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.