So I was riding along Bendeemer Road one day when I saw this van headed in the direction of Little India.
I quickly whipped out my mobile phone to take a picture of it because I was quite pleased by the symbolism of the image/advertisement.
Why?
The name of the company that owns this van is Sri Ram Exports Pte Ltd.
The image on the van is that of Hanuman moving a mountain (click on the link and read the entire page to understand why Hanuman is moving a mountain).
Ultimately, the story of Hanuman moving a mountain is supposed to demonstrate his devotion toward Ram.
Whoever commissioned the advertisement wanted to portray the Export company in a similar light i.e. we’ll get your goods to you in good time even if we have to cross oceans to reach you.
That’s quite clever, right?
(On hindsight: yes, it’s clever – so long as my assumptions are correct i.e.
For all I know, whoever commissioned the ad could’ve just done so without making any of the connections I mentioned above.
Also, my knowledge of Hindu mythology is quite limited so I could’ve got the interpretation wrong.)
So there was a Lunar New Year performance in school today, and something that one of the emcees (Dilys) said made me recall a memory from a long time ago.
I can’t remember what her exact line was, but it had to do with rabbits – it being the Year of the Rabbit according to the Chinese Lunar calendar.
In any case, the thing that came to mind was… Watership Down!
Yes, ladies and gents: since this is a Rabbit year and this is one of my most favourite books of all time, you must read Watership Down.
I’m not too sure why it left such an impact on me, but from what I remember of my callous and misspent youth, I read the text when I was much younger and more impressionable.
This, along with the fact that I practically devoured almost all of Stephen King’s books before I entered Primary Six, is why I turned out the way I am today.
I kid. (But I’m serious about the reading Stephen King bit.)
Jokes aside, Watership Down is a really great book that is not for the faint-hearted, as you can see from the screenshot from the film which is right at the top of this post.
But besides violence and gore, there’s also romance, religion, ethics, etc. – in other words, there’s something for everyone (except the Goths).
So make sure you read the book, even if it’s the only book you read this year. Then, and only then, will you be able to say that you have led a fulfilling life.
(Just to clarify that I’m neither a military nut nor a fanboy of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF). I just have a keen interest in SAF-related issues for reasons I will not mention in public.)
I think the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) has produced a good advertisement that makes use of the principles of literary technique to effectively communicate its message to the viewer.
The voiceover text, if you want to read it while the video is being played:
I am the wind.
On land, no blade of grass moves without me.
At sea, every rising wave is touched by me.
Wherever you are, I am high enough to see you
and strong enough to reach out to you
5
and place strength in your hand.
You may not always see me
but you will always feel me
for I am here
for a higher purpose.
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I won’t discuss the visual semiotics because that isn’t the point of my post.
However, I’ll carry out a bit of literary analysis on the first ‘two’ lines of the text to demonstrate some sense of its literary merit as well as articulate some of the ideas that the advertisement aims to convey to the viewer.
As the “I” in the text represents the entity that is the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF), the “wind” is used as a symbol of the RSAF’s ‘invisibility’ (i.e. how it can operate without being detected by the enemy), its speed, its power, and its versatility at being able to be both strong yet gentle in different times of need.
On one level, the line “no blade of grass moves without me” is an image which evokes ideas of the RSAF’s power – the RSAF has the ability to influence “move[ment]”, especially in inanimate objects that would otherwise not move on their own.
However, if we also imagine the “blade of grass” to be a metaphor for the infantry soldier, which is a symbol of the Army, then the line is also meant to convey an idea of the superiority of the RSAF in the SAF’s war-fighting capabilities: it is at the forefront of military operations in terms of intelligence gathering efforts and attack manoeuvers, to say the least. {This is reinforced in the “sea” imagery used in line 3, which I will not discuss now for want of time/space.) At the same time, the combined image of objects “on land” and “at sea” moving with the assistance of the “wind” also conveys ideas of the interconnectedness of the three arms in war-fighting operations.
Okay, I know this is somewhat wankerish and some people might think I am stretching the limits of plausibility with my analysis, but do me a favour: assume that I am right for the time being.
Now that we’re all on the same page i.e. my analysis is right, what’s the significance of this advertisement in the larger scheme of things?
A well-wrought out advertisement like this can achieve many aims. Besides its primary aim of enticing people to sign on with the RSAF, the advertisement:
Instils a sense of national pride in the SAF, from the point of view of the citizenry, thereby increasing national confidence etc., and
Acts as one form of deterrence (among other deterrence strategies that the SAF uses) to ward off would-be aggressors, from an external point of view.
So one doesn’t need to know literary devices or techniques in order to consciously or unconsciously receive the implied messages that are sent to the recipient i.e. the person watching the advertisement.
But one would need to have some sense of literary technique in order to be able to create an advertisement as good as this one to achieve said aims I mentioned earlier.
And that, my friends, is another reason why there’s a point in learning literature as a point of departure toward doing other things in life.
P.S. I know I said I wouldn’t discuss the visual semiotics of the ad. But seriously – jogging girl is pretty cute.
