Native Advertisement

With such an expanding media and advertising empire, it's not surprising that companies have found new and improved ways to put advertisements into our everyday lives. Native advertisement is basically ads that have been strategically placed online and have been integrated into a normal online platform. For example, you could see "Sponsored by Forever 21" on a website that is designed for teens and people looking for clothes. These advertisements are placed in a website that targets their target audience. The above native advertisement is by Taco Bell and is placed in a BuzzFeed article. It is placed very naturally in an article that many people read for entertainment and looks like it's an unintentional part of the article. The audience that usually reads BuzzFeed is a young and new crowd that reads it for entertainment and has free time to sit in a computer. Taco Bell wants to target and new and fresh audience because most of their customers and young. The caption for the article reads, "Some things are meant to be kept for yourself, just like the new Taco Bell Loaded Grillers...". It seems so integrated in the article and like it's not even an advertisement. Because it's so naturally placed in the article, it becomes naturally placed in the readers mind and becomes a normal part of their life.The tone of it is very happy and friendly. It's almost as if the author is talking to the audience in a personal and friendly way, thus increasing the appeal of Taco Bell. The article is fun and entertaining, thus Taco Bell is fun and entertaining. Then it shows how the loaded grillers are 99 cents, also an appealing offer. It is all placed right above the article and so it is the first thing that people read and think about. This advertisement is clearly a native advertisement because not many people would consider it a "normal everyday advertisement" and would not ignore it like they would with any other advertisement. 

Generation Like

How powerful is the connection between the effect of social media and the structure of the Hunger Games?

The Hunger Games is a rising movie about a Utopian world that has annual games with children being placed in a giant stadium by adults and having to fight to death for entertainment. While it may be incredibly twisted, it is regarded as “normal” in their community. With such an extreme and violent ideology, it is surprising that many people have compared the Hunger Games with social media today. Firstly, just like the Hunger Games, social media is basically a big stadium with kids that is meant for entertainment. Each of these kids are competing for the most “fame” or the most “likes”. Each person in the Hunger and Games and in social media is looking for sponsors and looking for people to accept them. Most of these social media outlets are made by adults and always have a board of adults working the magic in the back, similar to the game makers in the Hunger Games. Similar to the Hunger Games, the point of social media is entertaining. But we as a society have invested so much time and energy in it that it has become a normal part of society. Because social media is integrated into our everyday lives, it is not often thought of as a competition till death. But when you sit back and examine each detail, it is shocking to see how much social media resembles a movie about competition and death. Every little aspect of the Hunger Games can be related to social media and that is eye opening. 

Iggy, Don't Forget Where you Came From

The new and upcoming star, Iggy Azalea, prides herself in the fact that she came from a rough life and has made it big. In her song, “Work”, she expresses the pride she has over her achievements in life. The song is filled with powerful line such as “how many floors I had to scrub just to make it past where I am from” or the reoccurring line of “no money, no family, 16 in the middle of Miami”. The song is meant to show her struggles and to empower people who are coming from several backgrounds to achieve their dreams. With such an empowering message, it would be thought that the music video would put a tear in your eye. The music video falls just shorts of that, seeing as Azalea herself is wearing $2000 shoes and barely any clothing.

The opening scene begins with Azalea walking in a desert with several objects on fire. The music video disappoints from the beginning considering the fact that Azalea is barely dressed and wearing clothing that costs more than most people’s homes, which is ironic considering the fact that she is singing about the fact that she had nothing while growing up. The music video continues to go downhill about 50 seconds in. Azalea is suddenly surrounded with backup dancers who are shaking their butts in front of the camera while Azalea is sexualizing herself because of the movements she is doing but also the clothing she’s wearing. This lessens the value of the song and takes away from the meaning. She is sexualizing and objectifying women, even though her song is meant to be inspiring.

The real problem with the music video comes up about two minutes in when Azalea begins dancing on a guy, steals his keys, and runs away. This is a problem for two reasons. Firstly, it is disregarding the real message of the song and making it seem like the only way she got to where she is is buy seducing men and doing illegal things. Although her song is filled with lyrics about her working hard, the music video makes it seem like the only way that she becae successful was because of men and breaking the law. This brings up the second problem: it marginalizes women everywhere because it shows that women cannot be successful on their own and rather they have to seduce or trick men in order to be up-and-coming.

Not only does this music video marginalizes women, it also goes on to offend the impoverished people and their society. Azalea is seen riding in her bike and walking around with clean clothing, full makeup, and nice hair in neighborhoods with people who are wearing ripped and dirty clothes. She is priding herself in coming from that background and yet in the music video, she is walking around like she is better and more powerful than all of them. It shows that she has clearly forgotten where she came from. It disrespects people that are still living in impoverished situations and makes them seem like they are worthless compared to people like her.

Although this song has a potential to be an empowering song, the music video brings it back down to the norms of the music industry. Although Azalea knows that she had a rough background, this music video proves that she has succumbed to the lifestyle and the attitudes of the music industry. 

Written Task 2

Amirah Abualeez

Mr. Michael

Language and Literature HL

6 December 2014

How could the text be read and interpreted differently by two different readers?

            Every advertisement bases every single detail based on the target audience, yet some advertisements can be multivocal and can give a different message to each individual reader. American Apparel released an ad showing a pair of female legs being held carelessly by a man. The only words that were placed were the company’s logo in between the female’s legs. At first, because of the clear objectification of the woman, the target audience may be blatantly assumed to be men. In reality, though, this advert targets both men and women in very different ways because it gives the men a very dominant and many vibe but it also makes women feel as if their sole purpose is to please that man.

            The clear and unconcealed target audience of this ad are men. The advertisement shows a man holding a woman by her feet as if they were toys. By showing only one body part, it completely disregards the woman and focuses on the man in the ad. The man is the dominant figure while the woman is the submissive figure. The ad uses affect transfer because the men looking at this ad can get a very dominant and manly vibe from the models and can transfer that vibe onto the company and associate it with wearing their clothing. By having the woman being held as if she was a toy, it shows the men looking at this advert that the main purpose for women is to please men and that men can buy sex and women by buying clothing from American Apparel. It gives men three things they want: women, sex, and manliness. These are things that many men strive for and the company has successfully been able to associate those three things with their company in this one advertisement.

            While this advertisement seems to objectify, sexualize, and objectify women, women can interpret this ad in one of two ways: either it offends them, or it encourages them. Firstly, the logo of the company being placed in between the woman’s legs further makes the woman look like a sex object. Because no other part of her body is shown, the woman is objectified and made out to look worthless. Many women will look at this ad and be offended because all women are made out to be objectified as a result of this advert. On the other hand, this ad can directly target women because it plays on many of their insecurities to sell. Just as it shows the men that women are here to please them, it shows women the ways to please men. Women will relate wearing American Apparel clothing with getting men’s attention, something that many women strive for. They will relate beauty and happiness with getting a man, which they will ultimately relate with the company. This ad takes many women who feel negatively about themselves and tries to portray this idea of being held by a man in a positive light. While American Apparel is turning away many customers as a result of this advertisement, it is also attracting and entire new audience.
            This advertisement shows multivocality because it gives a dominant vibe to men but also plays on many women’s insecurities. Although completely unacceptable and appalling, this advert has a lot of potential for success. It captures attention and gets people to talk, and that is ultimately the purpose of this advert and many other American Apparel ads. American Apparel has not had a decline in their sales as a result of their overly risqué marketing techniques.  They have strategically designed this ad in a way that reaches a variety of audiences and can be interpreted by each reader in a different way.

Further Oral Presenttion Reflection

FOA Reflection

            For the first Further Oral Presentation, the possibilities were virtually endless. My FOA analyzed how American Apparel, a clothing company, continuously used the sexualization, objectification, and exploitation of women as an advertising technique. American Apparel has hundreds of ads that focus on specific body parts, shows girls in provocative positions, and does not bother censoring most of their advertisements. The message that I was trying to get across with all this was that these advertisements hold many unintended effects such as exposing women to more violence, showing that women are only here to please men, and holding up stereotypes about a women’s worth that have been prominent for centuries. I decided to take a different approach when answering the unit question of, “what does advertising reveal to us about society?” I decided to show many ads that would make it seem like society is going nowhere, but in fact I believe that these ads are the ones that show social progress because of all the controversy they constantly receive. The four criterion that this FOA was graded on was Knowledge and understanding of the text, organization, language, and understanding how language is used. The main thing that I struggled with was being able to find pictures that analyzed language well and being able to link the language with my main topic question. I believe that I was able to use the language well and understand that every sentence has a hidden meaning and I was able to communicate that well. I do think that I could have talked about the language in relation to the persuasive techniques we learned in class more (Ex: shock factor, pathos, logos, etc). The techniques that I did discuss were affect transfer, commodification of intimacy, ethos, logos, and I used trigger words several times. With that being said, there were many instances where I could have used them more effectively. Another weakness that I had was staying formal throughout the entire presentation. There were many instances where I did not use appropriate language or I could have been more formal with my wording. I picked a topic that was tricky because it was time consuming to find ads that incorporated enough language to analyze but was also school appropriate. I do believe that one of my strengths was taking a different approach when answering the unit question. Overall, I feel as if I had the potential to do a much better job on my presentation but I am happy with the overall result. I feel as if I did not say everything that I had intended to say but I also found myself saying more things than I had written down. The message that I was trying to convey was that American Apparel uses this exploitation of women to sell but it is not completely accepted in society. I think I communicated this message efficiently. Next time, I will make practicing my speech the main priority. I found myself nervously looking down at my paper several times even though I knew what I was supposed to say. I will also be aware of time constraints and have everything I need to say in the required time. Overall, although I will set the bar higher next time, I am proud of my work and how hard I worked on it.

Advertisements and Culture

In the early 2000’s, Olay came out with an ad that highlighted the important roles of a woman: “wife”, “mother”, and “shoe aficionado”.  These words were strategically placed next to a seemingly glowing and happy woman who held up her wedding band in pride. The close up shot of the woman allows the audience to place emphasis on her face and to really feel like Olay has had a significant impact in her life, along with shoes, of course. While the ad may be seemingly effective, it draws on stereotypes that are prevalent in society today. According to this advertisement, the only things that women value in life are the roles of being a wife and a mother and meaningless things such as shoes. It indirectly states that women do not have greater ambitions in life than being those things. It places very low standards on women. At first, I assumed that this ad was in the late 1950’s because that was a time where being a wife and  a mother were the only important things for a woman and they did not hold stable jobs or aspire to be something greater than that. It was shocking to find out that it was actually from 2002 because that proves that those sexist and stereotypical thoughts have carried on in society today. Although it would be assumed that this ad aims to empower women, I would argue that women are actually ignored and marginalized. The target audience is the woman who is a housewife and who has free time to take care of herself. In that sense, it ignores all the women who are not those things. It places a generalization on women everywhere and actually insults the women who hold stable careers and aspire to be more things. By placing the wedding band in the picture, it shows that the woman values the fact that she is a wife. In my opinion, that is empowering men because it shows that a women values a man in her life and that men are one of the “important roles” that a woman plays. Overall, this ad seems effective and friendly when someone first looks at it. But right as you look closely and examine it more, it is clear that this ad takes all of those existing stereotypes of women and plugs it into their in order to sell more. 

Celebrities in Jail: Logos, Pathos, Ethos

Editorial

Do Celebrities get Special Treatment in Jail?

Amirah Abualeez

Robert Downy Jr, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, and many other celebrities have served time in jail due to things such as drunk driving or drug possession. It is not unusual to hear that a famous person has spent time in jail, and then got out the next day. Many people start questioning the justice system and accuse it of giving special treatment to celebrities and people in high positions. In Pitkin County, Colorado, inmates are comfortable with a gym, a dayroom, and balanced meals. When people celebrities read this, they automatically assume that Charlie Sheen spends time in this jail because it is “comfortable”. The reality is that, there are many inmates in that jail who are not. When it comes to the justice system, the fancy and expensive attorneys cannot do much when it comes to the actual jail stay. Celebrities do in fact get special treatment, but special does not necessarily mean better.

To begin, it is crucial to distinguish between a jail and a prison. A jail is usually an open space where the inmates have activities and can interact with one another. A prison is a closed off cell and the inmate has little interaction with others. Prisons are usually for more serious crimes such as murder and jails are for less serious crimes such as drunk driving, which is where most of these celebrities fall into. Steve Whitmore of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department states, “So if celebrities seem to have it easy in jail, it's partly because the jail system is intended for nonviolent offenders -- and celebrities usually fall into that class”. In a jail, it is the guard’s jobs to reassure the prisoner’s safety. In the case of celebrities, there is a very large chance that they could be harassed or even physically abused by other prisoners. That is the reason that many celebrities end up having their own cell isolated away from the rest of the prison, they are called “keepaways”. When people look at one side of the story, they automatically assume that the reason celebrities get their own cells is because they are being wrongfully favored. In reality, these celebrities are constantly bombarded by the media and do not get more privileges than many other people. Although some celebrities get less time than they should, that is not a generalization that can be made on all of them. Although Lindsay Lohan spent about 84 minutes in jail in 2007, Robert Mitchum served his full sentence of 60 days, Robert Downy Jr. and Lil Wayne spent a year in jail, and T.I. spent 10 months in jail. It is so often that the experiences of certain celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan are taken and then placed on other stars that had completely different experiences, thus altering the views of society on the subject.

Today, there are about 2.4 million people held in jails in the United States. Yet out of those 2.4 million, it is only the incarcerated celebrities that attract attention. Because of their lavish and upscale lifestyles, these celebrities must also get lavish and upscale jail treatment, right? The answer is no. It is generally assumed that these celebrities get special treatment because stories like Lindsay Lohan’s infamous 84 minutes of Paris Hiltons 82 minutes in jail surface the internet. The matter of the fact is that these celebrities do not represent what actually happens to celebrities in jail. The “special” privileges that they receive are not a matter of favoritism; they are a matter of safety. The justice system will target anyone who has done wrongful acts, no matter the size of their bank account. At the end of the day, jail is jail. These celebrities will end up sleeping in the same bed that any other prisoner sleeps in and they will eat the same food that any other prisoner will eat. With such a growing media empire, it is vital to understand the entire picture and not place generalizations on an entire group of people.