We Can Be Anything

             From the past to present days, many states and people try to come up with solutions to reduce the gap between the haves and the have nots. Many methods have been invented through those considerations. Almost every method focuses on providing equal opportunity and starting point whether some people are born in wealth or poor family. To achieve this main goal to provide equal chance, many people usually think that the education is one of the easiest opportunities that can be provided equally. By providing public education to children, states want to motivate younger generation to achieve better future regardless of their born and reduce rich-poor gap. It means education is a way to escape from birth and method that breaks out of a vicious circle of poverty.

             In the ad, it is composed of a child’s steps to school and studying. Apl.de.ap, who is a member of Black Eyed Peas, appears several times in the ad and narrates. He keeps saying two versions of narration: studying, working hard or doing nothing. At the end of the ad, we can see that his saying that he worked and studied hard than did nothing during his life so he could be someone that he wanted to be. The ad’s message is simple: We can be anything by education. The ad made for the campaign that tries to make classrooms in countries and regions that are suffering from poverty. People who made this film and participate in the campaign think that they can solve the gap between rich and poor (not only for gap among people but also among nations).

             Today, almost every country in the world provides public education. By enjoying the equal opportunity of education, the problem of gap between rich and poor is reduced but just for the country which is developing. In developed countries, education is no longer a method to solve the problem because in those states, though there is a public education, there are many other private educations that make the gap between poor and rich. It means that the rich can enjoy better and more opportunities than people who do not affordable for those other educations. Therefore I come up with questions that does education can be the way to reduce gap among people and states? Is it possible to solve the problem just by providing education and establishing education facilities?

The Real Beauty

What is the beauty? And who decides the standard of the beauty?

     As society is becoming wealthier, more people start to interest in their appearance: physical looks. Along with this trend, today, there are many companies which produce products that fulfill the people’s desires to beauty. We buy products and get more beautiful or handsome. However, though many of us try to become nice-looking people, we do not know what’s the real beauty is; the standard of the beauty is unclear. We just buy the beauty that is made by companies that intends to sell their products by injecting their standard of beauty among people. Therefore, companies make commercials and images to achieve the goal of making the standard of the beauty.

     Unlike the majority of commercials that try to advertise their products, the commercial that I found goes against the trend of those majorities. It shows the process of make up for a model. It seems that the ad is just one of the commercials that appeals to people how people can change and attain the beauty by using their products. However, at the end of the film, it shows the modifying step of the model; the ad shows how the model is made for an advertisement. After that, we can realize that this ad is not just for advertising some particular products but it is the ad that wants to let people know about the intended beauty and make people come up with the question; what is the real beauty?

     Dove which made the ad is also one of the cosmetics companies. In the film, they did not directly advertise some products. They just raised a criticism about the distorted beauty and their workshops for the real beauty for girls. We can come up with a question that by doing so, what advantages that Dove could get?

Intended Images

     In contemporary society, it is important what images that something has because they are used to make people to accept values that are embedded in the images. In other words, by connecting some images with values, powers which want to influence people can inject their ideologies and norms. Therefore, the strategy that tries to make good images and attach some intended values to figures, products or companies is used for many reason: political, commercial and so on.

     The video that I will cover below seems to advertise South Korea’s development and achievement. Through showing the transition images of Seoul (the capital city of South Korea) since the Korean War, the film shows how South Korea developed and overcame adversities within 50 years. Along with the music Arirang, one of the Korea’s representative traditional music, ad effectively expands its meaning in a broader range. In other words, not only do the ad show Korea’s achievements but also nation’s values: dynamic, diligent, potential and so on. At the end of the film, we can find that two main agents: Samsung and KBS (Korea Broadcasting System) who made advertisement appeared on the video. From this point, we can easily understand the hidden intends of this film. Samsung and KBS (national broadcast) want to connect their images with the values covered in the video. They want to make people think that Samsung and KBS have correlation with South Korea’s achievement and values. In other words, they want to be seen as the representatives of South Korea.

     Dominating power that wants to make people think in particular ways always seeks the way to injecting their ideologies to people. One of the best ways to achieve that goal is making some images and values that can be adapted for many people so companies, political agents and other powers sometimes try to make their images as national thing that insists they are the one who can represent your own country. Moreover, by doing so, they try to connect their images to patriotism. Therefore, it is easy to be dominated by those intended images in our daily lives so we need to ask ourselves that “Do we accept something as national and patriotic thing though it does not have acceptable reasons?”