Sociological Analysis Of Television Commercials

In this essay, I will conduct a sociological analysis of television commercials. The cultural norms in the commercials and a reflection on how commercials are agents of socialization will also be part of this analysis. For each commercial, I will reflect on how advertisements define an idealized self, or in better terms, how each commercial illustrates an image of what we should be, must be or ought to be. The characterization of a desired state that each commercial presents will be part of the cultural norms analysis as well. Therefore, issues like racism, sexims and how men and women are portrayed differently in commercials will come up in this paper. Most importantly, this analysis will focus on the issue behind the hegemony theory.

While these two commercials were different and had distinct purposes, the intended audience for both of these commercials were men, middle class male. In the Parx Casino commercial which was aired during Monday Night Football on NBC, the first observation the viewer is able to see is the front entrance to a beautiful middle class home. A few clips later we see a nervous White man knock on the door and immediately greeted by his blind date, a tall, Hispanic or Latino female; her race was determined by analysing her facial features, expressions, her red lipstick, and her provocative black dress. The woman greets the man with these words, “ are you ready to get lucky?”, from observing the man’s expression, we could say that he thought she was referring to having sex, which later we learn that is not the case; the women in the commercial was actually referring to having a good time playing the slot machines and poker at the casino. Parx Casino advertisement portrays women as a sexual object in a man’s life. From analyzing the last few clips of this commercial I concluded that every man needs an elegant and classy woman in his life because she will most likely bring him luck, success, and support his status symbol. Some men perceive women as commodities and artificial decoration to adorn their lives just so that they can show

Out of the five commercials that I sociologically analyzed, this one was the most interesting and unique commercial I observed. First of all, this commercial is only aired while watching television online and the duration of the Pampers commercial was longer than any other commercial, the duration was over two minutes long. The use of pathos and logos insinuated that babies bring out the best in us. That is the message behind the new Pampers commercial. The commercial features a rewrite of the classic lullaby “Hush Little Baby”; the advertisement shows a mom singing to her baby all the good things people do for babies and how from a small act of kindness has major life changes in the life of a child. Some examples include a grandmother learning to read so that she can help with bedtime stories, an uncle vowing to quit smoking for his new niece or nephew and a stranger helping a mom carry her stroller down some stairs. The commercial targeted society as a whole and is agent of social change. Pampers portrays in their commercial how everyone must act and how the world would be different if they do so. Society should care for one another and a baby could bring this