Low Style in the NFL
In this post, I'd like to take a closer look at one of the NFL commercials I linked to at the end of my last post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4KIABkzBpI
This advertisement features Seattle Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and his two daughters. The setting is implied to be the Hasselbeck's home, and the humor of the commercial stems from Hasselbeck reading the complicated terminology from the Seahawk's playbook to his bored toddlers. This sequence of events, combined with the tagline "This is the NFL," seem meant to convey to viewers that, although being a star NFL quarterback, he is a "regular Joe" and family man, whose children are bored by the minute details of his job. It is a situation that makes Hasselbeck identifiable to viewers, who might see the same dynamic unfolding in their own home.
The ad fits into several of the criteria that Richard Lanham uses to describe a "low" style:
Plain: The ad is filmed in black-and-white, with a shaky camera style. Though this is a very calculated and thought-out style of filming, it gives the impression of being an off-the-cuff, guerilla style without frills.
Back-stage: The ad is portraying something about the NFL that is "behind the scenes." We are not seeing Hasselbeck playing in a football game, but rather at his home with his children.
Comic: We are meant to be amused by the situation portrayed.
Conversational: The ad is not intended to look as though the dialogue is rehearsed. Hasselbeck does not give a rehearsed speech. Instead, it is meant to appear that he is being filmed documentary-style, and that the lines he speaks directly into the camera are just off-the-cuff comments to the camera operator.
Paratactic: The editing style of the piece could be called paratactic. There are many sudden cuts, as if a lot of material has been left out. Explicit connections are not drawn using conjunctions. The audience is left to connect Hasselbeck's comment that "it puts everybody to sleep" to the rest of the commercial themselves. The point of the ad is never explicitly expressed in a cause-and-effect, just through the logical associations of proximity.
Everyday: Lanham uses "everyday" as a counterpoint to the high style's "dramatic." This ad is anything but dramatic.
Natural: The ad is not self-conscious in nature. It is supposed to appear to be a documentary style, where Hasselbeck is just going about his business with a camera crew on hand.
For Thursday, I will be examining an NFL promo that, relative to this one, exhibits a "high" style.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4KIABkzBpI
This advertisement features Seattle Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and his two daughters. The setting is implied to be the Hasselbeck's home, and the humor of the commercial stems from Hasselbeck reading the complicated terminology from the Seahawk's playbook to his bored toddlers. This sequence of events, combined with the tagline "This is the NFL," seem meant to convey to viewers that, although being a star NFL quarterback, he is a "regular Joe" and family man, whose children are bored by the minute details of his job. It is a situation that makes Hasselbeck identifiable to viewers, who might see the same dynamic unfolding in their own home.
The ad fits into several of the criteria that Richard Lanham uses to describe a "low" style:
Plain: The ad is filmed in black-and-white, with a shaky camera style. Though this is a very calculated and thought-out style of filming, it gives the impression of being an off-the-cuff, guerilla style without frills.
Back-stage: The ad is portraying something about the NFL that is "behind the scenes." We are not seeing Hasselbeck playing in a football game, but rather at his home with his children.
Comic: We are meant to be amused by the situation portrayed.
Conversational: The ad is not intended to look as though the dialogue is rehearsed. Hasselbeck does not give a rehearsed speech. Instead, it is meant to appear that he is being filmed documentary-style, and that the lines he speaks directly into the camera are just off-the-cuff comments to the camera operator.
Paratactic: The editing style of the piece could be called paratactic. There are many sudden cuts, as if a lot of material has been left out. Explicit connections are not drawn using conjunctions. The audience is left to connect Hasselbeck's comment that "it puts everybody to sleep" to the rest of the commercial themselves. The point of the ad is never explicitly expressed in a cause-and-effect, just through the logical associations of proximity.
Everyday: Lanham uses "everyday" as a counterpoint to the high style's "dramatic." This ad is anything but dramatic.
Natural: The ad is not self-conscious in nature. It is supposed to appear to be a documentary style, where Hasselbeck is just going about his business with a camera crew on hand.
For Thursday, I will be examining an NFL promo that, relative to this one, exhibits a "high" style.