Media post #4

Advertising affects everyone, more than we think. Even though it does not always make us want to jump up and go buy the product, it can often put the thought of the product or the company in out heads without us even knowing. There are signs we read as we drive down the road or walk through the mall, commercials with jingles that we hear on the radio while driving in the car, and posters with slogans we see in the mall, and everywhere else. Advertising is anywhere that it can possibly be put.

Slogans and jingles are an excellent way to get your message across and into peoples' heads. By creating a catch phrase and repeating it on the TV or radio, it gets stuck in people's heads. Very often you hear people singing songs like the "Mini Wheats" song, which constantly gets stuck in everyone's heads. Attaching a slogan to a product is also an excellent way to get people thinking about it. When someone hears "Maybe she was born with it," they are automatically going to think of Mabelline cosmetics.

When we did the matching activity in class, there were quite a few slogans and jingles that I knew that just kind of came to mind. I had no idea what they were until my mind was triggered by the slogan. I could picture the commercials and I realised how easily things can get stuck into my head without me even realizing. Even after hearing something only a couple of times, or being introduced to something I hadn'e heard in years, the slogan triggers a memory of the ad and the product itself.

Media Blog #3

Like most people, there are certain things that I have to buy a certain brand of. The quality, the price, and the style are the kind of things that tie me to a particular brand and keep me coming back. I have used the same kind of razors for as long as I can remember, and I always go back to Wal-Mart and get the same Conair hairbrush with the gel handle. I love Nokia cell phones and my last 2 were Nokia, and I plan on getting another one soon. There is also certain places that I will only go for food when I'm out, like Wendy's and Tim Horton's. In these cases, the brand is very important to me.
In some cases, the brand that I am wearing does not matter at all. My socks, for example, came in an-8 pack from Costco or Wal-Mart or something and are plain and grey. They are nothing special and no one sees them. They do not need to do any special job and they work for me. I would buy socks from wherever they were cheapest and most convenient. I also don't care where I get my jewelery, make-up, or nail polish from, or where I go to get my nails done. Some people care, but I do not. It doesn't matter, no one can see the brand on your face, they are all the same once applied. In these kinds of cases, the brand does not matter.
My opinions on brand loyalty have always been very strong. They haven't exactly changed but I have realized that I am more loyal to some brands than I originally thought. Although I am not loyal to any particular brands of clothing themselves, and I greatly dislike articles with a label and nothing else across the garment, most of my clothes come from brand name places or are brand name pieces. Brands are important, they give an identity and a stamp of quality to a product.

Media Blog #2

Over the last week, our look at product placement as well as various marketing techniques has made me more aware of the fact that advertising is all around us in such sneaky ways. Sometimes we don't even notice because it is coming at us constantly. They market their product to a specific target audience by putting it in places where the audience is likely to notice it. For example in the James Bond movie, which is geared toward guys, there is product placement for things that guys are more likely to be interested in buying, like cars, electronics, and cigars. I think that although product placement can be quite effective, direct advertisements like commercials get the message across better and are more effective. I think this is because it is more direct, and sometimes product placement is not noticed and goes right over our heads, and we don't even realize we are being advertised at. With a commercial, you know its advertising, and you see it and decide whether it interests you. Commercials can use those advertising techniques too and get more information about the product out there to consumers.

Media Blog #1

Coming into the course, all I really know about media is that it is all around us. It comes in many forms like television, radio, movies, music, newspaper, magazines, and books. Media has a huge effect on our lives. We all create it, and are subjected to looking at it or hearing it or whatever, sometimes voluntarilty, but more often than some people realize, not. Meida is in out lives in so many different forms that it would be impossible to get away from it completely unless we went back in time and lived in a place with no other people or modern surroundings. In this class,I would like to learn more about producing media, how it's done and what goes into it. I would also like to study the different ways it affects different people and what kind of an impact it has on people who think differently than me. I am interested to know how people's opinions differ on what is portrayed in the media and why they seem to show things in a certain way all the time. I also wonder about advertising and why people put so much money into it to make more money? I don't really understand how this works when it is done in such epic proportions. This week I have learned the different ways that advertisers get us to buy their products, and all of the techniques and why they work. I also came to realize that there is advertising everywhere possible now, like at the movies. It never used to be this way but this is the way our generation grew up. I will be more conscious of what is being advertised at me now.