Reflection

After completing the media blogs for this class, I have realized that media is more prevalent in our lives than I even knew. Advertisers use a large variety of different strategies to make people buy their product or even the lifestyle that they are trying to sell. Although I don't consider myself to be very affected by the marketing universe, associations that I make with products and lovemarks such as Nike attracts me to the product more than I realize. The consumerism that marketing always will promote can be dangerous, as it leads people to buy things that they don't need, or that aren't as good as they thought they would be.

However, not all media is "dangerous to the human race." Songs and movies that we see every day, although advertising can be seen in them, are very good entertainment and have a place in the world. Also, things such as video games are extremely fun and aren't necessarily dangerous. The main focus of new media is to make progress so that the perfect experience for people. Although money is behind this, media is not a bad thing. The main issue with media is that it can be used to deceive consumers, not to help them, and is misused by some advertisers and media giants.

Can't Hold Us with a Deeper Meaning

The song "Can't Hold Us" was made by the emerging rap artists Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, who grew in fame after releasing "Thrift Shop" which went viral on Youtube as well as being played all over the radio. This song is different, however, in that it is a  bit less materialistic, and more based on ideals. Instead of talking about all the things he found at a thrift store, the artist focuses on deeper subjects.

Throughout the song Macklemore talks about giving back to the people and spreading the song all around the world. The song has a theme of unity all through the song, showing people of all races holding the flag which says "The Heist" on it, which is the name of the album. The song shows Macklemore in the north with sled dogs, but immediately the scene changes to a man on a camel in the desert, and then back to the city, then a beach, and so on until the flag is shot into the sky on a firework and Macklemore skydives down onto a building with the flag and hoists it up for all to see. The music video is very random in that respect, as the route of the flag makes no real sense. The song speaks of people coming together and I enjoy listening to it, even though I don't normally like rap songs.

Miss Representation in Games

The free-roaming open world video-game, Saints Row 3, is entirely ridiculous on so many levels. However fun it may be to blow things up, go on free-for-alls through the streets in pimped out cars hitting prostitutes, or shoot up night clubs and annihilate enemy gangs, this game misrepresents women in so many ways. 

In no way does this game ever depict a modest woman with a successful, normal job walking around. Pretty much every woman in the gang is a hooker or a gang leader wearing no clothes, and there are missions in the game where the point is to transport prostitutes around the city. This game objectifies women so far to the point of having a "sex appeal" option in the character selection to maximize, for lack of a better word, sex appeal.

Although killing women with cars and guns is encouraged in games such as Saints Row 3, the same happens to men in the game, albeit less frequently. Clubs in the game do have male prostitutes along with females and they are killed on a mass scale, as the women are. Despite this, there are men in the game that just walk around the city wearing professional clothing. For women, the only time you will find someone dressed modestly or professionally is they are a cranky old woman who attacks your character with their cane.

Im done with or

I find this commercial hilarious, as its main driving force is the wit and humor technique. Although I am not a personal fan of Coke Zero or Diet Coke and I find the "no calories" ploy to be a scam, it does make the product look good. Also the advertisement does show some of the avante garde technique as it is trying to get people to stop taking or and making new things, like new movie genres and groundbreaking sodas with the same great taste but no calories. The guy in the advertisement who decides he has had enough with having to choose one or the other also happens to be Ken Jeong, a comedian well known for being in the extremely popular movie series, The Hangover. Using this testimonial in the commercial will make the product seem more attractive because a really funny comedian is endorsing the product.

Also, this commercial is dependent on music for making some of its point. The song "war," which Ken Jeong sings at the end, is not only wit and humor, but also a clever way to say that this new coke product gets rid of needing to choose, getting rid or "or," which is a very decisive way to sell a product.

Beyond Dreams

This song, "Beyond," is part of the Random Access Memories, the album released on May 21, 2013 by Daft Punk, the French electronic music duo. This album is new in many ways, as the songs in the album are different from Daft Punk's normal style.

This song is extremely creative, as all the songs in the new album are, and unique from all the rest. Using instrumentals with electric violins and dramatic rising music and then transitioning into the synth vocals is a unique way of presenting a song. Also the violin in the background throughout makes the atmosphere of the song very calm. Daft Punk did a very good job of making the song upbeat but dramatic. The synth voices and electronic music are a very common element for Daft Punk and they are not overused unlike some other electronic songs.

Having already listened to this song and every other song in the album many times, I can say that the song is not only good, but also catchy and something that can be listened to over and over again (I also think Daft Punk's helmets are awesome).

Who's that Lady?

This commercial is extremely dependent on the wit and humor of the viewers who watch the commercial. It does not matter much if the viewer did not grow up with the song that plays in the background. However, the commercial is clearly targeting middle-aged people who grew up hearing that song. It also uses the wit and humor appeal by animating the fake flamingo and the broom, making them seem like they are in love by playing the music in the background.

Another element of this commercial is the use of magic ingredients to advertise the product. The advertiser says that electrostatic fibers will pick up the rest of the items on the ground. They don't explain how "electrostatic fibers" even work, but since the name sounds cool, it must work.

This commercial capitalizes on the stereotype of the stay-at-home mom who cleans the house and is so tired from cleaning the house that they need an amazing new product that will make their job easier. Also, it replaces your old broom and does it all with one sweep with the help of the "electrostatic fibers."

Acura is Superhero Worthy

In the 2012 action flick, The Avengers, there is only one type of real life car in the whole movie. Acura. Whenever a cool car is shown and the logo is seen on the front of the car, it's an Acura. Product placement is something that many advertisers take part in to try to sell products through movies and shows.


Putting Acura's coolest models in The Avengers subliminally places an image into a viewer's head. Connecting the Acura with iconic Marvel super heroes makes the car seem so much more appealing, since Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) drives one in the movie. The company is attempting to get viewers to see the Acura logo as many times as possible as they watch the Avengers so they will make sure to think about Acura when looking for a new car.

The Avengers are so cool, and the movie was watched so much, Acura got a lot of product placement into one movie to maximize the advertising that they get. Movie theatres and dvds don't have commercials so the next best thing is to put the commercial in the movie.

GEICO Basketball

When GEICO asks people how happy saving hundreds of dollars with GEICO makes them, the first answer that comes to mind is definitely "happier than Dikembe Mutombo blocking a shot." Showing a very tall, very happy basketball player block random office items and a cereal box connects to how happy people will be when they switch to GEICO.

This commercial uses testimonial to send the message to people that they should switch to GEICO by counting on Mutombo being well-known enough for people to react to seeing him on the commercial. If people watch basketball and have seen Mutombo play, then GEICO hopes that it will forge a connection between the viewer and the company. 

At first there is no clue as to what the commercial is advertising, all there is is Mutombo blocking everything he can get his hands on. The only known thing is that he is very happy. Then the spokespeople for GEICO, playing guitars, explain that Mutombo, although he loves blocking things and is allowed to block everything, is not as happy as someone who switches to GEICO. That means that they will be some very happy people, because Dikembe seems to be having a blast.

Princesses Eat Doritos

This commercial is very clever, because normally, men aren't supposed to play princess over football, but the father decides to wear a dress, a fluffy scarf, tiara, and make-up instead of playing football with the guys because his daughter has Doritos. He's not ashamed to be wearing make-up either, because it is worth the humiliation from his friends since he gets to eat Doritos. However, he is not ridiculed by his friends, because Doritos are SO awesome that they join in and play princess with them, dancing around and chanting, while stuffing their face Doritos. When the wife comes home, she adds to the comedy of the commercial by asking the fattest of the men with the large beard if he is wearing her wedding dress. When he answers, "It could be"        
while crumbs from the chips fall into his beard and on the dress, and the wife walks away, exasperated, it wraps up the whole comedy of the commercial.

The way that this Doritos commercial makes people want to buy Doritos is by saying that everyone would do anything to eat Doritos, even if it means, for a man, that they have to dress up princesses and wear make up, betraying the societal stereotype of a masculine man. This makes it seem like Doritos has to be good. Also, using the comedy with the wedding dress makes the product seem much more appealing.

Stuffed Animals in Music Videos

This music video is strange. There is almost no other way to describe it. I am not saying Radioactive by Imagine Dragons is bad, but it is definitely strange. A fight club where stuffed animals go to die at the hands of a bigger stuffed animal is not the normal scene for a music video. This atmosphere helps make the song look more dramatic and mysterious. Also, being out of the ordinary is pretty popular and Imagine Dragons is pretty good at being out of the ordinary. One of the reasons I enjoy how the music video portrays the song is that the band is actually performing in the dungeon below the fight club, with dusty guitars and drums in a dark room.

The song has an angry mood to it because the lead singer is aggressively beating the large drum as dust flies everywhere, and he sings about revolution and fitting in and being "radioactive." The song also favors the underdog. The girl who seems like she isn't dangerous at all comes into the building full of rowdy gamblers and her stuffed animal is a pink teddy bear. When it seems like she's going to lose and the gangster guy is going to drop the bear into the dungeon, it uses some magical power to punch the beast in the face. Then it vaporizes some thugs and tosses the bad guy in the dungeon. The song reaches out to all the people who feel like they can't and are unable to win. It shows that Imagine Dragons understands how the underdogs feel and vocalize it in their music.

I can not explain why the stuffed animals are used in the video but it is still pretty cool. Again, the music is very catchy and I enjoy it but it is also out of the ordinary, and gives the band more attention, enabling them to stand out more.

Mercedes are Pretty Affordable!

This commercial by Mercedes-Benz, advertising their new Mercedes CLA, which aired on the super bowl, has a few interesting things about it. First, it features a few famous people, Kate Upton and Usher. Showing the "protagonist" of the ad hanging out with those two people shows that the ad is using testimonial to show that their product is good. Since Usher and Kate Upton will like this guy because he has the CLA, it must be a cool car. Also, the ad appeals to the need for attention. A devil-like man who is asking the protagonist to sign a contract for the car says that he will get"all that comes with it," meaning the Mercedes. It shows the guy becoming famous and walking the red carpet, crowds of girls chasing him around. This appeals to the part of a person that wants attention.

Another interesting thing that i saw about the ad is that getting the car will "set your soul free." The guy doesn't take Satan's offer because when he sees the price of the car, he realizes he doesn't need the contract. He can buy it all by himself. Since the car is so affordable you can tell the devil to go away because your soul is free. The protagonist is able to get the car and everything that comes with it by himself, showing an appeal to the need for autonomy. He is a special person because he drove away the temptation of the devil and chose to buy the Mercedes. This, in a way, pressures people to buy the car.

"Maestro of Messaging"

Frank Luntz, the renowned so-called "wordsmith," is very good at what he does. When Frontline made a documentary on advertising called, The Persuaders, they talked to Luntz and asked him about what he does. He pretty much asks a candidate, or a senator trying to pass legislation, or an advertiser, what they want to put in their campaign. Then he thinks of words that the public would find attractive for a campaign or advertisement. Finally, he has a focus group discuss the words and the best word becomes the new name of the campaign or ad. Whether doing this makes the idea clearer or more vague is dependent on what words he is using. However, it does a very good job of manipulating the human mind. Calling the estate tax a death tax makes it sound evil in the public eye. Taxing someone for dying? How cruel! If you can't get permission to drill for oil, make it sound nice by calling it energy exploration. Even global warming can be tamed by giving it the name, climate change. His website uses the slogan, "It's not what you say, it's what they hear." It paints Luntz as the "Maestro of Messaging," a "Communication Strategist," and uses a quote from President Barack Obama himself saying that, "When Frank Luntz invites you to talk to his focus group,  you talk to his focus group." Is Luntz a genius or just a user of weasel words? In my opinion, his "wordsmithing" masks the real meaning of the advertisement or term. If someone intended the name of the estate tax to be called the death tax, they would have named it that to start. Luntz manipulates the public opinion on issues, and that can be dangerous.

Game of Throoones

As the background and name of my blog is pertinent to the HBO series Game of Thrones, I feel obligated to have a post that has to do with a trailer.

Trailers for shows such as A Game of Thrones have one goal to make the target audience watch the show. They put in dramatic scenes in an order that the show does not display them in but make sense in a very dramatic way. For example, when Eddard Stark chops off the soldier's head for deserting the Night's Watch, the clips shown in the trailer are very dramatically cut together with the conversation in the background, making the show look very interesting and, sorry that I can't think of a better word, but dramatic. The show caters to the action lovers with the sword fighting and epic battles but also appeals to the drama crowd with the twisted storyline and plot twists. A poignant catchphrase, "Winter Is Coming" makes the show seem serious and foreboding.


The message that the trailer is trying to convey to me, the audience, is that no matter who I am, this show is awesome to watch because it has cool, dramatic fighting scenes, mixed with passionate love scenes, and every kind of scene one can imagine, and its all crammed into one great show with a great catchphrase. And the trailer is mostly right, it is an awesome mix of TV show genres, which I watch often. However, it can be stressful to watch and a healthy dosage of one episode per day is recommended.

Wait... What?

Advertisements made by the Old Spice company, which sells men's deodorant, are known for being ridiculous. From featuring the freakishly buff Terry Crews, to the suave Isaiah Mustafa, they have made dozens of commercials which seem to have the same purpose: to be as weird as possible. This commercial is trying to sell Old Spice bar soap by hiding it in a watermelon which is disguised as a basketball, in the setting of a locker room. Also, there is a funny jingle which conveniently says nothing about the soap except that you should use it if you're "playing to win."
But how are these commercials so attractive for people. What makes people want to buy Old Spice soap? Heck if  I know, but I know that it makes me interested in Old Spice bar soap. One technique being used to sell the product is the need to achieve. Old Spice says that people that are in it to win it are the people that use their bar soap, so therefore, it is needed to achieve victory.
So you can tell to a point what Old Spice wants to convey with this ad, by using the first sentence, but everything else seems to make no sense. It's weirdly creative and it makes you laugh. And this seems to adhere to the rest of the commercials by Old Spice, in that it aims to make people laugh. In a way this then makes Old Spice bar soap seem like a good product. It has nothing to do with basketballs or watermelons but the confidence on the man's face shows that he loves his Old Spice soap.
A value that this appeals to is manliness. The commercial shows how manly this manly man is by depicting him cutting open things and holding a basketball and stuff.
There is so much that this commercial omits and yet it is still awesome and I remember the jingle and everything. One, it has nothing pertaining to the soap itself, what it smells like, or anything about its performance. What it does do is say that it is for competitive people and its the soap you've been smelling for. But that is it. All i can say is "Wait... What?" and then watch it five more times.

Speculations spread like Wildfire

The events in Boston and Cambridge that we all know about led to the death of someone who didn't have a connection to the bombing. Sunil Tripathi, a 22 year old Pennsylvania native attending Brown University was pulled from the water near India Point Park in Rhode Island by the Brown University Crew Team. He had gone missing in March and was last seen on March 15. And why was he dead? There is no sure cause for his death and his time of death is not known. However, after the Boston bombing occurred and every news corporation in America, as well as websites such as Reddit and Facebook, were searching for info, someone pointed their finger at him. By releasing photos of the suspect on April 15 to Reddit to see if anyone recognized him, someone reported that the missing Tripathi looked like the suspect in the baseball cap. After this Twitter was buzzing with the name and it landed the Twitter top trends list. After the suspects were found, and it became obvious that Sunil had no connection to the bombing, his family had already been bombarded by television inquiries and social media linking Tripathi to the bombing and blaming him as one of the suspects. 

The ridiculous speed of a dangerous rumour via social networking spells danger, as misunderstandings like this happen. Using these mediums such as Reddit to find criminals isn't wise, because it seems to have the potential of putting innocent people like Sunil in the spotlight. The online news coverage on Reddit was distorted by the "dangerous speculations" that the people on the website made about Sunil. The facts proposed by the released photos were distracted by Reddit as the conversation turned to Sunil Tripathi's name, which then spread to one of the most used social networking sites in America, Twitter, where rumors can spread like wildfire.