For most of us, watching commercials is nothing short of skipping through channels until we find something to actually watch. It seems the only time we really pay attention to commercials is during the Superbowl, but what we don't realize is that the commercials we are seeing is an integral part of the culture we live in.
Do you realize that these commercials are only truly viewed by us?
For example, lets talk about tampon commercials.
The majority of tampon commercials in the United States have smiling girls doing activities barely showing any graphic images. But this Russian commercial for Tampax tampons has a different approach — something that gets straight to the point with a comedic twist. Honestly speaking this commercial made me stop, rewind and then laugh really hard. I mean a shark...come on.
How ridiculous can you get with this? I mean think about it, if this commercial was to air in the United States, parents would have a heart attack and say that this is too graphic or too inappropriate.
If that isn't proof enough for you, let's talk about this Swedish Ikea commercial.
I mean majority of the ads we get about Ikea are just families shopping for new things. The Ikea commercial made me want to wince and curl up in a ball...what exactly did I just witness and why? I would never ever want to see a commercial that crude hit my airways. Different cultural values can change everything we see in media even things as simple as TV commercials. For example, these commercials seem so vulgar because of the things we are used to seeing in the U.S. But in countries like Russia or Sweden, this is just a normal TV commercial.
What we have yet to understand or learn is that culture surrounds us in the way we grow up and through our media outlets. Commercials are something we may pay little attention to, but when we do we can see the differences in countries' values and ideas. Reach the blogger at tishni.weerasinghe@asu.edu or on twitter @tishnii
