Discussion board 2.2: analysis of doritos’ commercial

1. Watch and take notes over the commercial “Man’s Best Friend” by Doritos.
2. Review the handout “Ten Tips for a Successful Media Analysis” that is attached.
3. Complete the next Discussion Board activity posted below. 

This assignment is practice for your next major essay, the media analysis. As you analyze this commercial, think about the commercial you have chosen and how you plan to break it down to understand how it promotes stereotypes or messages about men, women, or society to the viewer. As we work through the discussion board over this commercial, you should be able to see how you will repeat this process for you own commercial analysis.The information presented here will be covered in your unit quiz at the end of the unit!  please watch video below.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMmd0WaQFGE

For this discussion board, you analyze the Doritos’ commercial “Man’s Best Friend” as if you were writing a media analysis essay over it. Be sure you have watched the commercial several times and taken solid notes over it before beginning this assignment. Also, be sure you have the handout “Ten Tips for a Successful Media Analysis” near you to refer to and help you complete this assignment. Please answer the following analysis questions about the commercial “Man’s Best Friend.”

1. List all of the myths, values, or beliefs you see in the ad (there are quite a few, so list at least three). Think back to the two documentaries that you watched to help you figure out the myths, values, or beliefs. Both Killborn and Katz listed and explained numerous ones about both men and women.
2. Choose ONE myth, value, or belief from YOUR list, and list all of the evidence from the commercial that supports your claim (you might list ethnicity, behaviors or actions of the characters, dialogue, the storyline itself, the background, things or people who are missing and why, etc.)
3. What are the consequences of reinforcing that myth, value, or belief in society? Remember that media and society are reciprocal. In other words, Society may behave a certain way (women stay home; men work), so media reinforces it. But it also works both ways. If media keeps telling society that a belief is reality, people will believe it. Therefore, when you see a value or belief being reinforced by a commercial, eventually that has an effect on the people viewing it. So what effect does this commercial have on its viewers based on the myth, value, or belief you discovered? 
4. Finally, write a thesis statement for your claim. Here’s a handy template for creating a thesis statement for a media paper:

The commercial “Name of Commercial” by Product Name [signal verb, i.e. reinforces, exemplifies, promotes, engenders] [claim about a myth value or belief].

For example, “The commercial “In My Mind” by Kia promotes drug use in teens and young adults.”

As always, you need to respond to two of your peers. When responding, you need to add any other myth, values, or beliefs that you found that your classmates did not. Look closely at the myth, value, or belief that your classmate chose and add any other evidence that you see could support his or her claim. Then comment on the consequences. Are there any other consequences that your peer missed? Add any you find that are missing. And finally, comment on your the thesis statement. Did the student write a claim or a summary? Make sure it is a claim.

One last note, there is a thesis statement for this commercial on your handout. You may NOT use that thesis statement for your discussion board. It is there to help you see what possible myths are in this commercial. You must come up with your own! 

250 initial post 

100 each reply to peer

Peer’s posts:

Cassandra Gumma 

1. The Commercial “Man’s best friend,” recognized the relationship between a man and his dog, a man and his wife, and a man and his favorite snack.

Recognized in this commercial are the values of relationships between men and woman. Men and women have fundamentally different ways of handling conflict. The man realizes in this video by taking the bribe from his dog it will keep his wife from being upset that they dog had something to do with her missing cat. 

The value of friendship is also patent as they man does not want his dog to get reprimanded so he takes the bribe of his favorite snack to keep quiet.

Also the question of what is wright and wrong. The man and the dog are both hiding something but they man obviously has more to lose with what he has hidden in the garden bed because he is more concerned about the dog telling on him, but in return he covers for the dog so that both of them do not get in trouble with his wife.

2. The dog passing the note to the husband shows behavior between two people being dishonest, the difference between the punishments of a man verse a dog. The story line is meant to be light and funny but if you pull it apart it is actually showing that it is okay for a man to be dishonest to his wife. Referencing that men have more control over a relationship.

3. This commercial is letting our youth know that even though it is a small lie that is ok for a man to lie to his wife. It also is teaching us to hide things no matter how big or small as long as we are getting what we want out of it.

4. Commercials that air on highly populated television channels continue to replicate that men are inferior to women.

Suong Lam 

   There are a few myths, values, and beliefs in the “Man’s Best Friend” by Doritos’ commercial. The ad shows the bond between the man and his dog through the way they exchange eye contacts and nod at each other without verbal communications. Moreover, the ad gives viewers the belief of how good Doritos taste because the man willing to do anything for a bag of chips, including hiding a “murdering case” of his dog. Ironically as it seems, dogs should obey and follow humans’ commands in order to receive treat rather than how the man does everything the dog said to receive Doritos. As the title of this ad explains how dogs are men’s best friends, and since group of guy friends usually does funny things with each other then hide them from the women, the man in the ad also cover the murder for his dog from his wife. 

       [Thesis statement] “Man’s Best Friend”, by Doritos during Crash the SuperBowl contest 2012, promotes how friendship between men are closed and loyal.

       [Evidence that support claim] The ad use the dog figure to describe how men can do anything for each other including covering for each other’s crime, in this case, the man covering for his dog for killing the house cat as we can see that the dog is burring the cat’s nametag. In the ad, the man and the dog exchange looks for each other before the dog pushes the Doritos bag with a note “You didn’t see nuthin”. The man then gives the dog a warm smile and nods implying, “I got your back, brother”. Then no more word said, the man tells his wife that he has not seen the cat. When the man look out the window, his dog is sitting there with a Doritos bag rewarding him. It’s like the dog is telling the man, “I knew you wouldn’t tell on me, so here’s your Doritos”.

       [Effect on reinforcement] As in society, we often see men hang out with each other having “bro code” and unspoken rules that they cannot break. Men can lie to their family or their wives, however, they usually won’t betray his friends. This belief is shown in movies and medias a lot, including this commercial. Ad shows viewers how men behave around their best friends so that people with best friends can count on their best friends in emergency situations and people can be loyal to their best friends if they are in need.