Final presentaion-Visual Power is Stronger than Linguistic Power

Ketchup Soup

Whale

Visual Power Is Stronger than Linguistic Power

Advertising is one of the largest business industries. Today, advertising relates every single business. TV show needs sponsors which want to give money to the show and advertise their products. Olympic Games need sponsors, which want to give money for administration. Magazines have a lot of ads because they need money to create a magazine. Advertising relates to money closely. However, An advertising piece do not relate to money. It is a public service announcement (PSA), which is a non-commercial advertisement broad cast on radio or television. A typical subject is health, safety, poverty, global warming or autism. The purpose of PSA is to inform or educate public people about these issues. A scale of a topic tends to be large, so it might be a global issue. From this point of view, the advertising should be visual information. To understand visual information is easier than to do linguistic information.
People need to know culture or knowledge about language to understand linguistic information. If people want to inform something to the world, the way to do might be visual. I will compare two PSA ads. One is from the United States, and another is form Japan. Both of them are really effective advertisings for the public because they have visual power to inform the subject. I will analyze them to use Lester’s perspectives and compare them.

Ketchup Soup
The first ad’s title is “Ketchup Soup” by the Ad Council. The topic of it was poverty. A woman is looking for a packet of ketchup to get it. She goes to a first food restaurant and a restaurant which has a to go service. She collects ketchup packages, and goes to home. After that, she opens the packages to put ketchup in a pod. She pours water into the pod and heats it. Then, three children are waiting for the dinner. She serves “ketchup soup” to them. They have to eat the ketchup soup. A copy is “ 1 out of 5 children in the US lives with hunger. The sooner you believe it, the sooner we can end it.”

Personal Perspective
When I watched this ad, I was surprised that many children are suffering from hunger in the US. I did not realize what she was trying to do. I did not think she was mother, which has three children. When I saw the children, I figured out what happened. She tried to get ketchup to make soup because she did not have money to get food. I got sad feeling and I want to do something about poverty. How to create movie was fresh. The movie did not have speaking, so the strong image made me believe the poverty issue was so serious. A child said “I don’t like this soup during eating.” They have to eat it to live even if they don’t like it. I think about myself because my life is extravagant. I reconsider how my living should be.

Historical Perspective
I did not know poverty in the US was so serious issue. I could image that black people used to be suffering from poverty. In fact, one out of five children in the US were suffering from hunger. Moreover, an issue of single mother is serious problem in the US. The ad suggests both of them should be solved. According to U.S. Bureau of the Census, the poverty rate in 2005 for children under 18 was 17.6 percent and that of 18-to-64-year-olds was 11.1 percent and that of people 65 and older was 10 percent. Historically, the issue should be solved as soon as possible.

Technical perspective
First, a woman is looking for something at the restaurant. At that time, the viewer did not understand what she is actual doing and who she is. When she started cooking soup and the children wait for the soup, the viewers can understand what happened to her. The beginning scene makes the audience keep watching it. Colors were kind of dark, and lighting was also dark. The way to use darkness was really effective to inform that the issue was so serious. The director used camera shake to express a precarious living. Moreover, the director used close-up framing to shoot the faces of the children. When people watched the expressions of them, they are sorry about the children. The visual information was stronger than language.

Ethical, Cultural, and Critical Perspective
Ketchup and boiled water might be ketchup soup. The taste of the soup was bad from the point of American culture. If people who think the ketchup soup is good watch the scene, they did not understand what wrong is with the scene. People need a little cultural knowledge to understand visual information. The amounts of knowledge to understand visual information is lower the amount of that to do language. Even if people did not understand English, they can understand how poor the family is. Parents have a duty to bring up their children, so the message of the ad was a satire.

The Whale
The second ad’s title is “Whale “ by the Japanese Ad Council. The topic of it is education for children. A boy is painting out black crayon on a piece of paper. He always kept painting out black. His parents and teacher started worrying about him. They consulted a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist asked him what he drew, but he did not answer. He kept drawing by using black crayon. A counseling started after the meeting. The time had passed without result. He made many pieces of black paper. When his teacher found a piece of jigsaw puzzle from his desk, a nurse who cared him realized that he did not painted paper over. There was blank on the paper. His parents, teacher, doctors, and nurses tried to arrange black papers. The image is “Whale.” He wanted to draw a large whale. A copy is “How can you encourage a child? Use your imagination. “

Personal Perspective
When I watched the ad, I cried. The ad moved me to tears. If I were his parent, I would go to psychiatrists with him. First, I did not understand what the boy drew. The scene was so strange for me. A boy kept painting black on paper. When the teacher found a piece of Jigsaw puzzle, I thought black papers might be a puzzle. At the ending, black papers made the image of a whale. Children’s imagination and creativity are wonderful, so parents should have flexible policy about children. Every parent worries about his or her children. I think the concept of ad is to create the ad without language. It was a successful piece to inform the concept without language.

Historical Perspective
Parents worry about the growth of children. In the ad, the parents care their children too much. They should have a flexible thought. Parents tend to say “Study hard” historically. Children feel pressure from their parents, and they cannot exercise their imagination or creativity. To develop the imagination of children, children should grow up without pressure.

Technical Perspective
When the viewers watched the scene that the boy kept painting in black colors, they cannot understand what he was doing. The viewers cannot help watching the ad because they want to know the ending. The lighting was a kind of dark. The dark lighting suggested that his internal characteristic might be dark. The using colors were also dark. It suggested the parents had anxiety about him. Moreover, music helps to create a dark atmosphere. When everybody understood that he wanted to draw the picture of a whale, dismal music change to music, which have a cheerful mood. Visual and auditory information have strong power to inform something. The way to create movie without language was really successful because of the visual and auditory effects.

Ethical, Cultural and Critical Perspective
Parents have a duty to bring up children. Parents tend to say to their children “Study hard”. Then children feel pressure form parents, and he or she cannot grow healthy. He or she looses his or her imagination and creativity. It is a national family issue. The message of the ad is that parents should respect children’s personalities. Language is one of the cultural aspects. The creator did not use language, so everybody who did not understand Japanese can understand what happened and what should people do.

Characteristics of these ads were to create movie without linguistic information. For example, people who did not understand English can understand the meaning of the ad. Moreover, people did not understand Japanese could understand how people should bring up children. Furthermore, it is difficult to guess how the result and the ending might be. It is good visual and compositional techniques. Difference between an American ad and a Japanese ad was ending. In Ketchup Soup, the dismal mood was kept from the beginning to the ending. Ketchup soup surprised the viewers, but the result did not surprise us. On the other hand, in Whale, the ending and the result surprised us. We cannot expect how the result will be. Both of them were really successful advertisings to inform public and educational concepts. The concepts of these ads are about family. They argued a serious issue about family, such as poverty and education. Therefore, visual communication has strong power because people do not need a specific cultural knowledge such as language. The visual power to inform an idea or a concept is stronger than the linguistic power.

U.S. Bureau of the Census, “Poverty in the United States.” Aug. 2005 at
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104520.html: Internet