Sad to Say Goodbye to One of the Best Classes I've Ever Taken, But Let's Reflect

As I said in my title of this blog, I am really sad that Critical Thinking is already over. I think this is the first time I have actually genuinely enjoyed a class and still learned a bunch of information that I will continue to build upon and use throughout my entire life. Before this class, I was already skeptical about media and how much I use it because as I watch my little brother and sister grow up, they continue to make media consumption the biggest priority, whereas when I was their age I would be playing outside or doing arts and crafts projects. Ever since I noticed this, it made me wonder whether or not technology was going to replace kids hanging out with each other in person and playing outside with chatting over the Xbox or DMing on Instagram, etc. This just made me realize how big the role that media plays in our world and the generations to come, and how it could eventually diminish the concept of face-to-face human interaction. (Check out my Society's Downfall post!!!)

Now I don't think that media consumption is bad, but I certainly don't think it's completely beneficial to society for the reasons I've stated above. In the beginning of the school year, I was on my phone a lot: texting, stalking people on Instagram, watching Snapchat feeds, catching up on Twitter, and watching a bunch of TV. Now although this is pretty much every tennaged's media consumption checklist, I got tired of seeing what other people were doing while I was reading what they were doing, when I should have been up and doing something, etc. After I made this realization on how useless social media was, I deleted all of my apps (I did try to download them back because I was bored, but I had no storage). Anyways, I still check Twitter or Instagram maybe once a week or two just to catch up on what my friends are doing, but I don't know if I'll be able to limit myself this summer to only two since I won't have school and homework every day...

Also, my media consumption isn't totally social media, I watch a lot of TV, maybe too much at times. Even though I probably shouldn't be watching TV so much, I won't stop because it's something that makes time go by so much faster and keeps you on the edge of your seat (as long as it's a good show). What I'm trying to say is that I still consume a lot of media everyday from the TV, but now I've been able to apply the characteristics of a critical thinker to the shows and ads I watch. Sometimes it bothers me how much I notice about Madison and Vine in my favorite TV shows, like how American Njnja Warrior puts the Pom logo on the bottom of the pool contestants fall into after they fail an obstacle. And during these shows, I usually can't wait until the next day to see the recorded version, so I'll sit through the commercials and point out all the appeals and techniques that the advertisers are trying to throw at viewers, along with the target market profile they assume for this product. I noticed this a lot in Apple's commercial with the girl chopping the onion because they assume that all people who buy Apple products will be very smart and create videos that look like art with ease, as well as that when people buy the product they will suddenly make a video and go viral (which is definitely NOT the case because almost everyone has an iPhone, even Starace!).

Finally, being able to examine all the things I mentioned above with my critical thinking skills has really allowed me to be cautious about the things I buy and whether or not I need them or that the advertiser is making me think I need them to be pretty, smart, funny, etc. Having these characteristics makes me feel like a very educated consumer, which helps me decipher whether or not to buy something. Being an educated consumer is a very important so that people can understand once you buy the product, you won't instantly feel a significant change that is going to make your life so much better than it is now because the material you're buying is just a thing!! It's not living, and it's not doing anything to make you feel better, so once people realize this, they can ignore those implicit messages given off in commercials and just buy a product for the quality of the product.

Thank you so much, Starace, for an amazing last semester in Critical Thinking that I will use for the rest of my life! You should really try to make this class a year long because I don't think a semester is long enough. I hope you have a great summer, and I'll see you next year! :)

Peace out world!!!!
-Ashleyyyyy

the Mini Cooper craze

The print ad I will be analyzing is right here.

I know this might sound like I'm a bandwagon or something, but ever since I was 11 or 12, I have wanted to be able to own a Mini Cooper and drive if everywhere. And since we had two free blogs to write about whatever, I thought I might as well right about my dream car.

The Mini Cooper brand is a very popular one for good reason. In many of their ads, they use negative comments that people have given to the look of the car for their benefit. And what I mean by this is that for example, someone made a rude remark about the front of the Mini looking like a duck's beak, so Mini decided to use that comment in one of their ads, which is the ad I am analyzing. It says that the duck is the fastest one, which causes viewers to think wow, if Mini can use negative comments and make them positive, then I can too. It also makes viewers feel that they are in a strong, powerful brand that is reliable and always positive.

As I was analyzing this ad, I was trying to think of the target market profile that advertisers were appealing to, and at first I thought that kids my age would be involved since I love this car, but I was wrong. I realized that I was way off because 16-20 year olds really don't have the money to pay for a car as nice as this by themselves. Once I scratched that age range off the possibilities, I figured out that the car was appealing to millennials, from the ages 25-35 years old. This print ad isn't appealing to all 25-35 year older, but it is focusing more towards people in this age group that have the desire to drive a fast car and be adventurous and do crazy things before they get old--which they consider to be when they hit 40.

Also, this brand definitely hits the appeal of need for autonomy in every commercial and print ad they show. For one, the brand itself doesn't look like any other car on the market right now, which makes the person driving the car stand out from the rest. Although a lot of people are already driving Mini Coopers, so they really aren't going to make you stand out in a crowd of cars.

Lastly, Mini Cooper uses the avante garde technique to make them stand out as well. The avante garde is used to show when things are ahead of its time, and Mini does that by saying how much cooler and more advanced they are compared to the rest of the cars currently on the market. This is similar to snob appeal, but not concerning money, only coolness.

A similar commercial for the brand of Mini Cooper that you guys should check out can be found here. This ad uses the testimonial technique by having almost all of the actors in the video be famous athletic people. You should check it out and analyze it!

Thanks for reading! ;) Feel free to comment below.

PS:Ahhh it's my last blog!!!

The "Popping" Soda Brand called Sprite

Well, I've never really been much of a Sprite drinker (Mountain Dew all the Way), but lately I have been seeing this one ad that catches my attention during the infomercial breaks. It stands out from the rest because of its odd camera angles, song choice, transfer/association technique, repetition technique, target market profile, and the need for affiliation. Now I know that all of that seems like a bit much to discuss in this media blog, but they are all connected to each other in more than one way since they have one goal they are trying to get through to viewers that all of these advertising uses are used for- CONSUMPTION! A link to the commercial that really caught my attention and which I will be analyzing is right here.

To start it off, the camera angles that this commercial showed were nothing like usually soda commercials. For example, Coca-Cola's soda commercials are usually shown with multiple actors playing the roles of people with hard or boring lives until Coke comes to the rescue. In this commercial, there aren't really any people shown at all during the ad until the very end where someone takes a sip of the Sprite. The angles that the ad was using while filming were very close to the actual soda and seemed to zoom in on it, making it look clear, refreshing, and delicious, which is what everyone wants in a drink.

When I was watching this commercial over and over again, I kept listening to the song trying to figure why exactly they used it (the song is by B.o.B.). After a while, I realized that the song was a really popular song a few years ago and could be considered pop culture music. This made so much sense to me because the target market profile is from ages 15-30, with people who either work or go to school and need something to cool off with or take a break with. After I made those observations, I noticed that the entire as was aimed at making Sprite look like it was at a club, with the dark background and the heavy beat pop culture music.

One thing I had also never thought of when I imagined a Sprite ad was that they use the association technique in their ad. During the entire video, the angles made are showing the old-fashioned Sprite bottles aren't their common can to be sold. The Sprite bottles they used in the commercial look very similar to the shape of beer bottles like Corona Light or Blue Moon. Also, during the entire video, it shows that the lid is being popped off with a beer opener, just like a beer. And finally, Sprite is usually poured into a tall glass, so that you can drink all of it, but in this commercial it is poured over the rocks--like a drink at a bar--and it is in a short glass, very similar to that of a cup that people at a bar would be sipping Whiskey out of.

Lastly, I would like to point out how heavily the repetition technique was used. The song playing in the background was a song from pop culture, it continuously said the actual word pop, the bubbles in the soda were popping and fizzing, and the popping off of the soda can.

Thanks for reading my blog! Please free to comment below!

Chrysler's Appeal to Hypocrisy

Let me just start off by saying I love Jim Gaffigan. He is absolutely hilarious, but then again should he really be the one to be the salesperson for Chrysler's 2017 minivan? I don't think so. This car is trying to advertise that it is a "dad brand" as Jim says many times in this commercial, and I don't really see Jim as being the best image for a dad, probably just because I've watched him crack jokes a few many times.

Anyways, this commercial is trying to say that dads do a lot of stuff, just like moms do. It never flat out says this, but you can kind of get the implicit message that they're sending out to consumers. During the entire video, Jim is saying how he never does anything the easy way, and that he always does the hard stuff by himself without any help from others, but while he's saying this, the car is parking itself next to the tennis court. So that is obviously the appeal to hypocrisy because he specifically states that he never lets anyone or anything do something that he could do himself, while he's letting the car park itself. What a "strong dad," right?



Also, this commercial uses the simple technique of Testimonial. Jim Gaffigan endorses this product and tries to advertise to other dads that are seeking out a new car. This was an easy way for advertisers to get the attention of consumers because many people ignore commercials unless they see something funny or someone they know. So of course when people see this and recognize Jim, they are going to want to watch the commercial to see how Jim advertises! I do this all the time. Whenever I'm watching a recorded show and I see a commercial that I think looks funny, I stop fast forwarding and watch it to see the product and the people endorsing it.

Lastly, this "dad brand" of minivans is so different from anything I've ever seen before. Usually, there is s mom driving the minivan all over town with a bunch of kids in the car being crazy. I found an example of this here. This commercial is advertising a sandwich spot, but it has a lot of the characteristics I talked about. So do you see the difference in commercials? A final question before I go is why are women always portrayed as having crazy kids in the car, while men always miraculously have the kids quiet in the back being calm?

Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment below. :)

Merchants of Cool

When we started watching Merchants of Cool, I didn't really know what to expect. I thought it was just going to talk about how teenagers never get off their phones and think they're so cool, but it was really informative about the way that advertisers get the right insight into what teens think is popular at the moment.



It also shined the light on the idea that nothing is really ever cool for longer than a month since teens change their minds all the time about everything. So advertisers have to constantly question a variety of teens about the current trends to figure out what to sell them. I think this is really true because every few months I'll get tired of wearing that one red shirt, or those jean shorts just because most of the school already stopped considering it "cool" and stopped wearing it.

 A lot of people are affected by the way everyone else dresses and the things that everyone else watches or plays on their free time. Society's "cool" is pretty much based on what is worn the most, and what people find the most appealing or attractive. One example of this is the image of girls showing off their stomachs. I can't remember what it's called right now, but they mentioned it a lot in the video. It talked about how advertisers show models and "cool kids" wearing crop tops with cute shorts or jeans to sell to teens that in order to be "cool" and look good, you have to buy a crop top just like everyone else. I see this happen a lot at school, but mostly during the summer when there aren't any dress codes holding students back. People should just stop conforming to the way that the rest of society is to stand out and end up being the only actual cool kid around.

The one thing that really stood out to me in this movie was the causal link between aggressive TV shows and teenage boys' violent actions. One speaker said that advertisers are trying to sell the product to teens who they believe hate their parents, teachers, coaches, etc. I really couldn't believe this. I mean I thought that advertisers were just trying to sell a product... Not encouraging whether or not we like the adults in our life. This surprised me, but when the speaker went on about the WWE shows and the violent video games, I knew exactly what he was going to say because I have a teenage brother who plays and watches all of those things. He went on to say how violence on TV can really hurt a teenage boy's mind because they are all premature adults, that don't know how to behave themselves yet. I found a really interesting article about some data taken on boys and girls who watched aggressive shows in their adolescents and were very likely to commit crimes by their adult life. You should check it out here!

Well, that's all I have today. Thanks for reading!

Society's Downfall

Once again I had no idea what to write my media blog post about, so I looked up different ideas online and nothing really seemed that interesting. But then when I went to my cousin's house for a birthday dinner with the family, I realized that everyone had their heads down into their phones or watching TV. No one was really socializing with each other for a while. I mean there would be a few conversations here and there between the basketball game that was on, but other than that we were purely surrounded by the world of technology.

Personally, I think technology is better in more ways than it is bad, but I do think there are some major faults in this creation by society. Every generation that is being born is being open to all this technology around them. The subtle ads, the violent TV shows, the songs about sex and drugs, and the ease of talking to people online instead of having a personal face-to-face interaction. When little children are seeing this all around them, they start to think it's normal because they don't yet understand that most of the things on the violent TV shows don't happen everyday around us. And that when we hear songs about sex and drugs, the artists aren't actually encouraging anyone to do that, they are just trying to make themselves look cooler to the audiences they are singing to and stand out. And all the ads that flood children's brains make them slowly become used to the ads and not really find any product to be one that stands out, so advertisers will have to brainwash consumers even more to make them notice the product being sold. Most of these things are described in a well-written article you can read here.

Here is an excerpt from the article I attached above:

Take, for example, the ability to work from virtually anywhere—whether on the beach, in a different country, or even from the comfort of our homes. Our hyperconnected lives have breached face-to-face and telephone communications. We are now connected to the network, spending a great deal of time online—doing everything from dating, researching products, shopping, and chatting with friends, to taking courses from leading institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We play games online with others across town, across the country, and even across the world. Video, music, and other forms of entertainment are just a click away. There seem to be no limits to Internet usage.

In this passage from the article, it explains the many positive things that technology has had on society, and I agree there are many, but it also explains the one negative effect that I think is the worst thing possible for society. I looked it up and the greatest fear of most Americans is public speaking, no matter it being in front of a large audience, talking to a stranger, or talking to that person you really like. This is horrible for society, especially with what is going on in society's overuse of technology. People don't know how to interact with people the same way they used to. Even my mom tells me that when she was young, she was always outside with her friends and only watched TV on the weekends since it was a new, special thing back then. Nowadays, you might see little kids playing around outside, but the majority of society's young generation are either talking to friends on their phones, watching TV 24/7, or playing video games with their friends online without having to be at each other's houses. I just don't understand the big hype about media's greatness because it really is leading up to making human interaction very difficult, which one day might make interaction be just through the use of technology.

Finally, There are so many dating sites and social media outlets now, where you can keep in touch with whatever your friends are doing or who they are with or when they went out. With technology like this, no one ever has privacy on their life. People just post everything they do, for what? To get likes? To make that special person see your selfie? To show people you go to parties? To make people think you're cool? Teenagers would deny that those things are true, but they are really accurate. Although sometimes I think that teenagers do these things to prove to themselves that yes, they are everything I mentioned above and everyone else should notice it too.

Please let me know what you think. Adios amigos/amigas!

more ad analysis

So I really had no idea what I was going to write about, but then when I was trying to think of some type of sports ad to analyze, I asked my dad if he knew of any good commercials I could use. He immediately thought of the Super Bowl commercials that aired this year, so I looked up some, and there was one that I couldn't stop watching. Here is a link to that video.

This commercial was an ad for the Super Bowl 50 obviously, and it sure did catch my attention. The overall message that I got from this video was that if people watch the Super Bowl and their team wins, then they will end up conceiving a child on the night of that victory. To me, that is a pretty crazy message to be throwing around, especially when there are kids watching these commercials during the game too. I was distracted from this overall message when I first saw the ad because of how cute the little kids were that were singing the remake of the famous love song, "Kiss From a Rose" by Seal. I was also distracted from this message because the song that the Super Bowl Babies were singing sounded very beautiful, and I couldn't stop myself from even starting to sing along without acknowledging what words I was singing.

After I realized I was being brainwashed by the beautiful sounds of the song, I looked up the lyrics and noticed that it was screaming out to viewers the need for sex. I didn't even think of that when I was watching the video, and when I showed my mom this video she thought it was about bringing families together and being happy. But when I showed her the lyrics, she realized how different the implicit message actually was. The implicit message is telling families that you will get extremely close after watching your team win the Super Bowl, which will lead to having kids in the next nine months.

Here are a few phrases from the song that demonstrate the need for sex:
And in the end
When our team won
Mom and dad looked at each other
One thing led to another that night
and another phrase:
When there were no more jalapeno-chili-bacon chicken wings
Mommy and dad, they cuddled. Canoodled. All night. Baby.
On that night our moms and dads were so filled with desire

Along with the need for sex appeal, these phrases of the song use the wit and humor/sex appeal to get viewers to believe that by watching the Super Bowl 50, they will fulfill their desires and be sexually stimulated, which will lead to children.

Although most things about this song are not something I would want kids to be watching, it also uses the need to achieve by showing how happy families become during the video when their favorite team wins the Super Bowl. This ad does this by showing all of the families and even the children with the jersey of their favorite team on, hoping that their team will win. 


Finally it uses the need for affiliation. It does this by making the viewer feel that they will be a part of such a close community/ family if they watch the Super Bowl and root for their favorite team with friends. This might remind people of being on their old sports teams, which will inspire them to join a team of their own that they can watch and be a part of with their friends and family. 

Hope you enjoyed this post! Feel free to comment below. :)