1.1. “The Merchants of Cool” describes the practice of “under-the-radar” marketing, including hiring teens to log-on to chat rooms to talk up bands and recruiting college freshman to throw campus parties where they distribute marketing materials.Ironically, marketers have justified “stealth” marketing as necessary because teens have become more media savvy. Do you think that “stealth” techniques are ethical? If a marketer offered you money to log-on to chat rooms or throw a party, would you? When you are tuned in to a concert (like the hip hop concert feature in the program), or reading a message in a chat room, how important is it to know whether or not it is a commercial? Can you identify the “storytellers” behind the media you consume most often?
The documentary “The Merchants of Cool” showcases one of the most sneaky and deceitful methods of influence present today, stealth marketing. Teenagers have become aware of the media around them and the goals of the corporations sponsoring this media, and, they do not wish to be controlled and influenced by a corporation. The corporations and advertising companies are instead trying to promote their product, without revealing to the consumer that a corporation is actually sponsoring the advertisement.
Stealth marketing works by tricking the consumer into believing that the product is being advocated by one of their peers, or someone who they believe would not gain anything from advertising the product. To me, this seems like the consumer is basically being lied to, and I believe this practice is completely unethical. A common place to encounter stealth marketing is on the Internet, where people will promote a certain product acting as if they know it is worth buying from personal experience, while actually they are being paid by a corporation. The anonymity and mutual trust of the Internet facilitate stealth marketing, and many different corporations, including Sony, have made use of this advertising. Stealth marketing is also employed in many other ways, for example a celebrity being paid to spray on a cologne in public, saying its his own, or Sony Ericson paying actors to ask people to take pictures of them with the new phone, while saying what a great phone it is.
I believe that in many cases stealth marketing is tricking and essentially lying to the consumers, and unethical. While it is not too out of character for the media to employ a tactic like this, I believe people have a right to know when they are being sold something, and even compared to other types of media this is underhanded. I want to know if what I’m being told is the opinion of someone, or being presented with an advertising technique. I know the public hold the same view, because when stealth media is exposed, it can lead to a drop in sale and a public backlash, the opposite of what the company was hoping to achieve, and this happened to Sony when one if its stealth advertising techniques was exposed. I would like to think that I wouldn’t promote commercial products like this, but if someone offered me a few hundred or thousand dollars for throwing a party, I would have a hard time turning them down.
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Monday, 28 September 2009
Advertising Exposure
3:15
During practise, see many advertisiments for addidas and nike on shoes
430
on comuputer, advertisiment: TvShack, colon cleansing tablets...., mega video, Entourage
Entourage has subtle and obvious advertiments in it, a large portion of the show has billboards ion the back grounding, advertsing cars and coke, they also all use apple appliaces, eg. ipod, mac, iphone. I have noticed that in pretty much all tv shows i watch regularly have appl products all through them, which probably means apple has a contract with many of the studios.
430
Firefox, apple, blackboard, powerschool, facebook, microsoft word, Orbit
i have an australian flag on my wall, i expect thats media
During practise, see many advertisiments for addidas and nike on shoes
430
on comuputer, advertisiment: TvShack, colon cleansing tablets...., mega video, Entourage
Entourage has subtle and obvious advertiments in it, a large portion of the show has billboards ion the back grounding, advertsing cars and coke, they also all use apple appliaces, eg. ipod, mac, iphone. I have noticed that in pretty much all tv shows i watch regularly have appl products all through them, which probably means apple has a contract with many of the studios.
430
Firefox, apple, blackboard, powerschool, facebook, microsoft word, Orbit
i have an australian flag on my wall, i expect thats media
Sunday, 20 September 2009
The Corporation vs. Ad and Ego
Question: What do you think is the impact of consumerism on our /your media environment and the public’s ability (or lack thereof) to remain informed?
After watching the documentary "The Corporation" and "The Ad and the Ego', I was exposed to a wide array of shocking information which I was not aware of. These films display how much the media has been impacted and controlled by the consumerism culture, and the motivation behind the media. Almost all of the media we are exposed to is owned by a corporation, which aims to make money by influencing the consumers. These corporations will abuse the media, incorporating millions of dollars, and whole divisions of companies into producing ads that will influence what we want, both consciously and subconsciously. “The Corporation” helped me to understand the real motives behind corporations, that while they will occasionally contribute back to the community, they are concerned mainly with profits. “The Ad and the Ego” delves into a more specific part of a corporation, how they influence consumers to purchase their products, and the techniques employed to manipulate the consumer market.
“The Corporations” displayed that while many companies will claim to be eco friendly, there is always another factor in play, and that is profit. Without making profit, the corporation will slowly cease to exist, and the more profit, the better. While most corporations will promote themselves as a lifelike character that promotes only positive aspects, for example McDonalds or Disney, but this is nothing like the actual “mind” of the corporation. Many corporations have grown to the point where they can disregard laws, and would rather dump there waste where they want and suffer the fine, than being eco friendly. This arrogance has led corporations to become very damaging to the environment, and this leads to human health problems as well. An example of this is sweatshops. Corporations like Nike will try and minimize the amount of money they have to pay to produce their products, so they will base their production line in third world countries and exploit the local citizens, paying them as low as possible, and selling to us for as high as they can. The corporations will of course not display this fact, so when we purchase a nice pair of shoes, we only see what is in front of us, not the exploitation of the environment and countries far away. We need documentaries like this to demonstrate the effects we can inadvertently have by purchasing certain products, and to encourage us to take responsibility to purchase from companies which don’t exploit.
“The Ad and the Ego” shows how much the corporations try to influence our decisions, and shows advertising as a multi billion industry by itself. Before watching us, I was obviously aware that the corporations try to influence us, however I was oblivious to the amount of thought and manipulation incorporated into the advertisements. The film shows how advertisement started out by just displaying the product, but this has become drastically warped over the years. Nowadays, The corporations basically try to advertise happiness, and we are meant to buy their product because it is associated with happiness and content. Of course, they can’t deliver this, but they try to convince us that their product is needed. They aspire to turn life into a competition, where everyone wants to be, act, look better than the next person, and they need keep spending their money to achieve this. They also try to affect us physiologically, because while many people actually watching an ad wont be effected by it, if we dredge information up while not concentrating on the ad there is a better chance it will influence us.
In conclusion, both “The Corporation” and “The Ad and the Ego” reveal a lot that I bet corporations wouldn’t want the public to know, and we need independent films like this to expose the inner working of these million dollar businesses. I learnt a lot about the corporation, and how they will manipulate the public into supporting them. Consumerism has effected out media hugely, with most of what we see in media promoting a product. These corporations aim to please us, with their products and reputation, and because of this will attempt to hide certain information, for example, exploitation of the environment and people. We need films like these to present us the real facts and help us make informed choices about what we buy and wear. We can see the corporations do not strive to satisfy us, but they aim towards profits, and we need to distrust what the corporations project to us if we want to make informed choices.
After watching the documentary "The Corporation" and "The Ad and the Ego', I was exposed to a wide array of shocking information which I was not aware of. These films display how much the media has been impacted and controlled by the consumerism culture, and the motivation behind the media. Almost all of the media we are exposed to is owned by a corporation, which aims to make money by influencing the consumers. These corporations will abuse the media, incorporating millions of dollars, and whole divisions of companies into producing ads that will influence what we want, both consciously and subconsciously. “The Corporation” helped me to understand the real motives behind corporations, that while they will occasionally contribute back to the community, they are concerned mainly with profits. “The Ad and the Ego” delves into a more specific part of a corporation, how they influence consumers to purchase their products, and the techniques employed to manipulate the consumer market.
“The Corporations” displayed that while many companies will claim to be eco friendly, there is always another factor in play, and that is profit. Without making profit, the corporation will slowly cease to exist, and the more profit, the better. While most corporations will promote themselves as a lifelike character that promotes only positive aspects, for example McDonalds or Disney, but this is nothing like the actual “mind” of the corporation. Many corporations have grown to the point where they can disregard laws, and would rather dump there waste where they want and suffer the fine, than being eco friendly. This arrogance has led corporations to become very damaging to the environment, and this leads to human health problems as well. An example of this is sweatshops. Corporations like Nike will try and minimize the amount of money they have to pay to produce their products, so they will base their production line in third world countries and exploit the local citizens, paying them as low as possible, and selling to us for as high as they can. The corporations will of course not display this fact, so when we purchase a nice pair of shoes, we only see what is in front of us, not the exploitation of the environment and countries far away. We need documentaries like this to demonstrate the effects we can inadvertently have by purchasing certain products, and to encourage us to take responsibility to purchase from companies which don’t exploit.
“The Ad and the Ego” shows how much the corporations try to influence our decisions, and shows advertising as a multi billion industry by itself. Before watching us, I was obviously aware that the corporations try to influence us, however I was oblivious to the amount of thought and manipulation incorporated into the advertisements. The film shows how advertisement started out by just displaying the product, but this has become drastically warped over the years. Nowadays, The corporations basically try to advertise happiness, and we are meant to buy their product because it is associated with happiness and content. Of course, they can’t deliver this, but they try to convince us that their product is needed. They aspire to turn life into a competition, where everyone wants to be, act, look better than the next person, and they need keep spending their money to achieve this. They also try to affect us physiologically, because while many people actually watching an ad wont be effected by it, if we dredge information up while not concentrating on the ad there is a better chance it will influence us.
In conclusion, both “The Corporation” and “The Ad and the Ego” reveal a lot that I bet corporations wouldn’t want the public to know, and we need independent films like this to expose the inner working of these million dollar businesses. I learnt a lot about the corporation, and how they will manipulate the public into supporting them. Consumerism has effected out media hugely, with most of what we see in media promoting a product. These corporations aim to please us, with their products and reputation, and because of this will attempt to hide certain information, for example, exploitation of the environment and people. We need films like these to present us the real facts and help us make informed choices about what we buy and wear. We can see the corporations do not strive to satisfy us, but they aim towards profits, and we need to distrust what the corporations project to us if we want to make informed choices.
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Media Blob #3
Sunday September 14
11-00 am
colgate, cheerios, ripcurl, listen to about 40 minutes of music, mostly independant artists
12-00
Apple, Firefox, Facebook logo, skype, Blackboard logo
1-00
lynx, scrubs, puma sign
4-00
Music, watch movie "The Bank Job"
6-00 to 12-00
read a John Girsham Novel, do homework (blackboard, firefox)
11-00 am
colgate, cheerios, ripcurl, listen to about 40 minutes of music, mostly independant artists
12-00
Apple, Firefox, Facebook logo, skype, Blackboard logo
1-00
lynx, scrubs, puma sign
4-00
Music, watch movie "The Bank Job"
6-00 to 12-00
read a John Girsham Novel, do homework (blackboard, firefox)
Monday, 14 September 2009
Comparative Article Essay
The two reviews on the movie “Super Size Me” starring Morgan Spurlock present contrasting views and feelings toward the subject. The New York Times presents the movie in a positive light, claiming it elaborates on and brings light to the current obesity “epidemic” and the causes of it. Although the movie is criticized for certain aspects, for example, being to critical of the effects of fast food, and that it can be part of a healthy diet, it is a generally favorable response. On the other hand, the TCS Daily gave “Super High Me” a very negative and derogative review, with the article being titled “A Supersized Distortion”. This review claims that the movie pointed at fast food as being the cause of Americas obesity, ignoring the other factors, for example a lack of exercise, or that any calorie dense food eaten in excess can lead to health problems.
While the movie did occasionally point to directly at fast food as being the cause of obesity, and neglecting facts like the lifestyle of Americans contributes greatly to what there weight is, TCS Daily can’t deny that only eating McDonalds bought about may detrimental effects to his health. The movie showed how McDonald’s is the nations largest fast food corporation, and how they try to influence people of all ages to eat there as much as possible. So while the article tries to take the blame of fast food for the cause of weight loss, when something consumed, advertised and even loved by some many people is shown to have such shocking health effects, it is clear that a huge amount of people are consuming something that perhaps should not be consumed by such a large percentage of the population. So even if Fast Food is not the cause of obesity, it still is clearly responsible for many health problems, and possibly an impairment of the quality of life for heavy consumers.
The New York Times seems to take the movie more seriously, and viewed as a more positive and truthful documentation. They state that the effects to his body were very detrimental, although who’s responsibility is it to eat responsibly, the corporations or the consumers?
Both articles seem to agree that fast food is bad for an individual is consumed excessively, although the effect of fast food on the nation is still contested. I believe that the New York Times review was the more correct of the two, and disregarding the effects on the nation, Fast Food does present a hugely greater health risk that people know, and I’m sure many of the constant consumers would want to change their diet if they knew of the potential consequence.
While the movie did occasionally point to directly at fast food as being the cause of obesity, and neglecting facts like the lifestyle of Americans contributes greatly to what there weight is, TCS Daily can’t deny that only eating McDonalds bought about may detrimental effects to his health. The movie showed how McDonald’s is the nations largest fast food corporation, and how they try to influence people of all ages to eat there as much as possible. So while the article tries to take the blame of fast food for the cause of weight loss, when something consumed, advertised and even loved by some many people is shown to have such shocking health effects, it is clear that a huge amount of people are consuming something that perhaps should not be consumed by such a large percentage of the population. So even if Fast Food is not the cause of obesity, it still is clearly responsible for many health problems, and possibly an impairment of the quality of life for heavy consumers.
The New York Times seems to take the movie more seriously, and viewed as a more positive and truthful documentation. They state that the effects to his body were very detrimental, although who’s responsibility is it to eat responsibly, the corporations or the consumers?
Both articles seem to agree that fast food is bad for an individual is consumed excessively, although the effect of fast food on the nation is still contested. I believe that the New York Times review was the more correct of the two, and disregarding the effects on the nation, Fast Food does present a hugely greater health risk that people know, and I’m sure many of the constant consumers would want to change their diet if they knew of the potential consequence.
Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Media consumption log no. 2
Monday September 6th
11-11:30: Wake up, watch half n hour of scrubs.Briefly ook at the newspaper and see a advertisement for some type of drink.
12-12:30- Watch an episode of family guy, fight of many pop-ups advertising different products, including software, movies, ...penis enlargement, fake hormones and spiritual guidance
12:30-2- Do Homework,every website has advertising. From colon cleansing to couch stain remover.
2-2:30- Go out, see bottles lying around advertisement coke, sprite ect. Play PS3 for an hour, Call of Duty 3
2:30-4 sleep
6: Watch a movie while eating, Mr and Mrs Smith
There was less media i encountered this day than the last blog, because it was a chill day, didnt do much or encounter much
11-11:30: Wake up, watch half n hour of scrubs.Briefly ook at the newspaper and see a advertisement for some type of drink.
12-12:30- Watch an episode of family guy, fight of many pop-ups advertising different products, including software, movies, ...penis enlargement, fake hormones and spiritual guidance
12:30-2- Do Homework,every website has advertising. From colon cleansing to couch stain remover.
2-2:30- Go out, see bottles lying around advertisement coke, sprite ect. Play PS3 for an hour, Call of Duty 3
2:30-4 sleep
6: Watch a movie while eating, Mr and Mrs Smith
There was less media i encountered this day than the last blog, because it was a chill day, didnt do much or encounter much
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Media Blog number one
Tuesday- September 1
7:00
Listen to 20 minutes of music
7:50
Watched a few minutes of scrubs before I left, listened to the radio on the way to school
8:00
Listened to some music during free block
1:40
Was shown a youtube video during class
6:00
Watched Entourage (tv show)
This is all the voluntary media I encountered, I doubt it would be possible to write a blog detailing all the different kind of advertisement media I accidentally see and hear each day while walking around or on the internet.
7:00
Listen to 20 minutes of music
7:50
Watched a few minutes of scrubs before I left, listened to the radio on the way to school
8:00
Listened to some music during free block
1:40
Was shown a youtube video during class
6:00
Watched Entourage (tv show)
This is all the voluntary media I encountered, I doubt it would be possible to write a blog detailing all the different kind of advertisement media I accidentally see and hear each day while walking around or on the internet.
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