Analysis of the Main Characteristic Features of Americans in Advertisements - Assignment Example

Analysis of Advertisements College: In the essay d America and Americans, John Steinbeck describes and analyzes the main characteristic features of Americans as the people. In the core of his description, there is the idea that Americans tend to take everything to the extreme. For example, if they eat, they consume much more food than they actually need, or if one is a vegetarian, they will struggle to ban meat etc. In other words, Steinbeck describes Americans as quite intemperate people. In addition to this, the author addresses the reason why Americans run to extremes and act excessively: Steinbeck states it is so because they are “a restless, a dissatisfied, a searching people”. What is more, in accordance with Steinbeck, material well-being and financial security are among the most things for Americans, on which they depend a lot even though they regard themselves as independent, self-sufficient and self-reliant. Furthermore, among the characteristic features of Americans is the inconsistency of their behavior and their tendency to “function by paradox”, which means that they themselves cancel their rules and habits by introducing new ones (Steinbeck). Finally, Americans live in accordance with the American Way of Life despite the fact that nobody can give a clear definition of what constitutes it and what it means. In this very paper, the way the commercials reflect the traits of Americans will be analyzed. More specifically, the correctness and usefulness of illustration in understanding the characteristics of Americans will be touched upon. For this purpose, five particular traits have been chosen from the article by John Steinbeck. Among them are the following ones: Americans’ tendency to act excessively (“for the most part we are an intemperate people”), being dependent on money (“we are complacent in our possessions, in our houses, in our education; but it is hard to find a man or woman who does not want something better for the next generation”), being good to unknown people (“Americans are remarkably kind and hospitable and open with both guests and strangers”), having a belief in self-sufficiency (“we believe […] that we have inherited self-sufficiency and the ability to take care ourselves”), and being charitable in case there is spare money (“if we have enough gold – we contribute it back to the nation in the form of foundations and charities” (Steinbeck). For this purpose, five commercials have been chosen: Audi commercial, a commercial that presents new contract option from T-Mobile, Coca-Cola’s “America is Beautiful” commercial, milk commercial with Salma Hayek, and Starbucks charity program commercial. Overall, these five commercials do an excellent job of illustrating the five previously mentioned traits that Steinbeck described in his essay; they would be useful in teaching non-native speakers to understand what he is describing. In the very beginning of his essay, John Steinbeck mentions that Americans tend to act excessively and run into extremes in all the spheres of their life, even when it comes to eating and drinking. Such an excessive behavior is described in the commercial of Audi. The ad shows a young man who is going to a prom ball alone. He looks handsome, but still he is upset he does not have a date. In order to cheer him up, his father gives him a key to his Audi and tells to have fun; and the fun begins. He runs red light, park on the principal’s parking lot, kisses the prom queen, gets beaten by her boyfriend and runs away. In this case, for the young man, having fun grows into doing something he would never do anymore under any circumstances. At this very point, he understands he may ever see all those people again; he wants to have fun, and he gets it knowing no limits. This is what Steinbeck means when he writes about Americans’ tendency to act excessively. Perhaps, in the commercial, this trait is exaggerated a bit but perfectly shows what it means to run to extremes. Also, in America and Americans, John Steinbeck addresses Americans’ possession with material well-being and financial stability. In fact, the analysis of this issue is scattered through practically the entire essay. The same trait is revealed in the commercial by T-Mobile. More specifically, in this commercial, the new term of usage of the communication service, such as the elimination of the ling-term contract is presented. The company addresses the audience saying that it is a well-known fact that the customers hate long-term contracts and that T-Mobile has “killed” such an option while providing the communication services. In addition to this, it promises to pay off the customers’ contracts in case they switch to T-Mobile. The fact which proves that this commercial shows that Americans are possessed with financial stability and security is that the company tries to lure the customers away from other similar companies by highlighting that they will pay off the contracts, meaning potential customers will not have any financial problems at least when it comes to mobile communications. The next trait described by John Steinbeck in his America and Americans, which is the friendly attitude to guests and strangers, is perfectly illustrated in the commercial of Coca-Cola titled “America is Beautiful”. The main idea of the commercial under consideration is that America is beautiful because of people who live in it. The commercial shows people of different ethnicities and nationalities who live in the country. In addition to this, the video shows a great number of peaceful scenes from the lives of Americans as well as the beauty of the country. In the core of the commercial is an American patriotic song “America the Beautiful”, which is sung by the representatives of the nationalities and ethnicities which live in the United States and consider this place like home. This commercial does show such a trait as friendliness in relation to guests and strangers for it shows America as a big family, in which all the people are equal and live in peace, which means those who come to the US in search of better lives and opportunities, are greeted with friendliness.   Also, in accordance with Steinbeck, Americans have a belief that they have inherited self-reliance and self-sufficiency from their ancestors, and such traits are shown in the commercial of ‘Got Milk?’ campaign. In this commercial, the main character (performed by Salma Hayek) returns home at night after a party and sees she has no milk at home. She starts her hunt on milk and goes to a shop but there is no milk there too; there is milk in other shop but it is closed. On her way to another shop, she sees a perfect source of milk, a cow, takes a bucket and goes straight to the animal but cannot climb through fencing. Then Salma gives up this idea and on her way home she stops the truck which delivers milk and asks the driver to give her some milk. Finally, she gets what she wants. In humorous but still quite clear and comprehensive way the commercial shows that Americans can be self-sufficient, and if they want something, they will do impossible things to get it. Finally, Americans’ eagerness to help other people and give money to charity described in Steinbeck’s America and Americans is illustrated by Starbucks charity program commercial. This commercial describes the way Starbucks and every person who buys any Starbucks exclusive drink will help to save someone else’s life for every five cents from the product will go for charity; and as far as there are many Starbucks, the money collected will add up and be very helpful. This commercial shows that “if we [Americans] have enough gold – we contribute it back to the nation in the form of foundations and charities” (Steinbeck). Many of the forms of communication can help teaching non-native speakers both language and culture. One of such important and effective tools is advertising. The commercials mentioned above are the good example of how ads can be used in teaching. For the purpose to prove this fact, five different commercials have been chosen to illustrate traits of Americans described in the essay titled America and Americans written by John Steinbeck. More specifically, such traits as tendency to act excessively, being dependent on money, having a belief in personal self-sufficiency, being friendly to strangers and spending money on charity, have been exemplified with five commercials, among which are Audi commercial, a commercial that presents new contract option from T-Mobile, Coca-Cola’s “America is Beautiful” commercial, “Got Milk?” commercial with Salma Hayek, and Starbucks charity program commercial. All of them appear to be able to illustrate the traits in a very successful way so that it becomes clear what Steinbeck writes about in his essay. Despite the fact that the author of the essay is a bit more cynical of what he writes about and some commercials illustrate the traits in quite a humorous way, it is really possible to comprehend and derive a correct meaning of what is written in the text and what is shown in the commercials and find a common ground between them. References Budweiser. (2014). Puppy love [Web]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQB7QRyF4p4 Coca-Cola. (2014). America is beautiful [Web]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=443Vy3I0gJs Got Milk?. (2014). Got milk? [Web]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mbsPBPvfOY Starbucks. (2008). What (if) [Web]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oClbf9f-L5o Steinbeck, J. (n.d.). America and Americans. Retrieved from http://rbvhs.vusd.k12.ca.us/teachers/villa/docs11/fastfood/AmericaNAmericans_article.pdf TMobile. (2014). We killed the long-term contract [Web]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaN3PnPfzCU Read More