SCIENTIFIC REALISM THEORY ANALYSIS

The ad is for a series of plasma display monitors produced by Panasonic.  It attempts to capture an out of this world experience that is enabled by the realistic capabilities of the technology being displayed

As stated in ‘Big Idea’, “each form of representation is defined through its link with ‘reality’ ".  It relates to the mother-daughter relationship that is depicted in this advert.  

Since their introduction to society televisions have been categorized as a form of escapism from a mundane reality.  The daily routine of a stay at home mum and the relationship between mother and child is no exception. 

Plasma screens and the technology it incorporates was  invented due a growing need by scientists to have a computer screen that did not have to constantly refresh itself. The size and quality of display brought about a level of involvement that televisions of the past generation could not generate.

The child is in awe of what she is seeing before her eyes, the mother has become distracted from whatever she was doing to become involved in the experience that the plasma is enabling her to do as she seems to be using a fry pan as a tennis racket. 

The ad details the screens “stunning 3-D realism” that enables “a picture so good, you wish you were there” allowing the assumption that the plasma will allow anyone to experience what they thought was impossible and at the same time attempt to distort the reader from what’s being represented and what really is reality.

“Introducing a Lexus for those who've Never Seen Themselves in a Lexus” states a famous advertisement for Lexus automobiles.  In the center of the ad, a man stands, his back to the viewer, facing what looks like a large billboard advert.  It’s portrayed as though it’s in a subway station waiting for a train.

The ad image within the image shows a Lexus LS400 moving fast from right to left, its rear end blurred by speed. 

The car can be seen through the man’s back as if his body is transparent and ethereal.  A silver metallic frame that resembles a high tech belt circulating the man’s waist frames the Lexus. 

He is thus dressed by the image.  He is drawn by the car projecting his body into the ad.

The product is projected onto him, and he seems to be absorbing the message bodily.  His body has become the ads medium, representing the product by incorporating it into his body. 

It plays upon a number of visual conventions.  He is clearly looking at an image; the scene resembles a museum goer gazing at a famous painting.

One way to read the image is that he is now literally, “sees himself in a Lexus”.  His surroundings are human made, the public realm of mass transportation.  His partially nude form might signal a desire to return to a more natural state of being in if he were not subdued by culture.

Ironically, the car represents the escape from culture-from reliance of mass public transport, from business clothing and from alienation.  Instead the man’s natural state heeds his desire for independence, individuality, control over one’s own life, and sexual prowess.

The copy reads, “When was the last time you felt this connected to a car?”  The ad challenges the ‘natural’ view of a man as controlled, self-sufficient and rational subject.  What we see in the ad is a synthetic male personality that is assembled out the flotsam and jetsam of contemporary commodities.

This attempt at altering the ad so that it no longer resembles scientific realism was achieved by taking out all the aspects of fantasy, no longer is the male morphed into the product, he has been replaced with a trades person who has stopped what they were doing to view a billboard advertising the new series a home renovation show.

There is no key message incorporated into the body, nor is the person portrayed in a transparent manner.   By removing the belt the person is no longer dressed by the image.