Here at Overthinking It, we’ve been talking about a disturbing trend in advertising for several years. We saw several (nine, to be exact) instances of this in last Saturday’s Super Bowl. Here’s an example:
Advertiser: Doritos
Message: “Eating Doritos will get you shocked by a dog.”
Huh? Why is this a good thing? How is this supposed to sell Doritos? Well, we’re not really sure, but we’ve coined a phrase that aptly describes this perplexing phenomenon:
“Bad Things Happen To You When You Use Our Product.”
Let’s explore this trend further with some more examples.
[Enjoy today's guest post by Craig Spivack. Don't forget to leave some feedback in the comments.]
Video games are an important part of culture, but are rarely psychoanalyzed in the same way that literature and film are. One famous video game that deals with Oedipal conflicts and phallic imagery is Star Fox 64. The story of the game encompasses many of Freud’s psychoanalytic ideas, and speaks to the game player.
BSG has been “overthought” (overthinked?) to death over the last few years. Lots of blogs dedicated to it, especially during its final season. If I have to read one more post about how “the humans are acting like robotic killing machines… how ironic!”, I will… well, not read it.
—Kevin
Welp, for good or for bad, I have taken Kevin’s words to heart. After watching the first eight episodes of BSG, I spent most of this week trying to figure out what the heck to write about them. Rule of law, the nature of the soul, the ever-shifting line between freedom and safety: so far, these themes have been so close to the surface that you almost can’t call them “subtext” anymore. They’re pretty “text text,” as it were. (Or should we call them “supertext”?) In any event, I don’t want to bore you, Kevin, or anyone else. I won’t be retreading any topics that have almost certainly been written about before.
So I said to myself: if I’m going to write about Battlestar Galactica, but I’m not going to talk about political theory, religion, or robot ethics, what’s left to talk about? When I thought about it, the answer was obvious.
Freudian psychology.
Yeah, you heard that right, kids. Get ready to psychoanalyze some Cylons!*
*Don’t worry; I’m not going to be talking about Oedipus. Not much, anyway.
The title here is taken from a recent post by mlawski on the difference between [Strong Female] Characters and [Strong Characters], Female. The image is a painting by the French artist Louis-Leopold Boilly, which (according to the exhibit guide at the museum I saw it in) is a symbolic representation of “the phallic mother.”
Aside from ethnic stereotyping that didn’t even skirt the issue (Mariachis are sexy! Indians are crass capitalists! Chinese are pandas!), there was an overriding theme to this year’s Super Bowl ads. It started with the Audi Godfather spot.
Welp, for good or for bad, I have taken Kevin’s words to heart. After watching the first eight episodes of BSG, I spent most of this week trying to figure out what the heck to write about them. Rule of law, the nature of the soul, the ever-shifting line between freedom and safety: so far, these themes have been so close to the surface that you almost can’t call them “subtext” anymore. They’re pretty “text text,” as it were. (Or should we call them “supertext”?) In any event, I don’t want to bore you, Kevin, or anyone else. I won’t be retreading any topics that have almost certainly been written about before.
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