Spoof Advertisements

What is the underlying message of the advertisements to encourage more people to go to the cinema to watch movies?

As can be seen from the two posters, the woman’s nose is bitten by the seagull, while the man in the second poster is attacked (and eaten?) by the orca. In fact, the message conveyed by these two posters is undoubtedly clear: All the scenes in the movies are not occurring by coincidence, but are planned. Only movies will be filled with illogical happenings and happy endings. And this contradicts directly with reality, which is generally accepted to be cruel and sad. If you would like to see all these wonderful, romantic scenes, the only place you should consider is arguably cinemas, where motion pictures are showed.

How is the idea of fantasy as seen in the romantic movie "Titanic" and the idealized version of whales in the movie " Free Willy" contrasted with the slogan "reality sucks" of the print advertisements?

There is no doubt to say that reality contradicts with imagination and fantasy. In “Titanic”, Jack and Rose become lovers just in a few days of time, whereas they stand on the bow and vow together. “You jump, I jump” has been the most romantic quote since then. However, in reality, it is quite impossible for all these to happen. Would you be so intimate with a person whom you just know for a couple of days? Would you vow to die together with him / her? On the other hand, the friendship in the film “Free Willy” seems to be illogic, speculative and open to doubt. Just like the slogan of this movie - “A friendship you could never imagine”, how could a boy (for instance, the main character Jesse) befriend an orca? Most probably it will treat the boy as its scrumptious meal rather than its soul friend. With these doubts and questions, I would sum up that reality sucks when it is compared to movies, which are created according to human’s imagination.

What is the stereotypical image of wild animals in captivity and love cruises?

Basically, people would feel pity for the animals which are kept in captivity. To them, the animals could not enjoy freedom, and their lifestyle is constraint. As a result, people are encouraged to take part in lots of protesting actions as well as anti-hunting demonstrations in order to free these wild animals. At the same time, most of the people, however, are not aware of the benefits of captivating the animals. In fact, some animals which are in high demand among the hunters would be safer if they are protected and held in captivity. Moving on to love cruises, majority of the people would be so naïve and eventually tricked by the word “love”. They strongly believe that bachelors and bachelorettes would have the chance to meet each other on the deck, have a face-to-face chat or even have a romantic candlelight dinner - the seed of love would germinate there. Sometimes the singles would be willing to pay exorbitant fees just to hop the cruise. Probably this is what we called “the power of love”. Some might successfully found their life partners, some might not. Well, I dare say that the rate of success is considerably low, except you are Jack and Rose.

stereotype - a fixed idea or image that many people have of a particular type of person or thing, but which is often not true in reality