Butterflies do have Wings

Never have I ever seen a commercial that was over a minute long. Yet despite this, I somehow was able to enjoy the wonderful story Pantene had told. Perhaps they should become more involved in emotional short movies. Who knows, maybe they'll be nominated for an Oscar.

It took a while for me to see what the commercial had to do with hair. At first, I thought it was going to be an advertisement for art school, but the end caught me off guard. For some reason, I found myself short-changed because it was such an intense and dramatic storyline and then it ended abruptly with the resolution about hair. I thought how stupid that was. But looking back, it was brilliant. The word shine applied to the protagonist as well as the condition of hair. The butterfly represented how the girl can rise on her own wings and shine as bright as her hair. The producers created a more powerful implication of a subject as simple as hair.

Yet despite the wonderful storytelling, there were some social stereotypes being played out. Everyone assumes that an Asian loves studying and doing activities concerning higher classical teachings. It is assumed that they only play the piano or violin or other instruments that demonstrate high intellect. But not Asians are like that. Not all girls are mean and catty either. They depict the average high school to be crawling with mean rich girls who always pick on the poor nice girls. They depict the poor girl as the hero when that is not always the case. They imply with the butterfly, which seems to symbolize feminism, that boys could not possibly relate to this commercial. Yes, it may be aimed for a female audience, but there can be some boys just as much into their hair as girls.

The producers intended to captivate us into its story so we could sympathize and relate to the characters, therefore making us buy its product. It had the girl struggle through deafness and schoolmates. It made the butterfly emerge while the girl was caught in her music to persuade how all of us have a butterfly waiting within us to emerge and find its place in the world. It made it seem as if we wanted to be like the girl. But all it did for me was leave an unfinished feeling in the pit of my stomach. No, I do not wish to buy the product. Instead, I'm  interested in how the story plays out. I wished it was an advertisement for art school for the disability instead.