Art & Copy

What was most inspiring about the advertising documentary "Art & Copy" was the fact that so many simple ideas and slogans were able to be the most well known adverting campaigns in the advertising world. These include "Got Milk", "Just Do It", and "Think Different". It was amazing that so many of these different campaigns were able to invoke so many feelings in different types of people across the country. Every someone would look the slogans would be there and could be applied to almost anything. In magazines, billboards, and of course TV commercials one would always see these slogans and generally they would present a positive connotation. Milk helps build strong bones for example and got milk sometimes showed individuals exercising. It is always inspiring when something positive to society is being advertised compared to something detrimental to our society such as fast food. "Just Do It" is also very inspiring as it promotes exercise in society and at the same time promotes a product to help get that objective completed. It was also awesome to see how the advertisement agencies during the 21st century compare to the advertisement agencies seen in AMC's Mad Men which are agencies from the 1960s. In comparison it seems that today's agencies seem to have a more welcoming and caring environment than the agencies from the 1960s. Even one individual in the documentary who was an account man in the 60s said it was one of the worst jobs he had. The statement he made about that seems accurate considering the kind of treatment seen that people who work in accounts get in Mad Men. Overall the film was very inspiring and the fact that it followed mostly positive ad campaigns all with positive messages to the viewers was awesome and helps those who want to get into advertisement gain motivation.

Blog #3 - Women in Advertisements

Many advertisements in our media dehumanizes women immensely. The advertisements that are advertising something simple like jeans or jewelry are sending out the wrong message and trying to get the viewer’s attention in the most extreme way.  It is not just in the United States using these kinds of advertisements but other cultures around the world use them as well. The Dolce & Gabbana Italian luxury industry fashion house released a very controversial advertisement showing a women dressed in black being pinned down by a shirtless man in jeans with sunglasses while three other men strike poses and are menacingly staring at the woman. This promotes violence towards women and shows this particular woman being controlled by not just one man but four men. The intended meaning of the advertisement was probably to show men that if they wear their products then they will be able to gain control of women and make them theirs. The cultural meaning though shows the women in a position of helplessness and making it obvious to the viewer that women are not in power and men are free to do what they want with women. It promotes the idea that it is okay for men to force themselves upon women making them think that they enjoy it when in actuality it is clearly unwanted. b

Blog #2 - Frith methodology

The surface meaning of the ad: The ad starts off with a man traveling the desert looking thristy and being sweaty. He sees a giant coke bottle in the distance and suddenly many different types of people from show girls to men on motorcycles racing towards the bottle. The man looks back to see that he actually had a coke bottle with him in an ice cooler the whole time and now he has the last laugh. It is revealed that the giant coke bottle is a sign pointing towards the nearest coke location which is 50 miles away. The racers are still racing towards this regardless of the distance.

The advertiser's intended meaning of the ad: They wanted to replicate the sense of being thirsty to the viewer. The man in the ad is sweaty and is obviously thirsty. A common trope in any media depicting desert travel is that the one doing the traveling is always on the search for something to drink. Once the viewer sees that coke bottle they themselves are going to want to have a drink from it because they are imagining themselves in  a desert without anything to drink. Once they see many people racing to obtain that coke they know that it is a valuable drink and many people would go to extreme lengths to obtain it.

The cultural or idealogical meaning of the ad: culturally coke is seen as a pivotal beverage. If someone goes out in public they are most likely guaranteed to see at least one person drinking a coke. The ad depicts people racing to obtain that coke like they have to have it. It's a summer soda. The ad demonstrates this by using the desert as its' setting. When people are thirsty in the summer or when it is hot outside they should be drinking a coke to quench their thirst.

Favorite Ad

Robin Williams and Zelda Williams enjoying Ocarina of Time

My favorite ad campaign would have to be the campaign for the 3DS port of the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. The first ad started with the traditional Legend of Zelda tune that plays whenever a player finds treasure in the game. The first thing you hear after that is the sound of a familiar voice. When I first saw this commercial I knew I recognized that voice. The commercial when then repeatedly show clips of a young girl's face during the narration of the familiar voice. I completely lost it when I first saw that the person narrating was Robin Williams. It was then that many people in my age group found out that Robin Williams named his daughter (The young girl who was repeatedly shown throughout the narration) Zelda. Seeing a crossover of two formats of entertainment that I never thought would crossover resonated with me. Robin Williams and Zelda were two things that many would not imagine have had a history together. Robin Williams' voice also sounded very epic while he was doing the narration. It was a perfect voice to emphasize the majestic gameplay of Zelda. It was a genius move to combine a celebrity many children and teens recognize to a game that many children and teens mostly likely played and still play to this day. The best part is that Robin Williams himself is a fan of the game so he's not just doing it without any knowledge of the game itself.

Blog #7 - Tonight Show

For the most part I do not care for late night network TV. I don't know many people who stay up late just to watch those shows. Those late night shows upload the highlights of their show on the internet so there isn't a point into staying up late to watch the shows in my honest opinion. I know that people still watch the shows even if it's on the internet but companies should take into account the internet views.

Blog #8 - advertisement

The movie was very interesting because I was unaware if how advertising actually operates and I wasn't aware of all the product placement that took place and how easy it actually is to get advertisement places to put their product in your movie as long as you have enough money. Almost anybody could do it as long as they have the resources.

Blog #6 - TV

I watch TV on Thursdays at 8:30 to 10:00 for Community, Parks and Recreation, and The Office. On Sundays I watch the Walking Dead at 9:00 and sometimes watch the talk show for the Walking Dead afterwards sometimes hoping I can get my tweet read or if they answer my phone call. Also to see a review of the episode right after it aired. Sometimes when I miss these episodes or forget to watch them then I watch them online on the TV show websites as they post them on there. Sometimes I watch them on my phone when I am not home.

Blog #5 - Music Industry

Personally it makes no sense that artists want to sign on with itunes because it seems like they spend more money than they receive money. But because of the decrease in illegal downloads I suppose it would make more sense for artists and bands to hop aboard itunes and spotify. I see many people using spotify now and it seems to be doing well as it is quick access to everybody's favorite music and genres. Also when songs become popular most people want the highest and purest quality of that song so they do infact go out of their way to buy it just to be sure they can get the best quality.

Blog # 4 - Network Vs. Cable

Networks should do what AMC and FX are doing and release good quality television comedies and dramas. That is what I would personally want but it won't overtake the majority of the viewership from the reality tv shows. The networks keep airing these reality program because they know people will watch them no matter what. As long as people watch them then they will keep airing them. If the viewers want to make a change and send a message to the networks then they need to stop watching the reality programs. It's really lame when someone says Jersey Shore is stupid yet they still watch it. If they really cared about what was on television and on the networks then they would simply stop watching something that they did not like so the ratings go down and the networks can make a change to add quality programming to their schedule.

Novel Blurb

Talim Cross: First Story

The story of a boy(Tak) and his mother(Talim) wanting to find the boy's father. A game where people slaughter one another. A desire to meet one's true love. A prelude to a bigger plot. The start of the boy's journey to maturity.

Ideas for Final Class Novel

The theme for the graphic novel I want to explore is how a tragedy about another family member can effect a young boy for most of his life. When reading Essex County I was surprised that this theme was explored as well so inspiration may be drawn from that despite the characters in both pieces of literature being under different circumstances. The characters that are to be involved are a young boy, his mother, a killer, and a dog. Those are the four main characters. The plot idea for this novel is about a young boy and mother entering death game so the mother can see the father again (the man she loves). The boy never met the father as he impregnated his mother and left before he was born. A figure known as The Reaper appears in the story and ends up killing the mother. The boy lives by himself for 10 more years with a dog he finds during the death game until the next death game. The graphic novel is gonna explain the world (for good world building) and the rules of the game at the start and for the rest of the pages show the troubles of the boy during the first game. This is a prequel story to a much larger story that details the events of the next game that takes place 10 years after the first one the boy participates in. By the end of the novel the reader is going to know why the boy decides to enter the game again. In terms of character development the reader is going to see how the murder of his mother effects the boy as he gets older.

Blog # 3 - A Library without Books

I think that borrowing ereaders from the library would be useful but also be troublesome at the same time. It would require more money to fix a broken ereader than a broken book because the library charges fees for books that are damaged or late. If the library were to issue only ereaders then I would personally not check them out as I could probably download books from the internet for free and read them on my computer or my phone. In terms of publishing the printer companies may be obsolete eventually and the people working at these factories will be out of jobs. It is a serious concern for our economy as we face unemployment more rapidly now than we have in a long time. With these factories being obsolete that would make the unemployment problem even worse. So it is a bigger piece of the global economic pie.

Transitions in Maus

Art Spiegelman uses a variety of transitions in Maus. He doesn't stick to just one type of transition. In a graphic novel it is important to use a variety of transitions to add more effect in the story and to make the reader more invested in what is going on.

The first example of a transition that Spiegelman uses is on page 62 of Maus in the bottom panels. Vladek is being shot at in one panel and in the very next panel he ducks into a tent. This a good example of Action-to-action because the single subject (Vladek) is peeing in one scene and in the very next panel that subject is going into the tent (which is the second action).

The second example of a transition that Spiegelman uses is on page 55 of Maus in the four middle panels. This depicts Vladek and another individual talking while in bed. They are in the same bed for four panels but each panel they are moving different parts of their body. This is a good example of Moment-to-moment as the characters in the adjacent panels are the same subject characters for all those panels.

The third example of a transition that Spiegelman uses is on pages 46 and 47 of Maus. At the end of page 46 Vladek is getting a physical for the army and the very next page he is on the battlefield. This shows a timelapse between the two and shows the process of getting into the army and how it can feel like to end up on the front lines when at one point physicals were being conducted before. Little reasoning is required to explain the transitions between the two pages.

Art Speigelman is a brillaint author when it comes to using transitions because he does not stick to just one transition. He uses many types of transitions in his work to illustrate the extremeness of the story.

 

COMM 203 Blog # 2 - Manti Te'O and The Case of the Invisible Girlfriend

It is very easy to trick people using the internet. So many stories could be fabricated and believed to be true. These stories can be fabricated through many means. This story is the perfect example. Most famous people would not lie about having a fake girlfriend but with the internet it makes the lie more believable. If we didn't have the internet Manti Te'O maybe wouldn't lie about such a thing. Not only football players do this sort of thing. In online gaming many gamers disguise their gender and they end up "dating" someone else playing that game. Little do the people dating them know that they are of a different gender. Some gamers do this gender swapping for several reasons. The most common reason is to get free items in the online game. It is scary to talk to someone on the internet without knowing if they are real or night. Dating websites become dangerous in this aspect. When someone goes to meet a person they are talking to on a dating website that person could turn out to be not what you expected. They could be a criminal, a rapist, or a killer. A perfect example is the Craigslist killer. Being someone else on the internet is easy and it's scary to think about sometimes. Each time someone puts personal information on the internet they may get worried that some random person online may use that information to harm them. A good simulator of this is takethislolipop.com is a good replication of what someone could do with simple information someone puts online. It shows that a crazy person could travel all they way to someone's home and harm them. When it comes to the internet people should be proceed with caution and not believe everything they see or read.

COMM343 3 Assinged Graphic Novels

The three Graphic Novels I plan to read are The Walking Dead, Watchmen, and V for Vendetta


The reason I chose the Walking Dead is because I already own the First Compendium (Which I have still not finished) so this will motivate me more to finish it. Also it is the original source work for my favorite tv show. I will gain more knowledge of storytelling with this graphic novel because I always used to think that all American graphic novels were just about super heroes and I am interested in how a graphic novel can tell another story.

The reason I chose Watchmen is because I have heard many good things about this graphic novel from everyone who has read it. I believe I will learn more about transitions as I know that the cover automatically transitions to the first page of the novel.

The reason I chose V for Vendetta is because I am interested in the premise of the story. I am also interested in why it is very popular. I think I will learn how a story can be so widely known. I also want to see variations in artwork that is different than the other graphics novels as well. I want to see how a particular style of art does or does not have to match the story it is telling.

COMM203 Blog #1 - The Obama Digital Re-Election Campaign

I agree that the internet had a huge help in Obama winning the campaign. During the election everywhere I looked there was always Obama supporters and Romney haters. Rarely did I see someone support Romney. On Tumblr almost everyone made some sort of joke about Mitt Romney and how he wasn't fit to lead the country. The effect is as big as they claim in the article. The success of a campaign is planted in all age groups not just targeting one. Obama was able to target every age group and social group. He reached out to the gays and he reached out to the elderly. He also reached out to younger voters on Reddit. The social media and the internet are going to be the main tools in bringing about change. A good example is Kony 2012. One 30 minute video online got so many people to stand up for this movement. It was widely talked about everywhere. This video was not originally played on television so this says that the internet is going to be the primary source for making changes in our growing society.

COMM 343 Comparing Maus and Understanding Comcis #1

One of the concepts that is presented in Understanding Comics that is used in Maus is the use of symbols. Symbols are used to represent concepts, ideas, and philosophies according to page 27 of Understand Comics. The example that is clearly seen in Maus is the symbol of the Nazi regime. This symbol is the swastika. The swastika is seen on the front cover of Maus and on page 32. You can tell what the characters in the story feel when they see that symbol on the flag. One does not need to know what ideals the flag represents because they can simply tell by the way the character’s eyes widen when they see it. On page 33 there are several panels where the swastika is in the background. In these finals on the foreground are evil acts being committed. When these two are seen together it is easy to tell that the swastika and the acts being committed in this panel are related. Just from this you can tell what the swastika entails and how it is represented. If the symbol is seen throughout the rest of the story then the reader can know what the symbol means just from looking at it. It is interesting to think that the reader won’t even need to read the text to know how to react when they see this symbol. Also the fact that the members of the Nazi regime are shown as cats and the members of the Jewish faith are shown as mice can also show the superiority and the discrimination that came along with this symbol. The size of the panel on page 32 of Maus also can show the importance of this symbol just by the fact that all the mice are looking at the flag and the panels before showing the terrors in their expressions.