DESCRIBE:
Modern Family is a comedy on ABC; its on every Wednesday at 9 pm. Every Modern Family episode is centered around three different family's that are all related. The first family is the Dunphy family; theres Phil and Claire who are the dad and mom in the family, and then their three kids Luke, Haley and Alex. The second family is a gay couple Mitchell and Cameron and their adopted baby. Mitchell is Claire's brother. The last family includes Jay, who is Claire's and Mitchell's father, his wife Gloria, and there son Manny. In the episode that I watched the three family's are all getting ready to go to Manny's birthday, but all three of them are having problems getting to the restaurant. Mitchell and Cameron are rushing to get Manny a gift but Cameron keeps getting distracted and it's taking forever. The Dunphy's leave on time but then Claire and Phil decide to race and they each take at least one of the kids. On the way to the restaurant they start having heart to hearts with the kids. Gloria cant find her keys, Jay is teasing her and making fun of her about how she always loses things, and it makes her mad. He eventually finds the keys in his coat pocket, even though he told her he didn't have them. He puts them in her purse because he's embarrassed that he was making fun of her when he had them the entire time. Meanwhile Manny is having problems getting older because he feels like he never was a kid; he always acted too old. He starts doing things that he thinks every kid should do, like making prank calls and mixing sodas together (video above). At the end of the video all the parents in the family are fighting, but Manny makes a speech that makes everybody cheer up. Most of the ads are for a ton of car companies or car dealerships. There were ads for clothing stores like JCpenneys, quite a few ads for pizza places like Dominoes or Pizza Hut, Apple ads for iPads, a lot of ads for cleaning products or general household products like Ziploc, and ads for fast food places like Taco Time.
ANALYZE:
I think this show is focusing on the standard family and its for ages 16+. Most of the jokes are clean, but some of them are a little more mature or you need to be older to understand. There's a lot of stereotypes with gay couples and then Latinos because Jay's wife Gloria is Latino; so is their son. Usually the show follows a pattern where the characters sit down for interviews and talk about the story, then they show what actually happened. It's kind of similar to The Office. It's different from other shows where they have the, "typical family" because they have an average couple but also a gay couple and an interracial couple.
INTERPRET:
The show has quite a few stereotypes, the biggest stereotype is Cameron. In the show he is half of a gay couple and he's a little more sensitive and flamboyant then his partner Mitchell. The producers never make it ridiculously bad and its never done in an offensive way. They do it in a way so that it's funny and not in a way that's over the top or that makes it seem like all gay men are like that.
I think the ads are focused on the average middle aged family. They are all ads for cleaning products or fast food places; pretty standard ads. I think the ads work really well with the audience the companies are trying to target. If I was from another country, I might be a little offended by the show. They never have any really bad jokes, but to some people might find them a little distasteful.
EVALUATE:
In a way Modern Family reflects society, it shows how open the American life can be with a gay couple and an interracial couple. Definitely it is a parody because the families are usually put in ridiculous situations that would probably never happen, it's meant to be funny, not serious. I like Modern Family, its pretty funny. Its not my favorite show and I don't usually make a point to see every new episode, but I do watch it if it's on because it's usually entertaining. Almost every critic has given Modern Family a really good review. It has a average score of 87/100 for the first season on Metacritic. Maureen Ryan from the Chicago Tribune said that, "The themes about family life and its stresses are nothing new, but you couldn't ask for better execution." Most critics favor the show, which is similar to my opinion. Some critics also cite the same stereotypes that I do, mainly the gay stereotypes that the show has. Bruce Feiler from the New York Times talks about how when the show first aired fans were complaining about how they never showed the gay couple kissing.
ENGAGE:
I watch Modern Family every now and then, not every week but i'd say a couple times a month. I have some friends who really like show, I talk to them about it but I am not a huge fan or anything.
CONCLUSION:
I noticed that a lot of the ads were focused on the middle class family; I think that is the shows main audience. Like I said, I don't watch it a lot but my mom and step father watch it every new episode. I think that the ad companies did a good job of realizing who watches Modern Family, making ads that those people would like.
