The most challenging part of creating this video was coming up with a good idea. We got together as a group brainstormed ideas finally settling on one that we were not to happy with, and then set up a time to get together and film it. Then Marta had the great idea of spoofing the snickers commercials, which she emailed us about. So when we got together again instead of filming, we brainstormed some more and came up with the idea we ended up using. For me that was also the most rewarding part coming up with a good idea. Thankfully Joe owns a gorilla suit.
What does a car have to do with a Polar Bear? Ohhh, it runs on electricity instead ofjust burning fossil fuels, which does not cause Global Warmingas fast.
All three parts of the Triune Brain are engaged while viewing this commercial;
First is the Reptilian Brain: using a Polar Bear as the main character consciously or subconsciously triggers the fight or flight instinct.
The Limbic Brain: almost the entire commercial is music and pictures.
The Neocortex Brain: the meaning behind this commercial is never explained for the viewer, it is left to us to figure it out.
Here are 3 of the21st century media culture shifts represented in this commercial;
Epistemological shift: word to IMAGE for almost the entire commercial goes without a spoken or written word.
Technological shift: ananlog to DIGITAL I got this video off of you tube a digital platform.
Aesthetic shift: discrete to CONVERGENCE TV commercials as "art" the story presented and how it is presented is a piece of art.
5 facts;
Polar Ice Caps are melting, destroying a natural habitat.
Not all animals can adapt to living within a human constructed world.
Calvin and Hobbes is probably the best literature I have ever read. Despite their many differences my parents love Calvin and Hobbes, they love to read. Drawn into a great book, my imagination can throw open doors, and run free. I learned that from my parents, but Bill Waterson showed me in his comic strip how to walk through those doors. It wasn’t from the limited television I was exposed to as a kid it was long before computers became so common.
My mother’s house was full of books, and she loved to read to me as much as I loved the sound of her voice. She would read me fairy tales, ghost stories, and holiday stories when I was little. Throughout grade school long after I learned to read, she would often help me by reading out loud my history books cuddled up on the couch in front of a lit fireplace. I could lose myself in the visual images the words she spoke drew in my mind. This was one spark that would ignite a fire inside of me.
My father too was an avid reader of books, and bestowed the same ravenous appetite in me. I didn’t read a whole lot of ‘real’ books at first though; there was lots of Calvin and Hobbes, and comic books for me as a youngster at my dad’s house. This gradually turned into full novels, read while tucked away in my woodland home on the weekends at my Dad’s. It was a week long journey I took from the Shire to the lonely mountain, back to the shire across Middle-Earth to Mordor and back again. Forced to read The Hobbit for summer reading before starting high school, I finally found the setting for my imagination.
Television was not watched much when I was young. My parents always had me going outside to play whether it was with the kids in the neighborhood, or into the woods. Not that I don’t have fond memories of curling up on the couch with the family to watch a movie on the VCR. It’s just now the importance to me is that my parents restricted the time my brain spent melting into mush. I am grateful for that.
I never even bought a television until I was almost 26 years old. That was a behavior encouraged by my parent’s lack of interest in that medium. This has helped me to live a life full of crazy experiences, always on the go, always engaged in the moment. A life I someday hope to turn into a book written by yours truly. A desire fueled by the flames of all the books I have read.
Why sit in front of the television or computer watching other people live full lives? My name is Ben Duffy, I love fishing, and the outdoors, I grew up in Bennington, VT. But, I spent most weekends at my father's house, and he has never been a fan of television, and as a child, I was not allowed to watch it much. I got to watch a couple hours, of Saturday morning cartoons, and that was it. Then it was time to go outside and play, if I was bored, my Dad had lots of stuff I could do; stack wood, mow the lawn, paint the house, etc. Thankfully, he owned 18 acres of woods, in upstate NY, surrounded by a pretty big forested area, and I found lots of ways to have fun out there. So, I grew to love the outdoors, and my father would take me camping, fishing, hiking, and swimming in Vermont State Parks.
Fishing has become one of my favorite pastimes, I spend a lot of time following streams up the mountain from the Winooski river, between Jonesville, and Waterbury, at places like the waterfall (above left), which is where I caught these beautiful brook trout (left). Emerald lake State Park in East Dorset Vt, is where we did most of our camping, and where I started to fish.
Vermont has some wonderful state parks, full of outdoor recreational fun, which I think is one effective way to use the land. I worry that without these natural areas, we will see the health of our planet continue to decay, at more, and more rapid rates. To me, we as human beings, are just one part of the web of life, as we destroy more strands of that web, we destroy our chances of survival. I hope to preserve, and protect as much of our wild areas that are left as possible.
