Sunday, September 27, 2009

2 Questions

What in "The Persuaders" surprised you (or not)? Name one new thing you learned about marketing or politics from watching the film. Name one new thing you learned about yourself from watching the film, or one thing that the film reiterated about yourself?

The one thing that really stood out to me in the film was how in depth these marketers go to get inside of the consumer's mind. They go as far as to play with small words in sentences, asking us outlandish things that to us makes little sense, and even delving into our deepest subconscious to pull out thoughts and ideas that we can barely comprehend in the first place. One of the main thing I learned is the play on words that marketers and advertisers use to "trick" or mask things. For instance, the Republican politicians referring to global warming as "climate control." That i not necessarily wrong by any means, but the phrase takes on almost a non derogatory meaning in that sense. It's genius the way they use language to their advantage. This film related to be in a big way since I am an advertising major. This type of profession is in my future so it was only natural for me to learn something about myself while watching the film. The thing that I learned about myself was that I have only begun to scratch the surface of marketing and advertising potential. My ideas need to be expanded outside of the box to reach some of the endless possibilities that marketers can utilize.

"The Persuaders" begins by questioning the increase in the amount of advertising we typically encounter in our daily lives. How would you assess the amount of advertising you see? Too much? Too little? Just right? In your view, what difference does it make to know that people today see much more advertising in their daily lives than people 20 or 30 years ago?

For me personally it is a tale of two varying perspectives. On the one hand I am a consumer like everyone else, and on the other I am an curious advertising major who enjoys and relishes the world of advertisements. Seeing things from my consumer perspective I most definitely advocate that we as a society and me personally see way too many ads in a given day. It has become such common place that ads are barely registering with us because they are injected into our own very lives day in and day out. On the other hand looking at it from a an advertiser's perspective it is easy for me to say that the ads are too few, or simply just right because of the affection and curiosity i show for advertisements. In terms of what difference it makes in knowing we see more ads then people 20 - 30 years ago, it really doesn't in my opinion. The only thing it shows us the direction we are heading in as a society. We are a country born and bread in consumerism and materialism. That is not necessarily a bad thing if we realize we are capitalistic nation that thrives on these two attributes. By witnessing more and more ads it only means that we are growing and expanding as a capitalistic nation.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Original Photo


My photo shows two different stories. I cropped out the top of the picture, simply leaving a bus filled with happy white travel goers. The man on the left is even smiling broadly. But looking once more at the original photo we can see there is more to this photo. It not only represents a time of segregation, in which African Americans were made to sit in the back of the bus. It is easy to see the raw emotions of those sitting in the back and in the front. The African American passengers seem discontent and mournful, while the white passengers seem happy and very comfortable. The myth of the photographic truth can be witnessed in these two photographs. In an age of growing digital technology it has become very easy to alter photographs. The original photo conveys a completely different story then the cropped version. By cropping out the African American passengers we are blinded to the hatred and bigotry that is segregation. The photos meaning is changes from opposite ends of the emotional spectrum when the other is revealed. In this case the photographic truth is most certainly hidden or masked when cropping out the upper third of the photograph.

Cropped Photo

Monday, September 21, 2009

Thursday, September 17, 2009


Question - I really had trouble figuring out how to change only the background color of my picture. The problem was either my image had been tinkered with so much that I was unable to change it from that point, or I simply did not know how to alter it.
Question - Another question I had was in regards to moving the pictures. I was not able to move the pictures as a whole, but instead moved only pieces of them. This made reassembling them nearly impossible. Any help would be most appreciated.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

McLuhan and Photoshop

Photoshop can be used as another example in McLuhan's media theory. In the theory he postulates that "the medium is the message." If we take photoshop into account we see that software applications can be our medium. The content within this medium would be photoshop, or an online photo sharing, editing, and hosting resource. The message that photoshop is sending is capability to revise and create new photos in a less time consuming and demanding environment. This allows society to expand their imaginations and correct anything they see fit within the realm of photoshop.
In addition, photoshop itself can also be viewed as a medium in it's own right. The content of course would then be the capability to edit, host, and share photos with the online universe. The message that this is sending to society is similar, in that it allows individuals to change or alter projects on a whim.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Montage

I chose to visually represent Skype. Skype is a video chat program that people use to communicate with each other from either computer to computer or computer to phone. The medium is Skype. The medium transitions to the Skype Buddy List that represents the content of the medium. The message here is both face to face communication without a physical presence. In addition to this the message is communication without restrictions of country of origin.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Medium Assignment

I have chosen three mediums that I use in everyday life. As far as I can tell they do fit the definition of "any new breakthrough in communication technology."
1. GPS - I use th
is device almost anywhere I travel via a car. I am absolute hel
pless when it come to directions and th
is device is an absolute life saver.
2. Ipod - This is another device
that I find myself using everyday, whether that be in the car or with earphones.
3. Phone - Out of all three of these examples my phone is by far my most practical
and important.