Exposure to Advertisement

From the time when I head home from school, I saw lots and lots of advertisement. Advertisements such as H&M, Orange phone company's internet USB, Magnum Gold ice cream, Peugeot Cars, Cartier watches, Ed hardy Hoodies, Lacoste shoes, ClubMed, Dolce & Gabbana, etc. Most of these advertisements were extremely explicit and straight to the point, but one or two ads were a bit subtle. For example, the H&M ad next to the high way in a huge portrait banner. It was obvious that H&M was trying to sent out a message that they sell nice-looking and reasonable prices clothing, as they got a model to wear their cloths, and even stated the price of it next to the ad. Sadly, not a lot of clothing designers these days advertise their clothes in a explicit way. Designers such as Dolce & Gabbana, Tom Ford, and Diesel, are known for their subtle ads. In the Orange internet USB advertisement, it had a boy jumping forward real fast on a pogo stick, and at the bottom, it had the Orange internet USB. This ad was a bit subtle for me, as it took me awhile to realise the message Orange was trying to send out to the public. Orange was telling the viewers that its USB internet goes really fast, and have a lot of gbs. In the night, I watched a film on TV called, "Mall Cop". At one scene, there was a long pause on the Ed Hardy store, and it made me browse the internet up for its hoodies, as I liked its design. 


Who might be the target audience?
H&M - Teenagers and even Adults, who loves to follow the fashion trends.
Orange USB internet - Businessman, Adults in general
Magnum Gold Ice cream - Children as they made it glittery Gold in colour, and also Adults. Anyone who have a sweet tooth. 
Peugeot Cars - Adults who can afford a decent car
Cartier Watches - Adults, or people who are working. 
Ed Hardy Hoodies - Teenagers
Lascoste Shoes - Teenagers and Adults
ClubMed - Families, or a group of friends.
Dolce & Gabbana - Teenagers and Adults who can afford them. 


How might the ad influence your decision to purchase this product or service?
Ads influence people's decision, by using different tactics such as logos, ethos, pathos, and photoshop. For example, an ad could make a person feel that she needs help with her oily face, so she would go to the shop and get the face product immediately. Another example, could be if someone sees something that looks attractive, and he likes it, he would go to the store and purchase it. Moreover, sometimes ads would have celebrities in it, in order to lure the public into buying their products. 

At the end of the day, Media still somehow manage to manipulate us. 

"Nobody is Perfect" (Mirror Experiment)

When I started to look at my reflection for just 5 mins, a lot of questions ran through my mind. Do I look more like my mum, or do I look more like my dad? All these random and weird questions started to pop up. What if I was born with grey eyes, or with a sharper nose, or with thicker eye browns? How would I look like? What if I have a beard, or a smaller nose? What if I were taller, bigger, or just a midget? How would my life be different? But after 2 mins into this experiment, I started to look at the brighter side. I told myself that I am Sean, and nothing could change me; I am an individual—I am who I am, and nothing that I do can change that. I saw many good traits about me, for example having a good straight teeth, and a nice smile. Soon, all that I could see was myself as a whole, and I decided that I was very happy with whom I was.

To be honest looking back at 4 years ago, when I first came to WBAIS, I was individually comparing everyone to myself. Saw what they would wear to school, their style, and how they talked (slang). I thought by following their style, I would get accepted more, and have more friends. But in fact, looking back, I was just a instrument of peer pressure. I did what I did because other people did the same, not because it was what I wanted to do. Now, I do what I want to do, and am not pressured one way or another based on other peoples actions.

The Corporation vs. Ad and Ego

What do you think is the impact on of consumerism on our/your media environment the public's ability (or lack thereof) to remain informed?

Consumers impact the world in several ways; the economy is one of them. With the help of the media today, we consumers are the reason why the economy is rapidly rising and dropping. Advertisements are the main source of provoking us, consumers, into buy a product. Companies find consumer's weaknesses and use them to make consumers buy their product. Firstly, the companies lower our ego, then after, boost our ego up by showing us their "effective" product. For example, if the company is selling acne cream, in its advertisement, it will say something like "Do you get laughed a lot in school because of your ugly pimples? And want to get rid of it? Use this pimple cream now, and within days, all your pimples will be gone". Also, the company will include a before and after picture of a person with a really bad acne, to show the effectiveness its product had on that person. Most of the time, these  advertisements lie about the statistics of the product. Using their products are not 100% guaranteed effective. In addition, I feel that sometimes we, the consumers are getting brain washed by the media. Seeing perfect people on Televisions and Magazines makes us feel that we should or have to be like them in order to feel good about ourselves. Because of the media, we have lost our confidence. A few classes ago, Ms B told us about an experiment a girl did. She had to look into a mirror and stare at her reflection for 15 minutes. In the beginning, the girl saw positive things about her face, but after a few minutes later, she started seeing negative things and became annoyed. Because of the way media portrays perfect people, we are now affected on how we view ourselves. I believe that we need to learn that in the real world, nobody is perfect. Lastly, we consumers are lost, as we are not well informed about the advertising world. We are unaware of what the media is doing to us, making us feel insecure. Humans should believe in themselves, and not get influenced by the media's perfect world or their "effective" product.

Supersize Me Review Comparison

Although the film Super Size Me directed by Morgan Spurlock proved that McDonalds are not healthy, I still strongly believe that we humans can't blame fast food corporations for making us unhealthy, or obese. McDonalds are fast food chains that sells junk oily food. Maybe McDonalds are too oily and fatty but, I feel that they should reduce the oil level but not until there are barely any oil in their food. In addition, the oil is partly why McDonalds taste good. Parents or Guardians should learn how to control by limiting their children and  even themselves in eating an average proportion of healthy and not so healthy food. They should also regularly exercise and not eat McDonalds or other kinds of fast food everyday. Moreover, McDonalds now are making the effort to make their food healthier such as, having salads, fruits, yogurts, and also fresh corn cups. In conclusion, people and media should not blame fast food chains for example, McDonalds for causing obesity and sickness such as, diabetes. People should really be ashamed of themselves for not keeping a proper diet of healthy and not so healthy foods. They too need to exercise regularly. 

3rd Media Consumption

7.00 am - 7.30 am:
Woken up by a Coldplay song Viva La Vida, went to the shower, saw Contact lenses company (acuve), toothpaste company (Colgate), and Shampoo (Ahava). While showering listening to my Limewire playlist, inclusive of Vampire Weekends, A punk.

7.45 am - 8.10 am:
On the way to school, turned on my ipod and listened to my English Rock playlist. Inclusive of Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay, Jack Johnson, Franz Ferdinand, and Snow Patrol. Saw many advertisement along the high ways and street roads. French class, Poetry Class, Heineken beer logo, Spaghtim logo, Guy Laroche, Magnum gold ice cream, Castro women fashion, etc...    

8.11 am - 5.15 pm:
During the period from the start to the end of school, I saw lots of different kinds of company.
- Rami's bag, Air Jordan
- Jacob's Laptop, Macbook pro
- Anshul's shoe, Lacoste
- Milana's schoolbag, Louis Vuttion
- Daniel's ipod, Ipod Touch
- Rami's shoe, Supra's
etc.
Also, I saw many food companies such as prigat, flavoured water, Corny, and several different kind of ice cream companies.
After school, I went to the weight room, and the radio was turned on at Galgalz FM. Heard many Israeli music and did not understand them as I do not understand that much Hebrew.

5.30 pm - 6.00 pm: 
Listened to my ipod. Playlists: Party mix. Saw pretty much the same advertisement when going to school. Saw an Ambulance on the way, saw its safety hotline/number, and its logo.

6.15 pm - 12.00 am: 
Watched a bit of BBC news and learned about current events happening. Went on my computer and started working. Researched for International Relationship, and while doing that, NGOs came up; NTO, Amnesty, ASEAN. While resting a bit, I served youtube; "How it's Made" it was a very interesting video. It is a video on how things such as bubble gum, bacon, Hot dogs, Paint balls, Marbles are made.
Heres the link: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=How+it%27s+made&aq=f




After posting up my third media consumption, i realised that because technologies are so advance these days, we face media every single day. Media and humans are like a loving couple; everywhere we go despite your own country, or outside your country, media will be present and will be with you...Always.

2nd Media Log

7.00 am: Saw shampoo, toothpaste & soaps label, bathtub and sink's company too.

- Ahava shampoo, OralB toothpaste, organic milk soap.

7.30 am: Saw cologne and t-shirts, socks, boxers, jeans, and shoe's label.

- CK, lacoste, B.U.M, AIS, polo RL

7.35 am to 8.10 am: On the way from my house to school; saw about 100 over advertisement along high ways, and roads.

- Magnum Gold, French class, guitar lessons, H&M, Castro, etc.

8.12am to 5.00pm: Saw lots and lots of clothing labels, for example nike, adidas, Louis Vuitton, Raybans, Apple, etc.. Also, hundreds of advertisement from the internet and cafeteria. 

5.10pm to 6.00 pm: On the way from school to my house; saw also about 100 over advertisement along high ways, and roads.

6.00 pm - 8.00 pm: Saw lots of advertisement from the TV (MTV channel), news (BBC news), and news paper (Jerusalem Post), computer (browser), magazine, and also from food packages. Listened to music too.
- MTV, British Advertisement on quitting smoking, perfume, candies, insurance co., new music records etc.
- Listened to music artist like David Guetta, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, The script, etc. 

8.00 pm  - 00.00 am: Listened to music while doing work, internet browsing for project; saw a lot of pop ups and ads. Off to bed!
- pop up ads such as, Join facebook, Create a blog today, Shoot 4 out of 5 ducks to win an ipad. 

Today, Materialistic is what I would call most of the teenagers, myself, and even some of the adults. A lot of teenagers today, believes that keeping a good image for themselves and others to see is the most important thing. Everywhere you go, you will see popular brands like Nike, Adidas, Louis Vuitton, Uggs, Raybans, Apples, Blackberries and more to come. Since everyone around us and even ourselves are somewhat materialistic, we barely notice that each time we go out, media are broadcasting, promoting and advertising. Media are brought to us every single day, hours, minutes & seconds.

                  

My 1st Media Log

Monday 23/8/2010

7.00 am: Saw shampoo label

7.30 am: Saw cologne's label 

7.30 am - 8.00 am: On the way to school; listened to ipod. Seen about 30 advertisement on the way. Advertisement in the highway, buses, bus stops etc.   

8.00 am - 5.15 pm: Saw a lot of labels in the cafeteria (food), internet, and magazines, and people wearing branded clothes and shoes. 

5.20pm - 6.00 pm: On the way back home from school, saw about 50-60 advertisement.

7.35pm - 12 pm: Listened to music, did homework on the computer, while browsing, saw about 100 over advertisement. 

12.30: Went to bed