Week Three: Activity One and Two

Activity #1
The first activity involves the deconstruction of an advertisement for the newly merged company Centurylink. In the ad, there are masses of slinkies climbing down steps in several different settings showing a linkage/connectivity of places, cultures, people, and occasions. Upon viewing the ad, I perceived this company as a successfull and flourishing. After reading the deconstruction, my thoughts about the company changed. The deconstruction discussed the perception in the commercial that connectivity is available anywhere-from rural to urban areas. Living in West Virginia, I know that this is not always true. Many people in this area only have access to dial-up services or no access at all. The deconstruction also points out that 660 jobs were lost in New Mexico as a result of the merger. In addition, the articles discussed that one of the aquisitioned companies overcharged their customers and has pretty much no competition. Of course, none of this was included in the articel as it would be bad for business. The article discusses the importance of paying attention to customer service (provided fast and reliable connectivity at fair prices) instead of being preoccupied with mergers and stocks. I agree with many things in this ad, but I also realize that companies must focus on their financial well-being. However, this could always begin with customer service.This deconstruction brought many things to my attention that I typically do not think about when viewing commercials and will change the way that I let advertisements influence my thoughts in the future.

Activity #2
The subject of the second deconstruction is an advertisement for Alltel. In the advertisement, a family that struggled to pay their cell-phone bill rented out a room to three men from another country in order to afford their bill. Of course, the repairment that shows up regarding the noise and, coincidentally, has an affordable plan with Alltel. I didn't really think that this add promoted racial sterotypes at first. After thinking about, I thought that if the family would have rented a room to a homeless American family or a even a group of "hillbillies," I would have thought that these were offensive stereotypes. I agree with the deconstruction that the advertisement does use stereotypes. I also agree that the ad utilizes classic techniques of persuasion by attempting to portray the "average" american family and allegedly affordable deals (which we learn the truth in the fine print).