Saturday, February 2, 2008

Advertisement

The advertisement that I have chosen is the United States Marines commercial that was shown on Channel One during my high school days. The commercial begins with a struggling adolescent teenage male climbing a rocky side of a mountain. Obviously the boy is pursuing something that he feels he must obtain. The voice over speaks in a manner that would make anybody rise up and shout, ready for action. This teenage boy keeps climbing even though he slips up every now and again, metaphorically displaying the struggles of an adolescent teenage person. When the boy reaches the top of the mountain, he is greeted with an apparition of a past United States Marine in combat gear. There is an obvious link and a handing over of the torch of the heroes of the past to the patriotic adolescent teenager shown at this moment. Once the boy has reached this point, he grabs a sword in a "King Arthur" sort of manner and raises it into the air. He then acquires a masculine identity. Adolescent boys, especially the age of seventeen are most of all searching for an identity, and especially an identity that is purely masculine. Every teenage boy desires this. The boy finally becomes a "man" when he acquires a Marines uniform. Uniforms are the representations of identities, so in a way this boy obtains the masculine identity of a United States Marine. His journey for manhood is finally over. At the end, the commercial appeals the adolescent desire to be a part of a group, because at the end, the now Marine stands in front of, leading mind you, a group of his peers, also wearing the same uniform.

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