In Class Discussion/Activities #5: What Are Unfair Advertising Practices?

I think that unfair advertising practices are tactics that advertising companies will use in order to get exposure for their product under any means necessary. I think that unfair advertising practices are most often aimed at children because they are the most vulnerable when it comes to advertising. According to Media Literacy by W. James Potter, the FCC has set specific times allowed by advertisers to advertise to children. 12 minutes on weekdays and 10.5 minutes per hour. Often companies will violate these regulations. W. James Potter discusses how young children don’t know the difference between content and commercials. Advertisers have to make a clear statement that they are advertising when it comes to products designed for children. Advertisers will play off the mental vulnerabilities of children. Since children lack maturation which is made up of cognitive development, emotional development, and moral development (Potter, J.W. 2007). Cognitive development means how your brain develops; connections are made, how you learn to understand and process information. Emotional development is a learning process of how you feel about certain things. Different life experiences effect your emotional development. Moral development is further a development than what is right and wrong.

The documentary “The Corporation”, by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, and Joel Bakan, discusses how advertisers will use children to get their parents to by products, which is known as the “nagging effect”. Nagging has caused parents to make purchases they wouldn’t have made otherwise. Advertising corporations use this to their advantage. If they can create nag worthy items then their products will sell well. According to “The Corporation”, “marketers are playing to development vulnerabilities [of children].” Advertising companies know that today’s children are “tomorrow’s adult consumers.” This means they need to understand what type of products they will by now in order to predict products for the future. “Build the relationship now and you’ve got them as an adult.” This means the advertising companies create wants in consumers so they keep buying and needing their products. Sometimes companies don’t follow the rules and are fined. For example, “Viacom was cited for 600 violations in one year and fined $1 million. Viacom blamed the problem on a human error (Shiver, 2004)” (Potter, W.J., 2007).

I think that it is important to make sure the line between commercial and TV show aren’t crossed. Host selling is also prohibited by the FCC. “Host selling is the use of a character from a TV show being the product spokesperson for products advertised in ads inserted into that program” (Potter,W. J., 2007). This means that within a show a certain product is clearly being advertised by a main character. If TV shows used characters rather than commercials people especially children would base their consumer decisions on whether or not the character liked the product or not. It is up to the advertising industry to create commercials to convince mass audiences to use their product. As with other unfair advertising practices some companies simply don’t follow the rules. “Disney was fined 500,000 and blamed the problem on a human error (Shiver, 2004)” (Potter, W.J., 2007).

Work Cited:
Potter, W. J. (2007). Media literacy. Minneapolis: Sage Publications, Inc.

Syllabus Blog #4: Reaction to "The Corporation" Documentary

“The Corporation” is a documentary by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, and Joel Bakan. This documentary examined the “nature, evolution, impact and possible futures of the modern business corporation.” The documentary was made by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, and Joel Bakan. A corporation is a business that represents many smaller businesses not that the businesses they represent are small in anyway. Fleet Bank, G.A.P., Versace, Equal, Lipton, M&M, Disney, Cartoon Network, and Best Buy are some of the companies represented by major corporations. These companies are run by various corporations. According to the documentary, “the corporation is today’s dominant institution.”

This documentary examined the impact of today’s big business corporations and how they have obtained so much power. According to the book, The New Media Monopoly by Ben H. Bagdikian there were only about fifty mass media corporations in 1963. Fifty sounds like a lot but in reality they were small and not as powerful at the mass media corporations that exist today. In a little over twenty years the number of mass media corporations shrank from fifty to five. The five mass media corporations are Time Warner, Viacom, Bertelsmann Corporation, News Corp, and Disney. Though Bertelsmann isn’t as big and influential as it once was it is still a major player as one of today’s major big business corporations in the mass media. The corporation was born in 1712 and then the modern age is where the corporation took on a life of its own. They use to be limited, but not there are basically any limits for corporations. I liked how they used Football as a metaphor for corporations. Each person plays their own role for one common goal in order to “succeed as an organization.” American big business corporations run this nation.

The documentary states, “The Corporation is part of a jigsaw of society and as a whole if you remove it the pictures incomplete.” Also, if corporations were the only part it wouldn’t work. This means that corporations need society as much as society needs corporations. The documentary also states that in America we just follow the leader. This means that we follow the latest trends according to what has become popular. We copy what we see in the media ignoring the actual messages being out by corporations. In the documentary “Merchants of Cool” the concert held by Sprite and MTV was made to make Sprite look good. Viewers would never realize that the teenagers were paid fifty dollars each to appear at the event. The concert was just a tactic to get teenagers reintegrated with Sprite products. The documentary also discussed the notion of “bad apples” in the corporate world. Corporations cause a great deal of wealth but there are very many hidden harms. The problem is we as a society doesn’t know what corporations are up to behind closed doors.

A portion of this documentary discusses the advertising industry and their hidden goals. Advertising is everywhere, “like a telephone it reaches everywhere and its powerful and impossible to avoid.” For example, Time Square wasn’t created to be pretty it was created to be a massive build board for the most popular products, people, and organizations. It is impossible to avoid being advertised to when you are there. We are constantly being bombarded with advertisements. “Corporations are like monsters trying to devourer as much profits as possible at anyone’s expense.” This means a corporation is like a whale, gentle and big, but can swallow you whole in a second.

I found it interesting that according to the documentary people who work for big business corporations don’t like the word “corporation”. Robert Keyes, who is president and corporate executive officer (CEO) of Canadian Council for International Business says he prefers the word “business” or “business community”. This means that they don’t want people to realize how much power they actually have. Something also found interesting is that corporations think they are a “person” so in a court of law they are considered a “person”. This means that corporations can live under the pretense that they are like “us”. They use this to their advantage because then they can get away with things. A corporation can’t be arrested only fined. This means that the 14th amendment that protected slaves also protects major corporations. Is that really fair? A corporation isn’t a person, but made up of people and each person should be held accountable for their actions as an individual.

Michael Moore came up with the notion that there is “No Such Thing as Enough” for corporations. This means that corporations are never satisfied with what they have and they always want more no matter who they hurt. Kathy Lee Gilford and Wal-Mart put labels on clothing stating that if you purchased the clothing a portion of the proceeds would go to various children’s charities. The disturbing thing is that it is children who are making the clothing. Corporations hide this fact and look like heroes because they are sending money to children charities. They exploit people and come out on top anyway.

This documentary was very eye opening to me. I am now more conscious about what I am purchasing and where the money is going. I try not to support companies that exploit people. The statistics about how much a product costs to make, how much the worker is paid, and how much consumers pay for a product are mind boggling. I thought this documentary brought light to things that corporations try to keep hidden for example their hidden agendas especially in the advertising industry and the clothing industry.

Work Cited:

Bagdikian, B. H. (2004). The new media monopoly. Boston, Massachuetts: Beacon Press.

In Class Discussion/Activities #4: Photograph of "Cool"

"Cool" People Magazine:

I chose People magazine because it contains what is "cool" and "instyle" that month. People magazine is a way that trends begin. People recognize the celebrities in the magazine and see them representing a certain style. Then, everyone copies the style and this is how trends be
The "Cool" View from my house:

This is the view from my house. I chose this picture to represent "cool" because clothing isn't the only thing that can be trendy. This photograph represents that locations are also trendy. In class, we discussed geographic segmentation in regard to advertising to a niche audience. Niche advertisements are designed to reach a certain type of audience depending. In Geographic segmentation advertisers will put their ads together in such a way to attract people from certain area. For example, where I live their are many magazines available to people who live in my town and on the water. The magazines will have special information on events that happening and products to buy if you live on the water. In the book Media Literacy W. James Potter discusses geographic segmentation and several changes that have occurred. He states that "each year, 20% of the population moves to a new home", which causes areas to change. He also says that locations are becoming less "homogenize", this means that neighborhoods aren't as similar as they use to be.

"Cool" Converse:

This is my converse collection. I think it is "cool" because whereever you go you find different styles of converse. The funny thing is this isn't my whole collection just the ones I didn't have to dig for. Each represents a different time in my life and style for that particular day.The high tops are from my high school days which is why they look so warn out. "Cool" is different for every person. For me having different shoes was "cool". I remember in 8th grade everyone bought a pair of either low top or high tops. The people who started to wear converse shoes after they were "popular" again were called "posers" in my school.

My "Cool" UGGS:

I remember about six years ago my sister bought her first pair of UGGs. They weren't really big yet. I think my sister is the first person I saw wearing Uggs. Then out of the blue everyone had UGGs. I have to admit I wanted a pair because I thought that if everyone had UGGs that I should get a pair as well.

I think that both UGGs and Chuck Taylor Converse shoes are "cool" because they both represent an image. I think that UGGs and Converse is a trend in its self because you are open to something different. Sometimes I want to preppy and other times I want to be punk. It all depends on my mood. I also like to mix and match preppy and punk. In the Look Look press kit it discussed how they have people who go out and find new trends before they have been discovered. Trends just erupt over night, but people seem to think that the trend wasn't there all ready. The interesting thing I am learning about trends is that they were here all along they just hadn't been discovered or marketed yet. Look Look works with big companies to find the trends to market and sell.

In Class Discussion/Activities #3: Look Look Press Kit Critique

L00k L00k's Press Kit

Look Look was developed in 1999 by DeeDee Gordon and Sharon Lee. They use to work for the L-Report together and decided to leave and start their own company. From their press kit I was under the impression that they go out and find original material for their clients in order for trends to become trends. Look consists of 35,000 “trendsetting and mainstream young adults who are there to inform and inspire clients’ most important business decisions.” I found it really interesting that Look Look hirers people to go all around the world looking for people who contain new insight for new trends. The team that goes out into the field to give birth to new trends is called, “the Youth Information Specialists.” According to their press kit, Look Look applies its “part sociologist and part statistician’s cutting edge infrastructure to both inform and inspire.” Either they have a really good publicist or that is really great line they came up with. It is important when dealing with clients who want to make sure to stay updated on current information involving their business. They want to inspire people no only be educated but be inspired to be unique and different.

The Look Look press kit describes youth as a “constantly mutating audience.” So, it is important that their clients to understand youth culture. The youth are the ones that set the trends. Trends arise from the ashes and then fall. Trends kill themselves. What I got from the press kit by Look Look is that The Look Look network is focused on finding trends. They go out into society to find certain people that march to their own drum; a unique person. “The Look Look network doesn’t follow the curve of culture, it swells before it (pg. 5) “The Look Look network connects clients with their target audience, with complete flexibility. The Look Look network emphasizes the importance forging a working relationship with the target audience from the beginning. In other words they strive to connect a client with their desired audiences no matter what.

In Class Discussion/Activities #2:Super Bowl Critique

This commercial is an advertisement for Bud Light. This commercial consists of people who are stranded on an island after a plane crash trying desperately to get home. One of the stranded passengers walks over to the others and tells them she has found the planes radio equipment in hopes to getting off the island. The others have no emotional response as if they aren’t happy by the news. Then, another passenger gets their attention by saying he “found the planes beverage cart and [that] it’s full of Bud Light.” They instantly become excited and say things like “we are going to be okay.” At the end of the commercial, the same passenger that found the radio is almost gets in contact with a rescue team and someone turns the radio to a music station.To me this commercial is also sending the message that in order to have a good time you need to have an alcoholic beverage in your hand. It demonstrates our need to live in the moment and have a good time no matter where we are. Even if never seeing your friends and family is at stake at least your having fun at least until the Bud Light runs out.

This commercial is playing off the popular television shows “Survivor” and “LOST”. I would say it plays off of lost the most since LOST seems to be the most talked about show. I have never seen it but I know that a lot of people who can’t get enough of the show. This commercial was directed to the mass media. According to Media Literacy by W. James Potter, “mass media” must consist of four characteristics. Mass media must be heterogeneous, anonymous, have no audience interaction, and no social organization.

Work Cited:
Potter, W. James. Media Literacy. Minneapolis: Sage Publications, Inc, 2007

Syllabus Blog #3: Create A Poster

I designed an advertisement for a costume shop I created that sells Halloween costumes. The costumes in the store can be used for various occasions as well. I personally think that Party City has really great costumes but a lot of them are expensive. I decided to make a shop where year round you can find costumes that aren't expensive. This poster was designed for mass audience. According to Media Literacy by W. James Potter for the media to be considered "mass", an audience must contain four characteristics. First, the audience must be heterogeneous. Second, the audience members must be anonymous. Third, there must be no interaction among audience members. Forth, no social organization. "The mass media construct audiences so they can rent those audiences out to advertisers" (Media Literacy, pg. 43). This means that the "mass media", those six major corporations I discussed earlier, come up ways to use us (the audience) as advertisements. For example, the reason why North Face clothing says North Face is so that when wearing the clothing we advertise to new consumers. If it weren't for the audience a product, television show, or clothing line would never prosper.

This advertisement is heterogeneous, it was designed for all different types of people. It is also anonymous in that no one specific type of person is targeted. This advertisement is also not affiliated with any specific social groupings. This advertisement wasn't designed for a specific group.

Work Cited:

Potter, W. James. Media Literacy. Minneapolis: Sage Publications, Inc, 2007.



I decided to design another poster for fun. While I was making this poster I was having a battle with myself between whether this is a "mass" advertisement or a "niche" advertisement. I realized that even though the hair color is red its not specifically designed for red heads. It was designed for people who want to dye their hair red. The purpose of hair dye is to dye your hair any color you want. You don't have to be a specific type of person. You just need hair and to want to changed your look. This poster is heterogeneous and its anonymous.

Syllabus Blog #2: Pick An Advertisement and its correlate popular culture; identify the audience?

In the article “The Efficacy of Brand-Execution Tactics in TV Advertising, Brand Placements, and Internet Advertising” Jenni Romaniuk discusses how advertisements are designed and what they need to succeed. According the Jenni Romaniuk, “The key mechanism for communicating the brand is direct branding execution, which is how the brand name is presented throughout an advertisement. This execution consists of an advertisement's mode, its timing, and its structure—all of which can help a brand name "cut through" other media clutter and be noticed by viewers.” This means that advertisements mode, timing, and structure are the building blocks for an advertisement's execution. If all three aren’t present in the ads then the ad's message won't be heard correctly.

The advertisement above is for the new Verizon phone called the Droid. The phone was released in November. The Droid is similar to the iPhone but very different as well. The Droid has so many capabilities that go beyond the iPhone and any other Smart-phone on the market. For example, the Droid is the first smart phone that uses the new Android 2.0 technology. The audience that is being a addressed in this commercial is 15-35 year old men and women who are iPhone owners or Verizon customers. The audience of this specific commercial is probably people who like art because this commercial is very artistic. The commercial uses art and visuals to attract you even more than the usual phone commercial. This commercial makes fun of skinny girls with little dogs in order to show the phone isn't dainty like a women. The problem that this commercial is addressing is that before this phone version customers would have to switch to AT&T if they wanted a phone like the Droid but now they don’t have to and some customers will switch to Verizon for the Droid. The objective of this commercial is to introduce the Droid while trying to disregard the iPhone. Droid’s slogan is “In a World of Doesn’t. Droid Does.” According to the slogan the iPhone and all the other cell phones isn't capable of performing the tasks that the Droid can. The Droid can run apps simultaneously which the iPhone is incapable of doing. The Droid also consists of a 5.0 megapixel camera, which is just as many pixels as a good quality digital camera. The commercial also addresses the fact that the Droid is fast. They describe the phone as “Fast, Racehorse duck taped to a scud missile fast.” In order to appeal to an artistic crowd the commercial uses vivid imagery, vibrant coloring, and very creative graphics. I think this commercial has gone where no commercial has gone before which also represents the Droid as a cell phone. The Droid incorporates so many different advances in the world of technology.

The commercial grabs the audiences’ attention just simply with the word choice and the way that it attacks the iPhone without directly mentioning the iPhone. My favorite line of the ad is “Should a phone be pretty? Should it be a tiara wearing digitally clueless beauty pageant queen?” This is a direct stab at the iPhone, but it is cleverly worded to make you only think about the words they are using. I know that when I watched this commercial for the first time I instantly wanted a Droid. Who doesn’t want a cell phone where you can do several things all at once on the same screen? I was instantly drawn in by the word choice. The words used in this advertisement create images. Each image and word used in this ad causes the audience to understand exactly how fast or how unique the Droid is. It is very important in advertising for the audience to clearly understand the way a product works. The commercial is really effective because it makes you fell like you can’t live without the Droid and that there is nothing like it. “The phone is not a princess it’s a robot.” I think a lot of money went into the making of this commercial because the commercial has a lot of transitions. Also, because the commercial is very high tech and this represents the product.

I found an interesting article called, "What Matters most in Advertising Campaigns?" by Ban van den Putte. According to the article, “every year, more and more money is spent on advertising. Between 1997and 2006, television expenditures rose by 24% in the United Kingdom, by 43% in the Netherlands, and as much as 57% in the US. But is all this money well spent.? Lodish et al. (1995) found that increasing the television advertising budget was effective for 55% of the brand introductions studied, but only for 33% of the established brands (though a recent update of this study showed that advertising campaigns became more effective after 1995). Den Putte states is wondering whether its "money well spent on advertising." I think that just because you spend more money on advertising doesn't necessarily mean that your product is going to become successful. I am sure there are plenty of companies who have spent more money and have done better but that doesn't mean that this is always the case. I think that it is important for companies to understand that they don’t need to spend a lot of money on commercials for products that have been a round a long time and that are already to firmilar to most audiences. t. The companies need to save their money to spend on advertisements for new products. I do understand that sometimes it is necessary to being an old product back to life by making a splashy new commercial.

Work Cited:

Ban van, den Putte. "What Matters most in Advertising Campaigns?" International Journal of Advertising 28.4 (2009): 669-90. . EBSCO.

Romaniuk, Jenni. "The Efficacy of Brand-Execution Tactics in TV Advertising, Brand Placements, and

Internet Advertising." Journal of Advertising Research 49.2 (2009): 143-50. . EBSCO.

In Class Discussion/Activities #1: JINGLES/COMMERICALS

1967 Bounty Commercial:


2009 Bounty Commercial:
The first commercial (above) for Bounty paper towels was created in 1967. It was the first televised commercial for Bounty paper towels. Since special effects had just started becoming popular the 1967 commerical used special effects to attract customers. In the first commerical the slogan is "It Absorbs Like Magic" and then in the commercial the stand magically zaps away. Fast Forward about 42 years and the Bounty commercials don't really use special effects anymore. I think that because the product was new they wanted to start with a bang. Now since you either use Bounty paper towels or you don't there is no point in spending the money for special effects in a paper towel commercial. Now in the new commercials they create real life situations in which messes can arise. They impress consumers by showing well their product can clean up a mess. This is represented in the second commercial where the mother and daughter are building a paper mache world. The narrator in this commercial calls the present Bounty paper towel "The thirstiest yet" paper towel. Now in commercials they state that tests have been done to prove that their product is better than the others. This is a way to get consumers to by the product if they know that actual tests have been done. In the previous commercial they just stated that it was better than the leading brand of papertowel. Today the slogan for Bounty paper towels is "The Quilted Quicker Picker Upper", which is better than the previous one because it is a tune with the way the product works in reality. Magic isn't real so using words that effectively show the products quality is very important especially in the advertising business. Plus, it is so catchy that when you are shoeing for paper towels that you might chose Bounty just because it's "the Quilted Quicker Picker Upper."

Before DVR and TiVo you would have to watch all the commercials. I chose Bounty because I will always remember watching the commercials and hearing the slogan “The Quilted Quicker-Picker-Upper.” I use to make messes on purpose just so I could use Bounty to clean them up. I use to say the “The Quilted Quicker Picker Upper" while I was cleaning. Bounty reminds me of my childhood innocence.