Week Three: Corporate Media Deconstruction

Pantene, (2008). Extraordinary pantene commercial [Theater]. Available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um9KsrH377A

Summary:

This Pantene commercial that I’ve selected shares a story of a young, upper-class Thai girl from a private music school, who overcomes adversity, both physically and emotionally, by learning to play the violin, even though she is deaf and mute. She watches a street musician play and she becomes inspired; however, with classmates and others telling her she can’t do it, she abandons her dreams. It’s not until the street musician, who originally inspired her, gives her advice stating that she doesn’t have to be like others, “music is a visible thing” and all she has to do is closer her eyes to see the music. This lifts her spirits and she begins to play again with the violin that he gave her. Although, she learns from this street musician and practices with him, classmates and other strangers try to bully her and bring her down. One even took her violin from her and broke it into pieces. It’s not until the day of a classical music competition that the girl appears late to the contest. She followed a classmate’s act—the one, who bullied her in school and told her that she’ll never be able to play the violin because she’s deaf and mute. Once the girl played her violin with all her energy and soul for the audience of the music competition, she received a standing ovation. The tag then appears saying “You can shine” with the Pantene logo.

Media Deconstruction:

Eliciting Feelings:

This commercial is intended to elicit feelings of freedom, strength, loneliness, loyalty, faith, friendship, trust, sympathy, and good versus evil:

Freedom:

In the commercial, pictures of the girl running through tall weeds on a bright summer day are shown when she closes her eyes to see the music. It’s just her in a field with the wind blowing through her hair and the weeds.

Strength:

She stands alone in front of the audience of the classical music contest with her broken violin taped back together. She stares at them, until she raises her violin to her chin, and closes her eyes before she starts to play.

Loneliness:

An image of the deaf and mute girl sitting alone in her room flashes across the screen, after one sees her classmate knock her tray out of her hands in the cafeteria.

Loyalty and sympathy:

When the street musician gets sick and ends up in the hospital, the deaf and mute girl visits and stays with him. Everyone has had someone get sick and end up in the hospital. Also, everyone has experienced bullying, which the deaf and mute girl had gone through in the commercial.

Friendship:

The violinist builds a friendship with her mentor, the street musician, who was the only kind person to her in the commercial. He taught her how to play, and got her a violin. In return, the deaf and mute girl visited him in the hospital, which showed that they’re friendship wasn’t just from their shared interest in music.

Good versus evil:

The deaf and mute girl is portrayed as meek and kind; however, her classmate that she competes against is a bully and independent. As she plays the piano, she shoves her teachers hand away from her piano, when the teacher tries to correct her playing. The violinist plays alongside her teacher on the street. It is her who receives a standing ovation at the competition, and not the pianist, who was always mean to her at school.

The pianist bullies the violinist—knocking her sheet music off the stand, knocking her tray out of her hands in the cafeteria, yelling at her, and telling her that she will never be able to play the violin. In the end, the violinist gets a standing ovation from the audience at the classical music competition and the pianist gets nothing.

Faith:

Faith is a dominant feeling in this commercial. The deaf and mute girl had to learn to have faith in herself, after she learns that the street musician believes in her abilities to play the violin.

Trust:

The violinist trusted the street musician to teach her what she needed to know, and that he wouldn’t lie to her about being able to play the violin.

Commercial Overview:

This commercial targets young, insecure preteen girls. It demonstrates that with Pantene, a girl can overcome adversity and shine. It’s empowering to young girls; however, no adults are portrayed positively, except the street musician. The commercial focuses on the girls’ lives and leaves adults out of it.  

The main character always has her hair down in the commercial; however, her competitor keeps her hair in a ponytail—never letting it down. Also, long hair is flying in the wind and on stage as the deaf and mute girl plays her violin with all of her energy and emotion “leaving everything else behind”. These instances within the commercial are subconscious connotations about the power of Pantene helping girls shine by giving them the confidence to do so.

What one doesn’t know about the deaf and mute girl and her competitor is where their parents are during all of this that’s being portrayed. The audience is left with questions after watching the commercial. For example, some questions may be as followed: the story behind the deaf girl’s competitor, what happens after the deaf and must girl gets a standing ovation and what does the other girl do or feel about it, how the girl learned to play the violin when she can’t hear or speak, and why did someone break her violin in pieces and who put it back together. These answers will more than likely never be answered, since this story was probably created by advertisers. However, it’s possible to see if the commercial wasn’t based off an individual in Thailand during the period it was released.  Google is the best tool to use for researching this commercial’s story.