----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Jim, No problem with deconstructing commercials. I too teach them for both their production techniques and their rhetorical means of persuasion. My animus against the media literacy approach is that it tends to see viewers as passive dupes unable to resist the blandishmentand hard sell of sponsors. I guess I'm also reacting to a duo of solemn Australians who recently guest-lectured a number of local college and University people on advertising: patriarchy and heavy duty Frankfurt School analysis with not a mention of any pleasurgained from the viewing experience, or even from deconstructing the text. I did put drivel within quotation marks to show that I was a smart-ass when answering other teachers about my course content. [log in to unmask]