Express yourself/ Ida Sjöman

This is an advert that I came across, I think last year, many times. It is a Windows touch screen computer add.

I find this add intriguing because it shows a little girl first pondering what do. She seems to be bored with her “old school” blackboard and chalk. After her mother kindly replaces the blackboard with a widescreen touchpad she starts to express herself. She is able to draw multiple images in a matter of seconds and her mother is placing them on the wall as she goes. I think that this advert carefully uses the “old” ideas and combines them with the introduction of the “new”. Meaning, it shows that with the old medium (blackboard) the girl has reached her creative potential but with a digital device she is able to develop her ideas further and “old” in the sense that the images still need to be printed out, physically, and placed on the wall. So the images can still be enjoyed in their physical form.

During her artistic moment, the girl also receives a phone call, or better yet a Skype call from her dad. She takes the call by naturally gliding the answer button so that her fathers face appears on the screen where her drawing was just a second ago. In so many ways this advert is promoting new ideas in digital media life and the promise of an endless creativity but it is still old in the sense that we already know the story. Children have been bored before, they have drawn before, mother is home taking care of the kids while the father is at work earning money. It seems that this way it is easier for the consumers to digest the digital development and the fact that there is no escape. This way it is safe and familiar, same activities just a new blackboard.

Needless to comment on the catchy tune on the background which reminds us to “express yourself”!