After surfing the cool waves of Youtube for a while, I stumbled upon this gem of a chewing gum commercial from India. At first glance, the "Hilarious India gum ad" was exactly that-highly original and admittedly quite funny. However, after watching it again through a critical lens, it was interesting to note the clear disparities in wealth between the characters. Additionally, after I Googled it, I found the commercial had been voted into the top ten on an American "funniest commercial" site. After the summary, I apply a Neo-Marxist and Postcolonial critique to the clip.






The scene opens with a young man riding across an old bridge in what we assume to be India. Half-way across, his bike breaks and he is left stranded. Of course to show us his frustration, he slaps himself.



He looks up to see a car approaching. We immediately notice that things are out of the ordinary when two men are riding prone on the front fenders, propped up like lions in front of a museum. He trys to hail a ride, but the driver or passenger isn't having any and pass him in a puff of dust.



The man is running now, not wanting to be late for whatever he must be late for. He runs past a dozen men, precariously balanced on top of poles. We have no idea what is going on, but there is a definite sense of urgency.






He passes by a tennis game between some finely dressed women. On his way through, again we see some fellows balancing on top of poles.






The camera briefly focuses on a doddering, decadently dressed old man.





Still the young man is running, he books it upstairs while a waiter is walking toward to "sultan" figure at the dining room table.





The camera zooms out briefly to give us a full view of the massive chandelier that hangs over the dining room table. We see (with a start) that it is full of people. . . people that are upset with this young man's tardiness.




The young man quickly joins his place in the chandelier just as the sultan is getting his soup served. With not a moment to spare, the young man-whats this? Pops a piece of chewing gum into his mouth, chews for a moment and when he smiles, a million-candle-power halogen lantern is bursting forth from his mouth. And "oh" we exclaim as it all falls into place. The rest of the chandelier lights up . . .





. . .the men balancing on the poles are now street lamps . . .



and the fellows on the car? We should have known, headlights.



The last scene is of some finely dressed folks dancing at a party to the beat of a thousand flashing lights overhead. We now know the cause behind their revelry . . ."Happydent Gum" and its ability literally brighten up your smile.

Wow, so at first glance, great commercial right? I thought about this for a moment and came to the conclusion that this video is equally about gum and the purposeful social stratification present in India. I believe whole courses could be designed around the caste system and the unequal dispersant of wealth present in India, but this commercial does an excellent job of creating clear symbols for the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The workers are clothed only in a head wrap and shorts, while the rich folks are parading about in gold and finery. When the young man runs through the palace grounds, we see the lifestyles of the two classes. The poor workers are balanced uncomfortably on the tops of poles while rich women play tennis and swim. As soon as the young man finds his place in the chandelier and pops in a piece of Happydent, his job becomes smiling at the wealthy folks. Wow, the commercial shows us how a thousand poor workers doing painful, subhuman and monotonous work can "brighten" the day of the rich.


I wan intrigued about commentary found about the video on Youtube. Granted, you can never be sure about where a comment is comming from geographically, but I found this one a little disturbing, ". . .genius, that's what indians are for". I would argue that on top of the unintentional message this commercial contains about class in India, the viewing of the ad by Western cultures reinforces Said's notion of Orientalism. The West views this ad and sees the "other" dressed much differently, engaging in a lifestyle obviously removed from our own. It is exotic and percieved ignorantly as being somehow "less", prompting comments like the previous one. Others commented, "lol. i love how they say "chingum" a very crude indian way of saying chewing gum. hahaha". The spoken language of the commercial is even viewed as "crude" and substandard. The commercial was put on an American website as representative of the "top ten" funniest. On the internet, the add has taken up a new life as a reinforcement for stereotypes of the "other". Imagine, if the principle characters were changed to fit our own social "system". Perhaps the sultan is a wealthy white at a country club and the men in the chandelier are black . . .how would this change our perspective?

Michel Gondry video

Legos-not crochet sorry

Ummmm earlier when I said all that about being the best thing, I meant this is the best-really

She's a real hot dog.

Ummmm I'm basically sure that this is the best thing that has ever happened to me

Snickers: Get Some Nuts

Shot 1: Establishing shot of the soccer field where the commercial will be set.






Shot 2: Long-shot of a soccer player who has just been "fouled" writhing in pain and complaining to the ref. This establishes the player as a main character of the commercial. The foul was clearly almost nonexistent and the player is milking his "injury" for all its worth.



Shot 3: Medium shot of the player responding to an approaching rumbling. It is a deep, ominous sound and his reaction of ceasing to complain and look into the distance creates rising action for what is about to appear.





Shot 4: The frame changes over to the street outside of the park, the noise is louder than ever. Then, bursting over the parked cars is a tank going full speed. The cars explode in an awesome climax. This shot looks as if a wide-angle lens was used. Music starts here in great, sweeping tones, like the charge of the calvary.




Shot 5: In a medium shot, the tank approaches the player, the massive gun ends up pointing inches from his face. The player is now on his feet with no idea how to react to this predicament.





Shot 6: A medium shot of Mr. T as he opens the roof of the tank and exclaims, "Quit your jibber-jabber! You aint' hurt, your pathetic!" as he chucks a Snickers bar at the player's head.





Shot 7: A medium shot of the player being hit with the snickers, obviously shamed.








Shot 8: Return to the medium shot of Mr. T as he speaks some words of wisdom. "If I ever catch you acting like crazy fool again, you're gonna meet my friend, pain!" He lifts his fist in a menacing gesture.





Shot 9: A long shot of falling action with the tank exploding off of the soccer field with Mr T's image superimposed on the foreground within a "Snickers: Get Some Nuts" logo below him.




This commercial's use of over-the-top imagery, music, and language creates an overall effect of absurdity. The claim that a candy bar will make you more of a "man" as exemplified by the character of Mr. T is clearly ridiculous, but ultimately effective in creating humor. The pun on "nuts" of course adds to the overall ridiculousness. I actually found this piece on a "funniest commercials" website and later discovered that it had been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on youtube. It is certainly speaking to the effectiveness of a commercial when people are actively seeking it out. While this commercial had little or nothing to do with reality, I can't deny the fact that I was left with a strong desire to eat a Snickers bar-go figure.

Vlog Post

I went to the fireant website and found a vlog that looked interesting called "Pouring Down". It is maintained by Daniel Bliss, but the about section of his page only had a Wired Magazine review:

“Daniel Liss transforms his urban existence into a sort of visual poetry, full of thoughtful observations, wry wit, and seductive imagery.”

-Wired Magazine, May 2006

I was drawn to a portion of the vlog called "Seven Maps". Dan had a unique idea; he would take a week-long trip and everyday make a video based upon the restrictions outlined by participating subscribers to his vlog. The subtitle is: "Have money, will vlog". The videos are all well done, but the best part is reading the strict parameters that his viewers would place on each piece. For example, he had to make a film that was funny, but could only be comprised of wide shots. Another section was focused on what Dan was afraid of and restricted the use of his voice.

It’s hard to place exactly what the intended audience of this vlog would be. I was intrigued and judging from the comment sections following each piece, many others are as well. Anyone that is interested in experiencing another interpretation of the everyday would enjoy his perspectives. The vlog is designed to be cryptic, letting the viewer make up his or her mind about the symbolism and meaning. He combines still imagery, video, music and narration into a cohesive message. The video editing seems fairly complex and each video plays with different styles and content. I probably will spend a lot of time on the site in the end . . .

In addition to "Seven Maps", check out "Joyride"-an awesome music video with monkeys- and "theory:practice"-a discussion on the nature of vlogging itself.