Reading Response #5
In Robert Scholes essay “On Reading a Video Text” he explains how to understand a video text by sharing he’s ideas on ideological criticism and cultural reinforcement. Supporting and enhancing our ideology or our strong belief system is cultural reinforcement. Scholes explains that in order to understand the commercial like the Budweiser commercial he uses in his essay we need to understand the structure of baseball. He elaborates that by living in America we obtain this cultural knowledge. By understanding the well known cultural game of baseball Scholes explains how it reinforces our cultural belief by being a part of it.
One of these cultural beliefs is that America works. Scholes writes: we root for the umpire because we want the system to work not just baseball but the whole thing: America.” By understanding the cultural reinforcement the commercial sells the beer to the audience by selling the “American Way” first. Then the commercial try’s to sell the beer by connecting the nation to the product creating a “national beer for the national pastime” (Scholes 1989).
The minute long McDonalds commercial starts out with two well known professional NBA basketball stars Dwight Howard and LeBron James. Dwight Howard is practicing on a basketball court in Indianapolis at Conseco Field house when LeBron James comes in with his McDonalds lunch that contains a Big Mac and Fries. Then Dwight says he will play him for his lunch and that the first one to miss their shoot watches the other one eat. LeBron agrees put his lunch on the seat and they both begin the trick-shot competition for the Big Mac and fries. They exchange and perform tricks until Dwight Howard Brakes the hoop while performing his 360 free throw line Olympic style landing shot. That is when a white male starts clapping and saying “great show guys and thanks for lunch” after eating the last French fry and walking off leaving Dwight Howard and LeBron James confused.
This ad is not only trying to convince you to buy McDonalds food but it is also trying to convince us that the McDonalds food is for the hard working class. This McDonalds commercial does this by having two black NBA stars play each other for the Big Mac and Fries. By living in America we should know that it is harder for people of color to succeed in life. So we should know that Dwight Howard and LeBron James must have worked very hard to get to where they are. Having a male dressed in a nice suite at the end of the commercial eating the McDonalds lunch also portrays that he is a hard worker and the McDonalds lunch was right for him.
In order to understand this commercial you need to know that these are not just ordinary basketball players but they are professional NBA stars and by living in America where basketball is popular you should have this cultural knowledge. You should also know that these two NBA basketball players must have worked hard to get to where they are now because it wasn’t always easy for black people to succeed in life living in America.
By combining the hard working class and McDonalds food in the 60 second commercial it reinforces the cultural narrative/ myth that working hard and giving your best pays off at the end. The commercial reinforces that in order to succeed in life you have to give it everything you’ve got.