Mod 1.3 Journal Analysis

The article selected for analysis was “Who is the Celebrity in Advertising? Understanding Dimensions of Celebrity Images” by Choi and Rifon. This article was a synopsis of using celebrity images in advertising and marketing. The major component was mainly research, as not much is known of the dynamic of using celebrities in advertising. The main questions were: why do some celebrity images work better than others, how can celebrities succeed with some products and fail with others and how to capture this celebrity popularity in numbers.
The audience for this particular audience was business oriented with a sense for statistics and averages. This was not a layman’s article. The article was more specialized towards professionals in the marketing and advertising industry.
. “.. approximately 25% of all US television commercials feature celebrities” (Choi & Rifon, 304), which tells us only that celebrities seem to help products to sell. Why, more of the question asked in this article. Are celebrities listened to because they are attractive, dependable, informed? These are the questions being asked throughout this article and are the reasons for the research. “A widely accepted explanation for celebrity endorser effects has been that celebrities bring credibility to advertising messages” (Choi & Rifon, 305), but is that really the case. Are celebrities credible just because they are on our favorite television shows and movies? Or are they truly knowledgeable about the products they endorse. According to this article there has been little research done in this area, so this study was done in order to bring some answers to advertisers.
Overall, this article did a poor job in educating anyone regarding this matter. Unless a person was well versed in these scales and in the study of advertising, understanding this article would be nearly impossible. One thing that can be drawn from this article: celebrities are the way a great deal of advertisers go to push their products. The question do consumers purchase these products due to the celebrity endorsement and if so why?
The main idea of this article is that celebrities are very influential in endorsing products and selling them to consumers. Society feels comfortable with the product due to the celebrities’ fame and image, not necessarily their knowledge of the product. In the end, there is much research that needs to be done in order to get a more thorough understanding of why consumers trust celebrity endorsements.

Teenage Killers Mod 5.1

This week marked yet another teenage killer on the loose. This one happened in an Omaha mall where a 19 year old boy went into a major department store and killed 8 people. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22131295/ The question, as always, is why? But I don't know if we can even answer that question, ever, for any killing.

Here is the question I have with all of the teenagers that have killed others over the last few years: Is the media making it worse by making these teenage killers famous?

Until the Columbine shootings there were very few teenage killers posted all over the news media, but now, whenever it does happen, it's blasted all over every single media outlet there is in the world. What does that say to teenagers who already have this thought in their head? I think that it says, "Hey kids, want to be famous, just go out and shoot up some people". I know that this may seem callous in the wake of the recent shooting in the Omaha mall, but the truth it sometimes very brutal. Naysayers believe that it's music, video games, books, and movies that put these thoughts in kids heads, but I disagree. These types of killings have been going on for a long time, it's just that now we see it the instant it's happening, instead of weeks or months later.

There has always been violence in adults and kids, we cannot blame this violence on the media and music from the beginning of time, so where did that violence come from? In my opinion, it comes from one of two places, violence in the home or a mental breakdown of the person committing the violence. There are ways in which we can avoid these types of things happening in our teenagers, it's called attention. Had these kids been paid attention to more, been listened to and loved most of this violence would not have happened. I understand that this is not the one and only answer, but no media outlet makes kids or adults commit violence.

Wii Don't Have It Mod 4.1

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, one of my best friends dragged me out on Black Friday, he was searching for a Nintendo Wii for his nieces. I however wasn't really shopping for anything, but wanted to see what it was like. So at 5:30 am we awoke to a lovely, dark, cold, snowy day to face to masses of crazy shoppers.

Here's the thing, NO ONE has the Wii, NO ONE!!! We went to 6 different stores looking for one, online, even on ebay, but there aren't any available. But the question of the day is Why? I think I can give you that answer: Nintendo, along with every other kids toy manufacturer, realized after the Cabbage Patch Doll Christmas that they can dribble out as few of their products as possible and still keep the demand high and the price even higher. In this case, Nintendo and it's marketing/advertising crew have hyped the product to the nth degree, making sure that the demand for the Wii is through the roof, but at the same time making it virtually impossible to obtain one.

Meanwhile, Nintendo competitors Microsoft and Sony are making their systems readily available this year, although in years past they have done the same thing. My complaint here is not only for the manufacturers, but also for us, the consumers. We as consumers have allowed these companies to take advantage of our wealth. As a society we are wealthy and have a lot of free time, but also we want to give our kids whatever they want, so in turn we fall for the advertising.

So what can we do about it? Well, we can stop falling for the advertising, as adults that is not as hard to do(except for those gamers out there!). But what about the kids? Well how about purchasing after the Christmas rush? That would help the situation, but how can we remedy it altogether?
My advice: Stop falling for the glitz and glam of these products, rent from video stores, because if the demand is low then maybe WE can control the market instead of the manufacturers.

Good luck to all of you out there looking for a Wii this holiday season!

Biggest Bar Night Mod 3.1

Hello Everybody and Happy Turkey Day!
I am not sure if all of you know this by now, but Tonight, Thanksgiving Eve is the biggest and most crowded bar night of the year. Yes, that's right, even more so than New Year's Eve! As a former club bartender and current dive bar(tender) I would like to let you in on some of the secrets to the biggest bar night!
First of all tonight is the biggest bar night because almost no one has to work the next day and almost all the college kids are home for holiday break. This provides two things, all the locals going to their favorite bars and all the college kids coming back to their favorite haunts looking for "long lost" friends, enemies and/or one night stands! So beware, that crush from high school may only want to hook up for tonight!
Secondly make sure you hook up with a Designated Driver or taxi tonight! This is a must. The cops know that score for tonight and will be out in full force. (Lucky for me I am spending this evening at a bar with all my cop buddies!) This is not the night to get a DUI and spend the night in jail!
Third, and this is a BIG one, TIP YOUR BARTENDERS!!!!! They would love to be hanging out with their friends too! But instead they are working pouring drinks for all the ungrateful drunken masses on the other side of the mahogany. Please be generous, if you have ever worked for tips you know what I am talking about, if not these people generally make 2.13 an hour and they are busting their butts, not for the joy of your drunken, sloppy pick up lines for the joy of your beer soaked ten dollar bills!

To sum up, tonight can be a great and magical night of awkward reunions, drunk dialing, vomit induced, falling down(literally) drunk fun, just one last tip, Use the Buddy System!!! Cause beer goggles are real folks, trust me I see them in action every weekend, and friends don't let friends take home "mistakes"!!! Have a Great Turkey Day!!!

Zoning Obesity? Mod 2..1

According to CNN, http://www.cnn.com/video/#, South L.A. has more fast food restaurants than grocery stores or fresh food markets combined. This, according to doctors, has lead to more than 40% of residents to become obese. The point of the report is that zoning laws should be put into place to restrict more fast food restaurants from coming into this part of L.A..

My question is this: Will it really make a difference? I want to believe that people will make the right choices if given the chance, but the reality is that we are creatures of habit. If a person eats fast food everyday for a month, that is a habit, it's not an easy thing to break. Breaking an addiction to fast food can be as difficult as stopping smoking. Because that is what we are really talking about here, isn't it, addiction. So, do we try and implement more healthy food choices into the neighborhood , or will it change anything?

As we have seen in other parts of the country, fast food restaurants have implemented healthy alternatives on their menus, but given then choice between a salad and a juicy greasy cheeseburger, what do you think people are going to do? Subway has a different approach, 95% of their choices are healthy, if you go into Subway, you are going in with the intent on eating healthy.

It comes down to this, if we ban new fast food restaurants from coming in to areas already saturated with them, will it make a difference, will people in that area choose to eat healthier? I think the answer is "no", overall I think people will choose to eat where they know and where it is convenient.

Icon Analysis Mod 2.2

Icons are prevalent in our culture; in fact they are all around us, TV, radio, movies, books, politicians, etc. But there are three that stand out for me: The Wizard of Oz, Stephen King, and Van Morrison. These three define the best, most widely known movie, the “king” of horror and the best and most versatile singer/musician.
The Wizard of Oz has to be the most widely known and widely quoted movies of all times, although when originally released it did not do well, it gained worldwide fame in the years to come. Thought by many to be the first film done in color, this is not true.
Stephen King, the “king of horror is best known for his eerie, creepy, innovative stories set in his hometown of Maine. Van Morrison is one of the most poetic songwriters and musicians of all times.
These three icons to me epitomize icons in movies, music and books. Where would the horror genre be without the chilling stories of Cujo, Pet Sematary, The Stand, Carrie, Christine, and so many more? Stephen King has chilled me to the bone on many an occasion and I have loved every scary second. I remember reading It and being scared so badly that I could not read it alone or after dark. To this day clowns are the scariest things in the world for me! I wait for each and every novel, short story and movie adaptation to come out for me to devour.

The Wizard of Oz is the movie iconoclastic movies in history for me. One year does not go by without me watching this movie at least once. Its characters are instantly recognizable and lines completely quotable. "I'm melting, melting!".

Van Morrison has made music for me, made me dance, made me sing, made me cry. For me this makes an artist. I own around 10 of his albums and this is not even close to what is available. But Moondance is by far the most significant album for me, my all time favorite song "Into the Mystic" is on that album. My one dream is to see him in concert.

Writers Strike, And?

As of Monday the Writers Guild Association went on strike. Not only does this affect the writers themselves, it affects networks, actors, comedians, advertisers and viewers. But the question is does main stream middle America give a crap? Do we really care if the writers, who already pull in close to 6 figures, sometimes more, receive more money for DVD and online residuals? Does it really mean anything to us?

And here it is folks: TV programming sucks! There is no innovation, there is nothing that catches the imagination anymore. What do we talk about over the water cooler? Dancing with the Stars?! I mean come on, this is total rubbish.

Don't get me wrong I am an avid TV watcher, I will watch bad TV all day long, but if the writers go on strike and I am watching reruns, is there really a difference? Everything is a rerun of shows past, nothing is original anymore, even the "reality TV" seems copied. Every show seems familiar and poorly written anyways, so why do we care?

Maybe this will force the networks to take a long hard look at their programming, advertisers will back out, everyone will lose money and they will have to start from scratch. Maybe this will start a sort of grass roots TV movement, going back to innovative writing again.
I mean if the writers strike long enough there may be no shows to go back to, then they will really have to put on their "thinking caps" and give us something good to pay for, instead of the mindless drivel we've had to put up with for the last few years.

So I ask you again fine readers, do we really care if there is a strike? Will reruns be any different from the "grade A television" we've been forced to watch thus far?