Miss Representation

In the video MissRepresenatation, a main idea was that girls and young teenagers take their appearance and body very seriously. The media caters to the way that women "should" look like, knowing that most girls don't like look it normally. So the message that girls get are that they need to be this certain body type and wear certain clothes. Overall, they must change themselves to be appealing to men because it is men that women are supposed to be made for.

Applying this, I see everyday how girls try to make themselves appear to up to the standards that have been created by media. The problem with this is that girls change the way that beauty should perceived. I personally think that beauty can be seen within anyone and that no one person or group can define what beauty is. There is a problem with this because in today's society, there are groups that make girls think that beauty means doing one thing or another. It could be wearing certain clothing, or having their body being a certain shape. Not everyone can fit the same body type as the way that media makes girls think is true beauty. The media controls the way girls think, which I think is wrong. There is too much pressure on girls to be this certain way that they look past how they can look beautiful in their own way. It's like a crime to steal a women's beauty with a superficial appearance of beauty.

Connecting to this is how men objectify women. They don't care about the deeper feelings that women have and how they can be more than their surface level. This goes hand and hand with how girls make themselves look a certain because that's what has been told to them to be beautiful. Men see women as objects and that their main purpose is to make babies. There is an under representation of women in all fields in society because men control the society.

I have seen this objectification in my life and saw it recently in school. At a sports presentation, there were boys who were heckling one of the speakers who was explaining that when someone listens to rap, it causes them to objectify women. Then one of the boys yelled that women are objects, and I immediately realized how close to me that this reality of objectification is. Everywhere, boys are growing up and thinking that they can see girls as objects because they hear this message from music. Its really sad to know that this thought is accepted by people, but I have seen how real it is.

A picture of Victoria Secret models, one example of how media shapes how women and girls should look.

MOOKS MERCHANTS OF COOL

The definition of a book is a male who is stuck in adolescence. They act childish and seek fun by doing things that are over the top and wild. This type of character isn't made by nature though, its a creation of MTV. They brought the mook into existence and have made teen boys fascinated with what he promotes. What annoys me is that kids actually think that its ok to act like a mook. They don't see the problems with being a mook because they see it on TV and automatically assume that its ok to act like one. The way mooks act and what they value is very sad to me. It puts a bad reputation on all male teens who are different than being a mook.

The mook has become more "aggressive" in todays society than it was when the video was made. Now it highlights that men can be more crazy and obnoxious than what was previously accepted. This just makes it a bigger platform for males to behave and expect themselves to be. Mooks don't benefit anyone and they only make other males look childish.

The sad truth to the mook is that it works among teens and young males. The type of humor that a mook is involved in is what seems to be always trending in social media. Its always the guy who is trying to do something dumb but attention-grabbing or is doing something to make everyone else laugh. As much as I want the mook caricature to die, it will only grow as the boundaries are pushed as to how far they can be obnoxious.

More Eyes Than Mine

Now that I've seen multiple examples of media's effect on people and how media is used to make others be something they aren't, I've been able to see how I look at media compared to others. I used to not look at the deeper meanings of media and how they are having more of an impact than just me. I used to think that when I was affected by media, it would have the same effect as everyone else. I now see how this is wrong.

The past two videos I have watched in zero period have showed me that people will change to be certain characters that they aren't. Or they will act a certain way because older people do so. A scary example of this is when a girl was talking way to mature than her age was. She was acting like she was an adult when she was barely a teenager. And the way she talked and dressed was repulsive. I couldn't stand watching this thirteen-year-old girl talking in an interview like she was fully grown. It wasn't right. But because of media and the way that women speak and act, young girls pick up on this and feel that they need to act the same way.

When I saw this, I never would've been convinced to act like an older kid or try to fit the role that is displayed for men in media. I wouldn't have cared about it because I still see myself as a teenager who can't be like the men that are shown in media. But I now see that others are willing to change themselves so that they fit to these roles that people make. This all just shows how condescending media can be to the younger audience. The way that people act and the character that they display is like a role model for kids. They want to be exactly like the people on Tv or in the movies. It is wrong to think like this because kids still have a long life before they have to be adults and act like them. We're trying to be old while we are young. Everyone wants to seem mature, but its gone very far from what is acceptable.

As for me, I don't think Ill change the way that I see media. I don't think that I will be so influenced by it that I will completely change who I am so that I can be like the people in media. I see how this can be a way to be accepted by your peers, but it also stems from the fact that one doesn't accept themselves in their current state. Besides me, others see that they need to change so that they conform to the way that media wants them to think they need to be. Its unfortunate, but it works. So while I don't get affected much by the media, I have seen how many others take media more seriously in their lives than I do.

Risk Everything Nike Ad

After going over the marketing project for the past couple of days and seeing different ways that ads market to people, I was interested in more of the ads that I've liked throughout my life. There was one particular ad that I liked, an ad by Nike. The ad had a lot of famous soccer players playing soccer, which is why I liked it so much. But after looking back at it again, I saw the different techniques and appeals that were used in the ad.

One part of the ad that was constantly given to us over and over was the idea of the individual. In soccer, being a man player doesn't carry your team to win. Its all about the team effort. But in this ad, everything was about the individual. Whenever someone had the ball, it had them doing there own skill to try and score. Or it would have them doing something fancy in the game instead of doing simple things. The camera would was pan to one player at all times with the ball and focus on them. This further supports how they wanted people to think of themselves over others.

The implicit message I got from the ad was that by using Nike, you will stand out from everyone else.  The words they repeated in the ad were "Risk everything". These were meant to target the individual watching this and wants us to think that we are the ones who can make a difference. But in order to do so, we have to do everything ourselves. At the end of the ad, it shows a normal kid who takes the penalty kick away from Ronaldo, who is a very famous soccer player. He also happens to be very selfish when it comes to fame, so it made it all the more important that the kid took the ball from Ronaldo. He then went on to score and won the game for the team. Everyone celebrated and he was happy. Nike tries to tell us that by doing things yourself, you can make everything better. It could also be trying to show that when you will be liked if you risk everything and succeed, which was shown by everyone happy when they won the game.

Nike Ad

Trump Ad

After reading about Trump's first 100 days in office, I saw an a TV commercial for Trump that celebrated his first 100 days in office. Watching it made me laugh at how it was made. The ad starts by saying that Trump has had more success than almost any other president in the first 100 days. They appeal with a weasel word because they say almost, not all. So even though they  make it seem like Trump has done better than anyone else, they say that there are still others who have done better than him. This is despite the obvious opinions to how they feel Trump has done. It then just lists all the great things he's done from certain sources. But the best part is that it says "You wouldn't know it from watching the news" with "fake news" across the screen. But Trump has called The New York Times and NBC fake news; yet he refers to their articles for the successes he has had. I don't know who they tried to trick, but it was funny watching this. Their intended audience had to be people who don't feel that Trump has done well as president so far. They point out the good he has done and put us at fault because we have been watching "fake news". But the ad contradicts itself by supporting the news sources and attacking them, saying that they lie. This ad for Trump is also made only as a rebuttal to the people who don't think that Trump has done well. I've never seen an ad for a president that celebrates their first 100 days in office, though I would've have only been able to remember one. Besides that, the whole purpose of this ad was to make Trump appear to be doing good things. They glamoured the ad with stats that seem good and even have a family holding an American flag, using Patriotism technique. But the whole thing was ridiculous to me and I had to laugh when I saw it. I saw all the tools they used to make this ad reflect positives of Trump, but because I know certain techniques and needs and words used in ads, I wasn't convinced at what they were "selling" me. Trump Ad

Pursuaders

In The Pursuaders, one of the tools used by companies in the market is guerrilla advertising. This type of advertising focuses on putting their ad everywhere so that one will see it multiple times. This is an attempt at trying to get people to remember their company because after seeing their ads multiple times in different places, they remember who you are. Guerrilla advertising is one way to advertise in all the clutter that is in the world of ads. Instead of using conventional areas of advertisement, these ads can be found where its least expected. But a question to be asked about this type of advertising is whether it works or not. When people see an ad in multiple places, does it actually make them remember the company. In The Pursuaders, an ad for Adidas was projected onto the side of a building in New York City. All it was was the logo for Adidas, but this was all they wanted for their ad. By displaying it, thousands of people who were walking by would see it. I think that this type of advertising works because when you see an ad over and over, you will begin to remember who that company is. Like the Adidas example, I have seen certain ads where they just show the name. I started to remember the name after seeing the same ad for them everywhere. It may be excessive for an ad, but I do think that guerrilla advertising works. We are all "cockroaches" and are constantly sprayed with commercials. The guerrilla advertising is just now type of ad that has been made to get past the clutter of ads so that we see them.

TOO MANY ADS

This last weekend I was watching a long Youtube video. It was around thirty minutes long. I got the normal ad at the start of the video, which I was fine with because I've come to accept them. Then about five minutes in, another ad popped up. But this one was thirty seconds long and I couldn't skip it. I was annoyed, but I waited and then continued to watch the video. But then around another five minutes, another ad came up and interrupted the video. This time I was really frustrated because it was the third ad. After it finished, I clicked on the video to see the length. Within the video time, there were certain sections that had yellow markers on them. I realized that these were ads that were scheduled to play when I hit a certain time. There were still a couple more in the video after I had already watched three. It was very annoying to see this and have to watch them all. I had tried to skip over them, but it still didn't let me watch further before watching the ad. The creator of the video I know has to make money, but there were so many ads in just one video. It made me not want to watch anymore of the channels' videos. I think everyone could agree that they wouldn't want to watch an excessive amount of ads. I don't see how this could be designed to help certain people. It was a nuisance. I can't support videos when they have so many ads because it takes away from the flow of a video when it gets stopped at intervals throughout the video.

2 Media Source Comparisons

The two articles that I looked at were examining the speech that President Trump gave after the first 100 days of him being in office. Both The New York Times and CNN seemed to use words that were negative towards the content in the speech, but I think that NY Times was more critical. They describe how Trump felt the media was as "failing" and that it was dishonest. There were other words that could've been used to describe the thoughts that Trump had for the media, like lacking or incompetent. But they decided to use the word "failing" as a word that has a more negative connotation. It makes it seem worse than it really is. I think they did this so they could mock the way that Trump spoke about the media and how he thinks they are misleading. The Times also constantly note their own opinions about the first 100 days of Trump in office subtly. They say words like "turbulent" or "frenetic" to describe his time in office. The article shows its feelings about Trump, and they don't leave it very hidden. Other political articles I've read haven't been as explicit as I felt this article was. They tried to stay distant from opinion, but I could notice the words that were embedded in the article. It was fun to catch the certain words that were used. The CNN article was also not supportive of the speech that was given by Trump. They said that he "hit hard" at the media. They seemed to use words that weren't negative towards him, but used words that made the ideas he presented negative. They said that he was heavily scrutinized over his first 100 days in office, making it sound like he didn't do a good job. They also said that he has had the lowest approval rating since WWII. The words that were used attacked the things Trump has done as president, but didn't directly say that he was bad.

CNN Article

New York Times Article