercial is a McDonalds advertisement that was made in Egypt. The ad opens with a young, attractive, obviously loving Egyptian couple that are most likely chosen to reflect what most young people would like their lives to be like; the two depict a very nice life. The affluence of the boat, coupled with the young man's retrieval of the rose suggests that the life they have together is desirable and to be coveted. We percieve them as an ideal of romance, and are led to believe that everything about them is valuable, with their love being the most valuable part of their lives. Then, as they enter the McDonalds, the woman attempts to take some of the man's french fries. Food sharing is often seen as a primal act of love, because on a primal level, we understand that food is one of the most important things to survival. Thus, to share a means of survival implies a very strong connection. Therefore, as we have seen the couple being very attached thus far, we assume that things will go as they appear. Instead the man grabs both her wrists and restrains her forcefully, she reacts violently, and he kicks the chair out from under her. The idea being communicated is that McDonalds is more important to this couple than their relationship.

Next, we have an ad for the new line of Honda Civics. In this commercial, it's vitally important that the characters are who they are. We have five distinctly different people, a luchador, a monster, a zombie, a lumberjack and a ninja. Obviously, each of these five are meant to be completely different from any of the others. The ad purposely focuses on the fact that these characters are very different, and the ad relies entirely on the differences between the personas. The tagline of To Each Their Own is meant to showcase the versatility of the new line. Without the varied identities, this is pointless.

The final ad is another foreign one, an Indian advertisement for Camlin permanent markers. This advertisement features an Indian couple in their 30's, and the man is close to death. This ad relies heavily on the Indian cultural practice of a married woman's necklace, bangles and vermilion spot on the forehead being a sign of her marital status (this is explained before the ad begins). When the husband breathes his last, the professional mourners rush in, stripping the woman of the symbols of her marriage to the now-deceased man. First, they remove her necklace and bangles, but when they attempt to remove the vermilion spot, the greatest personal aspect of the married woman's appearance in respect to her husband, it will not come off. The vermilion spot is said to be connected to the man's lifeline, meaning that when it is erased for a final time, they are truly separated by death. The advertisement shows the man making the spot on his wife's forehead with a permanent marker, which means that when he dies, the mark cannot be erased. Because of this, he springs back to life at the end of the ad. The fact that the actors/actresses in the ad are Indian is very important, given that without the allusions to Indian culture, the entire point of the ad would be lost to the audience.