The Psche of a Runner

I feel like I want this to be a little controversial maybe…. Well here is my first ideas:

1.Mcdonald’s commercials vs. Nike commercials. This could go off of overall health and a starting point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JnYcuRW_qo

2. Car commercials vs. candy commercials. I would like to dive into the sexual nature of how they portray their products.

3. Local commercials and big commercial companies. This would be on what they may take from each other and common themes.

4. Video game ads then and now.

5. Commercials using other companies in their ads to poke fun at but may actually promote them.

Bryson and Fletcher both show an advocating view of two successful country’s advertising business. One trick of the trade that is most familiar in advertising is the persuasive and sometimes funny slogans and jargons used to sell the product. Both of these men illustrate the infamy that ads make with those kind of things.  They give very convincing examples in their own rights of these products. They both elude to the downfalls these companies may have in certain campaigns or the way they go about them but also show it tends not to matter all the time. Generally though, Fletcher draws on a broad base of opinions of many sides of advertising while Bryson just gives a strict history on the advertising business and its success. They both use their own writings to conclude that ads do work and can show us the concise parts that make them so intriguing. Fletcher was being very straight forward and valid in his research and Bryson played with the idea to show a more laid back tone. Never the less, they both came to the same conclusion of a booming success for ad companies and for people to validate this by “voting with their dollar.”

http://www.speedhitter.com/

pg. 70

My job here is to critique the advertisement of the Speed Hitter baseball tool. I always see this advertised on MLB Network and wondered how much it really can do. Let’s first poke holes at the statement on the first part of their site. It reads: “The ultimate training bat.” Ultimate can mean the best of its kind and actually the Speed Hitter is very unique so perhaps just the only of its “kind.” Ultimate, therefore, could be a weasel word. We can then go to a short statement posted: “The Speed Hitter is a revolutionary multi-purpose training bat designed to dramatically improve your contact point, immediately increase bat speed, fine tune your swing mechanics, and turn you into the best hitter you can be!” First of all, dramatically just means it is dramatic? Another weasel appears. The next part can mean that it increases all this as you use it because it is specified for that but what about in the game? One thing you also notice when you watch the commercial, it shows real hitting but does not show where the ball goes or if you get a good swing on it. They talk over the swinging and hitting so you may miss some of the talking too.

pg. 119

How many things in the world can you think of that wastes money that we always seem to need? Advertising is a poster child for this and some even become jokingly so. Money put into advertisement could actually go to things that can help people. They are basically traps and should be illegal anyway because they can cause people to waste their life away. I give the example of cigarettes, and fast food. The point was made it the reading if we really need some of this stuff when they have no real value. I am in that corner. Advertisements mess with our head. Sure we may lose some jobs but the extra money can be spread out more to make the economy boom. We are basically giving our well-earned money to advertisers to make back their expense and spend it on more ads while we get mostly useless products.

Jean Kilbourne brings to the table a compelling speech with a lot of important points to protect our women in society. Her choice of audience direction with the college students and the tone projects just what would hit them. She had a ton of visual evidence and highlighted the points they made perfectly. Mass media and college students connect well especially with our culture so that made this even more compelling. She intrigued with her vocal expression in a joking way but I question that plus other little bits.

She does not understand our culture completely though, in my opinion. I think one quirk that has been mushed into our pop culture purely as a joke is our enjoyment of food in a sexual context. It may sound strange but isn’t a Lady Gaga meat dress? Girls and guys both post things on twitter and Facebook being romantic about food. It may be brought about by advertisements but definitely has been taken in our culture. When it does not direct towards women, it should not be wrong. She thinks girls try to be too perfect and not eat so how can she condemn this cultural quirk? Finally, I could see a little more deep emotion in this speech could drive it up more.

Class Speaking: I feel like the tone of voice was very strong and led to the best overall displays in these speeches. If you had that perky, sarcastic, or funny tone, it made the speech work. It helped also to get into the description of the award and the dramatic pauses created with the thankings was a great filler.