Doritos Commercial Dog Collar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcDzc2UKAHY

With video text we can see the things that we would really like to see. We can do what we want with people, society, and things as we see fit. We can put are thoughts on to, or in to, most any thing we see fit. With new technologies that can put almost anything we can imagine into visual images. It seems we only have to sit back and wait for someone who has the ability and equipment to manipulate video into the visual thought or images that give us an easy pleasure.

I think of the "Doritos Dog Collar" commercial and how it effects myself on so many levels. You have a typical jock kind of guy, sitting on a park bench eating his big bag of Doritos. The," all American dog", comes up to him hoping to get a Dorito or two. You think for a second that guy is going to give the dog some, after all, guys like dogs, but instead he sees the shock collar the dog is wearing. The shock collar is clearly marked, it is a bark collar. If the dog barks the dog will be shocked. You see the guy on the bench ponder this for a moment. For a second you think the guy might be thinking, poor dog, and give him a Dorito. I find this to be a clever moment, because some people are for these collars and some think that they are rather cruel. This to is a defining moment for the guy on the bench, up until this moment we really do not know what sort of person he is.
He tells the dog to bark if he wants a chip. Now we know, he is you typical American jerk. He thinks he is smarter then the dog and seems to derive pleasure from teasing a dumber animal. He is your typical American bully. The dog of course know not to bark and walks seemingly away. The guy has a smug look of satisfaction on his face. In his mind, he showed the dog who is the smart one, he eats another chip. The dog however walks behind the bench, takes off his collar and quickly puts it on the man. There is a moment of confusion on the guys face as he and the dog look at each other, eye to eye. The dog barks! The guy gets what's coming to him; the shock of the dog out smarting him and the electrical shock that disables him and causes him to drop him precious bag of Doritos. In the final scene we see the guy coming to, only to see the dog with his face in his Doritos, he reaches for them but the dog barks again. The guy is incapacitated again and the dog goes back to eating.
All this happens in just over 30 seconds. In this small span of time we see so many things that portray what we like and do not like about America. We see the seemingly nice guy turn into the villain, the bully, the type of person we have all had to deal with in one way or another. We see him get what he deserves. We see him striped of the very thing that he was being selfish with. The very tool he use to tease the dog with, taken from him by that very animal. We see the underdog win.
So the question I ask myself is this; Is this commercial a form of art?. Or is this video text just a way to sell Doritos to the American public? I know that while I was writing this blog I found myself watching this commercial first to analyze it and then a few more times, just for my own pleasure. Would I compare it to great works of art or literature? I think not! I would have to say that it does have the value of being entertaining and yet has a deeper social meaning that offers reason for thought. So by definition I would consider it to be art, maybe the new art for this new world of mass communication.

Jim Skuse