Wow. How can I even pick? One thing I remember from being a kid was my dad ALWAYS muting commercials. I think back now and, what the hell? These things are great. They make me laugh so much with how idiotic some of them are. Some of them are really good though. Especially with going through Communication classes at Longwood, one of my professors is so passionate that it has driven me to be passionate about advertising and marketing.

My all time favorite commercial has got to be Floam. It was an infomercial and I begged my parents for it and I got it one time for my birthday. My parents NEVER did that but I am the baby girl…so it worked. I had playdough and that always dried out so I thought this was perfect! No this stuff was sticky and disgusting. I accidentally left it open and it got hard so I got to play with it once…sorry mom and dad guess you’re not getting that 19.95 back.

Also, who has a plain dollhouse ?

Okay so I really want to talk about R. Kelly’s “Trapped in the Closet” but that’s at least 10 pages of notes that the public doesn’t need to see yet. My 10 year old self totally related to having to pull out my Beretta. Why was that the only thing downloaded on my siblings and my shared iPod?

Anyway, one that is more relatable and upbeat is “Happy” by Pharrell Williams. It’s my mom’s favorite song so I couldn’t help but watch the video and show it to her a million times once it was released. Also, Longwood made a music video out of it so how could I not blog about it???

The video starts with Pharrell, classic, wearing a hat and a fancy outfit. It cuts to a bunch of people all over the nation and world being happy, singing, dancing, all that jazz and just having fun!

The song is so typical of today’s popular culture but it just makes you feel good. It’s like staring at a cute puppy.

#golancersgolearning

Quick cutting is when a scene changes without pausing or stopping. It happens very fast and except when it comes to the black and white movies, you can hardly tell!

It happens often in scenes of The Office. They switch to interviews or a different shot of the room.

Obviously we saw it on Psycho, among other scary movies because you just can’t kill people on screen.

It happens also in cartoons, like Phineas & Ferb.

Here’s the beginning of the scene in the title sequence

Here’s them crashing into earth.

They added 5 new kids.

Can ya tell? And how did he eat his hot dog that fast?

I’m just going to leave this here.

When I think of songs that are in commercials I think of something upbeat and heard a LOT. Oooooh, I’m a rebel just for kicks. Now I’m not a rebel just for “kicks”. I am a rebel for “shits” sometimes but the song makes it relatable with its fun tune and catchy lyrics.

Commercials are everyday. In high school, we had to make a jingle for my sports marketing class but how often do you hear jingles anymore? Hardly ever.

Advertisements are all about songs now a days. A commercial where music plays an important role is the rat Kia Soul commercial. It shows the nasty little animals as huge, fluffy, human size mascots. They do normal every day things but in 3’s. Ya know, three blind rats. They start out being huge and fat on the beach trying to exercise.

Then they go to the gym, swim, jumprope, bike, kick box and get skinny.

All the while the song is getting faster and faster while they show the Kia Soul expert doing his job.

Then they are shown getting their hair done. They drive a car somewhere dark and eventually they even walk the red carpet and get shouted at by hot females, ya know every day life.

“Applause” by Lady Gaga is still playing the whole time. You know it.

Everybody knows it. It plays an important roles because the lyrics make you think that these mice are just like us humans.

The commercial shows a story and we don’t need any words but if it was silent, it would just be weird. And now we can relate this song to Kia Soul.

Go ahead, applaud for me.

For depth of field in photography, the smaller the number, the larger the opening. A picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, the background is less important and the subject is focused on. It usually has to do with pictures of people or pictures of nature.

A lot of movies and television shows use it to put emphasis on something intense or important.

In this case, it’s used for a commercial. The other Cokes are the exact same and just as tasty and important but the Diet is standing out in this picture to appeal to people that it’s “healthier”.

Picture taken from: flickr.com

What do you think, when you hear the word cartoon? When I think of cartoons, I usually think Spongebob. I think American Dad or Family Guy.

But in terms of politics, there is always a satirical side to it. That’s where editorial cartoons come into play.

Editorial Cartoons are almost always meant to make a joke of someone or something that is serious. They usually contain moralistic lessons.

You know ’em.

Especially in the Trump era, where I’d say 99% of people just can’t bear to attempt to take him seriously anymore.

I have attempted to watch Star Wars, once, when I was babysitting and I fell asleep and they didn’t pay me. But I still get the joke. Trump is the “Father” of the Republican Party. Not all fathers are good and not everyone likes their own father, but it’s their father, never the less. The family aspect seems to be an important aspect to a majority of society so this brings in a family aspect, as well as a popular movie that people know about.

Nice try, Trump.

I think we can all take a lesson to “tell the truth, tell if early, tell it often”.

Happy day after Pi day. That word makes me think of dessert. Are we talking dessert?

No. We’re talking stats. This chart depicts my roommates cats. I accidentally kicked one off my bed last night. Terrifying. A pie chart is an infographic. It shows parts of a whole.

Check out this funny listicle.

Space. Outer Space. Public Space. Parking Space. Double Space.

1 space

2 space

red space…WHITE Space.

That’s the book right? What even is white space? I am going to tell ya.

You’ve seen it, whether on Spongebob or business cards,

I am just going to give a name

to the huge space of whiteness in these visuals.

White space is, you guessed it, this area of space with no text. IT’S COOL. It’s a type of lay-out that is useful in certain images.

A relevant ethical issue in our media now a days is consistently Donald Trump’s twitter page.

According to Chapter 6, Visual Analysis, from Visual Communication by Lester, the audience depicts the meaning of words and pictures through culture and symbols. Ethics is about right and wrong. Everyone can see it differently, especially in terms of personal and professional ethics.

Donald Trump displays an enormous amount of emotions within his tweets and these are just a few examples.

So while he is the commander in chief, he is still bitching about the troops and what they’re doing. And while he knows the terrifying feelings and intense struggles the United States has had with North Korea, he tweet about how his capital B, button is bigger than Kim Jong Un. I feel as though he is always trying to prove something. In thinking of ethics, how we should behave is a lot different, for some, than how we do behave. These days, with technology and media being so relevant, it’s easy to talk online without thinking it has negative consequences, when in reality that’s the opposite, especially as a celebrity and politician as powerful and influential as Trump.

  “I SWAR I KNOW THA DIFFRENCE BATWEEN RIGH AND WRONG”

For shits and gigs.

Thanks for tuning in.

References:

Lester, P. M. (2014). Visual communication: Images with messages (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.

Gender stereotypes have been around since Adam and Eve. It is two thousand and eighteen and we are still seeing them, everywhere we look. We see advertisements every single day, thousands of them.

To see women and men being stereotyped a couple hundred, if not thousand times a day isn’t enough, I’ve found another ad for you to quiver over.

Special K is good, we can all agree on that right? ESPECIALLY when they put fruit or nuts or chocolate in their cereal, yum.

Well, for as long as I can remember caring about my body, which was about 6th grade, so 11 years ago, I have noticed these ads. Special K is all about bathing suits for women. Fitting into them. Looking good in them. Them being skimpy and sexy. In this ad, a literal mannequin is wearing the “ideal” Special K swimsuit. For the love of God…a mannequin? That’s what I am supposed to look like? She/he can’t even cross her arms right!

Anyway, this is a representation of gender stereotyping. I bet they didn’t automatically think, “let’s post pictures of really skinny guys in swim trunks and speedos for our ad”.

The underlying message isn’t much on the surface, unless you think about it. Am I just supposed to have cereal for every meal for a week and I’ll be skinny?

I was just browsing the web and I found an article by photographer, (gender neutral career/hobby name), Eli Rezkallah. It’s a re-make of stereotypical ads from the 1940s-60s. Here’s an example…no wonder my dad loves Hardee’s so much. He’s the cook in our family!

Advertisers are catching up to women’s standards and slowly but surely getting there, in terms of ridding media of stereotypes but we still have a ways to go.

References:

Lester, P. M. (2014). Visual communication: Images with messages (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.

Barnes, S. (2018). Sexist Vintage Ads Completely Reimagined Just by Reversing Gender Roles.  https://mymodernmet.com/sexist-vintage-ads-reimagined/