The Importance of Advertisement

One of my favorite movies of all time is cleverly-crafted “Thank You For Smoking.” The witty banter itself is pleasing enough, especially in the scene when tobacco lobbyist Nick Naylor discusses the beauty of argument with his son. “Make an argument and not a negotition to get what you want,” “if you’re job is to be right then you’re never wrong,” “it doesn’t matter if that’s not what we’re talking about, that’s what I’m talking about,” and “if I can prove you wrong then I’m right” are just some of the brilliant ideas, sayings, and insight into how the media can toy with the individual mind since forever. However, upon closer examination, one can also recognize what a large impact the media does have on people, and in this movie in particular, the youth. BR calls the teenage smoking population “our bread and butter” and notes that how cool and addictive is how the product essentially sells itself. Nick Naylor points out the significant population increase in smoking as a result of movies, and goes to LA to discuss smoking for characters other than “the usual RAVs,” or Russians, Arabs, and Villains.

In the beginning, one can note that $5 million in advertising will get some billboards, and that’s about it. $25 million for “the set” of smoking pair Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones — an added $5 million rather than a discount. Suggesting that the company also come out with cigarettes called “Sector Sixes” along with the movie as another method of advertisement, and the excitement surrounding that idea, also goes to show that this movie is, more than anything, about media and advertising. The point of the lobbyist is to go in and “protect,” or in this case confuse. The original Marlboro Man is paid off to shut up — he played a fictional character, but because he is representative through popular advertisement he (as a person) was a statement. This movie goes to show the tremendous impact that the media has on not only the youth (though that is particularly prominent) but people in general.

Media Making Money Off the Media

(I believe The Lonely Island was behind the Natalie Portman Rap and “Dick In A Box” but I do not know for sure.) Anyway, The Lonely Island has been pretty revolutionary in terms of utilizing comedy, music, and video to create their trademark originals. Mocking mainstream music in “Dick In A Box,” “Jizz In My Pants,” and “I’m On A Boat” as well as mocking Natalie Portman’s image through her rap, The Lonely Island mocks public image and what it is promoted by the media. It is pretty genius as they are making money off of… making fun of making money. Ironic?

“I’m On A Boat” feat. T-Pain

“Jizz In My Pants”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpMPFGBtE7Q Natalie Portman Rap, uncensored, embedding disabled

Natalie Portman Rap, censored

“Dick In A Box”

Social Network: Where are they going?

What is the future of social networks? A friend of mine said to me a couple days ago, “no one likes facebook.” However, new facebook users increase daily. There was an article in Fortune Magazine earlier this year asking about the same question. Though the service is free, one can imagine that maintenance of the site is tremendously costly, and the most feasible method of money-making without being overly exploitative is advertising (and definitely not prominent on the site). Twitter was struggling for awhile because of constant problems with their servers, but is doing okay mostly due to their loyal home-base. 12seconds is also becoming increasingly popular, as they allow you to upload any sort of document, including media. Huge twitter celebrity Shaquille O’Neal had even begun to use 12seconds solely because of the media feature to become even closer, and more beloved, by the people. His popularity seemed to have got him that show where it’s (name athlete) versus Shaq (I still think he chickened out on pink speedo by the way; those are booty shorts at best). There is no doubt in the ever-growing popularity of social networks and it’s great potential. It gave Shaq cool again; it made Miley Cyrus really annoying (maybe so much so that — I like to think she annoyed herself and as a result — she removed herself) and thank god she is no longer on twitter. But, what about the increasing costs? How can these sites make money? Will people like it less when it comes time to begin making money?

Don’t be a Douche Bag

When someone says douchebag, one of the first names that come to mind is Jon Gosselin, from Jon and Kate Plus Eight. He may also be known as the man who maybe single-handedly ruined Ed Hardy’s public image (though in my honest opinion, he just exposed Ed Hardy’s clothing for what it always was). As I previously mentioned in my post about how we are a part of the media and part of the problem, I wanted even state more specifically, that mid-life crisis men like Jon also exist because of us. So do the little girls that dress and talk like they’re 30 when they are… 5 (this is mocked a little bit in “Sex and the City” with 3 teenage girls and a lot more in the movie “Mean Girls” as, for instance, Regina’s little sister in one scene is doing sexy hip rotations).

In “Mean Girls,” Regina has the “cool” mom who wants her kids to be “cool.” These old women who try to look 21, with their face lifts, boob jobs, and tummy tucks, are also a result of us, public scrutiny, media pressure. “Money buys everything, including love!” and “Be young forever!” are messages that we are appearing to be sending. What happened to growing old together, and aging gracefully? Those are both things we, while idolize, perhaps do not fully believe. Who embodies one or both of these notions? Barbara Walters seems to be aging gracefully at least. I can see Tim McGraw and Faith Hill growing old together, still very much in love. But even Marilyn Manson got with the very young Evan Rachel Wood over classic beauty Dita Von Teese. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, seem to be on their way to having both, but the media doesn’t let them forget their past with Jennifer Aniston. Elizabeth Taylor and her eight marriages, that’s what we perceive as reality. That life is long and harsh, studded with potential disaster. And when disaster strikes, what happens? Do we leave the other, as they may have done to us? Do we escape or do we deal?

The Celebrity Gossip Bandwagon

In all honesty, before the media harped on the story, CNN included, who gave a rat’s ass about Tiger Woods? If I remember correctly, Tiger hasn’t exactly been doing too hot on the golf scene, but because his face got scratched up by his wife his name has suddenly reappeared as a hot topic again. Why do I feel like celebrity lives are seeping into our own, whether or not we like it or not? Because the reality is, it’s the become the “new thing” with the media these days. Even CNN wants a piece of this action as trailing after “breaking news” in the past year have included names that don’t belong there, such as “Lindsay Lohan.” I’m watching CNN, ask me why I care? Does this make CNN hip? Will it appeal to more young people? Even if CNN is now reporting “breaking news” on Lindsay Lohan, people will continue to read their celebrity blogs, which, frankly, are not only more in-depth but more up-to-date — sorry CNN, but your social network, in terms of celebrity lifestyle affects whether or not your story is “breaking,” and you are not exactly well-connected in that field in comparison to celebrity blogs who have “insiders.” However, CNN, you should not be spending any of your resources on junk like that anyway! With the slow extinction of newspapers, a growing concern is investigative journalism — now that is something that needs to be kept alive, and moreover, that the people will truly be appreciative of.

I am tired of hearing about this other crap. It’s terrible that Chris Brown beat Rihanna, but did all this media attention force Rihanna to produce a horrible new album (sorry, none of the new songs are that great, even though they are essentially saying “I want to kill you Chris Brown”)? Though it seems that Rihanna has been forced out of a relationship with Chris Brown as a result of public scrutiny, and this may be better for her, what business do we, sa the public, have in their private lives? Judging these increasingly public figures… and the growing popularity in this area, does that mean what’s popular these days is to promote and encourage the right and wrong things, to deem right and wrong, as a society? In this sense, we have become a part deciding what is morally acceptable or not — we have become a part of a process, but also a part of the problem.

There is not only too much focus, which is taking away from more important issues, but we are becoming a part of the problem as well. Jon from “Jon and Kate Plus Eight” won’t shut the hell up because we, the public, like to read about him to say he is wrong. He, probably out of vanity, will continue to say the usual, “He loves Hailey forever,” and that he is not wrong. If you attack someone personally and say they are wrong, even if they are, they will continue to say they are right if they believe they are or want to be. It’s an endless cycle that goes nowhere. Our “marriage” to Jon may last longer than it did with Kate or will with Haley, though it shouldn’t. Imagine, with all the modern technology, how much can be accomplished, especially in terms of rapid communication! We could avert world crises, maybe even save the planet, but instead… what are we doing? Following some person we haven’t even spoke to since high school adamantly on twitter? Wow, he just ate a really great sandwich and took a dump shortly after on the corner of ‘no life’ and ‘get a life’ while listening to a remix of madonna screwing a monkey upside down to the cello WHO CARES. It’s been said that the world is going to shit since a majority of the most brilliant computer programmers these days are working on facebook applications. It’s like Albert Einstein choosing not to be Albert Einstein and deciding to work on a facebook application instead… seriously? Maybe the world is going to shit but it is all our faults.

The T-Pain Syndrome

Where is music heading these days? It seems that the new “popular” (read: mainstream) wave is going electronic. Even r&b is starting to utilize the synthesizer, and I’m positive that everyone has recognized that the synthesizer has gotten popular. This particular wave, in terms of the synthesizer, appeared to happen after T-Pain asked to “Buy U A Drank” (he even went as far as saying he wanted other artists, such as Kanye (who immediately caught on shortly after with his “808s and Heartbreak” album in 2008) to pay him a royalty as a result of using his “trademark” sound. Granted, the synthesizer existed long before T-Pain, he was just butt-hurt about having been made fun of in the past. Britney Spears’s 2007 album “Blackout” also utilized this more electronic sound, but as a result of her failing public image at the time, was not that popular (though it caught my attention, and I was never a huge pop fan).

Since then, some riding on that electronic wave alone, today’s most discussed musical artists in popular music such as Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Lil Wayne have emerged. Names like David Guetta, who is known in popular music as having worked with Akon for instance to produce “Sexy Bitch” (or clean-version “Sexy Chick”), already well-known in the house/trance industry have begun to go mainstream and, as a result, known more prominently. If you go to a popular Vegas club today, you will hear everything mixed with to a house beat. While one could assume that these constant, upbeat, and sometimes predictable sounds could be invigorating for a place such as Vegas, don’t be surprised to hear complaints amongst agitated mid-20 year olds, some who are even fans of the genre, but are tired of consuming the same bouncing, digital noise being recycled over and over. While this digital shift in music was occurring, there has also begun some resurgence of old roots. Amy Winehouse, for instance, reminisces of old-school lounge and blues. Taylor Swift’s slow rise into mainstream, now even being broadcast on mainstream hip hop stations, is kicking in a little country, brimming with sweet innocence. Justin Bieber, a kid, quite literally, is another voice on the radio today that croons more innocent and simple songs about love. Katy Perry brings a little ferocity back into her own poppy rock. So on one end of the spectrum, we have music that is desensitized, computerized, while on the other we are nostalgic for rawer/classic emotions/sounds. My friend and I used to joke that the future was in house mixed with country… oddly, we may have been right.

Response to “Aren’t We Enjoying All This Death A Little Too Much?”

Must say beauty in itself as defined could not be enough to express this article by “Stephen Marche”.  We look at celebrities as our escape goat to the surrounding world that binds us through coils.  Celebrity gossip and their deaths is what makes us survive and give thanks to the Grim Reaper who bestows their deaths at a young age to the general public in which to create more word to mouth meaningless chit chat so that we may continue our petty nonchalant lives.  Really, their deaths is much like Thanksgiving to where we give thanks to all the wonderful things they have done for us and disregard the bad and evil deeds they may have or may not have done.  We prey for them and focus only on the ideas of what good ‘things’ they have contributed to society.  After Michel Jackson’s death, his little sexual fetishes no longer came to the publics lips.  Instead they morn for their fallen pop idol and left what unresolved, whether it be true or not, sexual acts on minors and baby dangling shrouded in the backs of peoples minds.  In a sense, you can almost say, his death gave him a nice clean slate to where he no longer has to worry about another law suit for child molestation.

 

 

Poperozies

Latest information or gossip lies in the hands of overzealous poperozies.  It is by this we are shown the lives of celebrities and their lifestyles through a lens.  Their flexible, morality and overall character makes them our grinders against the fame and fortune.  In the case for Michael Phelps, TMZ staff threw in their humor in a kind of antidote right off the bat to show the “Golden Boy” that he is capable of atrocities such as not paying back Uncle Sam “$23,289.16 for tax returns back in 2005 and 2006.”  However, heartless as they seem to be, they never seem completely bring about lies.  They merely over exaggerate the truth that is told in their own words.

Fast Food Advertisement

It’s really no mystery that in order to sell a product you need to have an appeal in which your target audience can relate to or is pleasing to the eye.  Unless doing comparing and contrasting.  Fast food is with no exception.  Jack in the Box, McDonalds, Burger King, etc advertisements all have a commend factor when showing television advertisement (or advertisement for that matter), which is the service and the customers are just about what you would consider “average” size.  The service is usually a women in her mid early twenties or a few years younger.  While the customers are middle aged (depending on whom they are catering to).  It was hilarious to see such attractive customers and servers in a television advertisement because I assume that if this ‘was’ the “Real Deal” then it would have to be somewhere in Europe where at least there people are not nearly as obese as Americans are… and they just happen to speak perfect English with no accent.  Not to mention the fact that there are no homeless people in the background and the guy flipping the paddies and working the French fry fryer is never Hispanic.  If your lucky, you can usually find the token white guy (in this case shown in the picture).

You have to really wonder… really, really wonder, do people take notice in this!?!?  Or are they just under a spell from start to end.  Even if people are or do become aware of it, do they really care?  It’s funny yet comical if you think about it in the idea that we disregard the obvious when it’s right in front of our faces.  I think it all comes down to that as long as the eye is pleased to what we see and gives us a sense wanting, it does not matter how they market or advertise a product.

Celebrity Blogs

Who knew that one day you could make money off of talking sh*t?  It’s genius really.  You sit at home, complaining about the Armani-clad looking funny when they chew at the Ivy, while you’re donned in your own nuclear-active waste, eating from a can, and have nothing better to do than speculate about people who have everything you don’t.  If only they could see you, they would scoff.  But, for the most part, they can’t, and maybe, just maybe, they can feel the same pain you feel for being alive every day and un-fabulous.

Perez Hilton is one of the many blogs that have risen from this self-loathing.  Can one really argue that it is to show that these celebrities are human too?  Do we, as a public, really know better or have a right to judge?  There are certain elements that tend to distract from that point-of-view, and put such blogs in the same pool as commonplace media.

One of the key elements that have launched Perez into stardom was his relentless bashing on the heiress Paris Hilton.  Such efforts have been curbed since she made friends with him and introduced him to other celebrities.  Paris rarely appears in his blog, until recently, and only positive things are presented.  It’s inevitable that everyone has their skeletons, even if they are minor and involve severe stupidity — his reformed blog begs the question: Who are his friends?  Who is he not afraid of?

Is this the result of showing your face?  Being afraid of stepping on toes?  Being a toe-stepper is what brought you to fame… if you’re not really not stepping on toes anymore, why step on toes at all?  It’s a paradox, I suppose.  You say too much, they kill you.  You say too little, they ignore you.  So, you say just enough… promote family values, not being a slut, being sexy, being fashionable, give some tips about music, dabble in politics, stay safe and steer clear of real trouble.  Perez used to be about being fearless, like a sparta-kick in the face; but that intrigue is dwindling, like a jungle cat turned domestic, no one pays to see a kitty in a cage.  So, CNN, stop talking about Lindsay Lohan, even though it’s “hip.”  You are embarassing yourselves, because frankly that is not real news or “breaking news” for that matter.  A frontiersman like Perez may survive, but social mogul Paris has won.  Slowly but surely and soon enough Celebrity Blogs will simmer out and die, as if they never existed.  Another fad, another star in the vast universe that just dies out.  How much more about the same things every day can you read?  I’m tired of Jon and Kate +8 and their poor kids, that are the perfect example of aftermath of such demoralizing gossip.  We get it, Jon is a douche and Kate is nuts.  I don’t want to see any more pictures of Lady Gaga, her music overpowering the airwaves is a headache enough (speaking of which, L.A., you really need to diversify instead of recycling the same 10 songs, or bring back 103.1).  Who’s to say anyone knows best or one person can speak down on another person or even knows what’s going on in their lives?  Don’t be the trash you used to make fun of, since you’re no longer that much different, or the world’s going to take you out too.