Blog Seven: Media and Politics

I have always felt confused about politics, even as I get older and become more educated. I have never felt that I have a firm grasp on what's going on in the world and which political agendas are more desirable than others. It's not that I don't care about politics, I just feel like most politicians operate by self-serving interests, either to themselves or their party, rather than the interests of the country as a whole. In terms of media, I am embarrassed to say that I have a very limited knowledge of politics in the media. The only real media exposure I've had for the 2008 elections is by seeing the candidates on SNL or Ellen and various other talk shows. I have never sat down to watch any of their debates or watched CNN to gather more information about any of them. I like that the candidates for the 2008 elections have made an effort to reach out to young people who are more likely to not participate in voting. It is easier to relate to these strangers when you see them on a talk show when they are not being so serious. It allows you to get to know them on a more personal level and shows you other aspects to their personality. I have seen a lot more commercials and media exposure to Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama than I have the Republican nominees. I think this is because the media is really taking advantage of the fact that the Democrat candidate will be either a woman or an African American. As the time for the ballot to be cast comes closer, I find myself thinking that Obama would be the best president. Even though I have not paid close attention to any of the candidates agendas, I think that he is the best public speaker and has been able to gain a rapport with his audiences which is imperative in this position. He appears to be trustworthy and to me, that is the most important quality in our next president.

Blog Six: Advertising

Advertising has an affect on me daily, but the affect is usually very subtle. I do a lot of TV watching and unfortunately this means that I do a lot of commercial watching as well. Generally, I tend to void out commercials and advertisements by getting up and doing something really quickly while commercials are playing. But sometimes, a commercial will come around that really sticks with me, and I'll have a jingle stuck in my head all day. I think that most of the time I get irritated at advertisements and try to avoid them if possible. If I'm listening to the radio, and a commercial comes on, I'll scan the channels until I find music. If I'm flipping through a magazine and there is a full-page advertisement for something, I'll skip past it to find an interesting story. When I'm at home, I'll use TEVO to skip past the commercials. In short, I don't think that advertisements have a large impact on me because I make an effort to avoid them. The last time that an advertisement influenced my purchasing behavior was last week, when an Applebee's commercial came on the television when I was hungry. I couldn't figure out what I wanted to eat because I was so sick of all the fast food places in Radford, and the commercial came on and made the food look so good, so I went out and got dinner at Applebee's.

The Absolut Pears ad shown above is effective because it uses vibrant colors and a eye-catching picture of a snake to catch the viewer's attention. This advertisement for Absolut Pears Vodka is better in the form of a TV commercial because the music that they play is very seductive and the first scenes are hard to figure out what's going on, so it encourages the viewer to continue watching to figure out what is being depicted. The slogan they use is, "The New Taste of Temptation", which is very clever because it uses the snake to symbolize "temptation" which they are associating with alcohol because they are attempting to build an association between temptation/seductiveness to alcohol. The color of the snake is also a clever element to the advertisement because it is trying to place the emphasis on the pear flavor of the vodka. Overall, this is just an advertisement that commands your attention and presents the product in a way that is desirable to the viewer.

The Skoal advertisement above is an example of an ineffective ad because of it's lack of attractiveness. Advertisements that simply depict the product being advertised are boring and have no attention-grabbing element. If I were reading a magazine and came across the Skoal ad, I would immediately flip past it. Also, the tiny words at the bottom of the pictures do not invite the viewer to continue reading.