Blog Seven

One of the things that I have learned this semester in media lit, and I think is very important, is that almost nothing that you see in an ad is an accident. It is usually put there because of a conscious decision or unconscious actions. Consider this recent advertisement by progressive:
At first glance, this would seem like a man and his buddy who made a deal, but on second thought, who brings their friend to buy insurance? This commercial may deliberately make the two men look like just friends to a more conservative audience, while to a more liberal set it may look like husbands, that way it causes minimal controversy and keeps both groups happy. Even on the page that the video is pulled from on Youtube there is questions as to whether they are a SS couple, and I've been to other media content websites that question it.
I believe that it is probably not a coincidence that they seem like a couple, but just enough so that it might fly over the heads of conservatives. It seems progressive may me more progressive than we know.