Funding for the Arts

Jonathan and Vincent

We chose the Funding for the Arts ad. The ad tells the story of a musician and his band that go to see the government or some promoters to get funds for the promotion of the Canadian French culture around the world. The promoter asks for a performance before they grant the fund. The thing is the promoters are conservative Anglophones with no interest in French Canadian culture. During the performance, the musician says a French word that closely resembles an English insult. The promoters are upset and refuse to understand because they don’t speak French and they aren’t interested in accepting French as part of Canadian culture. The promoters and the musician cannot find common ground so they don’t approve the funds. The scene made us laugh, yet it was a serious scene because it is a situation that could happen in real life. The exaggeration made it funny. The song used in this ad was a culturally important French song which made their resentment for French culture apparent. The ad was made in a bland, dark setting, clearly illustrating lack of creativity of the promoter's “government”. At the end of the ad they show statistics that show that investing in culture is beneficial for the whole community. It was destined for the conservative voters to give them an idea of what will happen if we stop funding culture. The commercial does succeed in delivering the message. We believe it is necessary to promote our culture so we are recognized as a people.


Jonathan and Vincent