Week 4 Free Choice

Today I was watching Scooby-Doo and while watching it I noticed product placement. At first when Velma was entering a room I noticed that right by the entrance there was a large red cooler with the Coca cola label. The bright red cooler stuck out like a sore thumb in a setting of muted colors. Later on in the movie there was a scene in a kitchen where Coke bottles in the back round. I thought this time the cokes were less distracting but you could still see them. The movie had good and bad product placement but either way I noticed it and it got me thinking so they achieved what the advertiser set out to do. 

Week 4 Free choice

A few days ago there was a viral video of a boy named Keaton Jones. In the video he was crying and talking about how he was being bullied at school. The video was heart wrenching and made me want to console the boy and speak out against his bully. The video went viral and next think I knew the video was all over my timeline with celebrities like Rhianna and Carti B telling him that they're proud of him for speaking up and they're sorry he had to go through such a thing. Chris Evens even invited him to watch the Avengers premiere. Seeing all this warmed my heart and made me happy that we have media platforms like twitter and instagram to spread the word.
My warm feelings for Keaton did not last long. The community of twitter did more research on the boy and found out that his family were racist in remarks found on facebook and pictures of him holding the confederate flag. This made me upset but didn't change my feelings for the boy untill I heard the reason he was gettijng bullied. Keaton in the video said he was getting bullied for his appearance bu tother sources said it was because he was saying racial slurs and saying the n word. I would never think bullying is ok but I wouldnever think saying the n word or being rasict is ok either.
This showed me how a story can have many sides and I shouldn't act too quickly on something I see because it could not be the whole story.
https://youtu.be/koBvI6l8qvk

Free Choice Week 3

As you can probably tell from my wallpaper I am a huge Beyonce fan. My favorite creation of Beyonce is her visual album Lemonade. If you have not seen it I would highly recommend you check it out. I could talk for pages about each song,the lyrics, and the imagery presented in the album but in this post I'm going to talk about the album as a whole as well as aspects that stand out. In  Lemonade I see a compilation of Beyonce's expanding narrative. It shows her growth as an artist all while keeping her messages ( we should have our own voice, be proud of who we are, be real with ourselves and others and that we can bring about a change in society) intact. The visual album shows Afrofuturist imagery in a beautifully haunting way.  Lemonade is  broken into twelve vignettes for the twelve songs on the album. The songs are separated with poetry by Warsen Shire. The poetry used fits in perfectly for the stage or emotion being targeted. The songs stand for Intuition, Denial, Anger, Apathy, Emptiness, Loss, Accountability, Reformation, Forgiveness, Resurrection, Hope, and Redemption. These represent the stages of grief and in Beyonce's case how to cope with being cheated on. Although the album is about cheating it's so so so much more. It shows police brutality in the scene with Beyonce and Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and Michel Brown's mothers holding pictures of their sons with morbid looks on their face. It shows social inequality in many ways including her reference to the Malcolm X speech "The most disrespected person in America is the black woman". It shows freedom of love with gay an lesbian couples. It shows self love by having woman who have been shamed for their curves like Serena Williams or for their hair like Zendaya star in it. It shows that woman should embrace their sexuality through the dancers self expression. And most of all that that we can make a change. The album sticks in your head. Each vignette deeper investigates an issue and together the album is brought together flawlessly. This form of media is very interesting because you watch it to see a video by Beyonce but finish it with knowledge of social issues and a sense of hope. Overall I love Lemonade and I think it is a great form of media.

Lemonade: more than a catchy tune

Week 3 Free choice

Last week on Twitter I viewed a terrible video of a cat being thrown into the street by a boy. The cat hit the ground and cried without moving all while the boy was laughing to the camera. This shows a dark side to the media. This made me physically and mentally sick to see a person purposely inflict pain for no reason on an unknowing creature, and then proceed to laugh at the pain of it. The video went viral on Twitter with loads of hate comments and people wanting justice for the cat. But here's the funny thing, the other day on my time line I saw the boy was arrested for animal cruelty. Apparently people who knew the boy tweeted his address, name, social media accounts, and more. This information was retweeted tens of thousands of times. He was reported to the police and the police force of his town tweeted that they're looking into the case. Soon after the police force tweeted the boy was being sentenced for animal cruelty. I was shocked. Twitter banned people together to bring justice to the cat. This was the wholesome content I like to see on my media. This story highlights the positive aspects of media and the power it holds.
P.S. The cat is ok it only has a few fractured legs
https://youtu.be/ATkehuex1K4

Week 3 Required

Guerrilla Advertising was a method of marketing shown in the movie The Persuaders. Guerrilla advertising is an unconventional and memorable way of advertising. I had an encounter with this form of advertising the other day. I was walking home from school looked down, and saw what I thought to be a $20 bill. Excitedly I picked it up just to find out it was an ad for a car wash . I believe this form of advertising is very effective. If I saw a flyer or commercial for the car wash I would have disregarded it (especially because I don't have a car). This form of advertising made me go out of my way to see the ad. Once I did pick it up and realized it wasn't money I carried it the rest of my walk so I could throw it away. At home I forgot to throw the ad away and left it sitting out. My dad saw the ad and that it offered a discounted car wash. He kept to ad/coupon. He likely would not have reacted to the ad on tv or on a poster, but because I brought it home he saw it and kept it. Overall I think guerrilla advertising is beneficial and I enjoy how creative it is compared to typical tv ads, billboards, and more. 

Week 2

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/most-radical-provisions-gop-tax-bill_us_5a230f19e4b03c44072df14c?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/12/03/after-victorious-senate-vote-gop-leaders-confident-about-tax-reform-avoiding-shutdown.html

Both of these pieces reference the GOP tax bill. While they are talking about the same thing, what you take out of each article is extremely different. To start lets look at the Huff Post's  take on the matter. From the start you can tell the article is not in favor of the plan. The title has sarcastic phrase, "Congratulations to Private schools!" By not even reading the article or knowing what it is about, the language used shows the site doesn't agree with the plan. For example, the phrase "rammed through the senate...."was used. The word rammed doesn't have a positive connotation and seems almost violent. Another section said,  "Here are some of the legislation most outrageous components - from giveaways for the super-rich to carve-outs for private schools." The language in this also shows how the plan in unfavorable. The word outrageous shows well... that it's outrageous! Giveaways and carve-outs sound like something is being taken away and super-rich and private schools are already wealthy. Overall it is easily said that this source is opposing the GOP tax bill.

On the other hand there is Fox News take on the bill. I think their position can be seen by just looking at the title of the article, "After victorious Senate vote, GOP leaders confident about tax reform avoiding shut down." First off, "victorious" shows that they won and they are happy about the bill. "Avoiding a shutdown" sounds like the bill is going the save people, and lastly in the title, "leaders confident" shows pride and certainty in the plan.

After reading both pieces I agree with the Huff Post in that the plan is a bad idea but, it was interesting the read the other side and see how different people view the subject matter. Both sides were opinionated in that their take was right and that was seen through the use of language and ways of describing the bill.

Free choice Week 2

I chose this form of media because I find the Doritos Super Bowl commercials funny and this was the first one I thought of. I believe this commercial was very effective because the focus of the commercial wasn't only the Doritos but also the situation of the baby. Although traditional I think commercials are a great way for media to be shared because many people watch TV so it captivates a large audience. The brand placement in the commercial was very obvious with the Doritos bag being front and center. The bag also drew me in because it was the only bright colored thing in a room full of neutral colors. An unborn baby wanted the Doritos so it made me think that they must be good. I also liked how the plot of the commercial was very simple and that you could have watched any part of it and knew what was going on. Overall I enjoyed this commercial, it made me laugh, and was a good way a spreading awareness of Doritos.
https://youtu.be/ugn_qmQ0NFo