Well, I am curious as to how I forgot that the assignment was to compare and contrast Nakamura's article with some commercials from the recent 2008 summer Olympics. (see post below) But alas, now I have remembered, (upon reading my fellow group members posts), so here ya go!

The first commercial I watched was for Adidas. It was quite creative in the way it depicted all of the spectators as the playing fields and then swimming pool. This approach gives the impression that it is the spectators and fans that really "hold up" the athletes and thus embellishes you the viewer with part of the credit for the success of those competing. I was unable to watch a single event of the olympics so I am not sure if this commercial aired in the U.S., but because everyone in the commercial was Chinese it may have been regionally targeted. I didn't really get the feeling that this particular commercial was attempting to unite humans so much as it was aligning itself with the hosts of the Olympic Games.

Next up was a commercial titled "One World, One Dream". This drew heavily upon the themes of everyone being equal and togetherness. People from various cultures and ethnicities are displayed performing tremendous athletic feats and often the scenes are manipulated in such a way as to make the actions appear superhuman. The ingredient missing in this commercial however is the explicit attempt to sell something. Not until the very end is it revealed that the sponsor of the commercial and thus the potential profiteer is the Olympic Games themselves. I think that it's somewhat fair to say that the Olympic Committee has more of a right than most to make the claim that their "product" encourages equality.

Finally I watched the coke commercial where athletes of every color and creed are awarded their gold medal. This one was unique in that it stated that if I 'd had a coke in the last 80 years I played a role in making the Olympic Games what they are today. By unique I am refering to how it was almost thanking me for my previous consumption of their product rather than directly asking me to buy more. In giving me credit for my past choice of coke I am subtly encouraged to choose coke again in the future.

After watching all of these commercials I am left with the thought that of course commercials in the Olympics are going to utilize people from various ethnic backgrounds. This is different than an IBM commercial that uses this same subject matter through its own decision and airs the commercial everywhere without the context of an event that is so interwoven with the subject. What do my fellow "just minds" think about this? :-)