Sometimes we wonder who comes up with commercial advertisements that works at big cooperations such as fast food joints like Taco Bell, Mcdonalds, Wendy's, Burger King, and more. Well, as people know, YouTube is a universal source where people can put up thier videos under-estamating who will come across it. Taco Bell was the first to discover "drive through raps" as a new, creative, catchy phenomenon created on YouTube in 2006. People drive up to the drive thru, usually with a friend providing beat-box, and rap with intentionally difficult-to-phrase orders to confuse the employees on the other end of the intercom— videotaped and uploaded for all to see. This is catchy, hip, and "cool" to the audience because of its uniqueness and new "pop" attitude gets the viewers' head going with the beat box rhythm. Taco Bell edited the video by keeping the appearance of a homemade video but adding pretty glossed up close-ups of the food—and sanitizing it of its humor, spontaneity, and originality.
It mainly captures the youth of america such as high school and college students who are broke and can only afford the 89 cent value meal. This hold device is realized because it was a new way for Taco Bell to innovate the idea, and soon people began to immitate this rap or make up new ones of their own depending on the fast food resturaunt over the years. It is musical and easily reconizable, and causes happy emotions without the consumers realizing it, and logical because the burrito is only 89 cents (which is a good deal people!).
(Christina Aguilera flesh bearing ad nursing herself)
Skechers Footwear is a shoe company that appeals to all ages of society in America, but is advertised in magazines such as Seventeen or Cosmo Girl to catch the attention of the youth more than other ages. I remember when I was younger, the ads for Skechers were more action packed or casually promoted with just showing the shoe and some kid wearing it. But now over the years, Sketchers has been competing with comanies such as Puma, Nike, Adidas, Reebok, New Balance, Converse, AND 1, and Asics. These casual shoe companies seemed to have pushed Skechers to try new types of advertisement such as promoting women with the sex sells idea because they have not been the leading seller of their competitors.
Code of Ethics:
Who is the audience for the advertisements?
Ad campaigns and sellers need to realize the age of their viewers and where they are publicized. For this Skechers ad, I can see where they recognized appealing to the younger audience using pop artist Christina Aguilera that was a part of younger girls and boys lives because she is reconized from starting at Disney, and growing up entertaining fan's in the pre-teen/ teenager era with other singers and boy bands such as Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and *NSYNC. Also from Disney they advertise is the recent Ashley Tisdale who was just put on the cover of Cosmopolitan. They combined these famous spokesmen with Skechers footwear which has also appealed to the younger pre-teen/ teenager buyers when advertised to get younger kids to buy this product because it has their favorite pop role model singer in it.... But what was the whole point of using sexuality and riskay-ness to appeal to the young? I mean, yes, sex does sell no doubt but what they are doing is triggering the imagination and curiousity for these kids.
(All 3 ad's were called the "Naughty and Nice" series)
Other Code of Ethics that I think should be within advertisements, even when they are trying to discover the next raw thing they can get away with to catch the attention of consumers through pathos is realizing and understanding age, race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disabilities, technically anything personally offensive or rule out a certain unique-ness.
The reason why I was curious about this topic is the fact that I see my parents every single night change the channel from the news to "Wheel of Fortune" and then "Deal or No Deal" and my dad gets so excited about it that he will pull me away from doing something semi-important in my life just to watch somebody we dont even know on TV win a huge some of money. My question is "Why do viewers get so addicted to game shows on television?". I researched many peoples' blogs on what they think about game shows and also watched this credible interview from Bob Boden (Vice President of Programming Fox Reality Channel) about game shows.
As Bob roughly puts it, people find a way to watch television to relax escape from reality of hard work like school or a tedious tiring job. Bonnie Gillipse, a blog writer from spynetwork.org thinks the reason why she is addicted to the "Game Show Network" is because "It's always happy there. No matter what silliness is going on in the world, there is something very sweet going on on GSN, and it's just enough to remind me that life is good." Like the "Brady Bunch" is a escape of reality to the American Dream simple family lifestyle, game shows are an escape for the viewers who want to get away from their own reality, and imagine themselves in someone elses telivised "reality" on tv that has just won a million bucks to make them feel at ease that anything really can be possible. In a way, they see these winners on TV percieving the American Dream in a 30 minute time period of money for almost free.
(American Dream Comic)
Game shows such as "The Price is Right" or "Deal or no Deal" have a minimal amount of thinking to do for the contestant to win big bucks. Most people in America do not want to work the rest of their lives for a decent amount of earnings. So people, like my dad, get sucked into game shows with the curiousity and imagining what it must be like to be in the lucky contestants shoes.
(Wheel of Fortune Logo)
For example, "Wheel of Fortune" has been on the air for 26 seasons and still poplular and some often wonder why. The "Wheel Watchers Club" offers the people at home to win what the contestant just won if their spin id is shown from their own comfort at home. You have to keep watching the show and be updated online with the club to have your Spinner ID even considered to be shown on the screen. "Deal or No Deal" offers the audience on the edge excitement which proves peoples' greedy nature. Bill Owens, a contestant on "The $25,000 Pyramid", states "What I loved wasn't just the lure of instant riches, although that was pretty cool. I loved and admired the knowledge, the trivia, the imagination that game show contestants had to have to win. This is what started my passion for odd and obscure trivia, which endures to this day." Shows such as "Who Wants to be a Millionare?" and "Jeopory" offer this curiousity/ trivia format.
It's also interesting how reality TV shows have formed from game shows. "Survivor" to "Big Brother," "The Bachelor" to "Joe Millionaire," "American Idol" to "Fame" and "Extreme Makeovers" all are examples of reality shows which are more intense and dramatic than a normal game show. A blogger screennamed theMatrix from associatedcontent.com quotes his opinion on reality TV after game shows, "I guess the appeal of these shows isn’t that hard to understand. I mean, they’re kind of like game shows on steroids, giving away millions of dollars and soul mates instead of dishwashers, furniture, and new cars."
People become addicted to the suspense of not knowing what could happen next and the simplicity of a humans knowledge lures almost anybody into networks like the "Game Show Network." Wtih todays technology, people could not only get recaps and any other bit of infomation about a game show on the shows web page, but also play the game to get a feel of what it is really like. The audience can get involved. It would be interesting to be able to talk about game show television in class for a better understanding, but I guess after discovering all this, I still wonder where game shows get money and funds to give away all the time besides sponsors.
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is a American late-night talk show involving stand up comedy with various popular comedians, musical performances, interviews with celebrities, and making simple humor out of comedy material. It was on NBC from 1993 till this recent February 20th 2009 as the host Conan O'Brien headed towards The Tonight Show for Jay Leno's position. The new host for his own themed Late Night series is Jimmy Fallon.
(The Broadway Open House famous picture)
Conan's show imitates and spins-off from 1950 to 1951's Broadway Open House which was the original idea of throwing out a variety of comedy at late night hours with tap dancing, vocalists, comedians but it did not succeed very well because people in the early 50's with few television sets were not convinced they should stay up at 11 pm to watch tv. Over time though, after viewers began to warm up to television, VP of NBC tried it again and developed The Tonight Show with host Steve Allen. Ever Since 1954, The Tonight Show and Late Night Shows which was each hosted with a new host whenever thier contract was up were devoloped and successful to this day.
(the set of Broadway Open House)
Late Night Show with Conan O'Brien was unique in its own ways and also innovates from the other Late Night shows based on the way his stage was set up, doing shows outside of the set in areas like Finland, Canada, New York, the U.S. etc making fun of events going on in time. Conan did some episodes based on "time traveling" in Ancient Greece, the 80's, The Civil War and the future, plus he also was the first on Late Night to use clay animation for an episode.
(animation, cartoon work)
He took the opportunity of new technology to make clay animation along with showing quick clips of other television and comedy to prove his humorous points. Back in the 50's they could only record the humor of dancing, human acts, and visuals of posterboards to make the show successful. Conan had limitations based on the theme of his set up with a stage, desk, and audience with vaudeville stage performances, but he could travel, record his show, and bring it back to enertain people with his experience somewhere else. He was also the first on Late Night to be able to Broadcast his show in 2005 through iTunes where he could make a profit from selling episodes on the iTunes website. Now over time it was broadcasted to hulu.com where it is free and the Late Night Show with Conan O'Brien's web pages gives ingternet users the opportunity to explore recaps, fan pages and more. This helps the audience get involved at a faster and more dedicated pace. There were the most fans and viewers tuned into Conan's farewell show this February than any other host has had before with 3.4 million viewers.
Society and culture forced and influenced the Late Night Show to make fun of what actually happens in society. But in a way, it is a resistance to what is going on in the world such as war, poverty, politics, economy, family life, etc. for the meir fact it makes fun of it all. It has the same affect to viewers such as the show "M*A*S*H" was a light comedy about war. The Comedy in the television show lightens the weight of the world on people to show that this is just life and this is the crazy stuff we have to live with everyday so we could laugh at ourselves every once and a while for the mess we got into. It is not as mind numbing as the Brady Bunch life for example, but it does draw the viewers away from the serious and emotional side of politics, economy, and more to relax it out. Conan's show went for 16 years and even put up with history such as 9/11, the Blackout, and presidential elections of Clinton, Bush, and Obama.
What is a Media Conglomerate? I sure as hell did not know even how to pronounce conglomerate until somebody mentioned it to me. It is, according to dictionary.com, a corporation consisting of a number of subsidiary companies or divisions in a variety of unrelated industries, usually as a result of merger or acquisition.
A Media Conglomerate is where companies own other companies related to mass media such as television, radio, publishing, movies, and the Internet. The top 3 largest media conglomerates is News Corporation or NASDAQ, Time Warner, and The Walt Disney Company-where CBS Corporation, Viacom, and Dreamworks are also high end competetors (more are listed on Wikipedia).
I researched into this mess since it relates with our class and came upon an interesting story about how Walt Disney is trying to become and alliance with Dreamworks studios.
What are their morals I asked? Why are they doing this if they are the most successful conglomerate around?
In Vidhi Chaudhri's paper from Purdue, titled Corporate social responsibility and the media: What the Big Five media corporations are communicating about their social responsibilities, she states that Walt Disney's company values' and Code of Ethics are "integrity, honesty, trust, respect, fair play, and teamwork"(17). They are diverse with equal oppertunities for workers just like they don't want to show smoking because they want to show concern with societal welfare.
So when it comes down to teaming up with Dreamworks, how is this "diverse, equal opportunity" going to help people when all they really want is to make connections with famous director Speilberg?
Its not going to give big opportunities as they promoted, it is going to lose more jobs and key into the big time money maker. Because of the economic loss these past few years, Disney is beggining to have a downfall and they are producing fewer movies each year to help their budget. "Disney's long-held position as the world's largest media conglomerate by market value has come into jeopardy: It stood at $36 billion on Friday, while Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500) was nearly $35 billion" states Richard Siklos from CNN money news. Disney-ABC conglomerate cut 400 jobs in January, Nellie Andreeva from hollywoodreporter.com "the job cuts represent about 5% of Disney-ABC TV Group's payroll."
SO... what I conclude:
The Walt Disney conglomerate is not honestly trying to team up with Dreamworks for good family values, but to get ahold of Speilberg and his famous directing skills of movies such as Roger Rabbit and his new movie TinTin. Disney wants a peice of the success from TinTinand of the sequel to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen made by Dreamworks, since it was such already a huge success. this is to help the budget of Disney and this baffles me leading to my next question:
How is this helping and giving people diverse oppertunies with their code of ethics, when they are firing people left and right to then bring in Dreamworks to make bank?
The broad market that this website and and magazine publication applies to is the idea of the outdoors and demographics that are used is how this store and merchandise advertise their stuff. Targeting the audience through their interests and then market it psychgraphically to make money off these needs knowing that people need nature or else they will go crazy. If we as humans did not have nature, then we do not feel fullfilled as a being to get away from reality. Thats when bass pro shop could take atvantage of this reality that they could put a price on somewhere we can run away to to feel better.
When I (or the audience) read this magazine and go online, it is because we are drawn to it by our personal interests. Bass Pro Shop makes me want to go buy everything outdoors that they have even though I can't afford it because there is so much to do with it that I can see how all their overwhelming amount of products suck the audience in. They have anything and everything that the outdoors has to provide for hunting, fishing, camping, shooting, personal protection, clothing, services and events, games, real fish, watersports, electronics, offroading, even outdoor/indoor home furnishing. Resturaunts are in the store yum yum yum. When I walked into the store, it was like candyland for the outdoor user and buyers. Attraction to Bass Pro Shop is easily convenient and admirable.
(Funny video of kids jumping in the fish tank)
The content of Bass Pro Shops are slightly dramatic in a natural form of modest publication. It is very colorful and has alot of stuff left and right to look at and ooo ahh about. It competes on the rack with just its name, but not so much by the eye catching stuff. The short and sweet information is in the colorful pictures of what they are selling and its information while the long stories are usually success stories about the animals that people hunt or the competion events won. Outdoorsmen library is there for tips, advice, reviews, and product reviews. Holidays are supported and advertisements are also within the website and magazines.
This place makes their money through its advertisements and sponsors which are not junk sponsors either. Toyota, Cub Cadet, Under Armor, Yamaha, Nascar are big names seen. Charity work and Foundations such as the SCI Fountation are involved as well to give back to the audience. They are basically their own brand name.
One suggested story idea writers could propose for this publication would be generally on their success stories about the fish they caught or good promoting stories based on equipment used that got people further than those of other products. Other stories written would be about life or death experiences like a guys survival of getting mauled by a bear.
Peer pressure at college I find interesting. I can see the good and the bad out of peer pressure in college. The good peer pressure I see at college is getting good grades, club involvement, sports and school spirit, talking with teachers, and sometimes even joining a fraternity. Beyond that I can see the peer pressure in a bad way such as letting grades slip by skipping class, drinking problems, drug use, sexual influence... basically the whole sex, drugs, and rock and roll of what is cool or not. Thats why it's dramatic, but in a more dramatic effect in a growing, mature way.
Peer pressure has an amazing effect of how people can get so worked up about the hype.
Not like high school, the evolution of growing of the student. There are many ways to resist college peer pressure, but it is hard for people to realize it is there when so much is going on in the moment. It is just that feeling when you do not want your friends to percieve you as a dull person to hang out with or be sketchy around. Tiffany Coley, the writer of How to Resist Peer Pressure to Party, states something that caught my eye especially to our mass communication class. The statement was,
"The "entertainment" industry has cranked out thousands of raunchy movies having to do with college frivolity."
(the most stereotypical poster alive for college students to own)
I believe that it is completely true in one aspect to college and without the idea of seeing what the party is about, then college students wouldn't know how to react when they want to have this sort of fun. "Entertainment industry" is like a teacher to college students who want a stereotypical lifestyle.
(the most stereotypical poster alive for college students to own)