Critical Autonomy

1) The following discussion is in response to this video and the accompanying deconstruction:

• Do you agree with the claims made in the deconstruction?

I agree with some of the claims made in the deconstruction. I agree that the video is in a middle class setting, with happiness, business, and success all around; making this video targeted at people whose lives fit this description. I agree that connectivity is NOT equally accessible in rural and urban areas, and the fact that with the merge came job losses. In the deconstruction, it mentions Frontier. My dad worked for Verizon when they were bought out by Frontier, and for a little bit of time, it was uncertain if he would have a job after the buy out. Thankfully, he did. Even though he literally worked for the company, the internet service at our house was spotty. Every time it would rain, we would lose service for at least a day, until the cables dried out. He was disappointed with his own company when he was told that the DSL just wasn't up to par for our area and we would just have to deal with it. So I most definitely agree that the claim "over promise, under commit" could easily be changed to "over profit, under serve".

• Is the Century Link ad really a cover for a company that is making profits over customer satisfaction?

Yes, I think so. I think that the company overall is mainly concerned with making a profit. Not to say there aren't individuals who actually care about the customers. In some locations, Century Link may have a monopoly on the phone/internet service, so they aren't concerned that their customers will go elsewhere. They make nice, neat little happy commercials that show people loving their service, when in reality, these videos don't tell the whole story.

• Based on this video, does the Alltel ad really promote racism of stereotypes of immigrants? Why or why not?

I do think that the Alltel ad promotes stereotypes of immigrants. I think that sometimes people think that just because someone is different than our "normal", they are weird. And we tend to change the meaning of 'weird' to mean whatever we want it to mean. In this add, they placed "weird" people in the middle class, one boy, one girl, mom and dad family's house. They could have easily put an American Grandma in there, knitting a blanket, holding her cat. Isn't that some people's image of a Grandma? But they chose to poke fun at these men. Honestly, the ad may not have been too bad had they left out the chicken. I thought it was rude, and it really made me feel a stereotype was happening.

2)  After browsing the Deconstruction Gallery,

• I came across this video and it really stuck out to me:

It is Axe's "Make Love, Not War".  At first after watching it as a whole, I thought it was kind of sweet how you thought the men were going to fire a weapon of some soft but then they surprised us by doing an act of love. If you just watch it for it's face value and move on, that is what you see. But, as I started to really think about it and deconstruct it, I saw that I was mistaken.

I thought the fact that the men in the helicopter and the tank looked American, while all the men with chains and missiles were foreign. It gives the idea that the Americans were fighting the good war while the foreign men were the enemies. Another aspect I felt was that it was degrading women. What woman in a war torn country is going to run toward a stranger solider seeking intimacy? None. 

Obviously it's a commercial, so it can be as unrealistic as possible. I felt that as a whole, it was making Americans, specifically men, look more prevalent and strong and in the right than any other people in the world.