Nov242008
The Lamp has No Feelings: Spike Jonze’s IKEA
Filed under thinking by 086 at 6:57 am on Nov 24 2008
The commercial opens as a woman in an apartment unplugs her small red lamp. The actor then walks outside and leaves the lamp on the sidewalk next to the trash. The audience can see that the weather is wintry and pitiful music can be heard. Through the use of substitution, the director is creates an expression that requires the audience to make adjustments in order to better understand the message. This is seen in the fact that the lamp placed on the sidewalk looks strangely human and the audience is compelled to feel sorry for it. Repetition is used when it rains continuously for some time with the background music playing pitifully.
The lamp looks pitiful and sad principally due to the fact that the audience can see the actor inside the apartment warm and dry while taking pleasure in her new lamp. The use of monologue is seen when a man materializes from the darkness and speaks to the camera in a foreign sounding accent. There is also the use of destabilization through the creation of the myriad meanings. However, the man gives the real meaning when he tells the audience that….
