Ad Post

In this mascara add, it shows a very pretty lady. She has pretty blonde hair, and the red swirl in the background is excentuating her makeup. She looks plastic. It is not fair to advertise mascara on someone that looks like a doll. Yes, she looks nice but that is not because of the mascara that she is wearing, she was born like that. It is also not fair because this is a picture. I doubt this lady looks like this in real life. This picture was edited for all imperfections using a computer. This is not a good thing for young girls to be looking at. They open up a magazine and they see this really pretty lady advertising mascara. This can create stereotypes on "what a girl should look like." The truth is that everyone is different, your looks should not define the person that you are. It is sad that some people think that they should look or should try to look like the models in the ads.

Gender Differences

In the article, "Differences. . . " it states many differences between men and women. I was raised with the stereotype that men are better than women. My dad was the one that worked in our family and my mom stayed home to raise the kids. Whenever my brothers and I would fight, my brother would just tell me to shut up, that I was a girl. I do understand that men are different from women. That would seem to be self-evident but, I think that they should be treated the same. Many women have been brought up to believe that they are as good as men. The way I see it, they are. Both men and women have their strengths and weaknesses. For example if my brother and I were to have a weight lifting competition, he would definately win. If we were competing for a babysitting job, I would win. It could be coinsidence, or it could be that we fit the stereotypes, I'm not sure. But there are things that we are both enjoy or are good at. My brother and I both keep our rooms very clean. This could be considered a femenine trait or something for a housewife, but we don' t think of it this way. We also both like so sit down and watch hockey and football. This could be considered something that is meant for guys.

Reptilian Hot Button Sonic Ads

Sonic ads have been known to be funny, catchy, and interesting. If you haven't seen a sonic ad or a sonic for that matter its a drive in restaurant. The commercials are two guys that pull into the drive in and order or they are a guy and a girl. People find them funny because of the lines the characters use to decribe the food. Or how rediculous the people act. In this commercial which happens to be my favorite two guys are talking then one guy hits the food right out of the others hand. Sonic ads have the retilian hot button because instead of just showing their food like most restaurants do sonic shows how you have to drive in, how people have great times eating in there cars, and their great food. Its a very simple ad with no music, acting, or rediculous animations. The creators of these sonic commercials struck gold because even my parents quote the commercials. They are interested in going to sonic now just because of the commercials. Proving that sonic has caught the public eye with a simple commercial.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

These are our thoughts about what might happen in the novel and how we like the novel.

Super Size Me

We are going to discuss our thoughts about Morgan Spurlock's "Supersize Me" that we have been watching in class.

Gender Differences

Growing up I thought that I always had to do more chores than my sister. I also thought that my parents gave her all the easy chores like, sweeping the kitchen, vacuuming the family room and basement, and sweeping off the porch. While my chores consisted of more labor. For example taking out the trash, cleaning the windows, and walking the dog. But after I read this article posted in the New York Times, I thought about my old chores and realized that my sister actually did spend more time with all of her chores and most likely worked harder than me. Although my family doesn’t fit the New York Times post perfectly, my sister did get paid more for her chores. She was already in high school so she needed money unlike a kid who is in middle school. It came as a surprise to me that 73.3% of girls have chores at home compared to the 65.3% of boys. When I thought about it I found it very fascinating how boys do less work and get more money and girls do more work and get less money. Unfortunately, It seems like that is how it is in the real world too. So if from the beginning of our lives we all worked and got paid equal maybe later in life when we start to make the real money everyone would have a fair shot at making as much as they could. Although this might not have been like all the other gender differences blogs I thought it was important to write about and for people to see.

Reptilian "Hot Buttons" Ad Analysis

An ad on television that stands out to me are the Verizon Wireless commercials. Normally these ads are very funny, which makes me interested in what is going on in them. For example the no dead zone where they always make them so scary at the beginning where you see someone in danger or something like that and then the other person says to them "Well I have the Verizon Network with 3G coverage." and then they show the "Can You Hear Me Now?" guy there and all of the random people there that are supposed to the network. Like this ad. These push a reptilian hot button in me because they play like scary music at the beginning and then at the end they play that normal Verizon music and then show phones at the end of their commercials and sort of explain them a little bit. Verizon also has another ad that I like when they talk about their twittering and facebook having phones. Where you have the role reversal and the parents are twittering and on facebook and the kids are telling them that that is all that they do. This is the ad I like this one because it is funny and they do a role reversal between the parents and the kids. I like these commercials because they keep me interested in the product and what kind of commercials they will come up with next. These ads basically target towards anyone theses days because many people use facebook and twitter to keep in contact with each other and also everyone wants their phone service to be good so that they do not have phone problems. Out of all of the other cellular phone services I think Verizon does the best job with marketing and advertising their service to people through deals on their website and ads in newspapers and on television.

"Reptilian Hot Buttons" Ad Analysis

The 'Get a Mac' ad's always stand out to me while watching television. Not only are these ad's short, sweet, and too the point but they are also memorable and catch my attention. I began to think about what it is that makes these advertisements so great. I thought maybe it is the humor like in this ad. But then as I searched for more online, I found this ad and began to notice what it is about these advertisements that make me want to buy the product. The backgrounds are white and clean. Its clutter free, which keeps my attention on the people in the clip so I know exactly what it is about. Also, most of Mac's computers and other technology is white or silver and all of there stores are simple, and white. As a consumer, I like this consistency. While watching TV, as the ad begins I know exactly what it is for. Another consistency in their ads are the simple, catchy, and fun tune in the background that can easily get stuck in your head. I think that these are good marketing techniques for Apple by keeping this consistency and making them memorable. But the most important thing that might not be noticed right off the bat as to what makes this company so appealing is the portrayal of a mac as a hip and young person and a PC as an old, outdated person. This is shown by the PC's outdated suit and glasses as well as his 'boring' interests and personality. The mac is shown wearing jeans and a tee shirt and looking like he hasn't shaved in awhile which is casual and gives the company a fun, young, and appealing face. This shows that the mac's audience is targeted towards younger people. This is a jab at the fact that Microsoft has been around for too long and they have lost touch of what the consumers what, what is hip or futuristic. Other companies have seen how well these marketing techniques work with consumers. They push consumer's so called "Reptilian Hot Buttons" which makes other companies adapt similar techniques. The beginning of this ad led me to believe that it was a Mac ad, until I noticed that it said "iDont" and pointed out all of the problems most coustomers have with the iPhone, a similar technique that Apple uses by pointing out all of the problems with a PC and saying that they have all of the answers to PC user's problems. They used a sleek background, simple lettering, and a feel-good song. Towards the end they completly changed the visual appeal and sounds of the clip and note that the Droid phone has all of these things that the iPhone does not. I thought this was an interesting way of approaching the competition.

Gender Differences

Boys and girls are really different when they are young. At school they are different, at home, during activities they are always different. When I was looking for research to write for this blog i found an article on this article that did some research on scientists are saying that boys and girls brains are different. It also showed how gender differences in language seem to be biological. It said that researchers from the University of Haifa and Northwestern University showed that areas of the brain associated with language work harder in girls than it does in boys and that boys and girls use different parts of the brain when working on language tasks. Their findings said that language processing is more sensory in boys and is more abstract in girls. Rea searchers also said that it could have support for single sex classrooms. For their study they used 31 boys and 31 girls aged 9 to 15 and took fMRI tests on them to measure their brain activity when performing language tasks, such as spelling and writing. Their tests showed that girls showed greater activation in language areas of the brain than boys. In boys they found that performance depended on how hard visual and auditory areas of the brain worked. They also said this may be because of evolutionary things where men whose survival depended on whether they could hear dangerous sights and sounds. They also said that if a woman gave you directions she would do it in great detail and tell you exactly where to turn as where men would only need one thing and get distracted with other details.

Gender Differences

It is quite obvious that there are large barriers between men and women. These gender differences are shown in multiple ways. Men and women speak, move, and act differently as shown on this website. This website shows charts of differences in the behavior, speech patterns, facial expressions, and body language of both males and females. I found this website interesting because I have noticed many of these differences between genders but much of these 'facts' seemed stereotypical. This website said that women are more emotional then men, an issue we have been discussing in class. Men might be just as emotional if not more than women but society tells them they are supposed to put on a tough guy front. Also, a similar issue was brought up in the short story we read in class "The 'Fragile American Girl' Myth". This article explained how women think that they are discriminated against and go through great lengths to prove this but really, men are worse off than women. Another important issue we have been discussing in class were Barbie dolls and women trying to look a certain way. Most girls play with Barbies as kids so they get the idea into their heads that they are supposed to look just like Barbies because they were so pretty and had such cool clothes. Girls do not realize that she is just plastic and that it would be impossible for her to have the same proportions in real life. This article addresses this issue by showing a woman with the same proportions as a Barbie and how strange she looks. This article also showed women who strove to be just like Barbie like the woman with the 20 inch waist and the woman who paid a million dollars to have plastic surgery to look like Barbie. Women look up to Barbie because it is all that they know about being beautiful, she was many woman's hero as a child and this carries on to their adulthood whether they notice it or not. This is shown by the make-up company MAC who sold a Barbie line geared towards women. This makes women think that they still should or can look like Barbie.

Powder Puff Game

We are going to discuss gender identity during the powder puff game.

We are Going to comment on this topic about gender:

Do the gender stereotypes reflected (and exploited) in popular culture define and codify gender identity, or do they derive from fundamental, innate gender differences? To what extent do the messages about what it means to be male and female that we see in television, film, print, and web media influence our gender identities?As you reflect on the gender stereotypes that pervade our culture, consider their implications: are they dangerous pigeonholes that limit understanding and personal growth (as many strident writers have noted), or are they less insidious charicatures, more deserving of playful mocking and armchair speculation (Dave Barry and Maureen Dowd) than passionate rebuke (Sut Jahlly and Jackson Katz in Tough Guise)? Additionally, what gender issues does screenwriter Tina Fey explore (and lampoon) in Mean Girls?

Melting Pot or Salad Bowl?

These are our opinions as to whether or not the United States is a 'Melting Pot' or a 'Salad Bowl'.

Michael Moore

We are all going to discuss Michael Moore's movie Farenheit 9/11

September 11, 2001

These are our responses to what we have been learning in class about 9/11.