Homework #6

1)
a)Facebook is destroying the human experience.
b)There are many things that I can agree with Tom Hodgkinson on and one of them is when he compares Facebook to 1984's "Big Brother." I mean nothing can be truly deleted. Or, the fact that now Facebook has made it so all of your friends information is no longer private. Yikes. Then he goes on to explain Facebook's uber advertising abilities. We all know that what you put on your Facebook page will end up being sold back to you. It really is brilliant.

What I don't agree with however is Hodgkinson's armageddon like beliefs in the power of Facebook. I think it too is a fad that will extinguish with time. Maybe new and faster sites will emerge to replace it, but Facebook will not be the downfall of mankind. Then he goes on to ostracize the founders of Facebook which I don't really agree with. These guys maybe a little greedy and taking part in something I care very little about, but they are entitled to their successes. It's the American Dream.
2)
a) "Little to tell and everything to sell."Is one of the most poignant remarks of Rob Willaims's article. He dove into much of the stuff that we have already discussed in class about creating a consumer with brand loyalty. However it is interesting to be able to look at advertisements now, which can fall under all sorts of categories, and trace them back to their point of origin. I really due believe that people must be made media literate in order for them to have the ability to dissect ads in this healthy way.

It's funny that after about a quarter of the way through this semester my viewpoint of media has so changed. I used to think that religion was the worlds largest brain washing evil doer, but it turns out that consumer advertisers are far worse.

3)
a) Five observations:
1- Marketers only focus on specific parts of the female body. Example being women's butts and our obsession with breasts.
2- Women are presented as docile and submissive creatures. Men on the other hand are rowdy and virile.
3- Women must always fight to become the most beautiful they can. Really if you market anything to women that promises them they'll lose weight or look younger they probably will buy it.
4- Men are not manipulated like women are in the world of advertising. Kilbourne uses the example of male underwear models and women underwear models. What is missing for the men are the suggestive words.
5- Advertisements really only cater to the heterosexual couple. This has probably changed dramatically since 1999 since homosexuality has begun to be more excepted in day to day life.

This film was quite eye opening. My boyfriend actually watched it with me and found it very jarring as well. There is a part of me that felt like some of her accusations (or persuasive techniques) were a little hyper sensitive, however I totally got her point. She did overemphasize certain text to help her argument.

I could easily see myself as a young girl looking at these advertisements and critically comparing myself to them.