The commercial I chose to do featured Kevin Garnett in a Beats by Dre advertisement. It starts out with him in his home and he seems to be having a normal day. He then proceeds to get onto a bus where a huge number of fans are yelling nasty comments and throwing all types of trash. At this moment we see a strong, African American, male athlete who seems to not be bothered by the distractions. Of course he is wearing the noise canceling headphones for the ad, but his posture and facial expression show no emotion. His role is clearly strong, independent, serious, tall, and powerful. He is portraying the "tough guy" attitude and by not speaking a word shows that he is un-affected by others actions.

Some of the consequences for younger people viewing this advertisement might be that they interpret the message wrong. If we look on the surface of this advertisement, someone might thing that this black male is being abused and ridiculed on television. Someone might also get the wrong impression of professional athletes if viewed in this type of manner. There is also the issue of race that is involved if we look even deeper.

However, while looking for this commercial I also noticed that there are others with different athletes. For example, there is this same advertisement with Richard Sherman as the athlete. Yet another African American professional star being portrayed as strong, independent and un-affected by the public's opinion. Both great examples of identity and how it can be portrayed through new media.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yUj0Ta44DI