Drug Companies

Huh! That's a little interesting.  I wonder where your dermatologist receives most of his/her pay from.  I mean surly no doctor would implement only one treatment or kind of medicine just because some drug company gave him/her a little extra money, or promised him/her anything. http://blogs.mercola.com/sites/vitalvotes/archive/2007/04/30/Is-Your-Doctor-Being-PAID-OFF-by-the-Drug-Industry.aspx According to this article virtually 94% of the doctors taken in this serve admitted to having some kind of relationship with the drug companies. And most of them met with a representative from a pharmaceutical company at least 16 times a month. I mean sure maybe not all of the doctors recieved money but just free samples, but I'm sure that no real doctor would take the generosity of the drug company into consideration when they are prescribing medicine. So they way the medicine world works is that the drug companies pay the doctors who then prescribe the medicine to patients who then pay the drug companies for the medicine so that the drug companies can pay off the doctors to prescribe the drug companies' medicines back to us. Isn't America beautiful!

beauty & youth

The desire to be older but remain looking younger has become a huge moneymaking market. Yesterday, at a dermatologist appointment and while I was waiting for the doctor, I began to read the magazines they provided. But the only parts of the magazines that were in the office were the articles about cosmetic surgery. There was botox, of course, lip plumping, some treatment to make your eyelash’s growth increase and grow longer and darker, and there was even an article about taking fat from one area of your body, via liposuction, processing it, and then putting it back into your face to fill in wrinkles. To my knowledge, no other culture places as much emphasis on youth and beauty as the United States. In the US, beauty is achieved through looking young and youthful. But if aging is the natural course of life, why do we try so hard to fight it?

Beauty this day and age is all about youth.  Older women are constantly trying to get rid of wrinkles, age spots and dark circles in order to achieve the flawless skin of the youthful models portrayed in media.  But like the dove commercial, it is hard to see who the average woman is.  That is why it has become more common to use an average woman in promoting a product.  I found the article http://beckysperfectskin.com/?t202id=42609&t202kw=
that talks about a 45 year-old woman with two children getting rid of her wrinkles.  This woman uses RezV anti aging and Dermapril as instructed by Dr. Oz.  This woman is made to seem like the average woman, as she has two children and from an everyday neighborhood in Saint Charles, Missouri.  People feel more comfortable about a product when an “average” woman uses a product and claims that it works.  It seems achievable to get that flawless skin.

Most of you have probably see this video once before. This is the evolution video for dove. The first time that i saw this video I thought it was great how they too a so called average woman and made her into a super model. The campaign for real beauty video that we watched really made me question this commercial. This woman that they show is not average at all. She was picked for this commercial because she could be made into a beautiful woman. Dove wants you to think that in order to become as beautiful, you must buy their products. It also shows that no woman can be beautiful on their own. They cant just have a picture take and leave it at that. The picture has to be edited and fixed so that the "real beauty" is shown. Instead of making woman feel like they are just as beautiful as the woman in this video, they are actually taking confidence away from woman and making them feel like they cant be beautiful without having 3 dozen hair and make-up artists helping them out.

Indie-pendant Music

Liiiitle behind on my blogs so I figure I would post a quick one.

Here are two, in my opinion really good Indie bands of recent. It kinda applies to our class. Anyway enjoy.

Cold War Kids

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2JNE-sgA74

(embed disabled)

And my personal favorite : the Airborne Toxic Event.

Funny thing about these guys, is that they were in fact offered major labels and told it was the only way to get on the radio,but they however opted for a smaller independent label.


Prolly heard this one on 89.1 the wood.

Proof that McDonalds will hire anyone who applies there.

Baywatch

Need I say more...?  This has numerous examples of the male gaze, and its only the opening credits!  And not just the 'male gaze' as applied to men looking at women, but also the 'male gaze' in terms of women looking at men. There are running shots of both, also when the actor/actress is standing they start low and pan up.  

I have a problem with this being referred to as male.  In an earlier post the example of Renaissance art got me thinking.  I don't believe that there are more women painted/photographed/displayed naked because it is a man constructing those things.  While that is part of it, I think it has more to do with visually the idea that the female body naked/clothed is much more beautiful then that of a mans.  It is more appealing to look at.  I don't believe that these images are constructed purely for the male viewer.  As people we are drawn to things that are attractive to us, and I'm not speaking sexually.  Similar to a female who is stopped dead in her tracks by a pair of shoes.  We crave things that are appealing to us. 

When I read about how consumer societies has become out due to “increased industrialization and bureaucratization… [meaning] a decrease in the number of small entrepreneurs and an increase in large manufactures…[creating] a contrast to feudal and rural societies of the past, in which there was proximity between producers and consumers, as in the case of a shoemaker whose shoes were sold and worn by residents in the village where he worked” it made me think of the brand The North Face. I found that The North Face is specifically made for outdoor lovers and their activities and the company began on San Francisco’s North Beach. So how is it that when I look across campus in the winter time I see more people wearing North Face apparel than anything else? Maryville isn’t located at the beach and not everyone who wears this clothing loves the outdoors. The North Face became big when they targeted students to wear their apparel around their campus. Taking their small entrepreneurship and making it industrialized. Not a bad move.

Male gaze in art

I have also noticed how, even though men were the first portrayed nude in art, nude women are far more common. I noticed this especially around the Renaissance or 1500s, when art (especially paintings) were more realistic. Paintings such as Venus with a Mirror, Venus and Cupid, Sleeping Venus, the Three Graces, Birth of Venus, and so on all feature nude women. The artists who painted these great works were men: therefore their view, or "gaze," was biased towards women. They painted women because their view towards them was one of beauty because that is what their human instincts tell them to appreciate. This trend of nude women in art has shaped our society today. For instance, the Seinfeld clip below, the Mardi Gras tradition of flashing, and the skimpy clothes that girls wear are all areas of nudity or something along the lines of it that are socially acceptable for women but not for men.

Gender and Gaze

After I had got home on Monday, I walked into my parents watching an episode of Sindfeld that had a scene that fit perfectly with the idea presented in the chapter that related to gender and gaze. There is a scene within this section of the show that shows both a man and a woman walking around naked. It is perfectly acceptable to see the woman naked, yet when the man walks around with no clothes on, he is told that it is just not right, or that it is just not a good kind of naked. In the book it says that the first art introduced was male nude, then woman came into the picture and it was said that the dominint viewer was the male. If it was men who were accepted in the nude first, then why is it in this episode on tv that it is so wrong for a man to walk around naked, yet so normal for a woman?


This is a very long clip, so I will point out the spots in it that I am talking about. The first scene starts at 2 minutes and 45 seconds and the second scene starts at 4 minutes. Enjoy!

As I messed around on YouTube I found another Dove ad that was very interesting. Did you know that Dove and Axe are made by the same manufacture? Dove has been known to tell parents to “talk to their daughters about beauty before the beauty industry does” and at the same time they create very sexual ads for Axe. I found this very interesting since the barely dressed women in the Axe commercials were probably deferred from the beauty talk by their parents and encouraged from the beauty industry that is trying to fight for “true beauty”. I was going to upload that video… but it wouldn’t work. So I found this video about “true colors” in girls, but it reminded me of the documentary that we watched in class. Is Dove really appreciating these girls’ differences and the aspects that they see as flaws… or is Dove just helping point out their flaws?

DOVE

I think that the 'Black Box" comment is very interesting.  How the theaters are trying to make people focus on just the film but yet they sell distractions.  They are working against each other.  This kind of reminds me of DOVE and their commercials.  We talked about how Dove is trying to sell beauty but while doing so they point out the women's faults.  I started looking on youtube for more commercials, and I found this commercial that was banned by the United States because it showed too much skin.

They are selling Pro Age Cream. I looked up what exactly that meant and what it is http://www.drugstore.com/qxp165708_333181_sespider/dove_pro_age/cream_oil_lotion.htm , A cream for dry skin. It seems that the only difference between Aging Cream and Pro Age Cream is the name.

Dove Changed the name of there product to seem less profiling to there older consumers. But in the commercial they are saying the reason is that if they did not change the name of the product then the models would not be able to be used to sell there product because they are too old.

"Black Box"

After the class discussion about the idea of the "Black Box" and how a movie theatre is a perfect example of that. I thought it was really interesting how the purpose of the movie theatre is to limit distractions and really captivate you in the movie yet the things that destroy and break down the "black box" are things that are sold to us at the movie theatre. The room is supposed to be black so that we as viewers are focusing on nothing but the movie. The things that break down that focus and concentration are things like people, POPCORN, CANDY, and SODA! All of which are things people love to have at movies and probably even go to the movies specifically for the popcorn, I know my mom does. So I find it hard to understand why something in our main stream culture and something commonly practiced is so contradictory to itself. Also, if anyone has ever read Plato's The Republic, there are very interesting corellations between Socrate's allegory of the cave and with the "black box" theory.

lssacademy.com/2008/01/14/shadows-or-reality/

I just thought this was a clever commercial...

very smart kid...

Library Resources

Hey all, here's that link to the library resources! http://teach.maryville.edu/library/com121/main.htm

Rebellion is a difficult thing to master.  It's almost never rebellious or unique unless you are the originator.  Just like it was said before those who patronize Hot Topic are no more a rebel than I am for shopping at a department store.  

To the left is a picture of a bar in South City, Venice Cafe.  It is most unique in every way shape and form.  This is a picture of their stairwell, which is a mosaic of mirrors, with neon lights on the ceiling.  Now if this bar was taken out of St. Louis and transplanted to San Francisco or Greenwich Village in New York, it wouldn't be anymore rebellious than owning a cell phone.  I think the idea of rebellion depends on context as much as it does on the originator of the concept.  Once it is out there, whether in clothing, music, advertising, or anything really it no longer becomes rebellious as it is just waiting to be duplicated.

Sneaky sneaky corporations...

I, too, have been noticing the current trend of "rebellion." I'm no expert in this field, but I believe those rebelling are rebelling against society's norms as well as corporate America. I've also noticed that many of those who dress the part of a rebel tend to shop and buy their clothing at stores such as Hot Topic.

The only trouble is, Hot Topic is a chain of stores that is being run by a money-grubbing corporation. Those running this corporation must have realized at one point that there are always going to be people who rebel against society and what ever else, and realized there was big money in selling stuff to advertise that fact to others.

I agree that when people rebel, they typically try to define themselves as individuals. Their way of doing this is by buying clothing and accessories from a store; a corporate company where millions of other people shop for the exact same clothes, with the result that those rebelling and attempting to individualize themselves end up looking the same as the rest of those trying to rebel as well as supporting a multi-million dollar corporation.

The unfortunate result of this is that all of the things people were rebelling against are now a huge part of what characterizes them as a rebel. In short, they are now a part of what they're supposed to be rebelling against. They've fallen for the exact same corporation trap as the rest of us. So is rebellion in this way actually possible?

As I read the article Why Johnny Can’t Dissent, I noticed a common theme: rebellion. It mention a lot of rebellion in the corporate world of setting companies apart through outlandish tactics that would turn their way of advertising around. Companies even went as far to convince the consumer that by taking part in their product or listening to their music, they would be individualizing themselves and rebelling against the norm.
Now, I don’t have much experience in the corporate world and being a “rebel” there, but I have been a sucker for their slogans and advertisements. Mostly make-up advertisements like Maybelline and their slogan: “Maybe she’s born with it… maybe its Maybelline”, and L’Oreal’s “Because you’re worth it”, who have me, and several other hundreds of women, that when we use their product we can achieve the flawless looks that their brand advertises.
Besides my weakness for make-up and their empty promises, I do have experience in going to high school… and my observations of the “rebels” there. To be a rebel, as the article says, is to stand out from the crowd and go against the norm and what society deems as a “regular lifestyle”. However, when I think of rebels at my school what I picture in my head and what I saw would be something similar to this picture up above.

When I look at this, I see a definite act of going against what people would consider the norm, but if these kids are rebelling and trying to stand out in the crowd, then why do they look so similar within their crowd. Can you truly rebel against something if everyone else is doing it too?

Americans saving more... spending less

I agree that Americans are addicted to shopping, but that is changing right now.  I was recently sent this article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090201/ap_on_bi_ge/savings_frugal_society_4

This article explains the economy from a macro-economic perspective. Because consumers use credit cards to purchase flashy new things that they cannot afford, they have become deep into debt.  Americans have come to the realization of this debt and become afraid to spend money.  They have started to save money, causing the economy to go down the drain.  I don’t think this poor economy is going to be an easy fix.  People need to spend money in order for businesses to survive, yet people are saving their money to pay of debt.  This causes businesses to close; therefore employees get laid off.  These employees are then without money to put into the economy.  It is a downward spiral that I see, and the only way to fix it is if people start spending money again.  This economy down spiral is going to bring out the strong businesses.  The weak businesses are going to be weeded out of the economy.  I used to work at Linens and Things and saw the store close down six months after I left.  I am not surprised that they went bankrupt because the business was run poorly, at least from what I saw.  Right now business are in need of strong structures and good advertising.  The goal is to get people to push beyond their fear to spend money and use it towards their services or products.  We need to start having better spending/ saving habits to get better, but until then, it just may be painful.

addicted to... shopping?

This video is kind of dumb, but it relates to the Edward Norton's (who by the way kick ass) early character in Fight Club. He was basically "addicted to shopping". The video talks about how people feel such a need to have the latest and greatest material items that they go on to spend all of their money and eventually rack up credit card debt and spend money they don't have. I can see how playing into the type of life style that the media feeds us, can eventually cause certain "addicts" to slip down this slope, and at times it may not even be about aquiring the goods, but merely making a purchase and succumbing to the addictive urges.

I believe this relates directly to the guy in the video that we watched about rap music and branding. He worked multiple jobs just do have a bunch of silly shoes.

I think this in a sense is tied t something much much bigger and can go on to partially explain our current pickle of our faltering economy and deteriorating housing markets.

Planet Starbucks or Project Mayhem?

I love watching movies, especially psychological and confusing movies. After our first class we had for Intro. To Mass Comm this video clip from the movie Fight Club popped right into my head and I have been thinking about it a lot since then.