After this class, I doubt I'll look at media the same way again. Now, I'm noticing things about media and about the way people think I never noticed before. We consume media almost everywhere we look. Over time, we've learned to shrug it off, but there is always that impulse, that whether we are interested in buying it or not, that makes us think we need it.
After taking the class, techniques that advertisers use and different methods of advertising are obvious, and now definately effect my view on the product, as far as the recognition of vagueness and the ability to recognize weasel words.
My interaction with media has definately changed. Especially after watching the documentaries, it has really got me thinking about media and how so many companies are competing for our attention. As far as the level of media we are comstantly exposed to, it can only become an increasingly more prevalent part of our lives if things keep going the way they are. After reading more about commercials and advertising in television, for every three hours of football, there is about 10 minutes of actual action, and the rest is advertising and replays.
Through keeping this blog, and disecting ads, I learned more about what the advertisers might have been thinking, and learned that they aren't interested in letting you know about the ad a lot of the time, but just getting you to buy it, and making you think that you need it. A lot of the time, since the advertisers just want you to buy their product, and make you think that you need their product.
I also learned this through the media campaign, and trying to design motives that will make people think they need their product.
I think that people need to be educated in media literacy, and to be an educated consumer. But I feel like if more and more people were to be aware of the media in our lives and all the tricks advertisers use to compete for our attention in the world already riddled heavily with media, they would go to more extreme measures, and would make media more and more prevalent. As if it wasn't "in our face" enough already. If things continue on the current trend of more and more things pressing us to try and consume, things would definately almost more than certinaly become less and less focused on techniques, because people would already know them and the tricks that advertisers use to try and get our attention, but more focused on just getting it more and more in our face. This would not be good for a while, but I think eventually we would just adapt to it like we have already, and not notice it as much after a while. It also made me conscious of the fact that people just tune out much of media we see and make it a kind of normal occurance being exposed to the level of media that we are.
This class really made me think about media in a totally different way, and I wish more people could be educated like this, because I'm never going to think about media the same way.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Evolution of Women in Advertising
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CuGfi9I4KA
After watching the documentary "Miss Representation", I began to realize how prevalent the topics the documentary discussed were, and realized they were totally true, and watching it was kind of disturbing. Not only because I'm a girl, but I hope that many more people could see that this is seriously a problem.
After hunting around the internet for what other people thought about the problem, I found this video a friend reccomended I watch since he were discussing women as portrayed by the media. They told me that it hasn't always been the way it is now, using sex and women as objects to sell almost anything. Women have been used as ways to advertise all the way back to before WWII. But it wansn't always sexual. Some of them actually were empowering women, especially around the 1940's. But around the 1950's, like the documentary portrayed, the advertisers were trying to get women back into the kitchen, since people felt it was "their place".
People have to wonder why this happened. Looking at the drastic changes throughout the decades of women in advertising is undoubtedly different. The models are mostly white, thin women, and as the decades advance closer to the 21st century, we see more and more explicitness with the ads. Especially in the 21st century ads, we see that larger women are being used to advertise products, because the world is undoubtedly facing a weight crisis, trying to open up to all body types. But even so, that was just one ad out of all the others, which all showed skinny women with large chests.
And sexually explicit things now can be used to sell anything. Even a sandwich.
Now we see that it wasn't always as focused on women as objects in advertising, but there was always that subtle hint, now becoming more glaringly obvious and now totally in your face that women are less than men, and they are the only things that matter in our society. A women's job is is give birth, raise kids, cook and clean. I'm not trying to be radical or anything, I'm just trying to question why our mindsets have evolved this way. We could certinaly change it if we wanted to, but sex sells, and people want to make money, so it looks like this is the road the world of media will continue traveling on, unfortunate as it is.
After watching the documentary "Miss Representation", I began to realize how prevalent the topics the documentary discussed were, and realized they were totally true, and watching it was kind of disturbing. Not only because I'm a girl, but I hope that many more people could see that this is seriously a problem.
After hunting around the internet for what other people thought about the problem, I found this video a friend reccomended I watch since he were discussing women as portrayed by the media. They told me that it hasn't always been the way it is now, using sex and women as objects to sell almost anything. Women have been used as ways to advertise all the way back to before WWII. But it wansn't always sexual. Some of them actually were empowering women, especially around the 1940's. But around the 1950's, like the documentary portrayed, the advertisers were trying to get women back into the kitchen, since people felt it was "their place".
People have to wonder why this happened. Looking at the drastic changes throughout the decades of women in advertising is undoubtedly different. The models are mostly white, thin women, and as the decades advance closer to the 21st century, we see more and more explicitness with the ads. Especially in the 21st century ads, we see that larger women are being used to advertise products, because the world is undoubtedly facing a weight crisis, trying to open up to all body types. But even so, that was just one ad out of all the others, which all showed skinny women with large chests.
And sexually explicit things now can be used to sell anything. Even a sandwich.
Now we see that it wasn't always as focused on women as objects in advertising, but there was always that subtle hint, now becoming more glaringly obvious and now totally in your face that women are less than men, and they are the only things that matter in our society. A women's job is is give birth, raise kids, cook and clean. I'm not trying to be radical or anything, I'm just trying to question why our mindsets have evolved this way. We could certinaly change it if we wanted to, but sex sells, and people want to make money, so it looks like this is the road the world of media will continue traveling on, unfortunate as it is.
No Men Were Harmed in the Making of this Commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ1ZRjw425o
This week in class we watched a documentary titled "Miss Representation", showing how blatantly women are objectified and thought of inferior in media. This commercial is a clear example of how the media portrays women.
A women's place, according to the media, is in the kitchen, at home, cleaning for the man. Here a couple is in the kitchen, and women is shown as being annoyed, and angry looking like she is going to fight, like so many other shows in televsion shows.
In the commercial it makes is seem out of place and different that a man is in the kitchen cleaning, and men don't normally do this kind of thing.
It also in a way is sexist to both genders. The man here is seen as somewhat incompetent, shown by his posture, and emphasis on how easy it is to clean your oven racks, so a man won;t have any trouble with it.
At the end of the commercial towards the bottom, it says "Note: No men were harmed in the making of the commercial". What is that even supposed to mean? Is the oven pride cleaner going to hurt the men because they had to clean something in a kitchen? This commercial shows that a women should be knowledable about the kitchen and cleaning, and that men are not supposed to aqcuire skills in that area because it is a "women's job". It was a strain on his mind for men to be able to use this incredibly simple product. Even thought it attacks both sexes in a way, it is primarily focused on women, and their place is supposedly cleaning and in the kitchen.
Watching the video and seeing the ad made me realize how true the video was, and I hadn't really thought about it up until now. It's depressing to think about how much women have been debased in the media. I hope it changes, because there aren't lines that are predetermined what a woman can or cannot do. If a man can cook and clean just like a women can hold positions of power.
This week in class we watched a documentary titled "Miss Representation", showing how blatantly women are objectified and thought of inferior in media. This commercial is a clear example of how the media portrays women.
A women's place, according to the media, is in the kitchen, at home, cleaning for the man. Here a couple is in the kitchen, and women is shown as being annoyed, and angry looking like she is going to fight, like so many other shows in televsion shows.
In the commercial it makes is seem out of place and different that a man is in the kitchen cleaning, and men don't normally do this kind of thing.
It also in a way is sexist to both genders. The man here is seen as somewhat incompetent, shown by his posture, and emphasis on how easy it is to clean your oven racks, so a man won;t have any trouble with it.
At the end of the commercial towards the bottom, it says "Note: No men were harmed in the making of the commercial". What is that even supposed to mean? Is the oven pride cleaner going to hurt the men because they had to clean something in a kitchen? This commercial shows that a women should be knowledable about the kitchen and cleaning, and that men are not supposed to aqcuire skills in that area because it is a "women's job". It was a strain on his mind for men to be able to use this incredibly simple product. Even thought it attacks both sexes in a way, it is primarily focused on women, and their place is supposedly cleaning and in the kitchen.
Watching the video and seeing the ad made me realize how true the video was, and I hadn't really thought about it up until now. It's depressing to think about how much women have been debased in the media. I hope it changes, because there aren't lines that are predetermined what a woman can or cannot do. If a man can cook and clean just like a women can hold positions of power.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Holiday Advertsing
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=iHviy-4OG6c&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DiHviy-4OG6c
Am I the only one who get's disturbed when around the holidays, ads for casinos and commercials for resorts on tv, try to advertise centering on the holiday theme? They say its supposed to be a season of winning, and tell you they're giving away all this money and prizes. The holidays, more than any time of year, is really the time to give, and I don't think people mean you're money to a slot machine.. People are welcome to get away from that if they want a break, but the media is constantly appealing to our selfish side, which is definately a part of our human nature.
These casino commercials in general tend to show all these attractive women, playing and working there, to appeal to the male demographic, and shows people having fun. In casino ads, it always shows someone winning tons of money, and people who are really excited and happy, surrounded by friends, and look like they're having a lot of fun. This is trying to get the viewer to think that if they go a casino, they're going to be experiencing the same things as the people in the commercial and are going to, and be happy, surrounded by friends, and having a great time. Now, it's obvious that not everyone that goes to casinos to gamble actually wins money, and more often people lose lots of money. In almost all casino commercials, they either show attractive women, food, people surrounded by friend winning money, or giant sums of money flashing across the screen showing all the money you could win. Notice that it says "could".
These commercials almost always use weasel words like could being the main one. You "could" win up to such and such amount of money. You "have a chance" to win such and such car. There isn't any guarantee at all you're going to win anything, all our minds pay attention to is the large amounts of money, most times shown on the screen for further emphasis.
Casinos I would imagine aren't how they're depicted to be in commercials, but te ads keep drawing us in to spend money and gamble, because those commercials to their demographic I'm sure make them look very appealing, using all the bright colors.
It even says right in the title, "holiday giveaway". They're giving away free money for the holidays. They must be so generous. That's the first place your mind goes. I'm pretty sure the only thing they are trying to get you to go there and spend money gambling?
These casinos use holidays as a reason to go heavier on the advertising, but that really shouldn't be what people are concerned about during the holidays. The real meaning of the holidays, even if you aren't religious, is already blurred by all the "buying things and forcing you to spend money" ads we see. Black Friday is many people think of when we hear about Thabksgiving, bits its a holiday invented by the hoverent to get people to spend money. Our economy is dependent on how people spend money and consume things, but a casino commercial centered around that is a little off-putting.
Am I the only one who get's disturbed when around the holidays, ads for casinos and commercials for resorts on tv, try to advertise centering on the holiday theme? They say its supposed to be a season of winning, and tell you they're giving away all this money and prizes. The holidays, more than any time of year, is really the time to give, and I don't think people mean you're money to a slot machine.. People are welcome to get away from that if they want a break, but the media is constantly appealing to our selfish side, which is definately a part of our human nature.
These casino commercials in general tend to show all these attractive women, playing and working there, to appeal to the male demographic, and shows people having fun. In casino ads, it always shows someone winning tons of money, and people who are really excited and happy, surrounded by friends, and look like they're having a lot of fun. This is trying to get the viewer to think that if they go a casino, they're going to be experiencing the same things as the people in the commercial and are going to, and be happy, surrounded by friends, and having a great time. Now, it's obvious that not everyone that goes to casinos to gamble actually wins money, and more often people lose lots of money. In almost all casino commercials, they either show attractive women, food, people surrounded by friend winning money, or giant sums of money flashing across the screen showing all the money you could win. Notice that it says "could".
These commercials almost always use weasel words like could being the main one. You "could" win up to such and such amount of money. You "have a chance" to win such and such car. There isn't any guarantee at all you're going to win anything, all our minds pay attention to is the large amounts of money, most times shown on the screen for further emphasis.
Casinos I would imagine aren't how they're depicted to be in commercials, but te ads keep drawing us in to spend money and gamble, because those commercials to their demographic I'm sure make them look very appealing, using all the bright colors.
It even says right in the title, "holiday giveaway". They're giving away free money for the holidays. They must be so generous. That's the first place your mind goes. I'm pretty sure the only thing they are trying to get you to go there and spend money gambling?
These casinos use holidays as a reason to go heavier on the advertising, but that really shouldn't be what people are concerned about during the holidays. The real meaning of the holidays, even if you aren't religious, is already blurred by all the "buying things and forcing you to spend money" ads we see. Black Friday is many people think of when we hear about Thabksgiving, bits its a holiday invented by the hoverent to get people to spend money. Our economy is dependent on how people spend money and consume things, but a casino commercial centered around that is a little off-putting.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Ads Everywhere
People pay to put these here, because they get attention, even if it is just a menial ammount. You have to fliip through the program to see if there is anything else, and you are bombarded with these ads. It shows how prominent advertising is in our society, and how much people care about advertising, and are willing to pay for it. These are mostly small, local companies that don't look like they can afford to advertise on giant billboards or stuff like that. People are going to look at them, but how many people would really remember an ad like this. I remember flipping through this and thinking about how annoying it was that I had to look at all this stuff when I wanted to look at stuff about the performers. People in general I think would tune this out, and just move on to the performers, especially since these aren't big name bussinesses. How much does the constant bombardment of ads really help the advertisers? People are just going to tune out, and brush it off as another ad. Even billboards, we sometimes think of for a few seconds, and push it out of our heads. Because of how much we begin to adapt to the media around us, companies are forced to go bigger and bigger to try and get our attention. Before long, it doesn't become a good marketting method. It becomes an annoyance, and something that ultimately isn't going to affect people as much as they think.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
The Chinese Professor
I was talking to my
friend online when he sends me this video. He told me China was going to hold
all of our debt in twenty years, and that the video said so. I just assumed he
was joking, but the commercial actually looked pretty serious. It shows a
Chinese professor giving a talk about the problems of American economics. This
isn't a Chinese video however. It was created by the CAGW (Citizens Against
Government Waste), to try and encourage people to stand up and fight the
government's wasteful spending. The video shows the Chinese being the country
that we primarily owe our debt to. Even the audience is using what looks to be
expensive tablets, and the professor is using a very high-tech visual screen,
showing American healthcare advertisements. This is telling us very blatantly we
have to focus less on healthcare, and stop the government from wasting more
money
I don't really think this is racist in any
way. It's not bringing down Chinese ethnicity. Just because these people are
Chinese, doesn't mean that this is what Chinese people actually believe. I'm
sure people living in China might not agree with their government as well. It's
trying to encourage Americans to change, and creating a sense of urgency, by
using the blatant words "debt", and "they work for us", such negative words, and
the dark lighting and atmosphere.
During first part of the video, the
professor compares the United States to two great empires, the Romans and
Greeks, who were some of the greatest civilizations in the world, but reached
their inevitable fate, and fell to greater rising civilizations. Considering the
fact that this commercial was paid for by Americans, it's very likely that they
chose those two on purpose, comparing America to these once great world powers
to make a point. When these great powers fell, it was a considered a grew
disaster, and since it's trying to appeal to Americans, they have remind them
that if our nation falls, it will be a great tragedy. This is also an example of
ethnocentrism. The professor goes on to say that we lost the principles that
made our nation great, and that trying to use "stimulus" spending failed us in
the long term, and ultimately ruined our health care, while government
industries held all the money, and wasted it, creating an even bigger debt.
Several times during the video, the
professor does a kind of cold, laugh, that could be described as somewhat evil,
after saying that we owe China most of our debt, and then goes on to say "and
now they work for us." The audience in the video also seems to find that funny,
and laughs along with the professor. Then, it switches back to English, and
comes out and says the message straight out, urging us not only to stop
government spending, but says: "We have to."
America has always been a country known for
it's liberty, justice, and freedom. By having the video portray a world where
other countries are taking away our freedom, and in so little time, is something
people would find a little but disturbing. Even the air of the commercial is
cold, and gray, making China seem cold and dark, from every angle of the camera.
Overall in this commercial, the Chinese are given a slightly evil air, and
appear to be mocking America for it's stupidity regarding spending. No one wants
to laughed at like this from other countries, and since the people who paid for
this were American's, they knew it as well.
This video shows us with a very blatant
scenario that tells us we need to stop unnecessary government spending, or else
we'll be very deep in debt to China in as early as 20 years. It's trying to urge
America not to abandon the principles that made them great, and because of the
date only being 20 years into the future, creates a greater sense of urgency,
getting our attention further.
L'Odyssée de Cartier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaBNjTtCxd4
I remember seeing this Cartier ad a few months ago, and when a saw the new Christmas Cartier commercial, I remembered the old one. The short advertisement for Cartier had me completely mesmerized, not only because of the somewhat odd elements of the commercial, like the Indian building on the Elephant and the giant golden dragon, but the beauty of this ad really got me into it. The strings in the background really kept my attention. I remember looking it up online shortly after I saw it to hear the cello music again. The way it appeals to us on so many different levels is why I thought this commercial was fascinating.
I remember seeing this Cartier ad a few months ago, and when a saw the new Christmas Cartier commercial, I remembered the old one. The short advertisement for Cartier had me completely mesmerized, not only because of the somewhat odd elements of the commercial, like the Indian building on the Elephant and the giant golden dragon, but the beauty of this ad really got me into it. The strings in the background really kept my attention. I remember looking it up online shortly after I saw it to hear the cello music again. The way it appeals to us on so many different levels is why I thought this commercial was fascinating.
Immediately after the jaguar had completed it's journey, it met a beautiful woman, and the commercial ends with the woman and the cat together. Another reason the buyer of the product is depicted here is that when you use Cartier accessories, you will also get beautiful company, who is rich and attractive. But if you can afford the things that Cartier makes, you might already be surrounded by these kinds of people, so making it a need among the more wealthy of society is that this is what you have to do because you have money, and should buy Cartier brand things.
Even though there are no words in the commercial, the rather abstract message leaves the content of the commercial slightly open for interpretation, but the powerful music, the rich areas the jaguar walks through, the beautiful landscapes, all leave the viewer in a sense of awe, and when the commercial is over, leave the viewer wondering with the same awe-struck mindset when the words "Cartier" are said with a strong, French accent. The stereotype of French people are rather "snooty", for lack of a better word, is also appealing. Not trying to be racist, but that is just a stereotype I've seen, appealing once again to the higher class audience.
The jaguar is a powerful, beautiful animal, thus making the product seem amazing. The product is revealed only after the jaguar has gone on this amazing odyssey, through what appears to be a snowy country, maybe Russia, through China and India. This need for exotic countries, and a need to experience this escape, or go on this odyssey when the jaguar breaks out of it's museum like confines, and into this magical world, is something the advertisers really knew how to do.
At one point, the jaguar walks into a glittering cave filled with jewelry, and creatures made of diamonds and precious stones. Surrounding yourself with these things is representing a need to affiliate, and fitting in to the crowd. By using this beautiful brand of jewelry, you will be surrounded by beautiful things as well. I think the jaguar represents more that person using the product, and at the same time the product itself. Cartier makes watches, jewelry, etc. In the beginning, the cat is shown as a sculpture of jewels, but breaks off to become a real jaguar. It's implying that this is more than just an inanimate object, and that it will become a part of who you are.
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