The documentary Consuming Kids really opened my eyes to how the marketing industry tries to brand children and make them into loyal customers from cradle to grave.

The most interesting part of this movie was when “educational DVD’s” were discussed. I frequently babysit two children and their parents gave me permission to allow them to watch only certain DVD’s and TV shows because they were “educational.” When this section in the documentary was addressed I was immediately interested.

Educational DVD’s have little or no proof that they are actually educational. They are designed to entertain children with bright colors and fast moving objects. This often leads to ADD/ADHD in children. According to about.com, approximately 4.4 million children ages 4 to 17 were reported to have a history of ADHD diagnosis.

The marketers are not concerned with how they are hurting the children of today. They are more concerned with making money. Marketers use many different techniques to “brand” children. Children have much more access to technology than ever before. This has led to new ways to reach children that were never there before. They can now be reached via advergames, product placement in children’s movies and ads on cell phones.

Advertisers have also invented the “tween.” Tweens are anywhere from age 6-12. They are “in-between” children and adults. This is completely absurd to me. Children are losing their childhood and being encouraged to grow up by marketer’s demands.

One example of marketing to “tweens” is the over-sexualization of young girls. While reading on this recent trend I found an article accompanied by photos of ten year old model Thylane Lena-Rose Blondeau. These photos were of her dressed as a young woman, wearing adult clothes and makeup were photographed and printed in French Vogue.

The trend of marketing to children is in my opinion very sad. While children to have the most influence in what a family buys, it is wrong to purposely manipulate young children in order to make money. I do believe the parents have some responsibility in protecting their kids and teaching them the ways of marketers but I do not think it is the sole responsibility of the parents.

Our society is not doing its part to protect the children. The point of the FCC and the FTC is to protect children when the market does not. The parents need help in protecting their children from becoming materialistic. Marketing to children conveys the message that in order to be happy, you need to have things.

This is the opposite of what parents try to teach their children. Most parents do not want their children to place a huge value on possessions. This is what the market is trying to do by marketing to children from cradle to grave.

In 2009 Kate Winslet sued the Daily Mail based in London on accounts of libel. Winslet won this case and was awarded 25,000 British pounds (about $40,000) according to the article in US Weekly.

Winslet sued the Daily Mail newspaper after they ran an article entitled “Should Kate Winslet win an Oscar for the world’s most irritating actress?” This article claimed Winslet lied about her exercise routine and also called her “the worlds most irritating actress.” This story was created from a quote Winslet gave during an Elle Magazine interview. In Elle she said, “I don’t go to the gym because I don’t have time, but I do Pilates workout DVDs for 20 minutes or more every day at home.”

Winslet said she was “hurt and embarrassed” by this article in Daily Mail calling her a liar while also calling her irritating. In a statement to the press Winslet said, “I was particularly upset to be accused of lying about my exercise regime and felt that I had a responsibility to request an apology in order to demonstrate my commitment to the views that I have always expressed about body issues, including diet and exercise.”

Winslet has been a firm believer that women should love themselves the way they are and this article was extremely harmful to that stance. If Winslet had not corrected this article and demanded an apology, it would have been seen as a contradiction to her previous statements.
Winslet has been involved in body image for a while. In 2003, Winslet posed for the cover of GQ magazine. The photos were digitally altered without her consent. Winslet spoke out against this. Hellomagazine.com quoted Winslet saying, “The retouching is excessive. I do not look like that and more importantly I don’t desire to look like that.” The main thing that was retouched was her thighs, which were reduced about 1/3 of the real size.

This recent libel lawsuit is a step to protect her image. She is seen as one of the few celebrity women who openly downplay the necessity our society places on being stick thin.

I agree with the lawsuit. Winslet had every right to protect her image. She was also misquoted. This will have an impact on the news media, especially celebrity gossip magazines. The case shows one example of how celebrities are more willing to fight back against libel and slander, in order to protect their image.

On Nov. 5, 2011 the world’s perception of Penn State University was changed forever. On this day, Jerry Sandusky, former Penn State defensive line football coach, was indicted of molesting 8 boys for over 10 years. The main part of the scandal that hurt so many people was that Pennsylvania’s beloved and respected football coach, Joe Paterno, knew about these events and did not report them to the proper people.

Some articles that further discuss the scandal are on ESPN as well as the NPR website.

This event has raised many questions about Penn State as an academic institution. Some claim that Penn State cares more about their image as a school instead of the safety of the boys being sexually abused. In light of this scandal, I came up with a strategy to present to the Communications Department of Penn State University.

The event has also led to many debates and discussions here on Towson’s campus as well. Just yesterday I was talking to my friend Kathleen and she told me her brother got accepted to Penn State. When I asked if he was willing to go there she said, “Not after the scandal. He sorta looked at the acceptance letter and just put it aside.”

This is the exact opposite of what Penn State is trying to do. My sister and my mother both graduated from Penn State and I feel that the institution has suffered dramatically from this scandal. That is why I have come up with a PR strategy to save the image of Penn State and turn the focus away from the scandal and focus more on the academic and other social organizations of the university.

The first thing I would use a commercial for the University. This would focus on the academics of the school. Penn State was ranked first in the Wall Street Journal for its ability to prepare graduates for the job market. The academics at Penn State are extremely advanced for a public university. I would shoot a commercial that focuses on the academic well being of the university.

In this commercial I would make sure to avoid any clips of sports, and even of the Nittany Lion statue itself. Instead I would focus on Old Main (academic building), the scenery of the university, as well as the extensive library. By addressing the academic side of the university and leaving the mascot out of the commercial people will link the school to academic greatness, instead of the scandal which was linked to the sports department.

 

Another thing I would push would be THON. THON is the largest student run philanthropy in the world. This is a huge accomplishment for a university of any size. In order to promote THON I would hold a press conference in order to reveal the new logo and share stories of children whose lives have been changed by the efforts of Penn State students throughout their time.

One way this campaign could backfire would be if the public felt that we were neglecting the tragedy and what happened to the children. If this were to happen I would then run a campaign that would show the candlelight vigil that was held for all people affected by child abuse as well as the t-shirts that were sold for the blue out at the Nebraska football game. All proceeds were then donated to the Prevent Child Abuse Pennsylvania.

The main goal of this PR campaign will be to return the focus of Penn State to the University and not the individuals who have committed horrific crimes. By taking the main focus of this campaign strategy away from sports and instead focusing on the hardworking student’s academic and social accomplishments.

 

 

Plot of Bridesmaids

One of my all time favorite movies of this summer was Bridesmaids. This hilarious comedy stars Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph. The two play best friends Annie (Wiig) and Lillian (Rudolph). When Lillian gets engaged Annie is appointed to the Maid of Honor. Annie’s life is quite frankly a mess. She has a low paying job and her boyfriend leaving her devastates her. Nonetheless she accepts the duty. She goes through the rituals of being a bridesmaid while trying to stay on a budget. Things get tricky when Lillian’s newest friend Helen causes problems along the way.

I ‘ve seen Bridesmaids numerous times since it came out but I had never paid much attention to the amount of product placement in the films. Product placement is a form of advertising (usually not involving ads) in where branded products pay to have the product seen in a film.  I was very curious to see how Bridesmaid used product placement.

This is the list of product placement I found during the movie. The bolded ones were the most effective product placement for me.

Harley Davidson	Milwaukee Public Market	Payless Shoe Source	Maury TV show	US Weekly
Volvo	Lacoste	Wilson Sporting Goods	Christian Louboutin	Ortho Tri-Cyclen (Birth Control)
Budweiser	Bose Headphones	iPod Nano	Westclox	Netflix
Sour Patch Kids	Wilson Phillips CD	Ford	Ferrari	Campbell’s Soup
Pyrex	Diamond Flour	Valvoline Oil

 

Effective?

The Harley Davidson was incredibly well placed for this movie. The film takes place in Milwaukee which is where the Harley Davidson Museum is located. The director also lingered on the Harley Davidson sign a little longer in the opening credits than any of the other shots. The building was also very large and it was obvious what the wording was on the building.

In one scene, Annie starts baking again. When she opens her cabinet to get out supplies to bake we see a cabinet filled of Campell’s Soup products. It seems weird to me that someone would put their flour and their soup in the same cabinet so that is brilliant product placement. This is also the only other product in the cabinet besides the flour.

The Ferrari was also a very good product placement. Annie had a boyfriend who was supposed to be rich. He drove a Ferrari. The placement of this car reinforces the wealthy connotations involved with the car brand. He was also a jerk, which portrays the stereotype that all rich people are stuck up.

Helen is also a very wealthy woman in the movie. She was seen wearing exclusively Chrisitan Louboutin heels. This reiterated her wealth. This product placement was very, very subtle. The way I knew they were Louboutin’s was by the red underside of the heel. It is a signature trademark of the brand. While many people may have overlooked this product placement I found it significantly more powerful because she was only seen wearing Louboutin heels.

The last major product placement that I thought was effective was the iPod nano and the Bose headphone. This was the more effective for me personally because Megan specifically referred to the iPod. She referenced it in her lines and she also showed the logo of the Apple Company. She was wearing Bose headphones, which were also shown when she was listening to the iPod.

Who placed them?

I believe the advertisers paid for the majority of these products placed in the movie. I would believe that the Christian Louboutin product placement was by a style designer though because they are supposed to create the character using their clothing and appearance. By using an extremely expensive shoe, the style designer helped to reiterate the idea that Helen was wealthy.

 

 

 

In December I chose to pick up a copy of Cosmo’s magazine simply because Adele was on the cover. I used to be an avid reader but when I went to college I dropped that ball and started reading other things, like my textbooks. I decided to buy the December Cosmo. When I got home I started browsing through the pages looking for the Adele interview I was extremely interested in some of the advertisements I found.

For this assignment I chose five of the ones I was most interested by. And it was intriguing to me that all of them seem to have the same theme of male dominance and control over the relationship. This I thought was especially interesting since they were being printed in a women’s magazine. Therefore, women are indirectly reinforcing these stereotypes and myths.

Pinnacle: Indirect Male Power

This ad features a man vacuuming the house while his wife/girlfriend is in the background on her computer. The ad for Whipped Pinnacle Vodka was extremely surprising to me. It showed a man cleaning the floors while his wife/girlfriend is in the background of the shot lounging on her computer on the couch. Although I could not find the ad I described earlier, I have attached several other Pinnacle Vodka advertisements that are along the same lines.

This showed a rare glimpse of women having the power in the relationship. It does imply that women are supposed to do the cleaning in the house because the ad says “Reason to get him Whipped #6.”

Women are generally seen to the public as the housekeepers and this ad reinforces subtly this stereotype by having the woman bribe the man to clean. It also reinforces the stereotype of women as being the housekeeper because it insinuates that there is no other way a man would clean, unless he is bribed with Whipped Pinnacle.

Love-Struck: Perfect for Love

The ad for Love-Struck perfume by Vera Wang shows a very beautiful woman with an extremely handsome man. The man is holding flowers to the woman and he is looking at her longingly while the woman is staring at the camera.

The first thing I noticed about this ad was what the woman was wearing. The model adorns a fuchsia ball gown with her hair perfectly done and her makeup is spotless. It appears that she is going to prom or some special occasion.

Upon looking at the man’s clothes it is confusing to have the two together. He is wearing jeans and a leather jacket while holding flowers that match her dress. He is polished but bad boy.

The models they chose for this ad and the clothing they wear portray much about our society. Women are more attracted the “bad boy” look than the preppy, cleaned up look because bad boys are dangerous, therefore more enticing. While these relationships do not usually last, it is a common occurrence in society today.

Love-Struck further exemplifies the pressure women feel from our society to be perfect all the time. We are constantly under pressure to look our best, even if we are at the grocery store. This woman is standing on her porch, yet she is in a ball gown, amplifying her need to look perfect.

Euphoria: Sex and Male Dominance

The ad for Euphoria by Calvin Klein is more racy than the other ads I have chosen to analyze. It is a photo of a man on top of a woman (only the top parts of their bodies are shown). He is looking at her while she looks at the camera with her mouth slightly opened.

While they are both fully clothed, this ad oozes of sex appeal. The way they are positioned, her partially opened mouth, the low lighting and minimum clothing on the woman are all ways that sex appeal is portrayed in this ad.

The ad also shows male dominance over females by having the man on top of the female he is physically showing his dominance over the woman. Male dominance is extremely common in the majority of the ads from Cosmo’s December issue. I chose to highlight a few of those ads, Euphoria by Calvin Klein being one of them.

Calvin Klein uses the color purple in the ad. Purple generally signifies wealth, which is a cultural symbol in the ad. By using the color purple the ad contributes to the feeling that if you use and buy the product then you will be considered wealthy or high class.

Seducitve Homme: Protection

Seductive Homme is a new fragrance being marketed by GUESS, and is exclusively for men. The ad they ran in Cosmo magazine portrayed usual stereotypes of males and females, with males having dominance and protecting the female.

The ad shows a man standing in front of a woman. He has chiseled six-pack abs, an intense stare and a scruffy 5 o’clock shadow. His pants are unbuttoned which leads to the theme of sex appeal in this advertisement.

The woman is standing behind the man, almost like he is protecting her from something. She appears to be naked but we can only see her shoulder and neck. One thing that I did notice immediately was that she was not wearing a wedding ring.

Placing the man in front of the female is a strong cultural message. It is widely accepted that women need a man to protect them from the dangers of life. This advertisement allows this myth to live on.

The man is also portraying male dominance because he is completely in front of her, and seemingly in charge of whatever situation the two would have to go through. This is portrayed in daily life through movies like Spiderman, animated Disney movies and even in recent movies like Bridesmaids.

Simon G. Jewelry: What were they thinking?

The last ad I chose to analyze from December’s issue of Cosmo was an advertisement for a diamond ring. Attached to the ring, instead of a price tag, is a note that says, “I’m much cheaper than a therapist. –Simon G.”

This ad blew my mind. I could not believe that in a woman’s magazine they would print something so blatantly against women. The story this ad is telling is that it would be cheaper and much easier to buy a woman something materialistic, expensive and flashy instead of delving into the actual problems of the relationship.

The ad is portraying all women as materialistic. It is also downplaying the role of communication within a relationship. It is promoting buying things for your partner if something goes wrong. That will not solve the issue.

Their whole advertising campaign is designed to strike up conversation. I have attached some other ads from the same campaign. While they are not all focused on women being materialistic, the majority of them are.

This advertising campaign seems ridiculous to me. If anything these should not be placed in a women’s magazine. The message it sends to all is that women are materialistic and that fancy, sparkly things make the relationship successful. It portrays women as materialistic and selfish, and also as expecting lavish gifts from their significant other.

Contradictions

Cosmo Magazine should look closely at the brands and advertisements they choose to promote in their magazines. This myth analysis shows that the majority of the ads in the magazine promote male dominance in relationships as well as the male being the protector of the female.

They should also examine the models used in these ads. They run stories about being healthy, and how to feel good about yourself and but on the next page there is a gorgeous model wearing a bathing suit with not an inch of fat on her. These messages are completely contradictory.

Being a child of the 90’s I was immediately immersed in Disney culture. My first movie in theaters was The Lion King when I was only four years old. My family owns all of the Disney movies so my sisters and I would constantly watch the movies. We even had posters to decorate our rooms, which I still have today hanging in my apartment.

We dressed up as Jasmine, Pocahontas and Cinderella for Halloween year after year. We were obsessed. And in many ways we still are. I have Disney cups, posters and folders that I use, but what am I promoting and supporting by still buying Disney products?

I revisited some of my favorite Disney movies for this assignment and instead of watching them for entertainment or for nostalgia; I watched them to be critical of the messages they were subconsciously sending to the viewers. The movies I re-visited were The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas and Aladdin.

Where’s my mother?

When watching these Disney movies I discovered a common theme. None of the main characters have a mother. Upon further research I discovered that four of the eleven movies listed had a mother present.

Movie	Mother present?
The Little Mermaid	No
Beauty and the Beast	No
Aladdin	No
The Lion King	Yes
Pocahontas	No
Toy Story/Toy Story 2	Yes
Hunchback of Notre Dame	No
Tarzan	Yes, but dies in movie
Finding Nemo	No
Valiant	Yes
Cars	No

Some websites such as snopes.com defend Disney by saying he did not create the characters or the stories. They were all taken from folk stories. One theory on the absence of mothers in Disney’s movies comes from the fact that Walt Disney’s own mother died from carbon monoxide poisoning in 1938.
The theme of motherless children directly affects children’s views on stepparents. Today many children are conditioned to dislike their stepmother because of the way the Disney princesses are treated by their stepmothers. For example: Cinderella was forbidden to attend the ball by her stepmother and Snow White was poisoned by her stepmother.

Keep Quiet and Be Beautiful

Watching The Little Mermaid from a critic’s perspective was extremely eye opening. All of the success of Ariel rides on her beauty. She gives up her voice to become a human. Once she is a human, she has to find her prince and win him over. But without her voice all she has is her beauty. This gives girls the impression that to win a man over she should keep quiet and be beautiful.

A point that is made by Kathy Maio on her blog is that Ariel gives up everything for romance and love. This is not ideal for young girls to learn. The idea that love is more important than anything else may lead to girls not going to college to stay at home and get married. This is not what feminine rights groups have fought for years to achieve.

Light Skin is Beautiful and Ideal

With the introduction of Pocahontas and Jasmine to the Disney princesses the public thought they were getting much needed diversity from the traditional blonde haired, blue eyed princesses but in reality they were not given much diversity. In Janel Healy’s blog “Sugar and Spice” she goes in depth on how they are not actually diverse.

In Aladdin, the evil character is Jafar. If you notice Jafar is dark skinned and very Arabic looking whereas Aladdin, the hero, is light skinned and given the nickname of “Al” which is a more Americanized name.

 

The princess Jasmine is portrayed as a beautiful Middle Eastern woman. In Healy’s blog she describes Jasmine as “the romanticized stereotype of the enigmatic Middle Eastern belly dancer.” Jasmine is dressed in a cropped shirt with low cut pants, long brown hair with a jewel and large dark eyes. She is also fairly light skinned as well. This leads all girls of a Middle Eastern heritage to think that they have to have long, dark hair and dress like a belly dancer to be considered beautiful.

Pocahontas is also portrayed as more Caucasian that Native American. She has light skin and she is dressed provocatively as well. Her body type is an extremely thin waist with her hide skin dress showing an ample amount of her legs and her arms.  While the public thought they were getting more diversity with Jasmine and Pocahontas, they really got more Caucasian females with an “ethnic twist.”

Entertainment or a Rulebook?

Based upon my above arguments Disney is creating a rulebook for ideal female beauty. This beauty is impossible to achieve. The beauty of life is the diversity of it and Disney is trying to create clones of each princess. These princesses do not represent diversity. They are all Caucasian females with ethnic twists. They do not show the true beauty in being different. Disney has created unrealistic views of beauty and no girl on Earth should change who she is or what she looks like to be someone’s “princess.”

When I opened my computer to research for this assignment, the first websites I went to were Facebook and Twitter. This shows how important social media is to me so I was extremely interested in finding an article that focused on the positive uses of social media.

The article I found is called Does Social Media Kill Communication Skills? This article was written by James Gurd and published two years ago on Sept 18, 2009.  The article is very thought provoking and raises three main points. These points are as follows: communicating online is better than not communicating at all, social media enables instantaneous and global discussion and lastly companies can use blogs and wikis to compliment existing internal communication devices.

Communicating online is better than not communicating

There are many people today who are afraid to speak in public and with their peers for various reasons. Gurd argues that the use of social media will help these people with their day-to-day interactions with humans. While these interactions may not be in person, they are still communicating with the outside world. Gurd argues that social media is “actually opening up inter-personal skills and improving communication.”

I agree with this assessment of social media. Having some sort of communication daily is essential to human beings. If people are shy or unwilling to speak in public to voice their opinions, social networks allow them a place to share their thoughts.  This leads to the second main point of the article.

Social media enables instantaneous and global discussion

Social media has changed how people discover news and how quickly they discover news. Just last night I used Twitter to follow the Penn State scandal after Joe Paterno was fired. I searched the Daily Collegian (the Penn State newspaper) on Twitter to find their account. Without social media I would not have had the instantaneous play by play of what was happening in State College, PA.

Twitter was also extremely prevalent in the crisis in Egypt during January. They organized rallies and reached out to people to attend the rallies. CNET news published an article entitled Egypt, Twitter, and the Rise of the Watchdog Crowd in which they describe how Egyptians successfully used Twitter and Facebook to mobilize the masses and start a revolution.

For our group project we created a Facebook group in order to have a way to connect with each other since some of our group members live far away. This allows for constant and instantaneous interaction and discussion of our project with each other, no matter where we are located.

 

Social Media compliments existing internal communication devices

Gurd explains that many companies use blogs and wikis to communicate with their employees. This creates another way to communicate with their employees besides emails, interoffice memos and phone calls. I first hand have experienced a company using blogs to reach out to their employees.

I am a volunteer for Invisible Children, so I consider myself a free employee of the company. The Invisible Children staff has created a blog  to keep their “employees” and volunteers up to date with current events that affect the cause and us. They are also able to tell us about upcoming events and fundraisers they are promoting via the blog. Traditionally they used email but now they have moved more towards using social media. They have a Facebook page, a Twitter, a tumblr as well as a blog.

In our class as well we have the Ning page. If you view our class as a business, you could consider this one other way our professor chose to communicate with us besides traditional email and Blackboard.

Being a part of a social media generation is not easy. There are many things you are expected to be able to follow, as well as schoolwork. Being raised in the social media generation will ultimately prepare us for the increasing usage of technology in the world and the globalization of businesses. As Gurd said, “It takes time, dedication and commitment to become a valuable member of a social network.”

Every Tuesday night at 9pm I stop whatever I’m doing and I turn on FOX  to watch Zooey Deschanel in The New Girl.

Deschanel plays a character named Jess who finds her boyfriend cheating on her so she moves into an apartment with three guys while trying to get over her break up. The show is hilarious and the only show I make sure to watch every week.

New Girl Online?

Upon receiving this assignment I was curious about the website that Fox offered for this show so I went to check it out. Upon opening the New Girl webpage I was immediately impressed. The background is a bright yellow in colour so it made me feel happy and cheery when I saw this. There are pictures of Jess (Zooey Deschanel) all over the site, along with the date of the next new episode (Nov. 8, 2011). There are clips of episodes that are played automatically when you go to the website.

They also offered full episodes online so that viewers could catch up on the new TV show. The only problem with the new episodes offered was that there was a wait period until you were able to see the full episode. The overall style of the page is visually appealing and not difficult to follow.

Characters

In order to get the public acquainted with the main characters, they offer a dropdown menu of the cast and characters where you are able to read about their character but also about the actor. I think this is a cool feature for those people who are new to the show or are interested in one of the characters.

Advertising Everywhere

There is so much advertising on this website, and it is all very subtle. There is an advertisement for Oliver Peoples glasses that the main character, Jess, wears in the sitcom. This is the perfect example of product placement and advertising. The glasses are placed in the show so people become aware of them subtly but then upon visiting the website they are shown the company and given a link to purchase the glasses.  

They also promote their social media sites such as the character Jess’ Twitter,  a Twitter for for the show itself and a Facebook page to “Like” the show. These are all ways to get the word out about their product (in this case, the show).  The main use of this site is for advertising. They advertise the next show; their social media pages and products that are placed in episodes.

Functionally Entertaining

The one thing I did notice was that the site does not have any way for the viewers to interact with either other viewers or with the characters of the show. I would suggest having a chat area where the viewers could feel more intimate with the characters/actors. They could also discuss the show as it is airing live. That way the website would be getting views while the show is being watched, killing two birds with one stone.

In my opinion the main function of the website is for entertainment because they have sneak peaks of the upcoming episode. They also have full episodes available online. They have plenty of pictures of the cast and show as well as behind the scene footage. I think as a function of entertainment they succeed. I would suggest having more behind the scene footage or possibly question and answer sessions with the cast so the viewers could get to know them better.

Since the show is relatively new they may not have had time to establish the perfect website so overtime it may improve and add more of the functions like socialization and more interaction with the cast and other viewers.

While watching Mickey Mouse Monopoly I had mixed reactions. At first I was defensive because I still love Disney movies. To this day I can put in a Disney movie and my day can go from horrible to wonderful. After watching this segment though, I have become skeptical of the messages Disney sends to the children who watch it.  I grew up on Disney movies and have fond memories of dressing up as Jasmine from Aladdin for Halloween, pretending to be Belle with my sisters and trying to get our cat to play Lion King with us.

My sisters and I dressed up as princesses and dreamed of living in castles one day, which I thought was normal until I really thought about how I got those ideas. As a child I will never know if I would have thought to be a princess if I had not seen Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty. I have no way to tell if I would have different views on beauty or class or even on men. Disney creates the perfect man for every princess and it gives young girls, and even girls my age, a completely unrealistic view of how males should act. We always expect they will save us, which is something we learned from Disney movies.

In the class discussion I thought it was very interesting how everyone defended Disney. That is the exact reaction Henry Giroux received when he wrote a whole book criticizing the Disney empire. The radio interviews he was a participant were very hostile because as a culture we have all grown up on Disney films and hold them near to our hearts.

I did some research on subliminal messaging in Disney movies and I found a video that shows subliminal messaging in Pocahontas. Personally, I have never seen any of the messages they highlight, and I don’t know if any one else who was watching the movie for mere entertainment would have seen it either. The main subliminal message that this site (http://www.subliminal-messaging.com/disney-subliminal-messages/#)brings to light is the abundance of sexual references.  When I watched these movies as a child I didn’t know about any of these references and now as a young adult I have been enlightened.

While I am disturbed by the idea that five or six major companies determine what media we see, there is nothing we can really do about it besides restrict the companies and enforce anti-trust laws again. Because Disney is found in nearly every country they have a huge influence worldwide on children and the political economy. Disney and its affiliates skew what we see everyday.  The thought of Disney controlling what we see is upsetting to me because I don’t want people to sift through what I can read and watch because it goes well with their “image.”

Will I still show Disney movies to my children? Of course. Disney is a huge part of childhood. It teaches children the importance of family and friendship. While they may be “shaping our children’s imaginations,” I still think the movies are quality movies for children to watch. Disney will always have a special place in my heart because I grew up on those movies and I will continue to feed the Disney giant.

Waking up to the annoying buzzing of an alarm clock was a sure sign that my day was going to be horrible. I was awake for maybe 15 minutes and I reached for my computer to check my email, Facebook and Twitter feed. It wasn’t on my desk. And then I remembered…I’m avoiding media for two days. So needless to say I was going to be phoneless, music-less, email-less, Facebook-less and essentially friendless for two days straight.

My phone was turned off and hidden in my bottom drawer of my dresser. My computer was shut off and locked in my roommate’s room. My alarm was set to buzzer for two days straight. Needless to say, I could tell the next two days were going to be pure torture.

Walking to class I couldn’t listen to my iPod or text. I felt so out of place. It was out of the norm for me to not have my iPod or my phone on me. It felt like I had forgotten something. There was a sense of dread that I couldn’t check my phone and send a few texts before class or even during class. I looked to my phone and iPod as forms of entertainment during the day when I was away from my computer.

Within walking on campus I was bombarded with media. The fliers on the shuttle stops, the chalk on the sidewalks advertising free food and of course the TV’s that are placed all over the union where I was meeting my friend to have lunch.

I got there early so I decided to sit and wait. I’ll admit, I sat down and people watched for about 20 minutes until my friend showed up and you would not believe how many people didn’t hold a conversation with the people they were sitting with. Instead, they were on their computers or on their phones or listening to music. As a generation who grew up in this age of technology, we ignore the people we are with for technology.

This made me a little upset. I am a strong believer of spending your time wisely because you never know when something will happen either to you or to someone you love and here are tons of people spending their time texting and not talking to the person right across the way from them. I learned a valuable lesson from people watching and it was that I need to spend more time with the people that I am with and not focusing on what is happening on Facebook or Twitter or on my cell phone.

Later that night I went home and started to do my homework because I didn’t have anything to distract me such as TV or Facebook or StumbleUpon and I discovered that I got more work done when I wasn’t distracted by my computer. I was more hesitant to get to work but once I got started I finished rather quickly. It became evident to me that media is not all good. According to the article by Elona Hartjes on Teachers at Risk (http://www.teachersatrisk.com/2010/01/20/the-53-hours-a-week-teens-spend-on-media-use-is-way-too-much-of-a-good-thing/) the average teen spends 53 hours a week on media. This was shocking to me. After participating in this experiment I have vowed to try and use media less so I can spend more time with my friends and family.