Female Roles in Music Videos Comm. 406

A lot of women portrayed in music videos these days are highly sexuallized for the young male's, or possibly female's, fantasy. I'm not just talking about one particular genre of music. Pop, rock, country, and rap display women as helpless, horney, sexual objects, often dressed in almost nothing, catering to the male artist's every desire. An excellent example of this is R&B artist, Sisqo. Almost everyone, I'm sure, has heard the song and seen the music video for Sisqo's "Thong Song."In the video there are women in thong bikinis sunning themselves and dancing provocativly for the men featured in the video who are portrayed as powerful and wealthly. I think it is disapointing that some musicians have to use not so creative ways to sell a record. Also, women shouldn't always be looked at in such a inhumane way. Many young impressionable minds may be influenced by these women in these videos.

Today's Comm. 406 discussion made me think of the music video "Stupid Girls" by the pop artist Pink.

This really eye-opening music video completely captures the oversexualized role of women in music videos.  It also parodies the ridiculousness of the behavior of certain celebrities, and shows regular women who are damaged by the influence of these celebrities.  This video begins with a young, impressionable girl sitting in front of the television viewing a music video; an act that many young, impressionable girls are doing all around the world. In the video Pink portrays herself as a strong, well-dressed, woman who is meant to look like a female president.  She also dresses as the various "stupid girls" in the video.  She makes fun of Paris Hilton with her sex tape incident, she calls out the overly sexual Jessica Simpson in her "These Boots Were Made For Walking" music video.  She shows how women's body image issues force them into getting plastic surgery, overexercising, and purging to be thin. While she acts out these negative behaviors she asks where all of the girls with ambition and goals have gone.  The narrative encourages girls to have respect for themselves and accept their natural beauty. At the end of the video, the little girl turns off the televison and chooses to go outside to play football, rejecting her "princessy," girly toys and choosing not to be a stupid girl.  While there is definitely some show of skin and sexuality in this video, it is in the form of parody and is necessary to the main premise of the narrative.

Entertaining, Interactive, Advertisements; Thoughts on Forbe's "The Best-Ever Social Media Campaigns" Comm. 406

      Many people are using new online technologies like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social networking sites, to connect and socialize on the web. People who are employed in advertising are taking advantage of these popular resources to make advertising a part of our cyberculture. Many advertising campaign's ads aren't just appearing on the side of your computer screen as passive persuasive images; they are becoming more involved in these social avenues. The recent article on Forbes.com entitled, "The Best-Ever Social Media Campaigns," explains that advertising corporations are becoming increasingly interactive to get the potential consumer involed via the internet. According to the article, it is the advertising company's goal to include interactive videos, gimmicks, games, etc. to social mediums on the internet, like Twitter, to make people interested in their product or idea and to further make those people share the ad(s) with thier network of friends. A panel of expert judges from social marketing agencies ranked twenty of the best-ever social media campaigns that included this interactivness.   


  Going viral has been a pretty brilliant strategy for various ad campaigns. For example, the article discusses the ever so popular commercials for Proctor and Gamble's Old Spice products that came in as number three on the best-ever social media campaigns list. Not only did the company have hilarious TV advertisements, but the actor in them,  Issiah Mustafa, answered questions of viewers on Web Videos, giving people who paid attention to the campaign recognition, as well as, giving loads of attention to Old Spice. I am a fan of Old Spice commercials because they are so entertaining and humorous. I am not a man, and would never in my life use Old Spice body wash or deodorent, but I do love a good laugh. The people behind this campaign are creative comedic geniuses. The actor gained enough popularity to appear on heavily watched talk shows like Ellen. Here Issiah Mustafa chats with Ellen Degeneres giving the inside scoop about the famous, hilarious commericial that made him shine!

      
Some other advertising campaigns that made it on the top charts, and that I'm a personal subscriber and viewer of, is Blendtec's "Will It Blend?" Blentec is a powerful professional blender that can supposedly blend everything from glow sticks to iPads.Tom Dickson is the founder of Blendtec and "destroyer" of objects.I can see why this campaign is so popular. He downloads his videos on YouTube, which anyone can join or not join to view his cutting edge videos!


What this article stressed the most was why these viral ad campaigns became so well recognized by the masses. They all have convincing and intriguing elements that appeal to many people, like humor, creativity, and shock value.  People, like me, view these ads and can't help but share their intrigue and humor with friends and family, thus making them go viral. 
       

“I’ll Have A Coke, Please!”

      The Coca-Cola Company makes and sells one of the most popular products in the world, Coca-Cola, more popularly known as Coke. It is a refreshing, cold, fizzy beverage that is well known in over two hundred countries! Its massive appeal has been gulped up since 1886. John Pemberton created it for the use of medicine to aid ailments such as headaches and morphine addiction, but today Coca-Cola serves as a sugary beverage consumed for its delicious taste. Since Coke is so universal, so are many of its campaign advertisements, which I am very fond of. I am particularly fond of Coca-Cola’s advertising campaign because they use a wide variety of mediums.  The messages and visual images that they bring about are universal. All people can relate to them or understand the ad’s concepts. There are many different advertisements for Coca-Cola, but all of them remain consistent with creativity and universality. 

        Here’s a recent commercial from Coca-Cola entitled, “Hard Times” which includes the cast of the well-known, animated show, The Simpsons.  The executives at Coca-Cola cleverly use The Simpsons as part of their advertisement.  This long-running show is a part of Americana, and its characters are widely recognized by even those who aren’t avid viewers of the show.  The advertisement’s humor sends a positive message with its current slogan, “Open Happiness.” In this commercial, character Montgomery Burns, looses his entire fortune and belongings. Dismayed, he walks through Springfield’s Park where everyone is enjoying themselves, and enjoying bottles of Coca-Cola. Once Apu, a resident of Springfield, offers him a Coke, he forgets his troubles and joins in on the fun. In one view, the commercial’s message is memorable.

  According to Coca-Cola’s website, its mission is to “strive to refresh the world, inspire moments of optimism and happiness, create value and make a difference.”   This well-known Coke advertisement from 1971 clearly captures their statement.  As the ad below illustrates, people from all nations stand together singing and holding a Coke. Using the song, “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing” shows the interconnectedness that people have. It illustrates togetherness in that as humans, we are one family.  It rings the message that people of all nationalities should embrace life and each other’s differences. It is emotional and touches the heart. 

      

        This particular, recent, advertisement shows how clever and entertaining Coca-Cola campaigns can be. This commercial uses crisp, clear computer graphics making the viewer appreciate the art put into it. The concept of togetherness arises once again, but this time insects are working together to share an invigorating bottle of coke that they swipe from a nearby picnicker!

Coca-Cola is my favorite advertisement campaign because their ads use a wide variety of mediums.  They are entertaining, send a positive message, and everyone can understand them or relate to them in some way. I think all of these elements make Coca-Cola sell so well, besides the fact that it tastes so wonderful!

Personal Thoughts On Advertising and Imagery 406

      I am very intrigued and interested in learning new and fascinating information in Advertising and Imagery 406. This class will teach me to think critically by analyzing ads in media, and a lot more according to my instructor’s zealous explanation of the course! I think that this class is especially significant as a part of the mass communications curriculum because learning about the influence of advertisements in the world around us has a great impact on the future ideas and cultural values of today’s society in terms of political and social issues. I am looking forward to learning more about how our culture has shaped advertising, as well as how advertising has impacted our culture.            

I was enrolled in Communications and New Media 203 last fall semester.  There I learned a great deal about Herbert Zettl’s model for media aesthetics, in terms of analyzing advertising using his model.  I’m hoping we will continue to analyze advertising, as well as, experiment with creating advertising of our own in this course. I am also eager to learn more about computer software, such as Photoshop and film editing programs, like Final Cut. I hope to gain a useful understanding of these valuable tools and apply them to not only the projects that my classmates and I will utilize in this course, but also use for my future career.

Working in groups should be particularly helpful in that it will give me the practice to create and collaborate ideas with other people as in a real business setting.  

 As a photography minor, taking this class is especially interesting to me.  Most advertising contains photographic imagery.  I look forward to exploring ways to mingle my major and minor.  I’m still not sure of the exact career path that I want to pursue in life, but snapping shots for advertising campaigns sounds amazingly fun and exciting to me, and could be a potential career option!

Overall, I think this will be an extremely interesting area of communications to study, and I’m certain that I will expand my knowledge base and my creativity while in this course.