Methods of Decoding

I’m not sure if I found Chapter Two not very interesting, or I found it hard to follow, or what, but I did not really like this chapter. I did, however, find it easy to understand the different modes of engagement which was introduced by Stuart Hall. These modes were dominant-hegemonic, negotiated, and oppositional. In the book these modes were related to the television show American Idol, which I found interesting, so I messed around on the internet and I found this Mazda commercial:

and decided to apply the modes of decoding myself. In my opinion, a dominant-hegemonic reading of this commercial would be that the car is so nice that NO ONE would want to leave it. After some research I found that some people actually took an oppositional reading towards this commercial saying that the commercial was “was offensive and that women were being shown as sex objects”, claiming that the mannequins were becoming arouse (26 April, 2006; BBC News webpage). These complaints did not hold, however the controversy of the commercial and the mixed feelings stayed. In our book it states that being able to negotiate, when it comes t o images, is a key factor within a complex relationship consisting of producers and viewers. Even though it is impossible to please everyone within advertising, I think the negotiable way of looking at this commercial would be that the Madza commercial insinuated that the turn-on is really the car itself, with all its attributes, and a woman mannequin was the best way to describe that to avoid sexually exploiting women. What do you all think?