English 1010
Image analysis
The majority of advertisements have most things in common, for example very seldom will you find an ad where ugly people are representing the product being sold. The four companies that I have selected to look at are the epitome of misrepresentation. From what I already know about the three and the types of people that purchase their products the four companies that are being looked at are Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy and Eddie Bauer.
Gap- The advertisement that I decided on is an image of a woman dressed in winter clothing and wearing a rather large hat with two men, one in front and one in back. The man in back is black and the man upfront is white. The woman is sitting in the middle and it appears as though the she is in a wind tunnel, her hair is blowing and she has to hold her hat on. The men on the other hand seem to be rather unaffected by the wind storm that is blowing through. The woman also has her mouth open and seems to be falling backwards. The man in back is the only person looking into the camera while like I said the woman is falling backward so she is looking at the ceiling and I get the impression that the gentleman in front is in deep thought about something. The color in this image is very dull and mostly white and grey.
What I perceived from this image is that the woman in the middle is in her own little world and she does not seem to notice what is going on around her even though there are two very attractive men sitting around her she is in charge of the situation and she has some sort of strange power over these two men. I am guessing that the two men in the picture are probably gay but that is my opinion. Gap targets a huge variety of people, I would be willing to say that over 70 percent of Americans own or have bought something from Gap. This image tells me that yes it is possible to be good attractive no matter what color or sexual preference you may be. I do know that this clothing is some what affordable and fits all sizes, which is why they get such a wide variety of costumers.
Old Navy- Image, this is a picture of a young girl wearing winter clothing she has her hair done in two long pony tails like Pippy Long Stocking. She is jumping in the air with her legs kicked back behind her and her arms are thrown straight out from her body. It looks as if this young lady is extremely happy to be doing what she is doing, smiling the way she is. The colors in this image are remarkable. Very bright, brilliant and vivid she has a dazzling white smile and her boots are even pink.
One might get the impression that these cloths not only provide you with protection from the elements but freedom from the world. They seem show that one can wear their personality on the outside and show off to everyone that I am a cheerful person. I also get the impression that these cloths might make me young again that these cloths will some how turn back the hands of time and I will be a child again. Old navy is very bold in their advertising and clothing, everything is so brightly colored that I would be embarrassed to walk down the street in one of their sweaters for fear that someone might mistake me for some kind of exotic bird. The product targeting for old navy is more for the average middle class mother who thinks she is buying her children something nice but in reality she is buying them a free ticket to get beat up at school.
Banana Republic- Picture this, a young Asian woman of about 25 years who seems to be strutting down the street. She is wearing high heeled black leather boots that go up to about her knee. A long white coat flows behind her as she strides her glossy dark hair is streams off her head. Her clothing is casual yet professional, the coloration is especially noticeable. the look on her face shows that she can be sexy and still in charge.
When I see this picture it reminds me of all those girls in high school who knew they were good looking and would use it to their advantage. When I hear the name Banana Republic for some reason I think BYU I do not know why this is maybe it is because BYU is all about competition everyone has to be better than everyone else. The type of ads this company puts out are defiantly directed toward people who are looking for the more casual yet sophisticated look. There is one catch though this clothing is pretty pricy.
Eddie Bauer- The weather is cold and you need a coat to wear that will keep you all warm and cozy. The image on the front cover of the Eddie Bauer catalog is of a woman standing outside in the cold buttoning up her down coat and holding a pair of gloves in her hand. She is staring directly into the camera with her big blue eyes. Her coat is a faded whit color that contrasts with the surrounding snow.
What this image says to me is that not only that this coat will keep me warm but it also offers a sense of protection and security. The woman in the picture is not young she is a middle aged woman still very beautiful but more mature than the other models. I can see why people would want to buy clothing from this company; it is a more stylish grown up look. Eddie Bauer is more than just a line of clothing it is an entire image, the type of people that are targeted in the majority of their ads are upper middle class middle aged people. The clothing itself is not flashy it does not stand out as something different, the fact that you are wearing the name Eddie Bauer offers all the comfort you will need. When you have on a pear of Eddie Bauer jeans you can walk down the street feeling much better about yourself. Style is all in the name.
Monday, November 29
Sunday, November 28
Coping with a life full of pain / Plaintiff uses medical marijuana every 2 hours, but doesn't get high: "Partially paralyzed, in constant pain from multiple disorders and desperate for help after trying nearly three dozen doctor-prescribed medications, the 30-year-old woman, a product of a conservative upbringing that made her recoil from illegal drugs, decided pot 'might be my last shot.''
It worked. Raich regained her appetite, felt less pain, got out of her wheelchair 18 months later and embarked on a career of advocacy for herself and other patients that has led her to the U.S. Supreme Court.
On Monday, the court will hear the case of Ashcroft vs. Raich, a clash of federal and state powers that could determine the future of medical marijuana in the United States. "
It worked. Raich regained her appetite, felt less pain, got out of her wheelchair 18 months later and embarked on a career of advocacy for herself and other patients that has led her to the U.S. Supreme Court.
On Monday, the court will hear the case of Ashcroft vs. Raich, a clash of federal and state powers that could determine the future of medical marijuana in the United States. "
Monday, November 22
Thursday, November 18
This is really a great article on plagiarism and art. Please read it for class on Monday.
The New Yorker
Not long after I learned about “Frozen,” I went to see a friend of mine who works in the music industry. We sat in his living room on the Upper East Side, facing each other in easy chairs, as he worked his way through a mountain of CDs. He played “Angel,” by the reggae singer Shaggy, and then “The Joker,” by the Steve Miller Band, and told me to listen very carefully to the similarity in bass lines. He played Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” and then Muddy Waters’s “You Need Love,” to show the extent to which Led Zeppelin had mined the blues for inspiration. He played “Twice My Age,” by Shabba Ranks and Krystal, and then the saccharine seventies pop standard “Seasons in the Sun,” until I could hear the echoes of the second song in the first. He played “Last Christmas,” by Wham!, followed by Barry Manilow’s “Can’t Smile Without You” to explain why Manilow might have been startled when he first heard that song, and then “Joanna,” by Kool and the Gang, because, in a different way, “Last Christmas” was an homage to Kool and the Gang as well. “That sound you hear in Nirvana,” my friend said at one point, “that soft and then loud, kind of exploding thing, a lot of that was inspired by the Pixies. Yet Kurt Cobain”—Nirvana’s lead singer and songwriter—“was such a genius that he managed to make it his own. And ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’?”—here he was referring to perhaps the best-known Nirvana song. “That’s Boston’s ‘More Than a Feeling.’” He began to hum the riff of the Boston hit, and said, “The first time I heard ‘Teen Spirit,’ I said, ‘That guitar lick is from “More Than a Feeling.”’ But it was different—it was urgent and brilliant and new.”
He played another CD. It was Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy,” a huge hit from the nineteen-seventies. The chorus has a distinctive, catchy hook—the kind of tune that millions of Americans probably hummed in the shower the year it came out. Then he put on “Taj Mahal,” by the Brazilian artist Jorge Ben Jor, which was recorded several years before the Rod Stewart song. In his twenties, my friend was a d.j. at various downtown clubs, and at some point he’d become interested in world music. “I caught it back then,” he said. A small, sly smile spread across his face. The opening bars of “Taj Mahal” were very South American, a world away from what we had just listened to. And then I heard it. It was so obvious and unambiguous that I laughed out loud; virtually note for note, it was the hook from “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy.” It was possible that Rod Stewart had independently come up with that riff, because resemblance is not proof of influence. It was also possible that he’d been in Brazil, listened to some local music, and liked what he heard."
The New Yorker
Not long after I learned about “Frozen,” I went to see a friend of mine who works in the music industry. We sat in his living room on the Upper East Side, facing each other in easy chairs, as he worked his way through a mountain of CDs. He played “Angel,” by the reggae singer Shaggy, and then “The Joker,” by the Steve Miller Band, and told me to listen very carefully to the similarity in bass lines. He played Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” and then Muddy Waters’s “You Need Love,” to show the extent to which Led Zeppelin had mined the blues for inspiration. He played “Twice My Age,” by Shabba Ranks and Krystal, and then the saccharine seventies pop standard “Seasons in the Sun,” until I could hear the echoes of the second song in the first. He played “Last Christmas,” by Wham!, followed by Barry Manilow’s “Can’t Smile Without You” to explain why Manilow might have been startled when he first heard that song, and then “Joanna,” by Kool and the Gang, because, in a different way, “Last Christmas” was an homage to Kool and the Gang as well. “That sound you hear in Nirvana,” my friend said at one point, “that soft and then loud, kind of exploding thing, a lot of that was inspired by the Pixies. Yet Kurt Cobain”—Nirvana’s lead singer and songwriter—“was such a genius that he managed to make it his own. And ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’?”—here he was referring to perhaps the best-known Nirvana song. “That’s Boston’s ‘More Than a Feeling.’” He began to hum the riff of the Boston hit, and said, “The first time I heard ‘Teen Spirit,’ I said, ‘That guitar lick is from “More Than a Feeling.”’ But it was different—it was urgent and brilliant and new.”
He played another CD. It was Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy,” a huge hit from the nineteen-seventies. The chorus has a distinctive, catchy hook—the kind of tune that millions of Americans probably hummed in the shower the year it came out. Then he put on “Taj Mahal,” by the Brazilian artist Jorge Ben Jor, which was recorded several years before the Rod Stewart song. In his twenties, my friend was a d.j. at various downtown clubs, and at some point he’d become interested in world music. “I caught it back then,” he said. A small, sly smile spread across his face. The opening bars of “Taj Mahal” were very South American, a world away from what we had just listened to. And then I heard it. It was so obvious and unambiguous that I laughed out loud; virtually note for note, it was the hook from “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy.” It was possible that Rod Stewart had independently come up with that riff, because resemblance is not proof of influence. It was also possible that he’d been in Brazil, listened to some local music, and liked what he heard."
Wednesday, November 17
Design as Communication: "Later, as I thought back about that morning shower, I realized I had been communicating with the designers. 'Grab here,' the bar was telling me. 'Put the soap on me,' the wire rack soap dish screamed. 'Here are your towels,' said the horizontal bars at the rear wall, at the end of the tub, conveniently stocked with towels. 'Thank you, yes, and no, not for the soap,' I was replying. I even spoke some of these comments aloud. To whom was I speaking?"
Tuesday, November 16
Monday, November 15
Friday, November 12
Thursday, November 11
Harvard Gazette: Freedom squelches terrorist violence: "A John F. Kennedy School of Government researcher has cast doubt on the widely held belief that terrorism stems from poverty, finding instead that terrorist violence is related to a nation's level of political freedom.
Associate Professor of Public Policy Alberto Abadie examined data on terrorism and variables such as wealth, political freedom, geography, and ethnic fractionalization for nations that have been targets of terrorist attacks.
Abadie, whose work was published in the Kennedy School's Faculty Research Working Paper Series, included both acts of international and domestic terrorism in his analysis.
Though after the 9/11 attacks most of the work in this area has focused on international terrorism, Abadie said terrorism originating within the country where the attacks occur actually makes up the bulk of terrorist acts each year. According to statistics from the MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base for 2003, which Abadie cites in his analysis, there were 1,536 reports of domestic terrorism worldwide, compared with just 240 incidents of international terrorism."
Associate Professor of Public Policy Alberto Abadie examined data on terrorism and variables such as wealth, political freedom, geography, and ethnic fractionalization for nations that have been targets of terrorist attacks.
Abadie, whose work was published in the Kennedy School's Faculty Research Working Paper Series, included both acts of international and domestic terrorism in his analysis.
Though after the 9/11 attacks most of the work in this area has focused on international terrorism, Abadie said terrorism originating within the country where the attacks occur actually makes up the bulk of terrorist acts each year. According to statistics from the MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base for 2003, which Abadie cites in his analysis, there were 1,536 reports of domestic terrorism worldwide, compared with just 240 incidents of international terrorism."
frontline: the persuaders: neuromarketing | PBS: "Getting an update on research is one thing; for decades, marketers have relied on behavioral studies for guidance. But some companies are taking the practice several steps further, commissioning their own fMRI studies � la Montague's test. In a study of men's reactions to cars, Daimler-Chrysler has found that sportier models activate the brain's reward centers -- the same areas that light up in response to alcohol and drugs -- as well as activating the area in the brain that recognizes faces, which may explain people's tendency to anthropomorphize their cars. Steven Quartz, a scientist at Stanford University, is currently conducting similar research on movie trailers. And in the age of poll-taking and smear campaigns, political advertising is also getting in on the game. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles have found that Republicans and Democrats react differently to campaign ads showing images of the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks. Those ads cause the part of the brain associated with fear to light up more vividly in Democrats than in Republicans."
Wednesday, November 10
onfocus.com | the persuaders: "Once we have surrendered our senses and nervous systems to the private manipulation of those who would try to benefit from taking a lease on our eyes and ears and nerves, we don't really have any rights left. Leasing our eyes and ears and nerves to commerical interests is like handing over the common speech to a private corporation, or like giving the earth's atmosphere to a company as a monopoly."
Tuesday, November 9
gladwell dot com: Tipping Point - Why do we love tall men?: "On a conscious level, I'm sure that all of us don't think that we treat tall people any differently from short people. But there's plenty of evidence to suggest that height--particularly in men--does trigger a certain set of very positive, unconscious associations. I polled about half of the companies on the Fortune 500 list--the largest corporations in the United States--asking each company questions about its CEOs. The heads of big companies are, as I'm sure comes as no surprise to anyone, overwhelmingly white men, which undoubtedly reflects some kind of implicit bias. But they are also virtually all tall: In my sample, I found that on average CEOs were just a shade under six feet. Given that the average American male is 5'9 that means that CEOs, as a group, have about three inches on the rest of their sex."
gladwell dot com: Tipping Point - The Mysteries of Mind-Reading: "Much of our understanding of mind-reading from two remarkable scientists, a teacher and his pupil: Silvan Tomkins and Paul Ekman. Tomkins was the teacher. He was born in Philadelphia, at the turn of the last century, the son of a dentist from Russia. He was short, and thick around the middle, with a wild mane of white hair and huge black plastic-rimmed glasses. He taught psychology at Princeton and Rutgers, and was the author of 'Affect, Imagery, Consciousness,' a four-volume work so dense that its readers were evenly divided between those who understood it and thought it was brilliant and those who did not understand it and thought it was brilliant."
gladwell dot com: Blink: "Where did you get the idea for 'Blink'?
Believe it or not, it's because I decided, a few years ago, to grow my hair long. If you look at the author photo on my last book, 'The Tipping Point,' you'll see that it used to be cut very short and conservatively. But, on a whim, I let it grow wild, as it had been when I was teenager. Immediately, in very small but significant ways, my life changed. I started getting speeding tickets all the time--and I had never gotten any before. I started getting pulled out of airport security lines for special attention. And one day, while walking along 14th Street in downtown Manhattan, a police van pulled up on the sidewalk, and three officers jumped out. "
Believe it or not, it's because I decided, a few years ago, to grow my hair long. If you look at the author photo on my last book, 'The Tipping Point,' you'll see that it used to be cut very short and conservatively. But, on a whim, I let it grow wild, as it had been when I was teenager. Immediately, in very small but significant ways, my life changed. I started getting speeding tickets all the time--and I had never gotten any before. I started getting pulled out of airport security lines for special attention. And one day, while walking along 14th Street in downtown Manhattan, a police van pulled up on the sidewalk, and three officers jumped out. "
Sunday, November 7
Google Job Opportunities: Technical Writing: "Associate Technical Writer
Position available in Mountain View, CA.
Bring your editing/writing and organizational skills to Google and help us revolutionize search technology! Working in Software Engineering, you will edit Google's internal documentation efforts and assist with documentation processes and organization. "
Position available in Mountain View, CA.
Bring your editing/writing and organizational skills to Google and help us revolutionize search technology! Working in Software Engineering, you will edit Google's internal documentation efforts and assist with documentation processes and organization. "
Friday, November 5
English 1010
Visual Assignment
Rough draft due: Friday, Nov. 11
Final draft due: Wednesday Nov. 16
Purpose: the purpose of this assignment is to look at images critically, and to practice writing about abstract concepts.
Overview: Your primary task is to compare related images, describing them in detail, and then providing us with a conclusion that creates a synthesis of your observations.
Here are some possible applications:
- Compare images used by different parties of a particular campaign
- Analyze album covers for a specific band, over time
- Analyze the use of images in advertising. Specifically:
How are ads targeted towards different audiences?
How do the advertisements in a particular magazine reflect their target demographic?
How is the same product presented in different magazines?
You may also analyze a website, using the same methods. For example, you could look at a website for a corporation and try to determine who their imagined audience is, based on the images used on their site.
Another possibility: Look at ads for a particular product, then create your own advertisement that breaks with conventions.
Page 226 has a checklist for analyzing images. You may also find the discussion of marketing segments on page 228 useful.
Please put all of your notes, images and drafts on your weblog as you work on this paper.
Visual Assignment
Rough draft due: Friday, Nov. 11
Final draft due: Wednesday Nov. 16
Purpose: the purpose of this assignment is to look at images critically, and to practice writing about abstract concepts.
Overview: Your primary task is to compare related images, describing them in detail, and then providing us with a conclusion that creates a synthesis of your observations.
Here are some possible applications:
- Compare images used by different parties of a particular campaign
- Analyze album covers for a specific band, over time
- Analyze the use of images in advertising. Specifically:
How are ads targeted towards different audiences?
How do the advertisements in a particular magazine reflect their target demographic?
How is the same product presented in different magazines?
You may also analyze a website, using the same methods. For example, you could look at a website for a corporation and try to determine who their imagined audience is, based on the images used on their site.
Another possibility: Look at ads for a particular product, then create your own advertisement that breaks with conventions.
Page 226 has a checklist for analyzing images. You may also find the discussion of marketing segments on page 228 useful.
Please put all of your notes, images and drafts on your weblog as you work on this paper.
news @ nature.com - Electric currents boost brain powerbreaking science news headlines: "Connecting a battery across the front of the head can boost verbal skills, says a team from the US National Institutes of Health.
A current of two thousandths of an ampere (a fraction of that needed to power a digital watch) applied for 20 minutes is enough to produce a significant improvement, according to data presented this week at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, held in San Diego. And apart from an itchy sensation around the scalp electrode, subjects in the trials reported no side-effects.
Meenakshi Iyer of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, ran the current through 103 initially nervous volunteers. 'I had to explain it in detail to the first one or two subjects,' she says. But once she had convinced them that the current was harmless, Iyer says, recruitment was not a problem.
"
frontline: coming soon: the persuaders | PBS: "FRONTLINE takes an in-depth look at the multibillion-dollar 'persuasion industries' of advertising and public relations and how marketers have developed new ways of integrating their messages deeper into the fabric of our lives. Through sophisticated market research methods to better understand consumers and by turning to the little-understood techniques of public relations to make sure their messages come from sources we trust, marketers are crafting messages that resonate with an increasingly cynical public. In this documentary essay, correspondent Douglas Rushkoff (correspondent for FRONTLINE's 'The Merchants of Cool') also explores how the culture of marketing has come to shape the way Americans understand the world and themselves and how the techniques of the persuasion industries have migrated to politics, shaping the way our leaders formulate policy, influence public opinion, make decisions, and stay in power."
Thursday, November 4
Tuesday, November 2
plasticbag.org | weblog | Five years of plasticbag.org: The Visualisations: "You may well ask what it was that caused my post-length to go up and my post frequency to drop so dramatically? Well it turns out, looking at my archives, that this happens at precisely the same time as I switched to using Movable Type instead of Blogger - which just goes to show how much the tool helps dictate the form of your writing online."
Monday, November 1
How to think about prescription drugs. | Metafilter: "Malcolm Gladwell's latest piece in The New Yorker
The emphasis of the prescription-drug debate is all wrong. We've been focussed on the drug manufacturers. But decisions about prevalence, therapeutic mix, and intensity aren't made by the producers of drugs. They’re made by the consumers of drugs.
"
The emphasis of the prescription-drug debate is all wrong. We've been focussed on the drug manufacturers. But decisions about prevalence, therapeutic mix, and intensity aren't made by the producers of drugs. They’re made by the consumers of drugs.
"
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