The End of the Road

            Ah, media logs. While I will not miss you (not even a little bit), I understand why you were necessary. Even if that meant you made my life just a little harder. These logs and the media unit have both made me more aware of how prevalent media is in everyday life. It has also taught me that staying in my cocoon of homework and sleep has sheltered me from the incredible volume of advertisements most people face constantly. I would definitely consider myself more media literate, which is something I now find very important. I think people tend to forget how easy it is to be manipulated, especially when it’s someone’s job to manipulate you into buying what they are selling. Just as it is their job to advertise, it’s my job to fully understand just what they are trying to do. I would definitely consider myself more media literate, just because we were lucky enough to have exposure to the techniques behind many major advertisers. Many of us out there go are exposed to such media and never fully understand it. Throughout this entire assignment and semester, I've had to pay more attention to media and advertisements, even though that often meant searching through more ads than I would usually for one that I thought was suitable to analyze. The most interesting thing I discovered in the process was how similar ads are. In most of my media logs, I talked about basically the same thing. Even though media seems so different on the surface, everything is a lot more similar than I ever  realized. Thank you, media logs, for revealing that to me.

 Media literacy is important to prevent bamboozledness. It grows increasingly easy to be dazzled by the trickery that is used in media, and media literacy helps people see to the core of what we’re actually being exposed to. There were a lot of times where I could not see the point of doing a media log. By about the eighth one, I was on the verge of just becoming a hermit so I would never have to worry about advertisements or the media. Sometimes I still want that life, but the call to it is not as loud. You don’t have to like being media literate to reap the benefits of being media literate. However, commercials are forever ruined for me, because now I pay attention to the common ad techniques being used and I don’t pay attention to the product. I feel like that could be beneficial, but we’ll have to wait and see. Well, you won’t see, because you won’t be incredibly entertained by my media blogs anymore. It has been an interesting road, these media logs. Are they necessary? Yes. Is that all that really matters in the end? Let me think about it. 

Volkswagen Beetle

I saw this commercial when I was out with friends and definitely not watching my 10th hour of Hell's Kitchen on Hulu while crying into a gallon of ice cream. Psh. The first thing that caught my attention in this ad was the music and sounds. The music plays a very important role in the video, since there is no voice over. The tapping in the beginning also drew my attention, because I didn't know whether it was a part of the ad or some malfunction in my sound system. The music is very lulling and repeats over and over, which I thought was a clever background for something that is supposed to be taking place in the middle of the night. 

The visuals in the ad use the common technique of "plain folks." The people featured are two cute young people who seemingly enjoy each other's company. However, I don't know anyone who looks like that woman as soon as they role out of bed. Volkswagen most likely wants this new convertible to be appealing to middle class people, as the people appear to be. This ad also appeals to the need for affiliation and for escape. Buying this car will allow you to go on exciting adventures with your friends, and everything will always be rosey. Or sunny, rather. However, it also appeals to autonomy, because these two people are the only people out at that time of day, so they stand out from the rest of the town.

I feel as though the text at the end and some of the visuals use the technique of "wit and humor." The security guard sleeping at the desk, for example. That is just hilarious. And being stopped by the ugly horned animal could be considered funny or cute. I believe that the ad is just supposed to give of a cute or quirky feeling to the car. This idea was sealed with the end, what with the sign that says it's the town of the midnight sun and the text that says the Beetle will brighten your night. 

I thought the ad was effective in making the product seem appealing. I appreciate that almost the entire commercial has visuals of the car while not shoving the product down the customer's throat. It was a cute ad that was nice to look at and had a nice story line, in my opinion. 

Girls Just Wanna Wear Perfume, I Guess

This week, we were told to mention ideas that were talked about in the film we watched, "Miss Interpretations." It was all about how media can be demeaning towards women, and when I heard I had to write about such ideas, I turned to a copy of Harper's Bazaar to look for ads. In fashion magazines I have seen, the majority of ads are simply pictures of scantily-clad women.

When I saw this ad, a few questions popped into my mind. First, where did her clothes go? What happened to them? And second, why is she wet? And then it clicked - she just got out of the shower! And then the ad still didn't make sense to me. After struggling with understanding the ad, I turned to everyone's favorite part of skimming magazines, which is of course ad analysis. 

This ad still manages to use ad techniques and appeals while still maintaining a simple layout. The ad appeals to the need for autonomy and attention. Need for attention is a very common appeal used in fragrance ads, because it's difficult to sell a smell using a print ad. Because the ad just features a picture of a woman and a picture of the bottle, our attention is obviously supposed to be drawn to the woman and her sexiness. Along these lines, the ad is also selling a "breed apart" feel. You'll be special if you use this "Cashmere Mist."

The ad also uses "transfer/association." If you use this perfume, you can look desirable and constantly damp, just like the pretty model. The other part of the ad that I thought was important was the diction. The name of the product sounds very high-end and mysterious. "Cashmere" is known as a high-quality fabric, and "mist" can generally be associated with some mystique or mystery. Mist is also the form that perfume comes out in, so I suppose I can understand the thought that went into naming the product. However, at the bottom, the ad reads, "A fragrance to seduce the senses." I am assuming that the ad is encouraging women to buy the perfume in order to seduce men. As was mentioned in "Miss Interpretations," a major issue in the media is the objectification of women, and I think that this ad sends that message. Here is a women who is in a very vulnerable pose, and it's advertising to women that if you can seduce a man, you're good to go. The ad just didn't sit right with me. Now, the movie made a very close connection with media and a lack of women in politics. From my interpretation, at least, "Miss Interpretations" said that seeing images like this make women feel bad about themselves and cause them to doubt whether they could handle positions of power. I do not totally see how this connection was made, so I wouldn't go as far as to say that this perfume ad is ruining girl's political future, but I don't think it's the most appropriate thing to put in  magazines.