Reflection

I didn't see the point in doing the blogs and writing comments. We were given pretty much free range to write about everything from music lyrics to political elections. I think it would be much better if we were given prompts each week to write about. Also, i feel like writing the blogs are counter productive because the blogs are supposed to be about how media effects our lives but do the blogs count as media? I think it counts as media so we are pretty much making media about how media is bad. Another thing i noticed in these media blogs is how all the media blogs are about the negative effects of media. None of the blogs are about how media helps our lives. I'm not saying all media is bad or good but that there is a mixture. I believe if everyone just used some healthy skepticism then these media blogs would be pointless and since only people in HISP critical thinking are reading these blogs and we all have healthy skepticism so in turn, these media blogs and comments are pointless.

Impact of media on Men/Women

Media effects everybody nowadays because of the invention of smartphones and televisions. Media's main purpose is to shape the public's opinion in order for companies to sell products. In the case of women, the media tries to make them feel insecure and not perfect. They do this so that girls would spend money on expensive make-up and clothing to make themselves appeal better to others and most importantly, to themselves. Unfortunately they will never look good enough because the media has ingrained that message in their heads. On the other hand, boys are marketed to in a completely different approach. Clothing brands don't market to males because if they do they will lose credibility and in turn lose shoppers. Instead males are marketed to for products like video games and TVs because that is what guys like to do.

Holiday advertising

I know its technically not the holidays anymore but i still believe what I'm about to say is still relevant. I was staying in a hotel during the week of thanksgiving so i had a lot of time to watch TV and i was surprised by how many Christmas ads there were. Like Thanksgiving hadn't even passed yet and there were ads for stores selling Christmas items. I didn't think much about it until i was watching the ball drop and immediately saw an ad for Valentine's day. That was over a month away and it was still New Years Day. What i realized was that stores are always advertising for a holiday no matter how far away it is. Like after Valentine's day, a lot of Easter ads will start taking over. Before seeing the Valentine's Day ads i had completely forgot about the holiday and the stores take advantage of this. They hope to be the first holiday ad you see so that you will be reminded about the holiday. If a company is the first to remind you then it will be the first one that you think of so you will shop there and they will get more money.

Super Bowl ads

Today was Wild Card weekend in the NFL and during the commercials, I was thinking about the super bowl ads and i realized that i still remembered a couple from last year. One of them in particular was a McDonald's ad where none of the customers had to pay with money but instead with random acts of love. It was a nice ad but it wasn't realistic because McDonald's won't leave money on the table. The only reason McDonald's aired this ad was to boost their image with the public but in my opinion, they did the opposite. They didn't address any of the issues that made them un-liked but instead did something completely different and in-effective. What they did do right was make their ad memorable which gets McDonald's more publicity. I later watched a video of the most memorable super bowl ads and realized that i remembered most of them. IT seems like all super bowl ads are aired for publicity and air time when a lot of people are watching. Not so the audience takes away a positive message.

Over winter break I watched some TV with my little cousins on their kid channels but I didn't care about their shows, I cared about the commercials. While half of the commercials tried to sell products and other junk, the other half consisted of fast food commercials like McDonald's and Burger King. One thing I kept noticing in all the fast food ads was that the burgers looked incredibly big and good looking. I was actually giving the liberty of eating a Taco Bell burrito while watching a Taco Bell ad. One thing i can tell you guys is that my burrito looked nowhere close to what it looked like on the commercial. It also didn't taste as good as it looked in the commercial. I later did some research and found out that food artists are hired for commercials to make the products look good. I was really astonished by this but i also realized they did this because it was an effective techinque as proven by me because I was sitting there eating their food.

Over winter break I spent a lot of time with my little cousins and sometimes I would sit down and watch their kids shows with them but the shows weren't what caught my eye, it was the commercials. A lot of the commercials that were aired revolved around selling a product and not a service and a common technique all the product ads used was giving the consumer free items if they called right away. This tactic provides a rushed feeling to the buyer because if a consumer was on the fence about buying something, then the incentive of buying soon will make the buyer rush their decision to usually buy the products right away so that they will not miss out on the free items. Some people might wonder if this method is even profitable but the company takes in to account the other products they are giving away so the consumer doesn't even get a deal. A buyer would be better off buying the product later for a lower price and not getting a bunch of junk that they will not ever use. The whole marketing technique is pretty much a scam.

Memorable ads

The State Farm ad featuring Jake from State Farm is arguably the most well known commercial ever. There have been multiple memes made out of it and even a spin off commercial made by State Farm themselves. The first time I saw the commercial, i couldn't figure out the point. It was funny in all but it barely advertised the service that State Farm actually provides. Looking back on it now, i have realized the real point of this hilarious ad.

The point of this particular ad was to be funny. The humor appeal was used for the on screen ad but the actually point of this ad was to promote publicity. I remember telling my friends about this commercial at school and I even made a few prank calls with, "It's Jake from State Farm" as the punchline. All of the people telling their friends about the commercial, made State Farm a well-known insurance firm. The real genius of the ad wasn't in the ad itself but in the world outside of the ad. Not only did the ad use humor appeal; it also used repetition to get spread the publicity. All in all the marketing people at State Farm clearly thought out this ad thoroughly and succeeded in making a memorable ad that greatly boosted State Farm's publicity.