I'm tired and I like colors

Hello, I am back, and more tired than ever. 

For this weeks' blog post, I will be analyzing a Nike print ad. Much fun, very interesting. 

This print ad caught my attention very quickly, mainly because of it's bright colors contrasted with the black background. Also, the overall effect using liquid and motion is very visually pleasing and eye-catching. 

We can obviously see Nikes use of reification, as they famously do for most of their ads. The only things actually in this commercial is the shoe and the Nike symbol at the bottom left. One basic appeal that this ad conveys is the need for autonomy. It branches out and presents this look that isn't something that you see everyday. It is going beyond what you normally would think of for an ad for an athletic shoe. It says "Look at me, I'm not only different from everybody else, but I'm better than everybody else." Another need that this ad appeals to is the need for attention. Because this shoe is represented as no other shoe (no other shoe is liquid), it immediately catches your eye and says, "Hey look at me. You could be me. You could catch everyone's attention."  It wants you to feel like you need to have attention from everyone else. 

Goodnight.

Buying Books I'll Probably Never Finish and Telling You to Watch Movies You'll Never Watch

Here is a photo of one of the many books I bought a long time ago that I have yet to finish. But let's really think- why did I buy this book? What persuaded me to spend my own money to buy this one book?

First of all, I'm obsessed with Sylvia Earle. She is the most amazing human being and it's like #1 on my to do list to meet her. She is just so inspiring to me and has actually helped me realize what I want to do in life and what I am truly passionate about. Let's start the hashtag #noticemesylvia to get me noticed by her oh my god yes TEAMWORK!

Ok, ok I'm tired and getting off topic. My main point was that probably my main reason why I bought this book is purely because my idol wrote it (tsk tsk Grace, you should know better than that). The designers clearly successfully used the technique transfer/association. I noticed her name and boom, I bought it.

Of course, there had to be other things that influenced me to buy this novel. I did strictly just buy because of her name. It had to have caught my attention first.

Well, my favorite color is blue, and in big, bolded, all-capitalized letters, the word blue sticks right out on the cover. I probably look closer at it and saw all of the pelicans which caught my attention more (pelicans+BLUE=?). I then probably stopped to actually look at it, maybe pick it up and read the back.

I think there are two appeals this cover includes. One is need to nurture, because on the front it reads "How our fate and the ocean's are one," and shows cute pelicans right underneath it. Having a feeling of "I want to save and help these pelicans, they don't deserve to die" come straight to my head, it shows the appeal need to nurture. I think this cover also appeals to the need to escape because it shows the ocean in the background, making me nostalgic of the beach, and the pelicans also enhance this effect, this desire to just go. Also, the little symbol of National Geographic creates an effect on me. Whenever I think of National Geographic, I think of rainforests, the deep ocean, the savannah, nature. These things make me want to get on a plane and travel again.

To anyone who is interested in this book or Sylvia Earle or really anything about oceanic environment rehabilitation and conservation, you should really check out Earle's movie Mission Blue, which is available on Netflix!! It really changed my perception and really how extreme this problem is... and how we just aren't noticing (I may or may not have cried during this film).

I guess my media blog about ads has turned me into an ad!! I'm serious though go watch the movie.

Puppies and Cute Guys

To be completely honest, I had no idea what to do for this weeks post!!! So here I am, posting about my boyfriend, Andrew Hozier-Byrne.

You probably know him as Hozier, and he is famously known for is incredible song, "Take Me to Church" *heart eyes*. However, today I will not be taking and evaluating that song. I will be analyzing his music video and lyrics for his song "Cherry Wine", which is raising awareness about domestic violence, which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdSCCwtNEjA (Please watch it!! Show sum love <3)

This video (and the overall song) is really sweet, or so it seems. When I first watched/ heard this song, I thought it was beautiful. I still think that, but I find it beautiful in a new light. It's a very simple song and a very simple video, but an overwhelmingly powerful message.

The video starts out as a young woman staring at herself in the mirror, with her hair slightly covering her left eye. The song starts with the light notes on the guitar, and is all acoustic. The lyrics begin.
Her eyes and words are so icy
Oh but she burns
Like rum on the fire
Hot and fast and angry as she can be
I walk my days on a wire.

Here, he is explaining his relationship with this woman. By saying he "walks his days on a wire", this is implying he is always on the look-out, he never feels safe. He has to watch his balance, because if something goes wrong, he will cause her to flame up and cause a "fire." What I like about this stanza is that he does acknowledge that domestic violence comes in verbal form ("words so icy") and not just physical form.

His lyrics go on to say
It looks ugly, but it's clean,
Oh momma, don't fuss over me.

This is implying that he got hurt, and received some sort of physical trauma, like a bruise. He is using an excuse like "I'm fine", "Don't worry about it", "Don't fuss over me." 

He then says the chorus for the first time
The way she tells me I'm hers and she is mine
Open hand or closed fist would be fine
The blood is rare and sweet as cherry wine.
Batterers tend to see people as objects, possessions rather than as human beings with individual wills. They can do what they want, but the beaten party cannot. The abused must listen very precisely, an obedient servant, or their means of enforcing compliance, physical violence, will come out. The looming threat ensures compliance, their complete possession of their property.


Meanwhile, battered parties tend to see being beaten as a sign of love. The passion of the anger is interpreted as indicative of exactly how much, how passionately their abuser cares about them. 
The really terrible thing about this is that with enough exposure, if an abused person is attempting a relationship with someone who isn't abusive, they tend to interpret the lack of cutting words and beatings as apathy -- as a lack of love on the part of their lover. Hence, it's very specifically getting hit and abused and "corrected" that makes battered people know that they're loved, that their abuser's heart is theirs. They couldn't feel so angry, so passionate about their failures if they didn't really, really love them.

Gosh it ain't even Emo Friday yet!! What the heck Grace??

Here's a really adorable puppy eating a tiny biscuit and a tiny cappuccino to make yourself happy. :D 

Modern Family or MADISON Family??

I always knew that product placement within TV shows was undeniable. You unconsciously see it everywhere, in every show. When I was brainstorming for Madison and Vine examples, I immediately went to this for some reason:

Has anyone thought why on every single season of American Idol they drink out of Coca-Cola cans?? For all we know, they could be drinking Pepsi!

??????

I mean, honestly. 

But I'm not going to talk about the outrageous product placement in American Idol. I am, however, going to talk about another beloved family TV show... Modern Family!!

Modern Family is probably one of my favorite TV shows (mainly because I wish my dad was as cool as Phil Dunphy :/). I used to watch it all the time, but I have to admit I've been slacking. When I was looking up examples of Madison and Vine, I saw one of Modern Family. I then looked up only Modern Family product placement, and I could not believe what I found! It seems as if every single scene has product placement, whether it's Oreos in the kitchen, or the kids on their iPhones. The show has managed to put a product  in every single scene, and I didn't notice! How sneaky!

What went first through my head was, "No, this isn't actual product placement. This is just to enhance the effect that they are 'real-life people': they're a working class family with kids and a mini van..." and then I realized, well duh, that's exactly why the products are in there: to advertise with the "plain folks" technique. If Claire Dunphy can get through her hectic day with her Toyota, well by-golly I better look into a Toyota mini van! This is exactly the reason why the products are placed within the show, to make you unconsciously realize "I need this product because it will make my life easier. I need this product because it will make me look cool." Or even, "I need this product strictly because I saw it on a show."

An example of Phil trying to brainwash you.

An example of EVERYONE trying to brainwash you.

An example of Claire trying to brainwash you.

Wake up, America!! The Dunphy's are trying to brainwash you!

Sorry, but I don't need a car company to tell me I'm awesome.

Ah, the Super Bowl. America's favorite time to break out the queso and bean dip and sit on the couch and the only time we pay attention to commercials. How can you not?? They get so good!

For some reason, and I will literally never understand why, I have an extremely good memory with brands and jingles and commercials. For some reason it runs in my family (my cousin has the same gift). Whether this is really a super power or not, I can easily remember most of the commercials from this past Super Bowl, including the Pokemon commercial, Colgate commercial, and who can forget the #puppymonkeybaby commercial for Mountain Dew. 

However, out of all of these, the one that made the most impact on me was one for a car company, Mini Cooper, which you can see here:

This made such a huge impact on me and actually the way I view commercials because what Serena was preaching had absolutely nothing to do with Mini Coopers. Nothing. How??

The video starts off with Serena explaining what labels she has been called and then goes on to explain how "you need to define yourself" "motivate yourself to be the best that you can be." I totally agree with you girl, you do you, you go empower women and emphasize how we all need to be ourselves. I have absolutely nothing wrong with that. My problem is, however, why they are using this speech for a car. Why does it take a car company and football to make this message conveyed and heard?

As a girl, I was super into this commercial and like, "Yeah, Serena, you rock, you tell the haters." But the minute she says, "Mini is a car brand..." I can't help but just roll my eyes. It infuriates me that it has to take a bunch of men rolling around and punching each other trying to get a ball just so a women can preach and say what is needed to be heard: Empower yourself. You are you. Define yourself. I appreciate that Mini Cooper is even expressing these words, but it shouldn't take the Super Bowl for them to make this type of commercial. 

Ok, now let's get some appeals in here. This commercial screams need for autonomy which is good, especially that an African American woman (minority) is expressing it, explaining being yourself is all good! Need to achieve is also prominent in this commercial-- Serena literally says "just go out there and do nothing less than win." 

I am glad that I was finally able to express my anger (and also gratitude???) for this commercial because I think that it was one of those that kind of got unnoticed. Yay for individuality!!

Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice

The two articles I will examining are arguing against the big controversial topic of abortion. Pro-choice: http://www.prochoiceactionnetwork-canada.org/abortioninfo/misconce.shtml and Pro-Life: http://www.tfpstudentaction.org/politically-incorrect/abortion/10-reasons-why-abortion-is-evil.html

I'm pretty sure we all can assume anything on this topic will have some very strong language. Let's dive in!

Well, first off, the strong language is very clear just within the title of Pro-life; it uses "evil" giving off the immediate connotation and tone that this is going to a heavy article. It gives off the sense right off the bat that anything remotely related to abortion is nothing but "evil." The article decides to prove their case through a number of specific arguments, and the first is "Abortion Offends God." It then goes on to explain that everyone should put God first, whether or not that person is struggling or even has an opinion. It explains that "There are no exceptions allowed, no compromises possible." By using this language, the author(s) are clearly and very honestly saying that no one is entitled to have their own problems, because God endured so much more than any of us. No compromises means rape and molestation are just a part of life, something that someone has to go through. I'm sorry, are my morals and ethics showing? 

Throughout the entire article, the writer(s) address the same thing over and over again: that the lives of more than 57 million innocent babies [are] cruelly torn from their mothers' wombs. Not by only using this strong and forceful language, the repetition is also a useful tool. Every time they say that abortion has "killed 57 million babies," I am reminded that that is 57 million lives lost. I am forced to feel the pain of those who have been killed, I am supposed to feel the pain within the families and the mothers. That is what this article is great at doing. Making me feel guilty, making me genuinely feel like I have done something wrong. But then they go on to say the gay marriage is sin, and that's when I have to stop reading. 

The language used in the Pro-choice is much softer; I don't feel like I'm being yelled at or punished. This article also uses the same format just without numbers. It presents arguments that are said by Pro-lifers, but then it explains the fault within it. For example, a common argument for Pro-life is Abortion is dangerous and medically risky. It is not as safe as natural pregnancy. Abortion increases the risk of miscarriage in future pregnancies, and infertility. However, the pro-choice argument goes on to say "The risk of dying from childbirth is about 13 times that for early abortion, and the overall abortion complication rate is extremely low, about 25 times lower than for childbirth." It uses actual data and proof, and to me, this is much more compelling than just repetition or yelling at me. This language is strong in the way that it is credible, rather than strong is the sense with tenacious connotations. 

Clearly, these two arguments are compelling, but definitely in their own ways.

Is this a Makup Tutorial or Makeup Ad?

As a 16-year-old, it almost seems like a requirement to watch at least 20 videos in a row on Youtube, when I really only had the intention of watching one. However, that is not the point to my story. The point of this blog is for me to vent out my feelings on really how much we all get overloaded with ads, specifically on Youtube.

Youtube is like the motherland for all ads. I had recently just been on the Marc Jacobs website because I'm getting low in one of my perfumes. I was on the site for 10 minutes, maybe 15. I go to Youtube maybe like an hour later to watch a makeup tutorial, and the first thing that pops up before I start my video is a Marc Jacobs perfume ad. Slightly irritated, I go and proceed with my makeup tutorial (which you can find here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gikwcLuUli4). Andrea Russett, who is one of my favorite Youtubers, is someone I wouldn't take for intentional vagueness, yet when I start the video, I can hear it from the beginning. Throughout the entire video, she says that "Oh this product is definitely the best one out there," or "I have never seen any mascara better than this one." Throughout the clip, the vagueness is extremely prevalent. I then thought to myself, "Does every Youtuber do this?" I then clicked on some random tutorial makeup video in the sidebar to test my hypothesis, and sure enough, within the first minute she explains that she's "obsessed with [this] product." (the link to that video is here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaVw6qwOox8)

Now when I think about it, most Youtubers do this at least once in their video, whether they reference to their furniture or their clothes and or anything else, it's actually really astounding how I never really noticed before Critical Thinking. Thanks Mr. Starace!