Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Frithsquatch

Eating Jack Link's beef jerky will make you as legendary as sasquatch
When looking at a messin with sasquatch ad, one might notice several things about it and interpret it to be any number of different things from comedic to informative. Using the Frith Analysis, we are able to take a deeper look into what these things might be and what the advertiser is trying to communicate to us.

First of all would be the surface meaning or the quick glance analysis. When looking at the ad you will simply notice a sasquatch figure holding a bag of Jack Link's beef jerky while standing in the woods.

From the advertiser's intended meaning we have to take a slightly different approach. In the ad we see that this sasquatch is a wild and mythical creature and yet he is holding a bag of Jack Link's beef jerky. From this we can deduce that the advertiser is trying to get you to see that this product is as wild and mythical as sasquatch himself. The upside is that you can get your hands on this product and experience the wildness first hand.

Wildness of sasquatch is captured in this image
Finally we can look at the ad from an ideological and cultural point of view. From the television ads we can see that the guys that are eating the Jack Link's jerky are wild and fearless for picking on sasquatch who has been a symbol of campfire horror stories for years. We associate sasquatch with fables and legends and when we see this legendary creature being humiliated by men eating Jack Link's jerky, we associate their tenacity and bravado with the jerky. Conversely we are being shown that by getting this product, we will be brave, wild, and fearless.

The only problem is that by the end of the ad, sasquatch always has his revenge on his antagonists. However, in the mindsets of so many Americans, that still will not deter us from wanting to seek out this legendary creature and pop a paper bag behind his ear or making him smack himself in the face with shaving cream.

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