Out of all the
lessons we’ve had so far this semester, my favorite has been learning about
kairos. Now that we’ve talked about it, it seems so obvious. Of course there is
always a “right time” to do or say something! The example in our textbook of not
asking your parents for extra spending money right after a bad report card
makes total sense. I can’t even count how many times I cleaned the house if I
was asking to do something I wasn’t sure they would approve of when I was in
high school to help make the timing more favorable for me.
Since this lesson though, I’ve started to be more aware
of “kairos” moments. One of the biggest examples that I’ve noticed recently was
the Super Bowl. Like we talked about in class, MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech
was so successful because it not only persuaded people to support the civil
rights movement but it did so in a time and place (the Lincoln Memorial steps
at the end of the Civil Rights movement’s march on Washington) that was perfect
for his message to reach the most people open to his message. I believe the
Super Bowl was also picture-perfect time for many companies to share messages that
were applicable to their company, but appropriate and engaging for the audience
in the given time.
While I didn’t get a chance to watch every commercial, I
thought there was a noticeable trend in the themes of many commercials. This trend was the idea of acceptance for diversity
and multiculturalism. I believe these commercials were a direct response to the
negative feelings that had been escalating throughout the election. These
negative feelings are what made the theme of diversity and acceptance an urgent
topic. As we learned in the lecture and our reading, the urgency and immediacy
of a topic is a key factor in attaining the “timing” aspect of kairos. Also,
with so many people tuning in to watch the commercials it created the perfect “place”
for companies to get their message across to a very large number of people at
one time. They did this in hopes to persuade the viewers and show that the
values the companies have make them brands that should be supported over others
that might not have taken the time to make their commercials relevant to the
current events.
Here are two of the commercials that used their adverting
spots to promote diversity and inclusion for all that specifically stuck out to
me, but I’d love to know of any others that I didn’t include!
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