Massa, Come Home

Assignment #3

As I was reading Mark Crispin Miller’s article I was amazed at the attention to detail in the commercials he wrote about. For the Come to Jamaica commercial, Miller analyzed every little aspect of the thirty-second advertisement.
The second part of this article (Getting Dirty) surprised me the most. As I was reading it, I could not believe that every little placement of an object was manipulated for a specific reason (the name of the wife, the man looking down from the window, the flower pot placed over his groin, etc.). I know that in films, television shows, and commercials many things are well-thought out about placement and color and things like that, but this article made every little object that appeared in the commercial a matter of great importance. I have a hard time believing that this is true and no object is just set-up without great analysis of what it means in that particular position.
“Of course, most of what we see in a good commercial was probably calculated by its makers, who are quite sophisticated, and who spend immense amounts of time and money on each thirty- or sixty-second bit. Nevertheless, some of these nuances might have been unconsciously intended, details that just “seemed right” as part of the commercial’s general drift.” (Page 32)

I believe that this has more truth to it than every little detail being overanalyzed by numerous people to manipulate the audience to think a certain way about the place being advertised. Even if everything was analyzed as closely as the article says, I don’t think the majority of people give great thought to these advertisements like the writer has done.