Post #6-That’s so cheesy! (Argumentative)
Posted on: May 27, 2011
This is a commercial by IHOP that shows a young man proposing to
his significant other. There is not a clear cut audience that this commercial
is attempting to target. They were probably trying to target young people and
suggesting that proposing to someone at IHOP is not the best place to do it
because their meals give a negative connotation to engagements. It’s quite
funny because the waitress comes out with their order at the wrong time. Well,
would it have changed how funny the commercial was if they had the waitresses
bring out their meals after the proposal? Probably because then we would only
think about the proposal and not the function of the food being served and its
significance at that particular moment in time.
If we also look at the relationship between the ring and the plate
of double cheese scrambles. Is the commercial implying that the ring he
proposed to her with is “cheesy” or more directly cheap, corny or a
joke? Can cheap rings be associated with a plate of food? Well, in this instance,
yes. But is it’s signified always parallel in all commercials with rings, for
example the Jared commercials? This may not be the case for all instances. All
these signifiers interact to construct the rhetorical stance that IHOP’s meal
menu has an effect on everyday life. There weren’t any stereotypes that I could
associate this commercial with.
The role that technology plays in electracy in this sense that,
couple of years ago this would not be viewed as an “ideal” way of proposing
to someone you love nor would it be the right setting. The reaction of his fiancé
would not have been the reaction that most people would expect. At the end of
the clip, you see the guy playing little to no attention to his fiancé’s
enthusiasm about the ring and their proposal afterwards.
Word count: 315
shawn20009 
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