National Identity in an Advertisement for Issues- myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theNational Identity in an Advertisement for Global Issues. Answer: Stuart Hall described National identity as not the thing people born with; it forms and transforms the mind of the people from inside. The statement is very true, as when a baby is born, it does not know any national identity. Birth just simply involves a set of parents who just happens to have a nationality (Hall 291-299). It is the upbringing of the baby, which determines the national identity (Hall 291-299). The Vogels advertisement clearly stirs the cup of national identity in this advertisement. The advert comprises eight proud Kiwis and their life story. Not all of them are purely kiwi by ethnicity or by birth. All of them are different, albeit, they all have the same national identity. They are bringing something special to the table. Stuart Halls statement about National identity is apt for the Vogels advertisement, as the casting of this advertisement comprises the real Kiwis who are uniting as the citizen of New Zealand, but in a diversified form as they are all different; their story is also different from the others. Not all of them are born Kiwis but they identify themselves as a proud kiwi. National identity is a mindset through which the child senses a feeling of belonging somewhere. However, nationalism is a different concept. Nationalism gives rise to a prior sense of superiority, which leads the people to believe that they are better than the others are (Frith et al. 29)( Jackson 490-495). The social identity of a person can be described as the self-concept of a person who thinks of himself and herself as a member of a desired social group. The social identity theory accepts the definition of National identity and suggests another concept, which says that the concept of national identity includes self-categorization (Perry 134-137). When the person identifies with a nation, it can be described as self-categorization. When the person emotionally related and is attached to the nation, it affects the person. The mass media is well aware of the importance of nation identity in the mind of the people. The sociologists understand that how the emotion, related with their respective nations is embedded in the consciousness of the people. The creative mind of the advertising agencies has taken the concept of national identity to sell their commodity. The recent advertisement of Vogels bread, which comes with the tagline of what do you bring to the table? pulls the right chord of national identity inside the Kiwi heart. The specialty of the advertisement is, this advertisement does not follow any particular script. This advertisement does not even look like an advertisement for bread and the advertisers did not need any national icon or film stars to endorse the bread. This elongated advertisement just comprises of a bunch of commoners who had different background sitting on a brunch table and talking about their life experience while the background plays a beautiful song sung by Chris Knox (Not given lightly). These commoners only had one thing in common. They are all proud Kiwis. The advertisement would seem odd in the first place, as it does not even show the bread they are advertising. However, the advertisement shows the uniqueness of being a Kiwi, by striking the right chord in the Kiwi heartstring. This revolves around the idea of national identity. The idea of the advertisement is unique as it centers around eight Kiwis and their real-life story. The people featured in the advertisement find themselves bringing their real-life story on the table. The brought something unique and special on the table, just as Vogels bread does. None of the eight has met each other before; therefore, they know nothing about each other. In the advertisement, the group sat together, broke the bread and shared their stories with each other (Jackson). When they started to share their stories, they connected with each other instantly. They started sharing a few laughs and ends up having lot of respect towards each other. The camera crew just perfectly captures the face of all the people as their personal story unfolds. Nothing in the advertisement is made up as any of the normal advertises. Vogel just presented the people of New Zealand a perfectly spontaneous and heart touching advertisement. In the advertisement, there is a single father of three girls; there is a woman who taught kids in Iraq, a Kiwi of Chinese descent who can speak Te Reo Maori fluently. The advertise also features a kiwi of Indian descent who can name every black person he met since his time in New Zealand, a girl who thinks of sign language as her first language even if she is not disabled, a woman who has a unique experience of standing between a harpoon and a Whale. The advertisement is truly unique as unlike the other conventional advertisements, it focused on capturing the moments of the people who were sharing the experiences amongst each other. The result of the advertisement is amazing as it looks like a piece of authenticity and truth. The brand Vogel is the part of the market of New Zealand for 50 years. In these 50 years, New Zealand has changed a lot. Vogel wanted to celebrate the National identity of being a Kiwi by celebrating the diversity and uniqueness the common people bears (Imran 76-82). They wanted to bring the uniqueness and specialty of the people by bringing them in a table together just as Vogel does by bringing something special to the table. National identity is an emotion of the mind of the people who identify themselves as a part of a community even if every person is unique. The Vogels advertise brought the diversity of the community by bringing eight completely different people together and celebrated the emotion of national identity by celebrating their uniqueness. Not all of them in the advertisement are originally from New Zealand, but their National identity belongs to New Zealand. This proves Halls statement was true. Reference: Frith, Katherine Toland, and Mueller, Barbara.Advertising and societies: Global issues. Peter Lang, 2010: pp 29 Hall, Stuart. "National cultures as imagined communities."Modernity and its Futures,1992: pp. 291-299. Imran, Sana. "Strengthening the National Identity through Brands."Advances in Economics and Business5.2 2017: pp- 76-82. Jackson, Steven J. "Assessing the sociology of sport: On media, advertising and the commodification of culture."International Review for the Sociology of Sport50.4-5 2015: pp- 490-495. Jackson, Steven. "Reflections on communication and sport: On advertising and promotional culture."Communication Sport1.1-2 2013: pp. 100-112. Perry, Nick.The dominion of signs: Television, advertising and other New Zealand fictions. Auckland University Press, 2013: pp-134-137