Stranger Theme Card

Quotes:
“Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know.”
“She was right. There was no way out.”
“I told her that it didn’t mean anything, but that I didn’t think so.”
“I said that people never change their lives...”
“Do you want my life to be meaningless?”

Vehicles:
-Conflict
-Allusion
-Irony
-Setting

Conflicts:
-Meursault vs. Himself
-Meursault vs. Society
-Raymond vs. the Arab

Subjects:
-Physical world
-Death and life
-Indifference

Themes:
-What ties a man to the earth is not his consciousness of physical stimuli, but the emotion that stimuli creates, whether in the man himself or those who surround him.
-Extreme alienation from society results in the ability to reflect on one's self, yet also receives reproving views from society.

Plot: Meursault, a man who cares about hardly anything, is asked to write a hate letter to his neighbor’s mistress. This stirs up trouble, and Meursault ends up murdering an Arab. This lands him in jail, and forces him to contemplate the importance of his own life.

Title: “The Stranger” refers to Meursault’s position as an outcast, and the situation his indifference has left him in. No one in the story is able to understand him or his actions, and this isolates him from the rest of society.

Major Characters:
-Meursault
-Marie
-Raymond
-The Chaplain
-Magistrate
-Tome Perez
-Meursault’s mother

SMELL

Coors Light aired their famous “Twins” commercial after a Super Bowl in the early 2000’s. The reason was clear, as they tried to reach a football-fan audience with their words and images. The commercial begins with a heavy guitar note, and then a short song about football-related pastimes. The song starts soft, climaxes, and finishes with a cliche rock anthem feel. Coors Light advertisement tries to reach a high concentration in beer drinkers by speaking in a fun-time manner. The language is somewhat childish and simple, “I love playing two-hand touch/Eating way too much/Watching my team win/...And twins!” A pair of scantily-clad identical girls are shown from time to time, furthering the masculine theme of the advertisement. The message, like most beer commercials, seems to convey that people will have more fun when consuming Coors Light. Everyone is shown smiling, partying, and generally having a good time.

The Coors Light team also used strategic advertising to further a stereotypical activity, thereby tying their product to a widely performed pastime. By showing many guys participating in partying and drinking around football, Coors uses logos show viewers that it is normal. Therefore, the audience will unknowingly link Coors Light beer and football celebration. Coors also incorporates heightened intensity, and pathos, both through song and video. The images of the man overeating, the bodypaint, and especially the twins serve to invoke excitement within most men. The anthemic rock song also “pumps up” the audience, highlighting the general partytime theme within the clip. Coors utilization of ethos is the backbone behind their advertisement and, most importantly, their validity. By incorporating footage of young and middle-aged men, football, parties, and attractive women, Coors speaks to their audience on their own level. If Coors Light beer can make itself seem “hip,” people will buy it not because of the taste, but because of the image it conveys. Therefore, the product’s popularity can fuel itself, and cycle towards more sales.

When the “Twins” commercial emerged, it was considered one of the raciest advertisements on television. Although that would certainly not be true anymore, Coors garnered attention and turned heads in a crucial time. Now, Coors is one of the top three brewing companies in the United States, and top five in the world. Sometimes it takes more than a catchy jingle to set a company apart from the others, and Coors Light certainly knows how to release a well-rounded commercial into mainstream television.