No, Thanks

There’s an advert on television at the moment which deserves mention. It features the Kodak art gallery (which, as was explained in a preceding spot, is a wonderful, magic place where President Kennedy landed on the moon and the civil rights movement graduated from college, or something), wherein a fat man helps an impossibly innocent ginger kid to a new type of automated photo kiosk.

During the advert the fat man asks the kid if he wants any help three times. At each step the value of the relationship between the two characters is increased. First, the kid can’t do up his shoelaces. So the fat man sides up to him, and from the corner of his mouth asks him, “do you want some help?”. The audience’s deduction is that the man has seen the kid trying to do up his shoelaces and, remembering how much trouble he had with the same problem when he was small boy, is empathising with him in a room full of indifferent, busy adults. Then the fat man ties the boy’s laces for him. It’s a touching fraternal gesture.

After that we see the boy waddling across the polished wooden floor with a big black crate that is just slightly too big for him to carry. Suddenly, the man is behind the boy once again offering help, and the offer is once again accepted. Fulfilling a paternal obligation, the man takes the heavy burden from the boy, who quickly scampers away, full of joy. The fat man watches the boy run as he bends to lift the crate, and murmurs that it’s “ok”. At this point the recording level is turned so high on the fat man’s microphone that it sounds to the audience as if he’s physically very close; almost as if he’s talking directly into their ears.

Finally, the boy reaches the impressive, high tech kiosk and the purpose of the crate is revealed – he is too small on his own to place the card into the machine. One final time the man asks the kid if he wants help. The kid looks into his face and says “Nah, I think I got it”. We’re shown in close up how easy the machine is to use as a picture of the boy’s dog emerges from the slot. “Hey, great picture!” says the fat man, a touch patronising but full of warmth. “Thanks!” says the boy, pleased that he’s earned recognition from his new friend. Another happy story in the Kodak art gallery is drawn to a close.

The central message of this advert is clearly intended to be that the new photo kiosk is childsplay to use for customers, but it’s obvious what’s really going on here. The fat man is Kodak, and the boy is us, the prospective customer. The basic assumption is that we are ignorant and confused, so we need reassurances and reminders as to where to spend our money. In this case, the benevolent conglomerate just happens to wrapped up in the character of a condescending, obese, white American man.

Presumably, some people will find this advert cute and touching, and be inspired to trust Kodak in their new line of products and services. Conversely, some will take this advert as hard evidence of the swaggering self righteousness of a bloated company that’s sitting on an assured market and entertaining the delusional notion that it gives customers more than simply the functional, temporary, empty, costly thing that it’s selling.

I wonder where they found their test audience.