Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The Best of Us - ALL TOGETHER NOW

Every time I see this Olympic commercial I get goosebumps. After several viewings I started to wonder why it has such a fantastic effect on me. I decided to do some searching. Of course I tend to go youtube before I go anywhere these days. Anything you ever wanted to learn about or how to do you can find on youtube. It is REALLY effective, especially for those visual learners like myself. This commercial is called "The Best of Us - ALL TOGETHER NOW."


I noticed that the commercial is sponsered by olympics.org and found on this site, some background to the message this committee wanted to convey. The following is an excerpt from this site:

"The "All Together Now" Public Service Announcement communicates the fundamental Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect. In this spot, six larger-than-life Olympians seem to be competing against each other in what appears to be a gigantic tug-of-war. As the spot develops, it becomes clear that the athletes are not working against each other, but actually working together to unite the world in celebration of the Olympic Games. Thus, the spot conveys not only the determination and excellence of Olympic athletes, but also their unique ability to bring the world together for the Olympic Games in a massive display of optimism and inspiration."

No wonder I LOVE it!! I've already told you how much I love the Olympics. I need to let you in on a little secret now. I'm not an athlete. Those of you who know me, know that I'm the farthest thing from it. What I am is a hopeless romantic. I'm in love with the notion of bringing the whole world together in harmony. And the Olympics does just that. For a few weeks, these athletes come together from every walk of life imaginable and gather on even playing grounds to act out their passion of sport and team spirit and love of their country. How fantastic is that?

Yes I can hear you pessimists right now murmuring to yourself. I urge you to ignore the politics that try to ooze their way into these games and focus on the unparalleled energy that exists within them. It is such a rush!

As for the potential education that lies within this commercial, have your students really analyse it from both media literacy and critical thinking points of view - before you read them the excerpt from the site. Both these terms are linked to great websites that give you nice overviews of each through video clips.

Have your students deconstruct the message that was intended by this commercial. Let me know how it goes:)

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