Blog Post #10: A day in the life AirFrance ad

The woman in this picture is most likely middle class wishing to live a more luxurious life.  Starting in the morning, she most likely uses name brand showing products, and when getting dressed has name brand clothing that are more expensive than typical clothes.  She most likely drives a nicer car like a BMW, Mercedes, or Audi.  Her job is most likely something more active as this ad suggests that she is relaxing and needs that sort of relaxation.  She most likely has a husband, but doesn't have any kids which is why she would be able to fly in first class.  She most likely lives a life in comfort but not luxury, but tries to surround herself in pieces of luxury.  Most likely she has a luxury brand purse like coach or Louis Vuitton, and has similar branded shoes.  Most likely she would live in a decent sized home, and her husband would be well off too.  This would also be a person who likes to travel to Europe, or lives in Europe, I would assume France, and travels to other countries in order to relax and maybe get away from her daily life.  She could also be a person from LA who is traveling to France and wants the luxury of  LA in her flight, as this ad is for the new LA Premiere Suite.
She also may be someone who eats nicer foods and if she eats out, it'll be at nicer restaurants.

Blog #9: Political Manifesto

My groups political campaign supported the party The Foreigners League.  It's emphasis is on helping immigrant workers in America who are the country's backbone and are an important part of the economy.  Our Party wants to portray and represent those who have helped to form this great nation. Since the early settlers, the United States of America has become a diverse and multicultural country, standing out from all others.  Our slogan is "immigrants UNITE the USA".  This couldn't be more true as America was founded by immigrants for immigrants and wouldn't be the country it is today without them.  We want immigrants who come into the country to have equal opportunity as everyone else, and to be able to become a citizen more easily than it is today.  Immigrants lead the agricultural field, making up the majority of the work force for agricultural jobs out in the fields.  They are an important part of America and should be treated with the same respect and and have the same rights as current citizens.

Blog #8: Consumer Behavior

Consumers can really make or break a product depending on how well or bad that product does, either because of how it was advertised, or just how well the product works.  One product that was received terribly by consumers was the Nintendo Power Glove.




The Power Glove was released in 1989 as an NES accessory. It was something completely new and unique for its time as it allowed the user to have motion controls in video games. The Power Glove was considered a success for a short time in the US, but was an instant fail in Japan, causing the company that made it to declare bankruptcy. The glove was advertised well, even having a center point in the movie "The Wizard" which made the glove seem to have amazing motion control abilities. The problem with the glove however was that it performed horribly. The motion control barely worked. Players found that controlling games with the Power Glove was universally more difficult than with the standard NES controller. Another problem is that Nintendo’s original Entertainment System is not technologically sophisticated enough to handle the three-dimensional environments that could truly take advantage of a device like the Power Glove, despite Mattel's intriguing attempt with Super Glove Ball, a type of handball simulation that was one of only two games made to specifically utilize the Glove's features, the other being a forgettable fighting game called Bad Street Brawler.

Combined with the over-hyped advertising, poor motion control, and lack of technology and games to utilize the power glove, it ultimately failed to impress consumers and soon found itself swept under the rug like it never happened.  The only thing worse than the Power Glove in terms of video games was the game E.T., but that would require a whole new blog post to talk about why it was so terrible and the effects it had on the video game industry.

Blog #7: Environmental Campaigns

Greenpeace UK has posted serveral youtube videos and tweets about their concern over Shell's arctic drilling.  One major campaign they held that no doubt brought much needed attention to Greenpeace, was to bring in Lego and have them stop their partnership with Shell.  This brought about an extremely popular video produced showing the causes of arctic drilling using legos to bring it to life.




Greenpeace UK also constant updates their twitter page with news on what has been happening with their campaign and help to show what people all over have been doing to help the cause in order to stop companies like Shell from drilling in the arctic.

Blog #6: TV show or movie/Ethnic Stereotyping

Doctor Who

1: Does the show you've chosen reflect racial and gender diversity? why or why not? Explain why this kind of diversity is important in media.

Doctor Who is an interesting show when talking about racial and gender diversity.  The simple answer to the question in regards to this show is that no, this show does a poor job reflecting racial and gender diversity.  The main character has always been a white male since the beginning of the show back in the 1960s.  The dynamic of the show is that the main character goes around saving the universe with his female companion/sidekick to help him out.  Since the beginning of the show to the most current episode, there has only been two people of color present as a companion, and both were not present until the the newer seasons.  This causes a huge problem to the image of the show because it gives off a false image of the UK, since it is extremely diverse in ethnicities, and it also shows that only white people can be strong like those in the show.  Even out of the two PoC characters present in the show, only one is written as a strong character, while the other was written off as the dumb boyfriend to the strong, white companion.  Martha was introduced in season 3 in 2007 and has been the only strongly written companion of color.  She changed the dynamics of Doctor Who because suddenly a black woman was part of the main story and was influencing younger black girls who now had someone they could relate with.

Gender has also been an issue within Doctor Who.  The issue hasn't been about lack of women, but more about the fact that they have only been companions, and also most have not really had a strong presence to the story.  Every companion has been a woman, but many are typically there to serve as the love interest for the doctor, or to become the damsel in distress and someone for the doctor to save.  There have only been a few companions that have broke free from these tropes to become strong, more independent woman through the series, and really stand out as more of a main character and not just there to look pretty.  Besides a few companions being stronger characters, there has still never been a female doctor in the entire series.  This is a major problem that needs to be fixed because the majority of viewers are woman and for them to see a woman doctor would be huge.  Woman and especially young girls who watch doctor who and see a female doctor would be more inspired and could relate to the character in a more positive way.  The doctor could become a role model for young women instead of a love interest for them or eye candy.  It would tell woman that they too can be strong and powerful and can be capable of anything, even with saving the universe.


2: Are there any racial or gender stereotypes present in the show you've chosen?  if so, identify them and describe how they are stereotypical.  If not, describe what elements would prevent the portrayal of of a female or ethnic minority characters from being stereotypical.

Doctor who is not without fault and has placed characters driven by stereotypes, mostly with the woman companions.  The woman are typically either stereotyped as submissive or bossy, or both.  One of the issues with the character Amy Pond, one of the latest companions from seasons 5-7 of the newer series, was stereotyped as being the bossy controlling type of girl.  She would tell her husband and the doctor what to do, and would be sassy and rebellious if she was told not to do something.  This may seem like she was being written as a strong character, but she was still written very simply with just the facade of being a strong woman.  She was still thrown into the damsel in distress trope more often than not, and the majority of the 3 seasons she was in she was merely there to support the doctor's story and make him more of the hero.

Blog #5: Racism in Advertising

Racism is prevalent in advertising even now in an era where you would believe that racism would be mostly gone from media.  Advertisers today sometimes let slide some extremely racist ads that they may feel are okay, but the majority of the population feel otherwise.  One ad that fell into this is the VW car bomber ad, which wanted to showcase how tough their car was by having a "terrorist" blow himself up in the car.



Is it ever right to to racially stereotype for advertising purposes? No, I don't think it is ever right to racially stereotype in advertisements.  An ad can easily convey their message without reducing a culture to a mere stereotype.  Such as the commercial above, the ad uses the stereotype that all muslims are terrorists which is obviously not the case, but VW could have easily shown that their car was tough without the unnecessary racism.

Racism in advertising is in no way a thing of the past.  It has gotten better, the majority of ads today are no longer blantantly racist or not racist at all, but racism is still prevalent in many ads today.



This ad by KFC is not a thing of the past, but was made in 2014.  This ad is using the old stereotype that all black people love fried chicken, and that in a foreign unfamiliar place fried chicken is exactly what she wants to feel at home.  Ads like this shouldn't be made, or at least could have been made better.  A way to make this commercial okay would have been to add at least two other children of different ethnicity and have them all go to KFC, because then it would be read that it's simply an American thing and thus familiar in that respect, not because of their race.


Advertisers have a huge ethical responsibility.  They are making something that will be seen by potentially millions of people.  Of course, no matter how careful you are, there will always be complaints, but because of how many people will be seeing it, advertisers have to be careful that what they put out won't be offensive.  They need to make sure that the content they produce are not fueled by stereotypes to sell their product.  Not only is this necessary for their product to be successful, but it can lead to bad PR that could severely hurt the company's image.

Blog #4: Gender Stereotyping

Gender stereotyping is everywhere is advertisements and products.  It even exists for products that have no need for gendering.  One area of this being products like shampoo and body wash.  One company that comes to mind is Dove with they regular dove line, and then Dove Men + Care.  Although Dove is a very progressive company in their advertisements, they still have no reason to gender these items.  Shampoo for a "woman" will still have the same effect as their shampoo for "men".  This one advertisement I found really shows the gendering that is placed on woman's care products




this ad was for Dove in Brazil, and mocks how woman's shampoo ads are typically made, although it still makes the distinction that men shouldn't be using Dove's regular "woman's" shampoo, but instead need to be manly and use their men's line of shampoos.

Another main brand that comes to mind that focuses heavily on gendering is Old Spice.  It's always been known as the "manly" products and their commercial completely emphasize that fact.  Most of the commercials focus on the idea that if you don't use old spice, you're not a man, like this classic old spice ad




The thing with products such as hygiene and body care that I have noticed is that only men's products get over done and focus on the fact that you're not a man if you don't use this, or that you shouldn't be using "woman's" products, because body care has really always been seen as feminine to begin with, and thus shampoo commercials for woman tend to focus on what the shampoo actually does, and not on the way it smells or the way it's packaged.  With men's shampoos, they typically don't focus on what the shampoo does for your hair, but simply for your societal image.  This shows a huge issue in why things such as shampoo can be advertised so differently for what is essentially the same product.  Men don't want to seem feminine and so companies plaster "MEN" on the product, and then advertise it saying that they won't be a girl for using it, instead they will be a manly man for doing so and they will get all the girls.  None of this is necessary though because the product is still exactly the same, and there should be no reason why it should be split into male and female when it's all the same product.