Scholes

Advertising plays a huge role in the world today, regardless of agreement on whether it actually sells the products it's attempting to. From The Protocols of Reading, Robert Scholes introduces an article called "On Reading Video Text," in which he examines how one could go about reading something produced on television such as they would read a story or novel.
Scholes begins his article describing all of the visual elements that are usually overlooked in a 30 second timespan,such as lighting, camera angles, and the colors of the commercial. Scholes brings his whole initial idea together by stating, "..they [video texts] offer us the single greatest virtue of art: change from the normal, a defense against the ever-present threat of boredom." (619) I would agree with htis statement, although not in the text he uses. "Normal" to Scholes and "normal" to myself are two different definitions; indeed, if Scholes is staring at a piece of paper with text on it, then boredom would set in. The pretty blinking lights and the flashy colors of television are a step up from lifeless, bland paper, unless the paper was actually read.
Scholes later explains how a video text is not just visually pleasing, but also through a narration and what he calls, "cultural reinforcement," which he defines as, "the process through which video texts confirm their ideological positions and reassure their membership in a collective cultural body." (620) Scholes believes that commercials have power, over the audience itself and over the thought processes of the day. The commercial I viewed is alike to this statement in that, without the narration, the commercial itself would make little sense and be more boring than reading a paper could be. It pulls the viewer in and gets a thought process going within seconds, and makes the viewer very briefly consider the product and/or owning it. My commercial begins with the audience looking at a bustling resturant, and a waiter approaching a table of gentlemen. While clearing away the plates, the server asks a closely angled man if he is all done with his plate. The camera flashes to the plate, whose vegetables have been clearly pushed off to the side and eaten around. When the gentleman replies that he is, indeed, all finished, the server slaps his forhead in a shame-on-you manner. The indicates a cultural norm that the viewer understands, as mother has always told them to finish their vegetables before being done with dinner. A narrator pipes in with a line, "Should have had a V8," bringing up the product that would have been a solution to the gentleman's vegetable problem. We're then shown the product on the screen as the narrator brings up specific and good reasons why the audience should buy the product. This commercial had the power to make the audience laugh, and brought about a good feeling to the viewer while looking at the product, associating something good with V8. The colors and camera angles brought the sense of the busy resturant and the server's attitude, but it was the narration that clearly informed the viewer what was going on and what they should understand. As a video text, it was clear that Scholes is correct in believing the power and hope of less boredom a commcercial has on both our viewer and society as a whole.

Works Cited:
Scholes, Robert. “On Reading A Video Text.” Literacies. 2nd ed. Ed. Terence Brunk et al. New York: Norton, 2000. 619-623.
“Should Have Had A V8.” Commercial. You Tube. 12 Sept. 2007