After reading the article from Monday about the commercial with "My BFF Jill" I remembered a similar cell-phone commercial that focused more on the grandparents and their use of cell phones. The commercial is for "Boost Mobile" and it features a presumable "Grandma" speaking like a teenager would, surrounded by other elderly people who are behaving like high school or college kids would. The cell-phone in this commercial is what is connecting the Grandma to her friends and as a result gets her invited to a "banging party." The last line the Grandma has in the commercial is about her getting "10 kinds of nasty!" The commercial ends with shots of old people grinding on each other and rap music bumping in the background. They also insert a few lines of commentary:"Boost Mobile. Designed for young people. But it's just more fun showing old people. Phones just got fun."
I remember when this commercial came out and how big of it a hit it was. My parents especially were beyond amused by the actors in the scene. Even when I watch it now, it is still hysterical! The reason I chose this clip was because it hits on so many different topics that we have covered in class. First of all, it addresses how our communication has changed through the generations and how there is a specific generational gap between the way we use cell phones and technology with our contemporaries and the way we use it with our parents and grandparents. In this commercial, it is so funny because an elderly woman would presumably never talk that way on her cell phone, nor would we ever see a group of old people grinding on each other surrounded by race cars. However, Boost Mobile wants you to believe that perhaps that is the future of phone usage.
I also find it interesting that they chose a woman to narrate this commercial, instead of a man. This, once again, reinforces the idea that women are in charge of educating their children and teaching them how to properly speak and communicate. However, in this commercial, the Grandma is proud of her speech, much like the Grandma from the "BFF Rose" commercial and unlike the Mother in that scenario who felt as though she had failed as a parent.
Finally, I want to connect this commercial to the reading for today from Janet Mcintosh. She primarily focuses on a community in Kenya and how they communicate with each other through their phones and text messaging. Many of the young adults use this as a means to interact with their lovers/boyfriends and girlfriends. This type of behavior is looked down upon by the elders in the community who think that the younger generation is losing sight of who they are as a culture. They believe that this form of communication (especially the integration of the English language) is dangerous and a form of witch-craft. The elders also believe that this form of communication encourages the people to act more sexually than they normally would. They believe that a connection has formed between the English language and sexuality. When interviewed, many young people responded that their lovers would text them in English in order to appear more attractive and to impress their significant others. In this commercial, the Grandma is speaking in a sort of slang English however she does relate it back to sexuality when she explains that she was getting "10 Kinds of Nasty." The ending images of the old people grinding on each other also reinforces this idea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oaa37H9r-do
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