Today's questions of security are quite complex reflecting the complex global community in which we live. Confounding this issue of security is the addition of our online security as well. In our modern times in fact people are more likely to become a victim of a crime over the internet than one in their own community.
Today there are three groups that wish to attack you online. The first is motivated by money, online criminals making fortunes with banking Trojans or collecting passwords from infected computers. The second group is motivated by protest and opinion, like Anonyms. The third is governments and nation states, motivated by control and suppression of their own citizens. This third group is by far the biggest and most effective. Western representative democracies lead, allow, enable, and exact such action.
I will elaborate. In the 1980 in Communist East Germany the government required people to register sheets of paper so they could track texts. If they did not like something someone wrote they were able to track where that idea came from quite easily. Back then the Western world could not understand how governments could do such a thing. Now our printers track our papers with a series of almost invisible yellow dots that do the exact same thing and no one notices, let alone cares.
Allow me to make a modern connection. A company called Diginotar, which no longer exists because it declared bankruptcy because it was hacked, provides certificates to service providers like Gmail and others. If a website that has HTTPS:// at the beginning of the URL it signifies that the provider has a certificate and offers encrypted services. Websites with these foreign certificates are popular in totalitarian states like Iran because they are "safe" (or rather safer) from monitoring and attacks from the local government. That is unless rouge certificates are issued from government hackers which was exactly what happened with Diginotar.
The Arab Spring is also subjected to governmental monitoring and attacks. In the riots of April of 2011, looters raided Egypt's Secret Police headquarters and found amongst other things a binder titled "FINFISHER" and within it there were notes from a company based in Germany that have sold the Egyptian government tools for intercepting, on a very large scale, all the communication of its citizens. The company sold these tools for around $280,000 Euros. Totalitarian governments use these tools but so do Western governments. In fact western governments are supplying totalitarian governments with these tools today.
Recently in Germany the Staats Trojan was found, which was used by government officials to investigate their own citizens. If a person is in a criminal investigation obviously the phone and internet can be tapped. However with something like the Staats Trojan they can also infect your computer which enables them to monitor EVERYTHING, discussions, histories, monitor your desktop, as well as collect your passwords.
In our own back yard we are more willing volunteers. Google and Facebook have become the corporate extension of our government's information gathering agencies. Both Google and Facebook openly gather and profile information on its users. In fact information has become their bottom line; hence they have become publicly traded information gathering machines. U.S. intelligent agencies have varying degrees of access to the information Google and Facebook collect and use it in courts against citizens as well as monitoring terrorists, terrorist being a malleable word.
Think deeply on this. Most people say, "Well that sounds bad but I'm a law abiding citizen... why should I worry? I have nothing to hide."
In the video we watched on Monday it said it was a wise move for IBM and Coke to do business with the fascist Third Reich because they were safe and controlled, which equates to a steady profit stream. It is not a question of privacy vs. security. Privacy is implied, it is not up for discussion. It is rather a question of freedom and control. While we might trust our government now, any rights we give away will be very hard to get back. Should we blindly trust our future government?
February 2012 Archives
I found it interesting that a few people posted noticing a theme in the super bowl ads last night. Most people just mindlessly watch, and laugh at the ads that are crude, simple, impossible but never really stop to analyze them, and think of what we are consciously and subconsciously being exposed to. Especially when the audience is so large as the one in the United States who watch the super bowl. In one of my other classes this morning, we watched a super bowl ad that associated sexuality of an exotic woman with a new foreign car that was coming out, thus making people associate the positive feeling of arousal with this type of car. This is a classic example of a commonly used marketing tactic in the United States. Sex sells, right? This directly ties with "The Ad and the Ego" video we watched in class, and the example they used of the fish paying attention to the water they are in. In class we talked about what that might mean, and I disagreed with the couple ideas that were presented in class. I thought it meant that we are the fish, and the water is just our environment in general. We need to pay attention to our environment in many ways, like what we are exposed to on a daily basis through ads, along with countless other harmful things that come our way. Although most of the super bowl ads were harmless and meant to be funny, it is interesting to stop and take a look at what is really going on in front of us, and what tactics are they using at the same time to influence us into buying/using their product/service. It is all for a larger agenda than what we can directly see. Another product of our capitalist society.
I have to admit that I am NOT a football fan. I never have been and am pretty sure I never will be. Unfortunately, quite a few of my fiends are fanatics about it. So, naturally I agreed to watch the Super Bowl with them because it meant a lot to them. In reality, I was excited to watch the commercials because I wanted to analyze them. It makes me unbelievable sad to think about how much money our culture spends on advertising when we could be putting that money into things that really need attention like feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, and many other things. However, since I can't do anything to change that fact that we do spend all this money on advertising, I decided I could at least learn from them in a way. I wanted to see what our society deems worthy of spend millions of dollars on to make us think we need it or want it. I figured if I pay attention and analyze what we put so much value in, then I would be better prepared to influence or change things in the future.
So, as i was watching the commercials, I noticed how all of them were for insignificant things. Almost all of them that I saw were for different types of cars. In my opinion, if there is one thing in this country we need to depend on less its the car industries. So naturally, I was very upset by this. Others included commercials for Taco Johns and other food places. I even saw a trailer for a new movie. This amazed me! Some people spent millions of dollars to have a trailer for their movie played and it hasn't even been released yet so they don't even know if they will get their money back! That is a huge investment and risk. The thing that makes me angry is that we spend that kind of money on entertainment that no body even know if they like yet. What happens if the movie does horribly and makes no money?
Despite all the horrible, petty commercials, there was one that I really appreciated. It almost brought a tear to my eye when I saw it. Here is a web address for it:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/06/super-bowl-commercials-2012-clint-eastwood-chrysler_n_1255352.html
This commercial impressed me. I like it so much because even though it is a car commercial, it is being used to relay a message instead of force the product on you. In fact, until the end they only hint at what the commercial is selling. It uses to great analogues. the first one is between the football game and America. How our economy right now is just like the halftime of the game and how we need to make a comeback. The second is relating America with the car industry in Detroit. How Detroit's car industry is making a comeback and how America is strong and will also make a comeback.
I honestly can't describe how much I love this commercial and how it gives me hope. Even though it is for a car industry, which is the biggest problem in this country in my opinion, you can't really tell it is for a car industry until the end. Even then, it still is an awesome commercial in my opinion because it voices that we ARE in trouble in our society and we need to change and make a comeback. The reason this commercial gave me hope is because MILLIONS of people saw it! So millions of people were sitting in their comfy homes with their big TVs and their snakes and when this commercial came on, got a big wake-up call that we really are in trouble and not in a perfect world and economy.
I wanted to pick out my favorite lines from the commercial and quote them here. However, there are far too many. So, I decided to just write two and hope that they inspire you to watch the commercial using the link I provided if I haven't inspired you with my words already.
Quotes:
"People are out at work and they're hurting. And they're all wondering what they're gonna do to make a comeback. And we're all scared because this isn't a game."
"It seems we've lost our heart at times. The fog of division, discord and blame makes it hard to see what lies ahead. But after those trials we all rallied around what was right and acted as one."
In the Visa commercials leading up to the Superbowl, they called it "the greatest day in America", which is in a way true. Our culture is so consumed by advertisements that a great number of people watch the Superbowl for the sole reason of seeing the commercials. Companies plan their game day commercials all year long, and pay millions of dollars for their 30 second slot. I watched the Superbowl, and tried to pay attention to all of the commercials.
Two years ago, there was a very noticeable theme in the Superbowl commercials that played on gender roles and women. I wrote a paper about it for a Gender and Society class at my previous college. A lot of the commercials used the idea of women needing to stay home, be a good wife, be sexy, and all the other aspects of being the perfect woman. The commercial that stuck out the most to me and most people that I talked to about it was a tire commercial. A married couple were driving in the husband's shiny sports car when they were stopped on the road and threatened. The husband had the choice of keeping his car and tires or keeping his life, but he misheard and thought the choice was between his car/tires and his wife. He immediately shoved his wife to the ground and drove off in his car, because his car was worth so much more.
This year, many people that I know said that they were underwhelmed with the commercials played during the Superbowl. The greatest difference that I noticed in commercials was the focus and theme of them. After talking to people and watching Facebook status updates, the most influential commercial of the 2012 Superbowl was the commercial with Clint Eastwood, promoting Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep and Ram vehicles. This commercial used Detroit as an example of what hard work and determination can bring, and that our entire country must use Detroit as a role model and follow their lead. Detroit came back from the brink of complete loss and rebuilt their economy.
I was impressed with this drastic shift in what people liked from commercials, especially on a day when commercials are in the spotlight. The Superbowl is a great day, filled with our favorite examples of athleticism and sexuality, but the day that we care more about progress and building our country up, creating jobs, and restoring stability, is really the greatest day in America.
I have been doing a lot of thinking over the past week since watching "The Ad and the Ego." And the more I think about it, the angrier I get. It really got me thinking and noticing a lot of things I previously had either ignored, or just not noticed.
I personally have multiple friends who have struggled with eating disorders. In our current society, we have an epidemic of eating disorders. Girls (some boys as well) who from a very young age believe they are not good enough, that they don't look good enough. And this comes from everything they see in the media around them. What is really healthy, looks wrong to them. And this carries over into adulthood for many people. I have personally seen this image of "beauty" destroy people.
"The Ad and the Ego" talks about how advertising's only goal is to sell you stuff. And how do they do this? By making you feel not good enough of course. Even when they are not directly saying you need to fix something, they are basically saying, you have to have whatever they are selling to be happy or feel better. They want you to feel bad about yourself, not just mentally and emotionally, but physically as well.
Every society has had a standard of beauty. It seems to be human nature. And there really is nothing wrong with that. It is just the way it is. But our society has a standard of beauty based on nothing deeper than to make you feel bad about yourself so you will buy more things.
Standards of beauty should be based on what is healthy. We need to help young girls realize that there are many different ways to be beautiful. Instead, we just continue to advertise products and make everyone feel bad about themselves. Advertising tries to crush you and wants you to think you aren't happy. You have to have the latest thing. You have to have the newest beauty implements. You have to have the latest weight loss drug. You can't be happy without them. Nothing in your life will go right without them. Your love life will fail, you won't be able to do your job, your parents will stop loving you.
I just wonder, who first thought this was a good idea? Why did they think it was okay to do this to people?
Cnn.com recently reported that three Tibetans set themselves on fire in protest of the Chinese rule over Tibet. The Tibetans have always protested the Chinese rule of their land, usually with peaceful protests but in recent years it has escalated to these self-immolations. "The unrest has been fueled in part by reports of a spring of self-immolations by Tibetans over the past year amid anger and despair over Chinese rule" (Cnn.com). Tibet was a peaceful country ruled by the Dalai Lama until in 1950 when the Chinese invaded Tibet took control of the country and forced the Dalai Lama to flee the country. Ever since then Tibet has been a country of unrest. "The Chinese authorities have also introduced policies by which the unique culture, language, and natural resources of Tibet are being systematically and irrevocably eroded" (freetibet.org). The Chinese government does not have the interest of the Tibetan people at heart they just want to use to Tibet's resources to gain wealth. There is a great deal of human right violations that are going on in Tibet, torture on political prisoners, restrictions on religious practice and cultural traditions, lack of freedom of information. These violations need to be stop and that is the Free Tibet Campaign was started. Free Tibet is about trying to get the Chinese government to leave Tibet and let the Tibetans run their own country but Free Tibet realizes that making the Chinese government leave is a long process, so they also focus on trying to help the people get the human rights they deserve. There are many ways that people can help the Free Tibet Campaign, they can donate money, purchase merchandise from their online store, contact their Chinese embassy and tell them to take actions to stop the killing in Tibet, sign a petition to save political prisoners, or people could take part in the Urgent Action Campaign.
I think that freeing Tibet from Chinese rule is an important issue that more people should be aware of. The general public knows that Africa is serious unrest happening within its borders but not many people know about Tibet and all thought Tibet does not have the atrocities as Africa does it is still a country that needs help. Tibet has the ability to be a country that could reduce its unrest if only the Chinese government would give up its power over Tibet. Tibet has a political figure that is willing and ready to take over once the Chinese are gone and the people of Tibet actually want that political figure to take over. It would be a relatively easy transition from Chinese rule back to the Dalai Lama rule. They only thing that is stopping Tibet from being a place that does not have unrest is the Chinese and if the world powers decided it was a cause worth fighting for they could force the Chinese out of Tibet, but sadly Tibet has no oil so it is up to people around the world to convince their countries to take action. People need to force their government to see that Tibet, like Africa, is an issue that people are concerned about. Tibet is a country that has hope and could have a bright future it just needs your support, whether it be talking to other about the Free Tibet Campaign, or buying a Free Tibet sticker. Every little bit counts.
If you want further information on the Free Tibet Campaign visit freetibet.org
As yes. The super bowl. Yet another has come to pass with a new array of advertisements. Frankly, I don't particularly enjoy the super bowl. Football (American) is probably my least favorite of mass publicized sports, and I am less than satisfied with the absurd commercials which adorn the screen every ten minutes. However, this year I found myself unable to ignore the event and amused (and angered) myself with analyzing the 2012 bowl commercials. My criticism of advertisements and commercial garbage is nothing new, but our recent discussion in class had made me even more critical. Of the vast array of commercials shown this year, most were for vehicles. And of these, one in particular made me very angry:
http://www.superbowlcommercials2012.net/2012/02/fiat-500-abarth-seduction-2012-super.html
Entitled here as "FIAT 500 Abarth Seduction" this commercial portrays a very "sexy" women who entices and seduces a man on the street. Just as he leans in to steal a kiss, the camera zooms out, and it is revealed the women is, in fact, a very sleek and fancy car.
"You'll never forget the first time you see one."
Watch it. Really.
Here's what makes me upset: They are selling a car using a woman's body. Just as Jean Kilbourne mentions in her series of films "Killing Us Softly," the first step in justifying harm or violence against someone is dehumanizing them. Turing them into an object, and in this case- an object to be sold.
This commercial also aids in selling our society the ideals of the perfect women: tall, slender, and beautiful.
In conjunction with this, I would also like to highlight a particular Go Daddy.co:
http://www.superbowlcommercials2012.net/2012/01/2012-go-daddy-girls-paint-hot-model.html
In this commercial, two women decked out in Go Daddy.co garb, paint advertisements on the body of another women who is wearing nothing more than undergarments. Her body is literally being turned into an advertisement. A thing. The paintings are sayings such as "get noticed" and "hot." Unfortunately, the commercial featured on the super bowl site is not in its entirety. The full version allows you to view the entire woman's body and the complete array of slogans which adorn it. I personally find this commercial disgusting and am uncomfortable with the fact that a woman's body is being as an object to sell commodities... as well as the image of "perfection."
I find it particularly terrifying that a large percentage of persons tune in for the super bowl solely for the purpose of the commercials. What a success for capitalism; our commercialized society. We tune in to be bombarded with ideals and values under the guise of entertainment, but end up paying a price.
Since I've been having issues with my blog posting, this is pretty much experimental at this point. I've decided to talk about advertising and consumerism.
I would like to say at the outset I find advertising and the business of to be extremely interesting. I am a big fan of AMC's Mad Men and one of the reasons it is so good is to see the process of the coming up with ads that will appeal to everyone. The main character Don Draper is this guru of human emotion. Everything he says blows people away, and all his ideas are simple but are in then ed worth millions to the company he works. The staff of this show works extremely hard to make it authentic, realistic, and as historically accurate as possible.
I have a lot of respect for people who can do this as quite honestly I am willing to bet there are many people out there who underestimate the power of advertisement. It is so powerful it can shape culture. The video in class we saw showed us commercials from the 90s and it was obvious. The topics of the commercials were dated and din't really speak to us. The commercials we have now are of our era and appeal to us. The ad men are always ahead and of us and making keen observances of culture and people all to get us to consume.
I am just in awe of this profession and a little fearful as well.
In light of the recent Super Bowl and the victory of my favorite player Eli Manning, I became inspired to write my blog about the costs of a 30 second slot for a commercial during the game. Sourced from The Wall Street Journal, "$0.03: The average cost per viewer for thirty second of ad time during the Super Bowl. The average advertiser during the Super Bowl will pay about $3.5 million for one thirty second commercial, that works out to about three cents per viewer. Is it worth it?"
It's kind of funny how they ask if it's worth it. In the grand scheme of things, is it worth it for a mega corporation to spend more money on a thirty second commercial than most countries make in an entire year? Looking at it holistically, no. I don't think it's worth it to spend that much money on anything, unless it's being spent on good humanitarian causes. Even then, it's hard to even imagine that much money physically existing, and then instantly vanishing in thirty seconds. Yeah, it's just something I thought would be interesting to think about. It seems to be the opposite of sustainability.
Source:
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/02/04/number-of-the-week-super-bowl-ads-cost-3-cents-per-viewer/
One of the first things we learned was that the magic word is people. When we were watching the film "Ad and Ego" I started to think back to this concept because all the experts in this film really made a point of stating that advertising is an assumption of how the world is and that it becomes an enviornment. They provide an identity for consumers. I was really interested in this idea because I watch a lot of ads but I never really pay a lot of attention to them, but I think that in the back of my mind there is a little part of my brain that does pay attention because when watching all the ads in the movie I realized that even though all were before my time there was a common theme that still exists today and I see more clearly now that those ads have been enforced, passed down and ingrained in me more than I had ever thought. As the commercials passed by I found myself agreeing and thinking that what they were saying was true and universal even though I know that this isn't necessarily true.
I started thinking about ads again while watching the Super Bowl. Some people only watch the super bowl just to see the commercials. While watching the ads you start to think that companies dont pay 3,000,000 dollars for 30 seconds of air time because ads dont work. Obviously they get in your mind and they get under your skin and they slowly start to take a hold on your world.
Well, I have officially entered the blogging landscape.
As I scroll through my Facebook newsfeed tonight, ninety percent of the posts are about the Super Bowl game, and roughly eighty percent of those are about the commercials. At first I paid little attention to them, but as I remembered this assignment, I began to think about it. One post particularly caught my attention, "There's a football game interrupting all my commercials......" Our culture of advertising as brainwashed even the most anti-football people into watching, just for the commercials.
I've always been critical of advertisements, my dad raised me to question everything. One of the most irritating commercials I have found is for ProActive acne solution. The commercials feature very popular stars discussing their insecurities over blemishes. What irritates me is that most of those stars had minimal acne to begin with, thus creating insecurity with those that have minimal acne and furthering the insecurity with those that have more moderate or severe acne. Acne is universal but the way we view it has changed dramaticly.
According to the LIVESTRONG website:
"Regardless of race or culture, acne affects about 90 percent of all teens. Behavioral neuroscientist Dale F. Bloom, writing in the November, 2003, issue of the journal "Medical Hypotheses," asserts acne is evolutionary and universal across the human race."
Acne affects almost everybody. While it may be unpleasent or even painful at times, it is natural, so where does the idea come from that it is hideous to have even one whitehead? A change in cultural values. I've been trying to think of television examples that explain what I mean; however, since most television shows are written and filmed after the change in values started, I am having some issues. My original idea that came to mind was "Little House on the Prairie," but even the time it takes place in is on the edge of the value change. I do not remember specificly whether there was an episode where acne came to play a major part of the storyline, but living in a rural area as they do, with all of the chores to do, the issue of flawless skin would have been far from important . Though, if there was such an episode, the writing of the show was in the 1970's and 80's, so the story would still be altered to the cultural conceptions of that time. Nearly every teen or tween show on air today has an episode about a zit and all the ways it will ruin the person's day, not just girls either. In "That 70's Show", Eric gets a pimple on picture day. A large part of the episode is then solely about his zit, how he hid it in the past, and what he will do this time. Even cartoons have acne issues that threaten their entire weekend. On Nickelodeon's "Doug," there was an episode titled "Doug's Huge Zit" in which ''Doug is invited to Beebe's party, but something shows up on his that face makes it impossible for him to go out in public."
So, everybody gets acne, even cartoons. That is why companies developed products to relieve the pain and irritation caused by acne. As we learned, then advertising came along and changed the perspective; we were no longer rational beings, we were now targets of insecurities that need to be cured.
My argument is thus, without the advancement of advertising, where would we have gotten the idea that without flawless, perfect skin, we cannot be beautiful?
In thinking about advertisement, excess, and first world problems, one can easily default on the sole drug and beverage fueling many countries in terms of business; Coffee.
http://www.e-importz.com/Support/specialty_coffee.htm
According to this site, one of course based on espresso and the sales of coffee, america imports near 4 billion $ every year on coffee. It may not seem like much, spent on a day-to-day basis...and maybe you're not someone what has coffee ever day, regardless, it is an interesting statistic. (I am disregarding tea for current post purposes as well as other caffeinated substances).
I work at a Cafe, and when I'm faced with restocking a stack of about 25 cups every 2 hour period, thinking of the number of cups of coffee sold is daunting. Price increases in the past few years has also been astounding, because it hasn't stopped people from investing in their daily doses of coffee, according to a minor news article.
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/finance/2012/January/Even-in-a-Weak-Economy-Coffee-Sales-Strong-/
I pay 50% of what others pay for their drinks due to being an employee of the Cafe, and admittedly, I would never pay 5$ for a venti Espresso beverage again, but what's troubling is that millions are willing to do so regularly. "Over 50% of Americans over 18 years of age drink coffee every day. This represents over 150 million daily drinkers." This being just in america, I have to wonder what daily percentages would be like. I like my caffeine as much as the next person, but as an addiction, luxury, and bourgeois problem, why are we spending so much on something so non-essential? This is just another contributor to the lists of things americans don't need, but continually invest in. Just as any other product used daily, we should think of the waste, where it comes from, and who or what corporation is really making money on and from who.
I thinking about advertisement, excess, and first world problems, one can easily default on the sole drug and beverage fueling many countries in terms of business; Coffee.
http://www.e-importz.com/Support/specialty_coffee.htm
According to this site, one of course based on espresso and the sales of coffee, america imports near 4 billion $ every year on coffee. It may not seem like much, spent on a day-to-day basis...and maybe you're not someone what has coffee ever day, regardless, it is an interesting statistic. (I am disregarding tea for current post purposes as well as other caffeinated substances).
I work at a Cafe, and when I'm faced with restocking a stack of about 25 cups every 2 hour period, thinking of the number of cups of coffee sold is daunting. Price increases in the past few years has also been astounding, because it hasn't stopped people from investing in their daily doses of coffee, according to a minor news article.
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/finance/2012/January/Even-in-a-Weak-Economy-Coffee-Sales-Strong-/
I pay 50% of what others pay for their drinks due to being an employee of the Cafe, and admittedly, I would never pay 5$ for a venti Espresso beverage again, but what's troubling is that millions are willing to do so regularly. "Over 50% of Americans over 18 years of age drink coffee every day. This represents over 150 million daily drinkers." This being just in america, I have to wonder what daily percentages would be like. I like my caffeine as much as the next person, but as an addiction, luxury, and bourgeois problem, why are we spending so much on something so non-essential? This is just another contributor to the lists of things americans don't need, but continually invest in. Just as any other product used daily, we should think of the waste, where it comes from, and who or what corporation is really making money on and from who.
I would like to introduce the concept of "Timebanking" for those of you who are not familiar. A timebank is a system of trading services for the cost of time. For example, one hour spent providing a service for someone else, will earn you one time dollar. This system is especially beneficial for those who may not have the means to use their local service providers, which often come at a high price. The great thing about a timebank is that every single person has different skills to offer, you just might not know it! For instance, I drive a truck; I can offer my truck to someone that needs help moving or picking up, and in exchange I earn one time dollar. I am free to use my time dollar for anything that I want (as long as I can find another member will the skills and/or means to provide the desired service).
When researching Timebanks, I found numerous websites, and even had the chance to Skype with Jennifer Harveland from a Rochester Timebank to learn more. Jennifer explained to me that the system of exchange is determined to restore the core economy; she defines the core economy as; the home, family, and community. The timebank that she is appointed coordinator of in Rochester is funded through Family Service Rochester; by working with that organization it has also increased member involvement because it has been operation for many years. Timebanks are not operated at a high cost, so finding the funding is a matter of hard work and creativity. Jennifer estimates her costs at around $400/year which funds the software needed to keep the bank organized and other operation costs which were not disclosed.
As students in the Duluth community I encourage you to look into Timebanks and check out www.timebanks.org to earn more.
I would like to ask how you think you could benefit from a Timebank, and what can you contribute to one? A Timebank's success is correlated with the number of members so I believe it is something worth considering. If you can't find one near Duluth, or your hometown, think about how you can help get one started! I am not currently a member of one, but I have made connections to one in Minneapolis and I am eager to get started as soon as I move home this summer, an economy based on reciprocity is low cost and builds a stronger sense of community, something crucial in our society today!
Ads make up a huge reality all around the world and constitute our reality. The film talks about making people uncomfortable in their own skin. They accomplish this by telling a person his or her body is repulsive; which if you think about, as a society most of us have bought into these ideas. One way you can see this is by walking into a store like Target, where there are usually 5 aisles strictly for makeup and other hygiene products. Likewise, medication and pills are prevalent as well. Just think about all the medicine advertisements that get played on television. Partially I think these ads help produce hypochondriacs, because the way some prescription meds list off a ton of possible symptoms of a given illness. It seems if someone has an illness, all they have to do is take a pill and they are cured.
I really enjoyed the film, because it employed several techniques to try to sell their argument. One was the use of subliminal messages throughout the film, where there was a voice over, repeating certain phrases. In the beginning of the film, it was quiet and distant, but as the movie progressed the voice became louder. Another tactic the film makers used was the art of music. At the end of the film the music changed to a "hopeful" tune when the experts were giving their opinions on what can be done about advertising.
Another movie that comes to mind when thinking about advertising is, "The Merchants of Cool." This movie examines the process of researching that companies use in order to mass produce their ads. Particularly the film focuses on how to market to teenagers. It is a PBS Frontline film, so if you are interested you can watch the full movie at the link below.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/view/
"Although the sexual sell, overt and subliminal, is at a fever pitch throughout all forms of the media, depictions of sex as an important and potentially profound human activity are notably absent. Couples in ads rarely look at each other. Men and women in music videos use each other. It is a cold and oddly passionless sex that surrounds us. A sense of joy is also absent; the people involved often look either hostile or bored. The real obscenity is the reduction of people to objects... Of course, all these sexual images aren't intended to sell our children or us on sex--they are intended to sell us on shopping. This is the intent of the marketers--but an unintended consequence is the effect these images have on real sexual desire and real lives. When sex is a commodity, there is always a better deal."
― Diane Levin & Jean Kilbourne
Advertisements aimed at women are problematic because there is only one standard of beauty. This standard tells women that they have to appear young at any age, and that aging is to be feared. As women, we're also told that being sexual is our only way of gaining self-worth. Advertisements (whether they mean to or not) turn women into objects as if to say that women are to be used and desired. The Ad and the Ego did a good job at introducing this concept, but Jean Kilbourne digs even deeper in her films Killing Us Softly and Still Killing Us Softly which I would recommend to anyone interested in this topic.
As a feminist, I don't think there's anything anti-feminist about wearing makeup or being interested in fashion or even wanting to feel sexy, but women need to be conscious about the companies they are supporting and how the advertisements objectify women and why they are choosing to buy into the ads. There are countless advertisements for "age-defying make up" or "anti-aging serum". There's even make-up for that is supposed to make a woman feel like she's not wearing make-up (which makes me roll my eyes). But, the majority of these products are used to help women hide their aging and to appear youthful and desirable to men. There's an obsession in our society with making us women fear aging and appearing "old." It's funny that women have this single standard of beauty when aging for men isn't portrayed to be nearly as horrifying as it is for women. In fact, when men age it's more like they transform into one type of handsomeness to another. Susan Sontag writes about this in in her essay "The Double Standard of Aging." She says,
"The great advantage men have is that our culture allows two standards of male beauty: the boy and the man. The beauty of a boy resembles the beauty of a girl. In both sexes it is a fragile kind of beauty and flourishes naturally only in the early part of the life-cycle. Happily, men are able to accept themselves under another standard of good looks -- heavier, rougher, more thickly built. A man does not grieve when he loses the smooth, unlined, hairless skin of a boy. For he has only exchanged one form of attractiveness for another: the darker skin of a man's face, roughened by daily shaving, showing the marks of emotion and the normal lines of age."
I don't think I've seen any advertisements in mainstream media that make women feel good about aging or that tell women that aging can be a beautiful thing. The standards of how women's bodies are depicted in the media are even more upsetting. While the Dove campaign tried to dismantle this image, I believe it was short-lived due to the majority of ads that were saying the opposite. Women are exposed to the same type of model-like body in almost every advertisement they see, leaving out about 99% of the population. These images are causing women to hate their bodies, and they are setting up women for failure as they try to achieve these standards. I think women need to be exposed to alternative sources of media at a young age that talk about these unachievable standards because these advertisements have substantially negative effects on young women that lead to health issues such as depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. Women need to know they can be beautiful at any age inside and out.
Sources Used
http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book/excerpt.asp?id=2
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/show/101365
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/02/04/susan-sontag-on-the-three-standards-of-beauty-girl-boy-and-man/
http://www.dove.us/Social-Mission/campaign-for-real-beauty.aspx (Dove Campaign for Real Beauty)
As a journalism student pursuing a career in public relations and hopefully some day advertising I really enjoyed The Ad and the Ego. The video was very dated, yet as David Syring mentioned we still have the same ideas about it today.
Advertising is a strange thing and it truly fascinates me knowing such a thing can persuade someone to buy into something "unconsciously." I'm not saying that I believe the messages are okay, but the fact that something like advertising is so powerful, I'm almost afraid to see what it will evolve into once we're all technologically sound. I feel as if the analogy of the fish realizing it is in water was a great way to put the impact advertisements have on us humans.
We can't get away from ads and we all know they will only find more places to put them. I can't even play a game on my phone without seeing at least 3 ads, as well as being on Facebook. I did notice that there aren't (yet) any ads on Twitter other than the spam I receive when people "mention" me. They catch my attention by thinking that someone out there really wants to connect with me, but then I realize it's a link to a website that I probably shouldn't have let my computer go to.
My favorite are the ones I get in the mail with a car key and it tells me I could be a winner of a car, I just have to go see if my key is the winner. We all know it isn't a real key and the keys are all the same. Advertisements are really crazy, and I plan to some day study the psychological effect it has on humans. I believe that could be a really interesting study, if there isn't already one out there.
I don't believe we will ever see less advertisements, even with the few places that have created no-ad laws in their location. Online websites/newspapers rely on advertisements to keep them running as a business. Relating it back to our larger classroom discussion about capitalism and the idea that everyone just wants to make money. We need to make money in order to survive in our society.
In conclusion to my response to the video, I really enjoyed and agreed with the analogy relating fish realizing the water as to humans realizing the millions of ads. I think advertising will continue to expand and we will easily adapt and continue going through the motions as we do today.
This movie was extremely interesting and eye opening to me. Thinking about how much advertising goes into a single product is mind boggling. It made me think about the first week of class when we were talking about all the wealth in the world and looking at how much poverty there is. As I found on the website Randomhistory.com, More than $500 billion a year is spent on advertising worldwide. If only we could put that money to better use. We could solve so much of the poverty problems in the world today. For businesses to survive today they do need a lot of advertising to get people to want to buy their stuff, however if they all worked together to cut out half of their advertisements and donate that money to helping poverty all over the world, I think it would solve so many problems. Obviously this is easier said than done and it most likely will never happen because corporations main goal is to sell their products but could there possibly be something that we could do to help this? If we don't buy the stuff being advertised they might not think they are advertising enough so they will do it more, however if we do buy it, it will just increase their surplus and they will keep doing what they are doing and get bigger. There are a lot of interesting facts and statistics on this, http://facts.randomhistory.com/interesting-facts-about-advertising.html. As I was looking for more information about advertising and the money the corporations spend on it, I caught myself looking at all the adds that are on the internet. Which brings me to my next point. We can't get away from them. In the movie it told us that we are constantly surrounded by them and that we don't even realize they are around us any more or how much they affect us. I never realized how true that actually is. I was with my little cousin over Christmas break and he was telling me how he got a new bottle of axe body wash for Christmas, he then added that it helps him "get the girls" (he is in 2nd grade). We are all affected by adds whether we admit it or not. This site (http://www.billboards.com/transit-street-advertising/times-square-advertising) talks about the advertising that goes on in Times Square, which is one of the most opportunistic places to have an ad. If you look at the third bullet down from the top it tells you all the different kind of advertisement opportunities there are. Although Times Square makes it visible and obvious that there are a ton of ads going on there, if you spread all those out I'm sure we see that many and probably more in just one day of walking around the halls of UMD or driving around town.
What do you think about when you think of all the money we spend on ads every year? Do you think we could possibly make a difference in that amount? maybe put it toward a better cause? How are you affected by the ads around you? Do you even notice them anymore?
Sources:
http://facts.randomhistory.com/interesting-facts-about-advertising.html
http://www.billboards.com/transit-street-advertising/times-square-advertising
Over the last four years or so, the three Duluth libraries have had restricted hours, mostly for economic reasons. They would be open only a few days a week, but now that has changed:
"At the two branch libraries, the weekly hours of operation are now more than doubled, from 19.5 to 44. At the main library downtown, the hours are 51 compared to 43.5."
The libraries are open every day, and officials are rejoicing "to see people so happy with the hours."
It isn't only the people who look for books who have been affected by this. There are kids who want to get tutoring; parents who want a place for their children to play; and others who want to get together for book clubs and other recreational book activities. The officials are also happy because more hours allow for more flexibility for employees as well, as they "would get slammed" during such limited times.
I am also very glad that this has occurred. Even though, between school, work, and reading my own books, I have not been to non-school library in a very long time. I've been wanting to go back on a more regular basis, partly to save money, and partly to find older books that may not be in print anymore (I've always been a fan of the classics). Over the last few years, I've been in the habit of buying books more or less on a whim, coming out of a book store with as many as five in a bag. Wanting to change that, I've refrained from buying new books (except for school) and have been concentrating on reading and re-reading the ones I already have as time permits. Going off of we have been discussing in class, I'm trying to pay more attention what I read (consume) and think about what I can afford to give up (donating the books I don't want to keep.
I also think that these new library hours would be very good for those with lower incomes and those who may not be able to afford to buy books, electronic or traditional. Furthermore, it is an excellent way to bring people closer together, since reading can be public activity as well as a private one.
What do you think about the new library hours? Here is a link to the article:
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/220203/
This film we watched Monday was very interesting, especially for someone like me that once thought, "I don't pay attention to ads". Whether or not we acknowledge advertisements, the message is delivered on an unconscious level. One quote really struck me; "Ads create a dream life of the culture". By understanding that point of view, I am able to look at the culture of advertising in a way that effects us psychologically. In our culture we are constantly exposed to advertisements full of symbolism that are tied to power and status. Whether woman are objectified, or products are presented in a way that captures emotions, the direction of these ads are presented at a deeper level than we are aware of. The Ad and the Ego also stresses that such ads are meant to create an inner sense of conflict..... as if we aren't facing that enough.
