Structuralist Analysis of Chuckie: Buddy Ad

Television ads that celebrate a mother’s love and sacrifice for her child are so overdone. Onthe surface, Nestle’s TV campaign for the Chuckie Buddy chocolate drink might seem like another recycled “there’s no lovelike a mother’s love” sentiment to toss onto the cliche pile. But the Chuckie Buddy TVC gives the familiar mother-and-child theme a fresh twist by slipping a heart-tugging message: Your kids are only young once. Why not join them in this fantastic experience?

 

Nestle’s Chuckie TVC takes us through evocative vignettes of mother and son engaged in all manner of active, imaginative play. First, they are knights slaying a fearsome dragon as they gallop away on their trusty steed. A chalk-drawn likeness of the fire-breathing mythical monster lie vanquished on the pavement. Next, a pint-sized scientist laughs triumphantly as the robot he’s built comes to life. The robot is a crude but creative contraption made from cardboard boxes and bicycle lights, held together by glue and masking tape. Then they are fearless aviators charting a course in the sky as they navigate a two-seater plane fashioned out of cardboard and electric-fan blade. At the park, Mommy Wizard commands a geyser to burst forth from the concrete depths while her son, the imperious king, beholds the towering column of water in awe.Together they read a book while lying on their stomachs on a picnic blanket. While hanging clothes out to dry, the adoring mother indulges her son who has put on the laundry basket as a helmet.

 

The Nestle Chuckie Buddy ad does not spare us the thankless drudgery of parenthood: the sleepless nights, the ceaseless cleaning up, and the curious glances from strangers who might question our life choices. We see the mother yawning as she puts the finishing touches on yet another set of costumes. In another scene, she is patiently washing off green coloring from her son’s body, quite possibly the aftermath of a Hulk play-acting episode. At a grocery store checkout counter, two black ninjas pay for their purchase, to the bemusement of the store cashier.

The spot’s piece de resistance is the child’s ode to his mother. Set to the music of Billy Joel’s “She’s Always a Woman,” the lyrics speak of the child’s glowing pride in having a mother who happens to be his best buddy, too. The spot culminates with mother and son, caped crusading duo, flying to the top of a hillock overlooking the city. They hold each other as they admire the setting sun cast a pale orange glow on the twilight sky. Closing the uplifting scene is the tagline: “Minsan lang sila bata. Sabayan mo na.”

Nestle Chuckie Buddy TVC doesn’t feel like it’s calculated to wring maximum emotions out of easy, soft-hearted targets. Sure, it tugs at our heartstrings. It may even leave us with a twinge of guilt. But it also rewards us this little takeaway about what it takes to create happy childhood memories and raise a child with the confidence to take on the world: a touch of creativity, a dash of imagination, and a faithful companion through life’s most magical ride.

I leave you now with the lyrics to the song featured in the ad. Feel free to get all choked up as you sing it softly to yourself. 

She can slay all the dragons
She’s got lasers for eyes,
She’s my ace co-pilot
when I conquer the skies;
She can cast magic spells
with the greatest of ease,
She may be my Mom
But she’s always a buddy to me.

She’s my captain, my hero
She’s as strong as can be,
She may be my Mommy
But she’s always a buddy to me.

Watch this link before you proceed reading :)
 "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmdEQ6eW39s"

There's more to advertising's message than meet the casual eye. An effective ad, like other forms of communication, works best when it strikes a chord in the needs and desire of the receiving consumer-- a connection. Ads are messages that require critical attention.

The Chuckie commercial is about a bonding of a mom and her son. Based on the commercial, the son described that his mom used to play with him like she can do anything. She can be a soldier, a a pilot and even a magician whom every mom can really do just to make her child/children feel the happiness and love.

Structuralist view literature as a system of signs. They try to make plain the organizational codes that they believe regulate all literature. Structuralism is a way of thinking about the world. At it's simplest, structuralism claims that the very nature of every elements in any given situation has no significance by itself, and is determined by the other elements involved in that situation. The full significance of any entity cannot be perceived unless and until it is integrated into the structure of which it forms a part. Story's meaning develops from it's overall structure rather than from each individual story's isolated theme.

In the commercial the experiences of the son and of the mother is taken as one to create a meaning-- a desired meaning. They are combined to generate the desired theme/ message of the TVC. The commercial has the message appointing to parents that they must have time and effort to bond with their children. They have the tagline that says "Minsan lang sila bata, sabayan mo na" which means a child grows fast and every single moment should not  be wasted and should be treasured.

What makes the commercial really attractive is its jingle. and the thought of it. Its jingle has  a nice tune and lyrics that can be easily memorized, can be sang by anyone who could hear it. The commercial attacks the emotional aspect of people. They can get their audience by the heart because it connects to anyone's heart. The video and the song is more than enough to convey what the commercial wants to convey. It doesn't have too many words, just the lyrics. It doesn't have animations or whatsoever, just the video and the tagline. It doesn't involve famous actors or actresses, just a typical mom and son. Very simple yet very expressive. :)





Reference:
http://myteachermommy.com/2015/08/04/when-parenting-becomes-childs-play-nestle-chuckie-buddy-tvc/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmdEQ6eW39s

Fantatstic Analysis of Meet the Robinsons

MEET THE ROBINSONS

SUMMARY:

Lewis is a young inventor and orphan. While longing for a family of his own, Lewis has grown saddened over the years as all his attempts to be adopted seem to have failed. As well, each and every invention he attempts to fashion meets with disaster.

One day, Lewis' thinking turns to his Mother, and why she chose to leave him on the orphanage's doorstep all those years ago. This leads Lewis to think that maybe deep within his mind, a memory of her still exists, and maybe with it, he can find his Mom and reunite with her.

Lewis then tinkers non-stop on a machine to unearth the memory deep in his mind. Unrealized to Lewis, the constant tinkering sleep-deprives his roommate, Mike Yagoobian (also known as 'Goob'). however, Lewis is too busy with his own work to realize the effect on the other boy.

While Goob goes to play on the school baseball team, Lewis takes his invention to the science fair. During the science fair, he runs into a strange boy named Wilbur Robinson, who cautions him to stay away from 'The Bowler-Hat Guy.' Lewis ignores this, and attempts to make his invention work. Unknown to him, the 'Bowler-Hat Guy' and his hat (a mechanical creation) sabotage the item, causing it to malfunction, sending Lewis sadly running back to the orphanage.

Once there, he encounters Wilbur again, who tosses Lewis into a strange machine, that then appears to take them into the future. Wilbur is amazed, and attempts to use the time machine to go back in time and find his Mother. However, the two boys end up crashing the time machine, which Wilbur took from his Father's lab without permission.

While trying to figure out what to do, Wilbur takes Lewis to the Robinson mansion, where the boy is introduced to the strange yet caring family, albeit always wearing some strange form of headgear (a fruitbasket, a hat, etc)

Meanwhile, 'Bowler Hat Guy,' and his mechanical hat, take Lewis' invention, and attempt to sell it to a local company. However, 'Bowler Hat Guy' has no idea how it works, and the hat (whom he calls Doris), decides they need to find Lewis to figure it out.

Going back to the orphanage, 'Bowler Hat Guy' encounters Goob, who due to sleep deprivation, lost the game, and suffered the wrath of his teammates. Goob explains that the orphanage's supervisor said he should move on, but 'Bowler Hat Guy' states that Goob should use that experience, and never forget it...much to Goob's confusion.

After searching more of the Orphanage, Doris calculates that Lewis must have went to the future with Wilbur Robinson, and the two head into the future with a time machine of their own.

Back in the future, Lewis is introduced to more of the Robinsons' house, and how Lewis' father, Cornelius, is a great inventor, having successfully perfected time travel. However, Cornelius' most recent time iteration was stolen by the 'Bowler Hat Guy,' and this explains why Wilbur is trying desperately to set things right.

At the same time, Doris infiltrates the house, and attempts to kill Wilbur, but not before finding that 'Bowler Hat Guy' has time-travelled back and forth through time, returning to the future with a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

The Robinson family and Lewis manage to take down the enormous beast, and the family is ecstatic. It is then that Wilbur lets slip that Lewis is an orphan, and the family unanimously approves...until Wilbur knocks the hat off, prompting Wilbur's mother, Franny, to declare that Lewis has to go back to his own time.

Hurt and upset that he has once again seemingly lost the chance to have a family of his own, Lewis walks away, but is then accosted by 'Bowler Hat Guy' and Doris, who promise that if he helps fix his machine, they'll take him back in time to find his Mom.

Taking Lewis to the orphanage (now an abandoned building), Lewis fixes the memory-scanning machine, but 'Bowler Hat Guy' has Doris tie Lewis up, going back on his promise.

It is then that 'Bowler Hat Guy' reveals that he is actually Mike Yagoobian. Goob explains how Lewis' tinkering kept him from sleeping properly, and resulted in him losing the baseball game at school. Goob channeled this into deep resentment towards Lewis, that ate away at him, and caused his bad mood to keep him from ever getting adopted. in that time, Lewis was adopted, and many years later, became known as Cornelius Robinson, the head of Robinson Industries.

Goob angrily tried to get revenge on Lewis, but his feeble attempts proved futile. It wasn't until meeting Doris, the robotic bowler hat (a rejected experiment of Lewis') came up with a plan of her own.

Lewis tries to get Goob to see that he (Goob) also shares some of the blame, since Goob was not able to move on from that baseball game loss, but Goob refuses to acknowledge this.

ANALYSIS:

In the cartoon film "Meet the Robinsons", we can find these what we so call supernatural events. Marvelous and Uncanny events happened with Marvelous mostly happening to the main character in the movie, Lewis, and the Uncanny to the antagonist Goob. 

In literature, Marvelous events is the case where the reader is aware that there are no rational explanation to what is happening in the work. We have two kinds of Marvelous-- the pure and the fantastic. So, in the movie, we can mostly see the pure kind of marvelous. Let's take for example the scene where Lewis invented a machine to uncertain the memory deep in his mind. At a young age, Lewis, can't certainly do that. Aside from that, there is nothing, known in history, invented that can read ones mind and review his/her memories. This thing is just impossible. Yes, maybe we have seen machines reading memories but in sci-fi movies only. Another scenario is the case of Doris, the mechanical hat of Bowler-Hat Guy, which later revealed himself to be Goob. No robot or machine can think rationally right? In the case of Doris, she is the one influencing, brainwashing Goob to do evil things and take revenge on Lewis. 

The machine that Wilbur Robinson used to time travel is also an example of a pure marvelous event. Time travel isn't even proven to be true in reality. In reality, we can neither go back to the past nor go i advance to the future. Cornelius "Lewis" Robinson perfecting time travel is also another example. The events that i have mentioned are just some of the pure marvelous events that have happened in the film.

ow let's go to the Uncanny--Bizarre and weird occurrences but a natural explanation such as dream, intoxication, or madness can be given. The uncanny also has two categories-- the pure and the fantastic. Pure uncanny refers to strange, horrific/incredible events because of the deceiving mind of the the author but not supernatural. As in the case of Lewis as an inventor at a young age--- 12. Isn't it incredible?

Fantastic Uncanny are events that are given natural explanation. this applies to the antagonist in the film-- Mike Yagoobian (Goob). He is having his revenge on Lewis because he is blaming him to be the reason why he lost in his little league games causing his life to be miserable. As stated in the summary "Goob obsessed over his defeat, scaring away his chances at adoption, and stayed at the orphanage after it closed down eventually coming to blame Lewis for his misery". 

The cartoon film is more on the pure marvelous category. Though it seems to be just a mere work of the mind-- full of fantasy and supernatural events: though it's a pure fiction, we can't deny the fact that the film had taught us one great thing. As what Walt Disney has said at the end of the film: 

 "Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things because we're curious... and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths".


KEEP MOVING!! :) :) :)


Reference:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0396555/synopsis

Marxist Theory in Literary Criticism

This one's  our report. :)

Feminist Analysis of The Virgin by Kerima Tuvera

Feminist approach defines the revelation of a woman's real desires and struggles in the society. The word "virgin" that the author talked about in the short story refers to those who are, of course, pure and unstained. We all know that virginity, society wise, is really important. It is a woman's way to achieve respect and dignity so she really has to keep it until she gets married, like what Miss Mijares did. She wasn't able to express herself, her emotions to males to shield her virginity/dignity. The story showed the struggles of Miss Mijares of this "scoial dictate" that hindered her in finding her identity as a person and as a woman.

Finishing college,  sending her niece to school, and taking care of her mother. This is where Miss Mijares had spent her life. This role was dictated by the society and perhaps by her own family.She was shaped to to be a woman for other people and not a woman for her own self.

Moreover, the author showed the inner struggle of a woman in the story. Miss Mijares struggled to stick to the societal expectations of a woman and to hide her own self. She was lost because she cannot be her own self and has to be a woman that the society dictates her to be.

In the society, women are the  ones responsible in taking care of the people in the family. This was the case of the main character,  she did all the responsibilities that she had forgotten her self, her own life. She can be characterized as an old maid-- still haven't touched a man at an old age. Despite her being a responsible daughter, she also wished to be loved by others especially by a man. But her duties hindered her in fulfilling those dreams.

A scenario in the story that showed  Miss Mijares' romantic feelings towards the carpenter is when she felt angry after knowing that the carpenter has a son. She thought he was married, but was relieved knowing that he is not. It showed that she is affected, emotionally, by the revelations of the carpenter. The rain ad the weather can be a metaphor to the main character's feeling to prove her hidden emotions towards the man.

Elaine Showalter argued that literary subcultures all go through three major phases of development. For literature by, or about women, she labeled these stages the Feminine, the Feminist and the Female. These three stages can be found in Miss Mijares' life in the story.

The Feminine involves "imitation" of the prevailing modes of dominant traditon and internalization of it's standards. Miss Mijares ha gone through this, at the beginning where she allowed the dictates of the society to rule her life. As the story evolves, the main character also evolved from being feminine to feminist.

The Feminist stage involves protest against the standards and values and advocacy of minority rights. Miss Mijares didn't protest explicitly or politically but there is an inner protest within her-- the inner protest to go beyond what is expected to her. Now she is torn between the dictate of the society and her own self.

The last stage which is the Female stage is a phase of self-discovery, a turning inwards freed from some of the dependency of opposition, a search for identity. The last paragraph showed that she has gone through the protesting stage and is now able to express her self, her feelings, and desires. It showed that she has overcame her struggles in the dictates of the society. It showed that she is not capable of  going beyond her self as she is ready to surrender her virginity. Virginity indeed is dignity but it is a part of a woman's existence to have a man to consume that long-preserved virginity.



Reference:
http://pinoylit.blogspot.com/2005/03/virgin-by-kerima-polotan-tuvera.html

Deconstruction of the poem DESIGNS by Robert Frost

DESIGNS

Robert Frost

I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,

On a white heal-all, holding up a moth

Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth --

Assorted characters of death and blight

Mixed ready to begin the morning right,

Like the ingredients of a witches' broth --

A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,

And dead wings carried like a paper kite.

What had that flower to do with being white,

The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?

What brought the kindred spider to that height,

Then steered the white moth thither in the night?

What but design of darkness to appall?--

If design govern in a thing so small. 

Instead of thinking in terms of black and white, we have to consider the infinite shades of gray along with every other color in existence.

 The poet is known for his dark and modern take o universal themes such as existence of God. Designs is no exception.As a whole, the poem is about wrestling with a spiritual question: Does God really watches over us? It is a poem of finding evil in innocence.

all these obvious elements are the physical bones of the whole building, the ones we can readily see. But what about the holes in between? Let's shift our focus just a tad. What is not being  said in this poem?

At first we hear the cheerful observant walker "I found a dimpled.." but in "spider" the voice betrayed itself and in "fat" and "white" the dimpled creature appeared less charming. The first line of the poem developed a joke in tone and image that grows into a joke of another sort.

The joking developed gradually through a series of contradictory pictures. A white heal-all, being a medicinal plant, suggest purity and safety. A satin-white moth has it's charms too, a party-going creature. The "rigid satin cloth" also showed a contradictory picture.

The poem depicts a spider preying on a moth. frost uses this image as a metaphor for the World made in God's image and the evil that seems to have infiltrated it. The first stanza begins innocently enough. There is no underlying meaning to it, just the speaker happen to stumble upon a dimpled spider. The use of the word "rigid" begins to shift the tone of the poem. The poem becomes darker in the next line "assorted character of death and blight". Here, the spider is the main character with evil intentions. The comparison to a "witch's broth" furthers the evil connection.

The second stanza reveals the underlying meaning. It asked three questions: "What had that flower to do with being white,the wayside blue and the innocent heal-all? What brought the kindred spider to that height, then steered the white moth thither in the night? What but deigns of darkness tom appall? If design governs a thing so small.." These questions boil down to the meaning of the poem. How can evil exist in a world if i it's entirety is governed by by God? The spider initially described as white, the color of innocence reveals to be wicked.

This white spider on a white heal-all is a metaphor for the evil that is tarnishing the world. The white heal-all is a metaphor for the world, the moth being included in this supposedly innate innocence, while the spider represents the vicious ill will hidden within it. Frost ultimately asks whether God could really be governing the actions of this spider, a minutia in the world as a whole. If God is not governing these workings of the spider, who is to say that God governs and oversees the workings of people? The spider and the moth then both represents the people in the world, the flower representing the earth. This idea begins to counter all the notions that God is watching us, perhaps He is not really looking over our every action. People are minute in his eyes as the spider: something to be overlooked.

Frost's poetry tends to portray man as a helpless pygmy in front of the huge might and complexity of the world that surrounds him. Man can neither look far nor deep enough to understand and make sense of the incomprehensible complexity and design that pervades & permeates the world. Expecting evil at dark places alone is being naive. One may be caught unaware even at the most unexpected places. Think not that black is the lone color representing evil as white too has the power to disturb & startle you unexpectedly.

Designs is a frightening poem, one that confronts the dire possibility that the universe is not only godless, but that God is evil.

 Reference:
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/design/
http://studentacademichelp.blogspot.com/2010/10/critical-analysis-of-robert-frosts.html

Post- Colonial Analysis of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Things fall Apart is a Post-colonial novel written by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe in 1958. It is one of the first to receive global critical acclaim.

The novel follows the life of Okonkwo, an igbo leader in the fictional nigerian village of Umuofia. The work is split into three parts, the first describing the family of Okonkwo and personal history, the customs and society of the Igbo community, and the second and third sections introduce the influence of British colonialism and christian missionaries in the igbo community.

Things fall Apart is a novel that highlights the fight between colonialism and traditional culture. It showed how chabge took place in the Igbo community, how the people coped to that change and how the protagonist, Okonkwo, reacted to the change.

Okonkwo's life starts to go downhill when the white men arrived. After returning from exile, he saw in his own village how vast the influence of these white men is. These white men have already infiltrated his own tribe/village. They have already built a church and converted a number of villagers to christianity. From believing to their own God, they were converted to being christians. They had eradicated the traditional religion of Okonwo and his people.

The influence of Christianity does not just destroy beliefs, it had also destroyed families--- including okonkwo's. His son converted to christianity so he disowned him. Other villagers who have converted end up disturbing those who did not.

the novel depicts conflicts and tensions within the Igbo community. as well as changes introduced by colonial rule and christianity.

 Refrence:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things_Fall_Apart