the culture of cool and children consumers

so i wanted to use this 30 second clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtMji36lOQM to get a point across. since the early 90's, sprite has learned to appeal to a younger audience. i know we talked about this in class but i decided to put my own spin on the subject.

Sprite's slogans in the 1960s and 1970s ranged from "Taste Its Tingling Tartness," "Naturally Tart," and "It's a Natural!" then in 1987 marketing ads for the product were changed to cater to the demographic of teenagers. "I Like the Sprite in You" was their first long running slogan as heard in the clip. they knew then, that children are the biggest consumers that you can have. as we heard in class, Children are a captive audience: The average American child watches an estimate between 25,000 to 40,000 television commercials per year. not to mention, Teens in the US spend around $160 billion a year. so in showing those kids the advertisements, the kids will show and bug thier parents, which in turn, causes them to buy said product. "I Like the Sprite in You" was another way of saying, i like the cool in you. sprite became the adjective of cool. and cool, then became the definition for sprite.

the objectification of women

This video shows how modern music videos are explicitly and subliminally sending messages that treating women like object and enacting violence and sexual abuse against them is acceptable. I believe this is perpetuating sexual violence and mistreatment of women in our society. We should be conscious of the media we are exposed to, and especially censor these types of "media entertainment" away from adolescents.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayj29LLe6yM&feature=fvw

illuminati

Music/Film/News Media in mainstream media depict the illuminati

illuminati- (plural of Latin illuminatus, "enlightened") is a name that refers to several groups, both historical and modern, and both real and fictitious. Historically, it refers specifically to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on May 1, 1776. In modern times it is also used to refer to a purported conspiratorial organization which acts as a shadowy "power behind the throne", allegedly controlling world affairs through present day governments and corporations, usually as a modern incarnation or continuation of the Bavarian Illuminati. In this context, Illuminati is often used in reference to a New World Order (NWO). Many conspiracy theorists believe the Illuminati are the masterminds behind events that will lead to the establishment of such a New World Order.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v8TzZtVqlo

COMMERCIAL IRONY

If you think commercials are trying to tell you something, they are... This commercial shows that the brand isn't trying to pull one over us, but eventually we know from class that it will be the reason we find it dull again.

Movie Trailers

One important topic I felt hasn't been talked about enough in our class is the way marketers portray movies in their trailers. Movie-makers really make themselves out to be rhetors by the way they persuade you that their movie is worth your eight dollars at the cinema. They also try to make you think that all the critics that have seen this movie before you want you to see this movie as well. Why don't the bad reviews critics make of movies end up making it into commercials for movies? Well, I think that answer is obvious. It's also funny the way marketers seem to know the right opportunity to lock in their target audience such as in the case of trailers for "Chick Flicks" making it onto national spots during The View. This may seem like "hot air" when they try to persuade you that their movie is great, but don't we always start to wonder "Is that movie going to be as good as they make it seem?" Usually, that answer is no.

When it comes to hegemony, I think it would be interesting to see what percentage of movies try to make their lead character out to be the oppressed subject of the movie against what they try to make you think as "unachievable turmoil" against a dominant figure, more commonly considered the villain in our society. The lead character is always trying to achieve some sort of power, but wouldn't that in turn make them the dominant force behind hegemony? I tend to prefer movies where the bad guys win. I'm sorry if that makes me weird.

Whiteness Tuesday

This day's class was one of the more interesting ones we've had this semester. I felt that Hess' theories were thought-provoking in our class, even if it was more negative than Dr. McCauliff would have liked, but it showed that hip-hop has an undeniable effect on our take on racial lines in music.
I think that America is still not comfortable with the idea of white people in hip-hop music, but it's more apparent in hip-hop's African American following. I feel like artists such as Eminem and a select few others only make it in hip-hop because of their white following. The message that Eminem is sending, however, is not a selective white-only one in which he talks more about his struggles from his adolescence in Detroit and drugs than anything else.
I don't want to waste any time mentioning Vanilla Ice because I feel that he did more damage for white people in hip-hop music than good. His sound was very engineered, but not quite as bad as his persona was. The Beastie Boys were at least themselves, even if you don't find yourself humming their tunes quite like you did "Ice Ice Baby".
I felt like our class had a diverse mindset on this topic today. Some people were extremely against Eminem and hip-hop altogether while some accepted white people in hip-hop, mostly Eminem. Does this show that Eminem is the only white rapper that will find his way to success in hip-hop? I doubt it because it looks like the rap game is here to stay and we're discovering new voices faster than ever.

Saved By The Rhetoric

When trying to find a topic for this blog, I had a unique idea in which I wondered "Could I apply Saved By The Bell to class material?" in which I replied, "Awwww yeaaah." The first thing I thought of was the "Cool Hunting" video we watched in class. Zack was the definition of a teenage rebel in his time with his zany pranks and dating record. It was apparent how cool he was by the technique of "breaking the fourth wall" the producers used in his scenes. Any brand would have loved to have him as their model, as he could have created a whirlpool of financial gain for any company aimed towards the show's young viewers.

Another important term from class came to my mind which probably wouldn't have been thought of otherwise, but there are also elements of Marxism in the show. The principal, Mr. Belding, towers over the students as if watching their every move, especially in the case of the school's biggest rebel, Zack Morris. Zack seemed to be every kid's idol in the way that he stood to liberate the oppressed, which in this case is the student body of Bayside. Our ideology of a principal may see this rebellion toward them as normal, but now that we are adults we can see that they are just trying to do their job not unlike the turmoil we face in the workplace ourselves.

I guess I would have to say that the biggest reason I picked Saved By The Bell is due to the way we were introduced to pop culture in this class. When we ask ourselves why we study pop culture, a good answer would be that it shapes our attitudes, beliefs, and opinions. Has Saved By The Bell not done this for you in some way or another? For me it introduced me to a role I feel I played in school at times, the role of Zack "The Prankster" Morris.