Week 9 #20 Discover YouTube and Sites

YouTube and the other video sites are incredible. The videos themselves consist of wide range of topics, easily accessible as a result of the search engines. Content varies from commercials to culture, politics, sports, economics, history...well, you name it and there is some material there to cover your interests.

In researching YouTube, I found two commercials that were especially intriguing, not necessarily because of the content of the commercial but because of the subliminal message that was being aired at the same time. The first was the 1984 commercial by Apple which introduced the McIntosh that year. I'm not so sure that the date wasn't intentional since it is reminiscent of the novel 1984. The year of big brother which heralded in a new wave of technology that was to replace the antiquated computer system of that day. At the beginning the user saw a large crowd looking at a giant screen which showed a person spouting forth the traditional propaganda of the establishment. As he spoke, a young woman comes in waving a sledge hammer. As she is chased by a large group of officers, she spins around and releases the sledgehammer, which obliterates the giant screen into tiny particles of glass slivers. Without revealing any information about the product, how is was designed, what it was supposed to do, the voice simply announces that Apple will introduce MacIntosh in 1984. In a sense, YouTube and the others are in the process of revolutionizing the spectrum of computer uses as well as redefining the purpose of the internet. I find it ironic in a sense that the 1984 commercial would be as appropriate and as futuristic today as it was twenty-five years ago.




The other YouTube commercial dealt with the talking baby advertising E-Trade. Once again, it was was not the content of the commercial so much as it was all about the subliminal message. The commercial shows a baby wearing a golf sun visor in a men's locker room at some country club. The baby, who is in the forefront of the commerical, is talking to an older golfer in the background. It is obvious that the baby has just defeated the older gentleman in a game of "skins" on the golf course. The subliminal message, which is quite clear, in a not so subtle way that the new generation has arrived on the scene and is in the process of taking over. Although the elder gentleman complains about the baby moving his golf ball, the baby curtly tells the man to "read the rules." Once again the message is clear: the new generation (i.e., web 2.0) has played by the rules and in the process is changing the landscape, pushing the envelope, and in the process will dramatically change the face and the character of the internet. Both commericals in a rather arrogant way seem to serve notice to the establishment that they are the new boy on the block and as a result, the old order will vaporize. In essence it will redesign and rejuvenate the old establishment which has become somewhat stale.