Media Journal 2/26

In relation to the documentary The Cool Merchants I watched for class I am going to write about a Sprite commercial I ran across on youtube. The commercial immediately caught my attention when hearing the song as the background. It was a catchy indie rock sound that was easy to go along with. The next thing that sparked my interest was the characters in the commercial playing basketball on a hot summer day at a playground. I am able to relate to that because I grew up in Texas heat playing basketball at my schoolyard. One of the characters then is seen taking off his shirt while most of the others are hanging out on the bleachers looking like they need a refreshment. Perhaps a Sprite?

The guy that was taking off his shirt is then shown running full speed at the basketball court and goes into a full on backflip tuck into a swimming pool. The swimming pool was just shown as a cement blacktop that was used for basketball and it is then turned into liquid somehow for a makeshift swimming pool. All of the other people watching are satisfied with this endeavor by their friend and all of them end up jumping in and swimming around. A guy then gets out in the end looking more than refreshed and handshaking a friend that was sitting off the edge. The commercial ends with an image that says "freedom from thirst" and a Sprite bottle falling into a water effect behind it.

The commercial caught my attention because of it's creativity mostly after watching the entire video. That was original to use that kind of analogy of refreshment, if you drink Sprite anywhere, you will feel as if you had just gotten into a swimming pool. You are able to feel that way even on the hottest day in the Summer after playing basketball all day. You are able to have that escape and that escape is Sprite.

Merchants of Cool

In the Front line Documentary The Merchants of Cool, many topics came up to write about in my head in the first twenty minutes. One of the quick facts that completely mind boggled me was how much we spent as teenagers every year and how much are parents actually give to us. Over 75 Billion dollars total in one year? The film showed lack of time to spend with their kids as motivation for the extra spending money. After hearing that everything was sort of centered around how needy and greedy our society is today. I don't believe its the lack of time to spend with children, I believe it's the day and age where we get everything instantly and electronically. Kids are spoiled and nagging plays a huge part in what the teenagers get. The experts on this documentary called it guilt money and I think that is the perfect term.

Another thing that caught my attention was the cool hunting and the fact that we really have people that go out to teenage events and spectate and survey young people on what they like, what they are wearing and what is trendy at the moment. These people get paid a lot of money to just get inside the minds of the teenager. Teenagers these days have a lot more money to spend but, they are also more stubborn on products they are not into. The reason they have these cool hunters is because regular ad programs do not do the trick anymore. Teenagers are much more reclusive and introverted when it comes to the things they like. Culture spies and cool hunters have to be trendy and cool themselves or else they will be disregarded. Many huge corporations pay a lot of money to these cool hunters and spies just to get inside the minds of teenagers.

A huge corporation such as Sprite. Sprite launched trendier, cooler ad campaigns after having a group of teenagers come in and talk about what would make them interested. Months later, Sprite unveiled a hip hop party with huge rap stars such as Jay-Z, it was immensely successful. Hip-Hop and Sprite went hand in hand and they were able to sell an image instead of a product. When people thought Hip-Hop they thought of Sprite. Using these assets of culture spies and cool hunters has become almost mandatory for a lot of corporations because they know that traditional advertisement is gone and you have to reach them through what they like. For example, music, sports, internet, and even video games. Traditional TV ad's are not the key anymore for teenagers because teenagers see this as a played out and tired way of reaching them.

Many companies have turned to agencies that will "smuggle" their message to teenagers in a deceiving fashion. Radio DJ's are paid by companies to use their name whenever they are on the air. Companies have paid video game developers to put little ad's in the developers games. Sports programs and arenas are filled with advertisements from various companies. Companies have done a much better job with the teenage generation of getting their message in without overwhelming them and turning them off on it. Overall, this film was very interesting and showed me just how needy the current generation is and why we are like that.

The Corporation

In watching The Corporation I was able to pick specific scenes that really stuck out to me and showed me the insides and outs of major corporations. One part of the film in particular stuck out to me. The part was the personality assessment of major corporations. The film gave corporations an assessment test much like the one humans take. The reason for giving the corporation this assessment test was because corporations had all the same rights as humans, they could buy up other businesses, they could patent a product, they were even able to patent living things. The only thing missing in comparing corporations to humans was corporations missing a soul and feelings towards other humans.

In the film it has many variables in a check box format that has all the traits of a psychopath. The Corporation's checked off on all of them giving them psychopath status. I believe what the movie was getting to was the fact that everyone in the corporations try to emit themselves as humans just like us and try to relate to whatever we are to sell their products. They do not personally care what we are into or how our family is doing but, they want us to think that so we can keep pouring money into "good" corporations. The movie shows that corporations are in fact not human and even if they were, there is evidence that they would be psychopaths.

Another thing I noticed in the movie was the lack of other countries companies in the movie. It was only North American brands and mostly American brands at that. The film was made in Canada but, there were few Canadian brands and zero foreign brands. I was trying to think of all the car manufacturers overseas and what this movie would have to say about them but, there was no mention of car manufacturers, let alone cars over seas.

The biggest thing that left me scratching my head was the fact that the producers spent so much time on American products and corporations but, the little clip they showed of kids not being able to drink rain water because it is privatized and the kids having to make choices, water or education? I could not fathom ever having to make that choice and the fact that they couldn't get an interview with whoever is responsible and didn't delve further into the subject leaves me scratching my head. This is bigger than the movie, this is money over many of lives. I wish they would have delved further into this subject because I think it is insane someone can privatize rain water or any kind of natural water in the world.

The Corporation is an eye opening film that goes even further into the disregards of corporation's on people and uses very creative ways (checklist) to draw the watcher into the program. I just wish they would have shown the movie on a much more global scale, especially the third world countries that are being screwed over even worse than most Americans.

2/14-2/20 Media Journal

For my weekly journal I am going to talk about an ad in GQ magazine that I stumbled across while waiting to get my haircut. The ad pictured above is a picture of famous New England Patriot quarterback Tom Brady. It has many sex qualities in the ad including Brady being a strikingly handsome man with his shirt off to show off his body sculpted in football. It also shows a gorgeous blonde woman with her arms wrapped around Brady topless with what seems like nothing but a hat on. Stetson, the company showing the ad obviously knows the iconic nature of Tom Brady because in white letters it reads: Starring Tom Brady. Im guessing what Stetson is aiming at is engaging young men into believing that if they use this cologne, they too can get a gorgeous down to earth girl to get naked for them. It also is giving the notion that if you use the cologne you will look like Tom Brady and perhaps play football like Tom Brady. I believe that an underlying notion of the sexuality of this ad is if you use this cologne perhaps you can get a girl naked and have romantic moments on a lake. It also gives me the notion that by using this cologne, your life will be full of adventures and judging by the mountainous terrain in the background, you will also be closer to nature. This ad isn't as controversial as some of the other ads out there but, it definitely has some underlying sexual themes to it.

Reaction Essay: Simulcra and Simulations

For my Reaction essay on the article Simulcra and Simulations I am going to analyze Baudrillard's section of his article about hyperreal and imagery using Disney Land and real America. The problems I have with this part in his article is his definition of real America is Los Angeles. Los Angeles and real America should never be put in the same sentence with each other. When I think of real America, I think of Odessa, TX, Bayfield, CO, Stillwater, OK. I think of smaller towns that don't have the luxury of things that L.A. and Disney Land have. I am also going to discuss Baudrillards opinion of Disney Land being a place of escape for reality and not fantasy. The last thing I will be doing is analyzing Baudrillard's conveying America's profile through Disney Land.

In the section Hyperreal and Imagery he discusses social microcosm as the reason people come to Disney Land, not as a getaway but more for reality. "Disneyland is a perfect model of all the entangled orders of simulation. To begin with it is a play of illusions and phantasms: pirates, the frontier, future world, etc. This imaginary world is supposed to be what makes the operation successful. But, what draws the crowds is undoubtedly much more the social microcosm..." (Baudrillard 4). I disagree with this, I believe the imaginary aspect is precisely what draws the crowds from all over the U.S. I believe his thinking ties in with him believing Los Angeles is real America, I could understand the point of view of his if all towns were like Los Angeles but, their not.

People from smaller towns do not get to experience the fantasy world of pirates, princesses, goblins and only get to see them on television or movies. To be able to go to Disney Land is a once in a life time experience and I believe the fantasy aspect plays a huge part in getting people to come.

"The objective profile of the United States, then, may be traced throughout Disneyland, even down to the morphology of individuals and the crowd" (Baudrillard 4). I have no idea what he was trying to convey here but I don't see how you can say that the profile of the U.S. can be traced throughout Disney Land. Disney Land is completely fiction, they even have Disney Dollars, the currency is non existent. The characters are also made up of fiction and half are animals, maybe Baudrillard was talking about how it was run. Walt Disney's corporation being similar to all the other big cities and how they run things with propoganda? Baudrillard's examples leave a lot of questions for me.

The entire article was very hard to follow and did not make a whole lot of sense to me. The only sections I could remotely follow were the Hyperreal and Imagery and the Watergate reference sections. His logic could simply be over my head but, I have tried to analyze it over and over and none of it makes much sense to me. It seems to be a bunch of opinionated ramblings with different examples that do not work well. Overall I think his article was difficult to follow and pretty senseless.

Reaction Essay: War of the Worlds

In listening to the War of the Worlds radio lab I pondered about if that is possible in today's day and age. I honestly don't believe it could happen. Before 9/11.... possibly, after? Not a chance. During 9/11, even the news outlets would not confirm that we were under attack or this was a possible terrorism act. First reports were that it was a small commuter plane and had just accidentally flown in to the World Trade Center. I don't know how you accidentally fly in to one of the biggest buildings in the country but, that's for another story.

Americans especially were naive before 9/11 and didn't believe anything crazy like this could happen. Now we are a lot more cautious and don't believe everything we see. If I saw some bloodied up guy running towards me down the street screaming about aliens, I wouldn't start running with him down the street. I would need verification a la many other people running down the street or news companies everywhere.

News is instant now, if there is a UFO in La Plata county, when I log on to my home screen on my phone, there will most likely be a giant bulletin in red notifying me to get the hell out of Durango. If it is a fraud, the news will travel just as fast. Technology plays too big of a part in this day and age and anything of fraud is usually shown quickly.

Another argument is the radio does not reach enough audiences anymore. What do most people listen to now? College kids and the younger generation listen to their Ipod at home, in their car with an AM/FM transmitter. Their disconnected from the world around them now and do not know social and political topics anymore. The older generation, from what I can tell, usually listens to satellite radio and satellite radio obviously is not local and therefore scaring a city into thinking there are aliens would not be possible if it is not local. Reaching a broad audience is much harder than it was in the earlier years where radio was the only form of information and entertainment. More people are disconnected from the world and are centralized in their own likes and dislikes. Technology gives them that freedom but, it is also the culprit of the disconnection from the world.

Consumption Log 2/14

10-11 a.m.- Woke up, made Honey Nut Cheerios cereal, brushed teeth with Crest with Whitening POWER! Showered used Axe Body Wash and Garnier Fructis shampoo, both purchased because their appeal on commercials. turned on the tv to ESPN Sports Center to catch up on the sports I missed. After watching the NBA All-Star previews, I began to think about staying in for a bit tonight to actually watch the dunk contest.

11 a.m.- 1 p.m.- Surfed the internet got on facebook.com, okstate.com, fortlewis.edu, espn.com, etc. Saw a movie I particularly liked on cable, Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. Friend calls to tell me to come in to town to go boarding.

1:30-4:30- I drive in to town to meet with friends to go up to Purg. Listened to IPOD the entire time, particularly Atmosphere. Don't see a lot of billboards (0) on HWY 160. In Durango, exposed to much more advertising than Bayfield. More billboards, buildings with their logos, etc. Drove to Purg with friends, exposed to more music and during boarding I have my headphones in 99% of the time. Most of the time is used in the outdoors so no use for media other than personal music.

5:00-8:00- Spent time at friends listening to music and playing xbox 360 specifically Fifa 09 or unfortunately Halo.Watched a bit of television and after seeing a Domino's commercial on TV we decide to orderDominos pizza for dinner. Consider us sold on product advertisement. I then remembered about the dunk contest preview I watched on ESPN. I nearly kicked over the chair looking for my friends remote and putting it on TNT to witness the dunk contest. The dunk contest ended up being a complete dissapointment. Either way, ESPN and TNT got me to tune in and help their ratings.

8:00-1:00- Spent time at a friends apartment drinking Keystone for beer pong and playing games. Mostly exposed to music which is the biggest part of my daily routine I am finding out. Around 1 a.m. I realized the mountain had taken its toll on me and found my way to the couch and put on SuperBad to fall asleep to with music and chatter in the background.

Weekly Journal 2/8-2/14

You ever seen an ad that blows you away? Makes you want to go out and buy that product? I found that ad yesterday while surfing you tube. I became aware of the product, seller, buyer analogy instantaneously after watching the class video on Monday and Wednesday. This ad was no regular ad, it combined the right mix of star power, humor, and relativity to me to make me believe that buying this product will make me faster and attempt to race cars with some Nike's on. It related to me on the level of sports, I watch a lot of soccer and play a little bit but, sport ad's usually always catch my attention.

My next favorite ads are car related and seeing as the fastest production vehicle in the world is the car Cristiano Ronaldo is racing. The star power is there because the person racing the Bugatti Veyron is as mentioned earlier Cristiano Ronaldo, widely regarded as the best soccer player in the world today on the best soccer team in the world. He is seen as a world icon and one of the main players for Nike. The humor is there because he actually beats the fastest car in the world in the race which is comical because it is overplaying his superior speed to show you how light the boots their advertising are. There is also a part in the ad where the driver of the Veyron is revving his engine and Ronaldo is bouncing up and down as if to get ready himself.

I believe that is their selling point, the lightness and overall flash of the boot. I happen to like they way they look and can tell their light because of Ronaldo's ability to cut so easily and outrun the car. It just meshes very well, the flashiest and fastest car in the world racing the flashiest and fastest soccer player in the world who is wearing the flashiest and lightest boots in the world. The whole sequence fits together with a fitting ending of Ronaldo winning and holding his arms to his side as if to say "that was easy" when crossing the finish line. I didn't actually purchase any of the boots but, I did browse for a few days on the internet checking out prices.

Media Journal Feb.2 - Feb.6

For my journal, I will talk about the movie I watched this week. The movie I watched was Click with Adam Sandler. I haven't seen it before due to pretty crappy reviews from everyone I know. I decided to give it a try while channel surfing on Wednesday. After watching the movie, I came to the realization that this movie was not all that great and I probably should have heeded my friends' advice. The concept of the movie didn't really fit me well, I am not really into the movies that are above and beyond fiction, for example, a guy with a remote that can warp through time and change his pigment to the Incredible Hulk. I usually lean more towards the non-fiction or documentary. The one thing I noticed though was how much he changed from before the remote to after. At first, he couldn't get his family the nicer things in life but, was there for them physically. After time with the remote he was able to buy his family whatever they wanted i.e. son's dream wedding but, lost his wife in the process to another man and was not there physically at all which is evident when he flashes back to the last time he saw his father before he passed. I was able to see a message in the movie which to me was money can buy you alot of things but even in this day and age, family is what really matters and there is no way around that, money can't buy you a happy family and work won't make you a happier man.