Week 13 - Question the Media

www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3498769

Who created this message? Why?

Dove, Lava, Olay, Caress, & Irish Springs created messages regarding soap and/or bodywash and it's overall ability to make us feel beautiful, clean, and/or sexually attractive with use.

Who is the target audience?

Mostly women, some children

What creative language is used to attract my attention?

"Incredible lather and Incredible skin"
"Before you dress, Caress"
"Wrap yourself in youthful, glowing skin"
"Smell like you're worth exploring"
"Fresh and clean as a whistle"
"Clean is the new dirty"
"Beauty has no age limit"
"Lets make peace with beauty"
"Gets hands clean the first time"

The above phrases are all examples of catch phrases to quickly grab your attention while getting the intended message across.

How does this message make me feel?

The message from the above soap and body wash advertisements makes me feel like I need to purchase one of these brands in order to fully feel refreshed and good about myself after bathing or washing my hands, while making me more approachable to everyone I'm around as well. Cleanliness is beautiful. I ultimately know that it's obviously just a selling point, however it does make you want to go take a shower:)

How might different people understand this message differently from me?

Children could potentially view the message too literally and possibly feel inadequate if they don't have a certain brand due to the message perceived from certain advertisements. They may also feel that they need to look a certain way in order to be "beautiful".

What values, lifestyles and points of view are represented in, or left out, of the message?

I think that the value, lifestyle and point of views represented are:

- People of all ages are beautiful
- Cleanliness is beautiful
- Cleanliness makes you more sexually attractive
- Soap provides you with much better skin
- Soap is what makes a dirty child clean and his/her parents happy

I think the only message that's left out is that soap is for everyone! It's for the overall general upkeeping of every person and is necessary for good hygiene. Men are certainly not the one's we don't want using soap!!

Links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-qHuBd_h8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAXPGtpZvQI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XtaQAS4dzA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bajBQXNMeY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-d1XmeOtyg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn51amFwmUI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXlrS92XGoM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vilUhBhNnQc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBZ-8cM8YoU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah3kAlb5xvY&feature=related

Week 11 - The Smothers Brothers

http://www.tvparty.com/smothers3.html

The Smother's Brother's was a very controversial program aired in the 1960's. This series was a second shot given to the Brother's by CBS after a very short lived program they tried to make a hit of previously. The Comedy Hour however, proved to be worth the second chance as it quickly became competitive with the most popular series on television at the time, Bonanza. The "Smother's Brother's Comedy Hour" was comprised of contentious comedy, music, and special appearances. With topics covered such as drug use, opposing views to the Vietnam War, current day politics, censorship, etc., they always rode the line of what's acceptable to say on TV. Although the Smother's Brother's spoke for the majority of rebellious young Americans, they did so tastefully, while being conservatively dressed so as to not stray from the image CBS wanted to represent. However, as they continuously pushed the envelope more and more each show with their debateable humor, CBS eventually cut the cord and removed them from the network for good, resulting in one of the most infamous fights over censorship in history. These types of people are the reason behind where we are today, as they fought for one of the most important rights we as Americans own, our First Amendment right to our Freedom of Speech.

Week 10 - The "Daisy Girl" Advertisement

http://www.heritagepreservation.org/HHI/case46.html

The "Daisy Girl" advertisement was a campaign ad in favor of voting for Lyndon Johnson as President. This advertisement was one of the most controversial campaign ad's in history and used the power of fear to convince voters to vote against Goldwater. Although the ad was only shown once, the message was forever remembered and aided Johnson in his overwhelming defeat as he slid into victory. The advertisement begins with a little girl in a field plucking petals off a flower as she miscounts the number of petals she's plucked. As the little girl reaches nine, the camera zooms in until just the pupil's of her eye's are showing as another voice is heard counting down. When the countdown reaches zero, her pupil's are replaced by a mushroom cloud resulting from a nuclear explosion. A voiceover is then heard stating, "These are the stakes! To make a world in which all of God's children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die." "Vote for President Johnson on November 3. The stakes are too high for you to stay home." This very to the point, exaggerated message was most likely untrue. However, the fear instilled into viewers was felt and most likely naturally took a toll. Johnson became highly criticized afterwards for his choice to use such a tactic to obtain presidency, and it was covered in large within the news. To this day, many have utilized similar tactics to persuade the American opinion, but the extremely bold assumption of potentially false information has been taken down just a notch.

Week 9 - All in the Family

http://www.starpulse.com/Television/All_In_The_Family/gallery/ALLINFAMILYTV002/

"All in the Family" was a television series starring a comedic, yet extremely racist gentleman, named Archie Bunker. This series quickly became a very controversial hit with it's permissiveness in language startling many. With the racial slurs often expressed having been previously forbidden by not only broadcasters and producers, but also within public conversation, airing it was questionable. As with the new Civil Rights laws progressing, and equality for all becoming more and more of an acceptable justice, people became very hesitant to say what most still really probably thought. Archie, whom in real life had a father figure whom was a bigot to say the least, never really shared this same opinion. He argued with his father on numerous occassions, but never won. Archie did however feel that the feelings his father expressed were in reality probably shared by many irregardless. He felt that by making light of the situation, that he could possibly bring people together through his comedic efforts. He was trying to make people look at things in a different light, while attempting to expose that through the taboos society had created, only harm was being done. Archie succeeded, change was in the air, and many taboos disappeared. As Barnouw states, "The words were in the open now--and no towers came crashing down." (Barnow, 1990, p.432)

Reference:

Barnouw,Erik (1990) Tube of Plenty The Evolution of American Television 2nd Revised Edition. Oxford University Press.

Week 8 - Media negativity

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16844030@N02/1921123395/

One of the events I noticed which greatly displayed negative feelings from the public about television and it's abilities to impact society, was seen through Lyndon Johnson and the governments opposition to allow the media certain freedoms related to broadcasting. Lyndon Johnson was a very well liked man according to public opinion in his beginning years of office. His reputation was great as he won a huge victory in civil rights, and he fought to maintain his appearance within the media's eye. Television he knew, based on it's persuasive capabilities, could possibly either make or break him during such controversial times which were suddenly surrounding his presidency. As news got out about Vietnam and possible mistakes being made by the government with it's current decisioning process and involvement, Johnson kept very sure that he only did background appearances where only selected broadcasters and journalists were invited for questioning. Johnson would become very stern and condescending to broadcasters whom asked him questions with potential to make him look bad, and he became a very arrogant and overall confident appearance on TV. Johnson was also well known for coming at critics by questioning and casting doubt on their loyalty. Johnson even participated in a heavily censored trip to Vietnam and other international destinations to prove that he was doing the right thing by being involved, and that it wasn't as "rumors" were attempting to make it to be. Soon after his trip, talk arose of a possible travel ban prohibiting travel to particular enemy countries. The ban the government knew would ensure the inability of further unwanted truths to be exposed. It became very clear that the government's indignant opposition of diverse broadcasting was indefinitely striving to control and neutralize the media. Television networks began the fight against government censorship at license renewals where it was stated that, "We recognize that as shown by the complaints here, such provocative programming as here involved may offend some listeners. But this does not mean that those offended have the right, through the commisssion's licensing power, to rule such programming off the air waves." Johnson became so obsessed with guarding his image at all costs, and through censorship of himself, he became as he wanted to appear. This technique of utilizing the media only when and where he wanted to, along with the heavy censorship, really only proved that public opinion was skewed based on such a scattered and manipulated image.

Week 7 - Martin Luther's King "I Have A Dream" Speech

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0WTb_79X9FJ9QAB3KGjzbkF/SIG=12gt59mg9/EXP=1238544765/**http%3A//tw.streetvoice.com/diary/user-article.asp%3Fdn=170308


Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" Speech will forever go down in history as one of the most controversial yet memorable speech's of all time. Hundreds of thousands of people, both white and black, gathered together to join Martin Luther King and his follower's in their fight for freedom and equality for all. TV Networks across the nation covered this historical moment through their lens' and provided immediate coverage to the American people through what had become the best communication tool of their time. TV was able to aid in the fight for justice of African Americans through displaying freedom movements, and persuasive speeches which became hard to contend with. It had become a time where our society was experiencing such drastic change and growth through the radio and TV, it was time for us all to move forward in other positive directions as well. This battle being fought was for completely just cause. Our forefathers had signed documents stating that there be justice for all, and who were we to judge others just because of their color? Martin Luther King was a martyr to civil rights and he was a huge influence to the world. TV provided the means to get his message to the nation, and provided a very important outlet to demand change and create a difference.

4th Week - Graphical Representation of Early TV

http://www.wannabeswede.com/dfl_009_Senator_Joe_McCarthy.jpg

I chose the above image to represent my overall feeling about early television for a few different reasons. The main reason is, I feel like McCarthy and his "red list" played such a huge role in the development of early TV programming and the way in which shows were broadcast. I feel like this was very well portrayed through the movie "Good Night, and Good Luck", and the fear felt by Americans around the world was obviously very real, and for good reason. Many actors, actress', set crew, etc. were fired due to McCarthy's false communist accusations, and therefore it couldn't help but not to make a difference in what was shown on TV, and by whom. McCarthy used his reputation, his beliefs, and the manipulation of this grand communication tool to try and force people to conform. Even such popular shows as "I Love Lucy" became threatened due to his allegations of Lucille Ball. It seemed to many I'm sure, that no one, nor any TV program was safe from his opinionated allegations.
I also felt this picture, being in B&W, best portrayed early TV due to filming of early programming being filmed in this manner. I think it also provides a good overall feel of the era through the camera equipment shown being used.