This HORNBACH commercial was previously criticized for racist representation toward Asian women and has not been withdrawn.
This post does not endorse that depiction, nor does it aim to restage the controversy.
Here, the focus is limited to a visual motif: the half-naked body engaged in manual labor—marked by sweat and soil.
Within the context of the “The One Who Plows” series, it is this physicality, not the ad’s narrative, that is being referenced.
(CW: video with a history of racist criticism)
Back in the day, I was a Comparative Media Studies major who took several classes devoted to advertising and media in cultural context. I'm having fun doing a deep dive analysis on that one wolf ad, so I wrote up this wall of text, largely based on Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding theory. It let me flex some thinking muscles that I haven't used in a bit.
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So there's this viral post that's been going around with an ad for a French supermarket chain that features a wolf learning to cook vegetarian meals so as not to scare off the other forest creatures. I'm not going to bother linking it, the chain is Intermarché if you want to look it up.
I've been embroiled in conversation in the replies about how to interpret the video. The other poster I'm talking to takes a literal read of the advertisement to say that it is a fairytale, a metaphore [sic], and cannot be analyzed in terms of real wolf behavior, which the other poster refers to, confusingly, as a literal interpretation. I think it's because I'm talking about impacts on literal wolves? But I digress, the reading on screen is a simple tale of a wolf learning to cook and be accepted by the community.
For my part, I am frustrated with the video on several levels. I think the dominant reading above is trivial. That's what the producers intended, and it is communicated clearly. The oppositional reading, wherein audiences are not inclined to agree with the producers, is more interesting. I'd like to consider real-world implications of the video (a) as advertisement, (b) as an animation, and (c) as a fictional narrative.
(a) and (b), taken together, indicate that this video was high-effort, high-budget, and intended to be spread to a very large audience. One must, then, assume that the narrative was created intentionally, with teams of writers and executives crafting and approving the narrative.
Now let's consider (c). The fictional narrative is obviously problematic in terms of real-world implications. The wolf turns vegetarian/pescetarian for the sake of the other forest creatures. The implication is that natural wolf behavior is, in its own right, horrifying. This is backed up by various scenes in the advertisement that show the other forest creatures being shocked at the mere suggestion that the wolf was eating meat.
In terms of real-world attitudes towards wolves, I only know what I've read, but I get the sense that wolves are seen as predators that senselessly perpetuate violence, and need to be culled.
Controversy over the spread of wolves in France has increased following the publication of a video showing a pack attacking a deer in the ba
This Belgian research article takes a more scientific approach to discussing the general public's attitude towards wolves.
Abstract. At the time of the wolf’s (Canis lupus) recolonization in Flanders, public perspectives on this species were not well understood.
The discussion of perceived conflict between humans and wolves versus perceived numbers of wolves is edifying lmao. Ostensibly, the average Belgian believes that the conflict between wolves and humans is large for many purposes, but three-quarters of the population believes there are 5 or fewer wolves in their whole country.
Obviously, despite being neighbors, Belgian attitudes towards wolves do not necessarily reflect French attitudes towards wolves, but it's a hard research study that quantifies these feelings.
Back to the advertisement, the narrative presented did nothing to contradict these attitudes. While the animation presents the wolf as a safe creature, to help a child learn to not fear wolves, the fairytale protagonist does not reflect the behavior that may actually cause fear. A truer approach would be to show that the ecological circle of life is itself not to be feared. You could even amend the advertisement to show (metaphorically) how the supermarket sources and respects the meat it sells, and how the wolf isn't any scarier than a person for eating meat.
In conclusion, I feel that this ad fundamentally doesn't respect wolves for what they are, and spreads a cruel and potentially dangerous narrative regarding what their behavior should be. It is an advertisement for wide distribution, and their audiences will necessarily have different takeaways, but I think the oppositional reading should not be dismissed.
This essay aims to explore the phenomenon of how commercial desensitization and conditioning in children, from a young age, manipulates them into accepting and normalizing advertisements as a routine aspect of their lives. This process, where children are rewarded for engaging with commercials, essentially programs them to accept and tolerate advertising as a beneficial or neutral element,…
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For TV advertisers we have introduced a brand new analysis option to view performance of TV sales houses. (SKY, Channel 4, Five, Dolphin, ITV etc).
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Below are some of the new graphs that are now available.
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