No Logo

Someone sitting behind me during the class when the movie came up said hey this about no logos and there is this ladies logo right there. I find it interesting no matter how indifferent you are to the logos and brands that are around us we seem to remain connected to them no matter how hard we try to distance ourselves from these so called dominating lifestyle changing brands.

I think its of a matter of choosing whether or not you want to participate in that part of the American experience. Brands have become more than just a lifestyle change, they are infused in our culture now. With Mac and Nike and other brands that almost have become a need instead of a want. It's kind of like the idea that if you are American you need a car, that is the only way to get around and extra. While this idea itself is far from the truth.

I hope that we can just decide for ourselves what way we want to live our lives and not impose our beliefs and our ideas on anyone else.

Anti-Advertising is still Advertising

I think that it is all fine and dandy that people get upset about the large conglomerates that role our lives and dictate what media we need and must participate in, but it is another thing to act out against them in such a way that you are actually giving those same companies even more publicity.

Some say that any type of media exposure is good exposure. For example if you are Microsoft and I am fet up with windows and there is a huge billboard right by where I live and I go and put that Bill Gates lies all over it. Then the news is going to do a piece on it and if lets say I had a group of people that did it in a ton of places then more news people are going to pick it up and show it. Some people are going to be like that is funny, but most people are just going to see tons of Microsoft signs that have stuff on it.

The next time people see a Microsoft product they are going to be like hey, I remember them, because of what I did. They may even purchase the product to find out why it is so hated and or bad.

Quality

I find it kind of interesting that as time progresses we are more and more interested as consumers at the type of brand we are consuming and not the overall quality of the product. I like what Errin said about how Tommy Hilfiger jeans are just the same quality of any other brand or lesser brands and is just more expensive because of the label it has on the butt.

I started to really ponder this, and realized that when I buy something I would rather pay for quality rather than just the name of the brand. To me it is more important to me that my shoes last me years than it is what kind of shoe I am wearing. It is ultimately sad that I came to this realization so late in my life.

I hope that in the future when we buy things that we can look at the quality of the product, and be an intelligent consumer instead of buying something that costs hundreds of dollars more just because it has a logo slapped on the butt, or the front of your shirt.

Copywrite

It is interesting to me that copyright laws are getting stricter and stricter and it is of course because of Disney and their mad hope to keep steam boat Willey theirs forever. But, the whole purpose of copyright is to let the developer make some money off of it and then release it to the public so that other companies can compete and develop something even better. But, that isn't going to happen if they keep making the roles so strict.

Now that everything is going digital, I do not know how they are going to be able to keep track of things and who is stealing what. Everything is so accessibly free on the Internet now a days. People can get, pretty much anything they want online. The companies need to cope and find a way to be able to accept that times are changing. A lot of bands are sampling their music on blogs and my space and then people get interested and then they might by the whole CD to support the band. It is this type of advertising that copes with the reality of today, that people like things for free.

Even if no one paid for the music essentially the music would still get circulated and then more people would attend their concerts.

I like to Consume

Call me what you may, but I like having things thrown in front of me for me to choose and see what kind of product best fits, "what i think i am." I may be lazy, but I like having everything brought to me instead of me having to go out and search for all those types of products and or brands. They are everywhere and I like it.

When I turn on my video games a lot of times there will be advertisements in the games, kind of hidden. Like all of the computers in the game will be DELL or something of that nature. It doesn't bother me because I think it depicts what the real world is like. So, when I see a guy drinking a coke on a TV show, I don't think wow this TV show has really sold out, but I think, hey that guy is drinking a coke.

I know it is different for all of us, but I do believe that some people take it way to far and seriously. If you don't like all of the advertising then go live in nature.

Teens

I think what is most appealing to the idea of all these "mooks" and "midrifs" that exist in our media is that they behave the way they behave and it seems that they have no repercussions at all. When in the real world these people would all be pregnant and or in jail for their shenanigans. Teens love the idea, even if they don't behave that way, that they can do and or say whatever they want without repercussions. That everyone and everything will bend to their will and or way of thinking.

The funniest thing about it, is that it sells. MTV is one of the organizations that has come the farthest as far as I am concerned when it comes to this ideology. All of the shows that the have on air right now, is a bunch of mindless crap. None of which really has any substance at all. And the funniest thing about it is that we watch it, and some of us do it knowing that it is what it is.

Media shapes our society and us. The cool factor tends to direct the evil force, but it is not the engine that pushes it.

Hipp-Hopp

I find it funny that in that movie a lot of those men and teenagers were rapping about terrible and horrible things, but then if asked if they were really like that they denied it. I believe that our society run by a few tycoons, have implemented a norm or standard by which they want people to behave or act. The reason why people abide by this false dycotomy is because of the instant gratification that this type of life brings. You want money sell drugs, sex take it, and if someone is bothering you, kill them.

This image that is being sold could be said to be harmless. But what about all of those men that were at Daytona Beach that were treating those women so porely. What about those women who were in self denial about their own personal image. I find irrefutably concerning that people just cant listen to music or watch something without having to immediately adopt certain appealing aspects of that show into reality.

The Big Deal

We talked about race today in class. I know that the majority of people like to try and avoid this topic as much as possible. But the one thing that I would like to talk about is how we focus to much on the cover of the book instead of what is on the inside. It is a personal thing of mine but it doesn't matter what they look like to me I am just concerned with what type of person they are. Because there are both good and bad people of every color and nationality.

I think it is our derivative to put the effort forward to get to know people instead of just assuming people or races are a certain way. I also believe that we are all capable of racism but that doesn't mean that all of us our racists. Because it is human nature to blame other people or races for our mistakes instead of taking responsibility for our actions. Thus allowing for prejudice and segregation.

All we can do is just be responsible for our own actions and be accepting for how people are and understand that different cultures are different than ours. But that doesn't mean that they are bad or evil.

Over the Top

If we look to deep into what things mean, and I mean looking way to deep into things, then we can always obscure messages or pull meaning out of them which was never intended on being pulled out. When we were discussing in class about advertisement I realized that a lot of people were saying what they thought the advertisement was trying to portray.

I thought that a lot of the comments were very good, but some people saw a pair of women's legs in the Texas airline add and said that it is stating that women are supposed to be a certain way and that not all women wear skirts and so on. One thing is that the advertisers pay for space and time and they aren't going to clutter their picture with thousands of politically correct pictures of women, when one does the trick.

It so easy to make a mountain out of a mole hill. I know I might be the only one that might think this way, but I believe that it is important to ponder things and think outside of the box. But lets not think outside of the planet. Seeing a picture of a man and women next to each other and then assuming they had sex, and then assuming that every man and women that sit next to each other must have sex, is just one of the examples I could give.

Extremism

Extremism is such a hard concept for me to understand. Considering myself to be more of a moderate person, I find an interesting thing that people close their minds so much as to completely block out all types of reason.

When people like MLK had a goal to better the world, he wasnt full of hate, but rather concern and love for his people. Compared to most activists this man and people like him were able to achieve so much more. By using methods of reason and non-violence they were able to accomplish their goals.

When I hear of people like the SCUM group, or the KKK, I feel pity. Because people like that have so much hate or anger built up they are unable to listen to reason, or at least most of the time. No matter how illogical their statements might be, they still hold strong to that feeling or frame of mind.

It is Passive Care and intelligence that allows us to know that there are other more affective ways to get a message across. Gandhi, a man of thought, and understanding showed us through action what can be achieved through non-violent actions. This man was able to motivate a nation into a new era of thought.

All in all I think we should follow in their footsteps and use our intelligence for good, and not waste it away in a hateful manner no matter how righteous we think or cause may be.

Burning Bras: ???????

I understand where women are coming from when they don't want to shave or they don't shower every day, because they are trying to make a point or whatever. But, what does burning your underwear have to do with rights.



If there were a bunch of feminist women in the street and they were protesting something, and then they started a fire and then started taking off their bras and throwing them in, I think that some men would think that would be awesome. I mean women without bras and fire. Some men go nuts over stuff like that.

Then I guess when some women see that they think of how it does represent freedom. I don't know much, but I do know that some women already don't where bras and they are not trying to make any kind of point. I think in that sense their point is lost also because they are trying to spite men because we were the ones who invented bras and so on. But, once again women with no bras for most men is not a bad thing, but a good thing.



So, the point of it being unnatural and that they are getting rid of the support or thing that might restrict them makes sense. But, I am still trying to wrap my head around the concept of it being just a negative thing completely.

Sexualism with Sexism

It is an interesting ideology that she has portrayed in her writing of how the media affected her and the baby boomers during their teenage years. How they had sex thrown at them from every side, while their favorite TV shows still had the parents sleeping in separate beds if they even showed their bedroom.

She explained how movies had become more explicit. But, to me that seems to be the only thing at those times that started showing more sexual tendencies. I am thinking that maybe the advertising of the time or something had to have been more sexual because that would be the only way to explain her theory on sexual ism during those times.

I understand that what really made this era a time of sexual revolution was the invention and selling of the pill. Because this enabled teenagers and women alike to have sex without repercussion. She keeps stating that as if pregnancy was the only bad repercussion at the time. Like STD's are just a new wave of happenings.

It started out like that and now has lead us to where we stand today, in a see of sexual fustration and over stimulation.

Where the Men Are

Douglas can talk all day about how feminism started and how there are three different ages of the development of feminism. How the feminism was really pushed and started by the baby boomers because of the type of advertising that was available to them at the time. But it is interesting to me how they never make mention to the men that helped feminism and or supported it. They want equality but they single out men as the only people that are responsible for the way people think. And make no mention to those that did support their cause.

I like the way she vocalized the change that was needed during the 60's and 70's and how the baby boomers were the perfect group to do it because they had the massive numbers to push forward the cause. The women of that time were then able to achieve many things that were previously unable to do and thus push forward a time of equality that we now are still enjoying. This is not to say that everything is perfect in our society when it come to equal rights for men and women. But, it means that we are making the appropriate changes and are still fighting for those things that we have yet to achieve, especially in the political world.

I would like to further advocate my vendetta by saying that I think that it would further the cause of women's rights if they had men on their side to say that something is wrong as well. It would help men realize that it is not just a feministic issue but that everyone is involved.

Stereo Types

As Americans we have a subconscious ability to place people into groups by the way someone looks, how they talk, their gender preferences, and what they believe. It is common because it is how we interact as a society. It is how we interact with each other, and we have it in our heads that we can determine who a person is in a matter of seconds. It is our way as human beings to justify the way we want to treat someone because it gets rid of the unknowns.

We don't like the unknown in society and our media. We need to know and get everything right away. Stereo Types is a way for us to quickly categorize people we may not understand and their actions so that we can justify the way society and us as people treat them. Women are to sensitive, is just one way of saying that "I don't want to watch what I say in front of them, or they are to hard to understand."

If we look beyond that we can see that everyone has attributes that are of all stereo types. That just because your a women doesn't mean your sensitive, and just because your a man doesn't mean that you cant share your feelings. Each person is different and has different attributes and tendencies and shouldn't be categorized.