Reflection

Media greatly affects my life. It affects the products I chose and the way I look at things. It is quite impossible to be be unaware of all the advertisments in the world today. I can't enjoy a television show without commercials interrupting. I can't go on informational websites without advertisments on the margins of the page. I can't even go on Microsoft without an ad being on there, and I can't even exit/hide the ad. Media is everywhere, and unless you live in a city where advertisement is outlawed, there will be plenty of it. Before this critical thinking class I knew that people in the advertising business had some type of guidelines they would follow to market their product, but I never knew what. After learning all the techiniques and the needs companies try to fufill, I realized that every advertisement follows at least one of the techniques. I have made fun of commercials and ads plenty of times, but I now know that the reason I found them to be funny was because the commercials would over do one of the techniques. The company would be heading in the right direction, but doing so in a cheesy manor. I would like to think that before this class, I didn't fall for the tricks that advertisements or commercials use. But now I know I am conscious of products that seem appealing because I look more in depth of the advertisment and notice key information that a commercial or ad will lack, like if an ad said that "this soap is better." But better than what? I have learned some of the tricks behind the media by analyzing commercials and will be smarter with my decisions from that. It is important to have media literacy so there are no foolish decisions made or foolish products bought. Advertisments just tell people what the audience wants to hear and they will slither their way into your brain to make you choose them. The techniques taught in class worked on the uneducated of media and cheated them out of their money. Being more knowledgable about the media, will save quite a few bucks. If you don't truly read into what a company or brand is saying, you could be disappointed with your decision of choosing them. Words are twisted into phrases that sound appealing, but with a vagueness that people fall for, just enough to trick people. By keeping this media log, I have become more aware of the media and the media techniques being used to draw in customers. I had no clue how money was spent on advertisments to attract customers and much time and thought was put into making the advertisements. So much money is spent on a risk; commercials have now guarentee of attracting customers. I wish that there was less advertisments, but I don't know how I would survive if there were no signs on stores. I need some type of sign to tell me where stores are. There is no happy medium about advertisments because having less ads than now would still be a ton. Media has grown so much, there is almost no turning back.

Media Log #12

6/3/12 Since the weather has been warming up, I've been eating some type of frozen dessert everyday now, so I thought doing a write up on one would be appropriate. I have yet to try this dessert, but it looks delicious. I have not seen this ad on television, but other ads by Blue Bunny on television. The channels they advertise their products on are either a food channel or a channel that people watch when they just want to sit down and relax, but are also intrigued, meaning the people they are showing their product to is either a person who likes to know more things about food or a couch potato who just sits down and watches their interesting shows.  Those are the types of people Blue Bunny is trying to reach out to, but with this product in particular they are targeting people who like to indulge in sweet treats, but are calorie cautious. In the commercial the ice cream is described as a "health smart bar" and that it is "better for you icecream" so they are using glittering generalities to to try enhance their product. Since this is a food product, the need they use is the physiological need to satisfy hunger.

Media log #11

6/3/12 I was looking for the Blake Griffin commercial that I normally see on telelvision, but I couldn't find it, but luckily this commercial still carries the same essense. The target audience are sports fans who can afford to purchase a Kia Optima. This commercial appeals to both genders because guys think Blake Griffin is good basketball player. This commerical can appeal to women because Blake Griffin is a good basketball player and because they find him attractive. The techniques used are testimonial and the humor appeal. It is testimonial because Kia is using a famous basketball player to promote their Kia Optima. It seems he has been Kia's spokes person ever since he dunked over one during the dunk contest. At the end of the commercial, it is even written "not your average spokesman." This commercial uses the humor appeal in many ways, from Blake looking as if he is interested in the painting at the beginning of the commercial, from the awkard look in the car he gives as he driving. What makes this commercial funny is its awkwardness and that's what made me whant to write about it. This commercial uses the need to satisfy curiosity because Blake brings up that the Kia Optima has class leading horse power and class leading fuel efficiency.