Blog 2 - Social Identites in Ads

I decided on this ad instead since my other choices weren't exactly ads. ->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBuKuA9nHsw
"French McDonalds Ad"
 

            The McDonalds Advertisement places great emphasis on sexuality, and it’s the easiest social identity to pick out when analyzing the ad.  The first idea about sexuality that came to mind was portrayal of all couples in the restaurant being heterosexual.  This relates to the idea of heterosexuality as the accepted social norm, with homosexuals comprising a minority group.   

The class picture shown in the advertisement combined with a touching, yet private phone conversation initially hints that the young man in the commercial is hiding something. Upon further analysis, you begin to notice that the picture doesn’t contain any light colored clothing typically worn by women and the bodies are square shaped, signifying an all male class. In combination with the mysterious phone conversation, it makes you wonder who was on the phone since you didn’t hear a voice and the dialogue itself was short yet intimate.

It is assumed from the conversation that takes place that the young man is a homosexual and is hiding it from his father.  I noticed the look that the son gives his father a weird look when he mentions he used to be the ladies man back when he was younger, and that they looked very similar.  I think this statement is kind of ironic because if you compare the son and the father at that point in time there are striking differences.  First of all, the father has short hair cut very straight and neat while the son has shaggy long hair.  Second the way both of them dress is opposite.  The son is wearing a hooded plaid jacket while the father wears a dark coat and a dress shirt.  These differences alone illustrate black and white differences in the way they dress but the way they think and feel about their sexualities.

Now as I observed the restaurant you know that there aren’t many gay couples around.  In fact I only notice straight couples or groups of friends hanging out at the restaurant.  When watching a beer commercial you typically see the man trying to impress the girl and make his friends laugh.  Currently I observed the young man hiding the homosexual relationship from his father, while trying not to give any clues about his sexual identity.  Obviously the son is afraid he won’t be accepted, and the fact that there were many heterosexual couples around him reinforced the idea that his society was not ready to accept him.

            Finally the last thing I noticed was the final words in the commercial.  “Come as you are” indeed are powerful words and tie the entire commercial together.  You know it’s a McDonalds commercial because you see the father carrying the tray of food, as well as the workers and advertisements in the background.  Little emphasis is placed on the McDonalds logo until the end when you see “Come as you are” and then the McDonalds logo.  It seems like McDonalds is taking advantage of minority social identities by showing there is a place for them at their restaurant.  This time McDonalds includes the minority target group and not the typical nuclear family you often see especially in American commercials.