http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=PS4OpUEhr0U
Kmart created this commercial in
spirit of the back to school season. The commercial depicts middle-school-aged
kids rapping about the products they've purchased from Kmart. The students are
featured in the back of a school bus, reciting a rap and flashing their things,
which include a new watches, clothes and supplies. The students are
characterized as "gangsta rappers", with the setting, which features
urban dancing and the flaunting of gold jewelry, paralleling modern-day rap
videos. In essence, the commercial intends to portray a visual similar to that
of a rap video. More specifically, it portrays a scene similar to that of the
black rap community. With the commercial, Kmart appeals to the black audience,
through the stereotypical idea of the rap culture, black rappers and current
music videos. With their flashing and fast-paced rapping, their appeal appears
to be directed towards the urban, "hip" community. Even more, it is
marketed towards the lower-class black community, the typical characteristics
of rap "fans".
The rhetoric in the commercial, in
conjunction with the hegemony, intends to persuade the young black community
that Kmart is the "cool" and "in-thing" store for the
newest and trendy products for the black and young community. The kids are
"trendy" and portrayed similar to those of the rap culture. With
rappers being connoted as "cool" in modern society, the kids are then
implied to be the same. Therefore, they set the trends for those of the young
black culture, an assumption of Kmart marketers in attempt to appeal to this
specific crowd. In other words, the commercial intends to influence other
members of the young black community to follow along and shop at Kmart in order
to be as in-style and popular as the kids that appear in the commercial advertisement.
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