Product Placement Assignment #5

What do you think? Discuss product placement in TV shows and movies as an effective/ineffective means of advertising, especially to teenagers.

I believe that product placement is a very effective tool that advertisers use to appeal to the mass audience, because it is imposible to avoid. It is a well known fact that people cannot go one sitcom, radio talkshow, video game reel, without having to see a product inserted in the content. Advertisment has advanced so much that it no longer just airs over the brief breaks between the shows, but within the very faucet of the show itself. Consumers of media have no control of what they view within the show as they did during the breaks when they could just go into the next room and make themselves a sandwich.
Not only is product placement hard for consumers to avoid, but it is playing off our values as Americans. The values being played on vary with the product. products placed in the right celebrities hands makes us as consumers tremble with a desire to possess the product that we see, because it gives us the false sense of being just like them. Material Comfort, and conformity are the two values that I believe many teens value the most; advertisers draw in many uninformed teens by playing off on those values. Me, like most teens think of commercials as another way for adults to control what we want, and who we're suppose to be; product placement is just a natural method of appealing to teens. Teens don't want to hear ads that wish to convince them to buy a certain product. What product placement does that the latter doesn't is that it doesn't try to push teens into buying anything directly, no; it takes a round about approach and it plays off on many teens fear of not fitting in, and wanting to be in on the latest trends, as well as emulating their favorite celebrities. Teens become persuaded not by convincing ad techniques but by their own wrong doing in getting sucked into a product based on the touch and go emotional appeal of the product. I do not believe that teens are inept at understanding that there is such thing as product placement, but I do believe that teens must be even more analytic when dealing with what advertisers dish out.

Blog #4

I believe a lot of what we seem to perceive about men, and women seem to stem from a long series of stereotypes that seem to strait-jacket us to fit the norms society has placed on everyone. Boys having been raised with the mind set that they must be powerful, independent, and often feared figures (by women more often than none) ; reveals to us a long held belief that men are the so called, "bread-winners." That they dominated the professional sphere long before women shook things up, and for that reason there still exists the practice of offering raises to men over women who are equally as deserving, because of the stereotypes that have become like a crutch to so many, too hard to shake off. I feel also that women are overly sexualized in main stream society, whom regards women as nothing more than mere objects deprived of brains. It's getting to the point where girls buy into the belief that the only way to succeed is by looking great, and buying into all the trends and products that are said to make you 'cool'. Girls are fighting an uphill battle with self-esteem issues, rather than tackling social issues like gender inequalities. After viewing distorted images of what boys and girls ought to be, and what that leads to are things that could have been avoided if the media set out real examples that boys and girls could live up to: gay bashing, rape, date rape, gangs, assault, low self-esteems, depression (the list goes on and on). Where can one draw the line between what we consider to be okay, and what actually sets the standards for all of us to obeyed by?

Blog #3

I seldom find myself watching t.v; because I preoccupy my time with doing other more stimulating activities such as, reading, writing, or doing homework. Perhaps, on the off chance that I am tuned into the t.v I will catch the new season of American Idol with my family. I don't know what it is about the show but, I can't get enough of it. From its' most whimsical characters to the more heartbreaking pieces of personal sorrows, and betrayals of the contestants.
It could not be American Idol without portraying several American core values: Freedom, individualism, success, youthfulness. It has been a common occurrence to see individuals sporting the most ridiculous outfits imaginable to try-out in front of the judges (banana suits, bathing suits, wigs, hats, mismatched outfit,ect. It never seems to amaze me that by the seventh season people can still be allowed on the air with their crazy gimmicks, but isn't that the point--quirkiness or should I say individuality is what gets American Idol such good ratings. We live in such an amazing country, where people are granted the right to dress which ever way they please without being persecuted for it, and thus American Idol can have no restraint on the choice of apparel that the contestants make. Back to what I mentioned earlier about the heartbreaking pieces, they reveal the most important american value (at least what I believe to be the most important), achievement and success. One such story was about a man who was living with his mother so that he could look after her because she was suffering from severe seizures that would otherwise make it impossible to live at home. Well, being a self-less man he did the only thing he could do for his mom, he gave up his music career to look after her; it was only after his mother asked him to did he tryout for American Idol. This story depicts not only the value for humanitarianism, but it is interwoven this man's success at at making to the next auditions in Hollywood. It is these pieces that work up my heartstrings and draws me to the show, just because I'm rooting for them the entire way.

Blog #2: Media Impact on Children

It's interesting to see the distinct changes in the way the media played on the developement of children from the 1940's to now. Marketing in the Media during the 1940's, had only so many outlets at it's disposable--perhaps maybe even saw children as a small percentage of consumers. Today, as the media is turning out even more ways to get consumers to buy their products: Logos, toys, vacation getaways, cars, prizes, games, product branding, etc. Whether the media has placed more emphasis on getting children to be life-long consumers of their product, or perhaps there is a lack of parental control not being placed on children from what they can wear, to watch, to play with. It's such a simple question that has no true definate answer. This question goes back to the chicken and the egg situation; have we allowed media to define and shape our culture, society, and even the way we see ourselves as human beings, or does the media reflect what we have deemed most important in our lives (technology, materialism, egocentrism). After having viewed this video as well as done the dichotomy activity in class, I believe that there's no black and white answer to our problems; it's both the media and the indivdual's responsibility to exert control on what is being put up, and what gets watched.

Blog #1: Notecards

In Media, we were supposed to have interviewed four individuals about their view on media and how it impacts their daily lives. I chose people within my sphere, but of all different backgrounds: my sister who is 12yrs. old, my mom's boyfriend who is a 48yrs. old Caucasian man, my Cambodian friend Meng Lean, and my boyfriend who is attending college. I had no predetermined intent on picking them; I did it mainly because of the convenience, and we were to interview people who were not all the same. The results were quite surprising, because all though they all seem to be different, they all seemed to be on the same page when answering the questions I'd asked them. What the media meant to them was any source where people received their news from. That was the most common assumption amongst my interviewees; but although they weren't too far from the truth they did not completely it on the nail. The discussion in my Media Lit. class revealed to me is that media is absolutely anything that conveys a message to us, whether it be a logo, to music, to even the artcle of clothing on your back. Not one of my interviewees believed that they could live without some form of media, because we live in such a day in age that the idea of it is quite unfathamable. One of the questions I had chosen to ask my interviewees was, weather they believed that the media exaggerated, or twisted their stories. They all agreed that it was true, but they thought that it is necessary for them to do that because they "must" appeal to their audiences.