★Monica's+Reflection

As a group, we decided to make a commercial which would demonstrate Mao's cult of personality and his beliefs of constructing a Marxism-Leninism Communist society. A propaganda is information based on biased or misleading ideas, which usually have set targets in society. This information is usually passed out by the government and comes in a wide range of forms. Thus, our commercial video touches upon Mao's importance in China in the uttermost positive way.

Our video begins with a quote that we have analyzed in one of our previous classes, “Our hope is placed on you.” This quote seemed to fit in with our video's theme for it provides the younger generation, such as us students, with nationalism and enthusiasm to follow Mao. After this, a great red flag that has Mao's face illustrated in it appears as a gigantic mob marches down a street. The instrumental background music that we chose is quite nationalistic and goes well with the entire video and its parts. Then, we demonstrated how people expressed their sole respect to their great leader with their hands placed upon their chests and proudly looking up to Mao. The next section shows a clip where a factory is mass producing a bunch of Mao's Little Red Book. Then, it shows three people each of a different status in society, me as a Red Guard, Ashlee as a merchant, and Kathy as a peasant, reading the Little Red Book. This conveys a message that everyone, despite what occupation or social status/class they had in China, all read Mao's book. This depicted Mao's ultimate goal for the Cultural Revolution: creating a classless society, although in the end, he failed to do so. Following this is a clip where the Red Guard march with Mao's portrait pasted on their backs and then the three of us tried to imitate this in order to display our reverence towards Mao, the grand leader of China. Lastly, we clap and say in Chinese, "We all love Mao Zedong," further conveying the people's love towards Mao. The clip comes to a conclusion with a couple of propaganda portraying Mao as a hero-like figure and ends with his speech which make his people proud.

The main objective of this commercial was in order to give a exaggerated message stating how great of a leader Mao is and how he is trying to bring the best changes to China. This commercial further provokes the nationalism existing within the hearts of the people and the viewers of this video. Furthermore, it motivates the audience to follow Mao with respect and unity. Mao tried to promote unity within all classes of the Chinese society and create a 'classless' society. He emphasized the importance of all people, soldiers, peasants, merchants, nurses, and shop keepers to all be united and follow him for the better improvement of the country. Mao's cult of personality is distinctly portrayed through this commercial video as the video comes to an end with Mao propaganda and one of his famous speeches and quotes.