Week 10 EOC: TED Talk Sally Kohn Let's Try Emotional Correctness

Emotional correctness is the tone, the feeling, and how we say things to others. If we say things the wrong way people will react in an aggressive way so we need to find a way to sound politically correct but still have emotional correctness so that people will listen to us. It's all about having compassion for others they way we want compassion given to us. Political persuasion doesn't begin with facts or data, it begins with emotional correctness. If you are political right but emotionally wrong then of course no one is going to respect of listen to you. If you want people to comprehend what it is you are trying to say without dozing off then you need to be able to connect with your audience with emotion and compassion. Your audience doesn't have to agree with the things that you are saying but they are willing to listen to you just because of how you approach the subject.

Week 9 EOC: An Era of Style

Within the 1960s fashion saw some major changes. Through 1960-1963 fashion still had that tailored put together look of the 1950s. This period was called the Classic Era, you were taken serious if you wore a suit and the women had to dress to please their husbands. Gender fashion was very strict. From 1964-1967 the Modern Era we saw more of a youthful approach in fashion. American fashion was influenced by young rock bands from England such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Guys now grew their hair out. Girls showed more skin wearing mini skirts and wore heavy eye makeup, and boots became a fashion statement instead of just shoes you wear when it's raining outside. Also Yves Saint Laurent created the pant suit for women which to many was very shocking. Before this women had to dress like women and men had to dress like men. So when this suit for women came out it gave women a new voice and power. From 1967-1969 the Rebellious Era this was when the hippie look appeared. No one wanted to follow the trends that the fashion world was setting. People bought second hand clothing and made their style more personal to them. During this era there were tons of bold prints such as chevron, pasley, and florals. Men started to dress more feminine, wearing bell bottom pants, floral print shirts, and flows blouses. This period was about being free spirited and not caring about how people perceived you. All of these different styles of the 60s was very shocking to everyone, and it was crazy that it all happened in one decade. The 1960s will always come back in style through tthe years because of how modern the looks were and how they made everyone feel during those times.  

Week 8 EOC: TED Talk Life Hack

In this TED Talk a game designer named Jane talked about how gaming can actually help you earn 10 more years of life. Many people especially parents feel that games can rot a child's brain, but Jane has a pretty good argument. She addresses that there are 5 top regrets that people have when they are about to die and those are: 

1. I wish I hadn't worked so hard

2. I wish I had stayed in touch with friends

3. I wish I had the courage to live a happier life

4. I wish I expressed my true self

5. I wish I lived true to my dreams instead of what people expected from me

Jane stated how these regrets can directly relate to what games provide to people, which are:

1. Spent more time with family

2. Social games help you stay in contact with friends

3. 30 minutes a day of online gameing can help boost your mood and long term happiness

4. Aviators can be used to express yourself (alter ego) you will become more courageous, brave, and creative.

5. Overall you will be living a happier life and have the drive to do anything you want

Playing games creates more optimism, more creativity, and helps you battle challenges. Makes you feel stronger, braver, and better understood by friends and family and most of all makes depression vanish.

Scientist have found that there is such thing as Post Traumatic Growth- which can be developed to lead happier lives. They have found that after someone has been through something tragic that they have a new look at life. It can help us unlock our ability to live without regrets

Top 5 trails of Post Traumatic Growths 

1. Priorities have changed, not afriad to do what makes me happy.

2. Feel closer to friends and family

3. Understand myself better, know who I really am

4. New sense of meaning and purpose

5. I'm better able to focus on my goals and dreams.

Here are the 4 ways that you can build up resilience against regret:

1. Physical resilience (It improving lungs, brain, and heart)

2. Mental resilience (Improves your will power)

3. Emotional (ability to trigger positive emotions) 3 positive emotions over 1 negative in one hour

4. Social resilience (more strength through friends family. Boost Trust hormone.)

It is studied and backed up by numbers that if you excerise these 4 types of resilience regularly you will live 10 years longer. 

Week 8 EOC: TED Talk Body Language

Body language also known as non verbal language is the way people around us are able to perceive us without actually talking or approaching us. Body language can show others what your mood is like, how you feel about yourself, rather you are confident or nervous, just about anything. Although we may not realize it but we can actually change the outcome of situations if we change our body language. That might sound weird, because who knew that body language could be changed, we just do it naturally right? But we can. If we are nervous about an interview, a presentation, a performance, anything that deals with public speaking, all we need to do is take 2 minutes out of our time and just relax and do some "power" poses. It has been tested and studied that if you do this before a meeting that you will become more confident with yourself and present yourself the way you have always pictured yourself giving your speech. Those 2 minutes of power posing brings up your testosterone levels, which are those hormones that bring dominate feelings, and brings down your cortisol levels, also known as your stress levels. Non verbal language governs our thoughts and feelings about ourselves so by just changing them a tiny bit it can dramatically change our self esteem and the overall impact of our speech. "Don't fake it til you make it, fake it til you become it." Try to exercise these power poses enough so that you will eventually not need to do them as often. You will gain that confidence, passion, and enthusiasm, that you've always wished you had.

Analysis of Project in the Real World

"Advertising is used in a free-market system to promote one brand or group over another. Most competing brands are of equal quality—that is, they are parity products or services."By doing this project it has helped me understand what advertising does for a brand. It ultimately helps customers create and impression on the brand and helps them make decisions. "An advertisement (or “ad”) is a specific message constructed to inform, persuade, promote, provoke, or motivate people on behalf of a brand or group."When you have a brand and you are trying to promote it you must figure out who your target audience is, what message to you want to get through to our customers, how will you do this, how will you hold the attention of our customers, and how will you make them act on your advertisement and not just watch it and forget about it."...effective advertising could persuade you that a particular brand is better or more appealing than the competition. For such advertising to affect you, it has to seem relevant to you, and it has to be presented through media channels that will reach you."

Without knowing how to correctly appeal to your target market you will not succeed, it's like with the entertainment industry; the movie trailers are done by advertisers and if they don't do a good job at telling the story without showing the whole movie, getting the major points across, the emotions, and making viewers act, then a movie won't do as great as was expected or hoped. "From engaging in public service to choosing goods and services, advertising calls people to action."

Citations:
Landa, R. (2010). Advertising by Design: Generating and Designing Creative Ideas Across Media. Wiley. Page 3

Creative Content

"We can think of a brand construct as a developed personality—a strategic concept incorporating a positioning platform based on the product or group with insights into the brand and the prospective audience. It is both an armature and a point of departure for differentiating and connecting with the audience." To continue with assisting with our customers guilt-free purchase we want to show her that this jacket doesn't just have to be a "one time wear" type of garment. Many people, when they are shopping they will find this shirt, dress, jacket, etc., that they really like but what instantly goes through her head is "what can I wear with this?" "will it go with anything in my closet?" "Will I actually wear it, or will it just sit in my closet?" Come on ladies you know what I'm talking about...

"The brand idea is based on an insight into the audience that makes the brand relevant to them. It must exemplify something—tangible or intangible—that people find compellingly relevant to their lives." The concept of this commercial is to show our customers all the different ways and times of day that this jacket can be wore, it just helps her see that "Hey this jacket is worth buying because I can get a ton of use out of it!""...Ads that make people watch and then act..." This commercial will start off during a cold fall day in the city, our stylish girl she doesn't let the cold weather effect what she wants to wear nor does it effect her mood. She goes out and meets her friends for lunch and then goes and gets a cup of coffee. She's having an amazing day, having fun, feeling warm and cozy, and of course feeling confident. She is on her way home, she's crossing the street and accidentally bumps into some guy. She doesn't really pay attention or even looks back to see who she bumped into. She just keeps walking and yells "SORRY!" Next the sun is setting and she is getting ready to go out with her friends and have some fun adventures around the city. She has no cares in the world, she is feeling so confident and so spontaneous. She has no thoughts about tomorrow, her mind is in the now. She's living it up with the people she trusts the most and no one else can stop her.

Citation:

Landa, R. (2010). Advertising by Design: Generating and Designing Creative Ideas Across Media. Wiley. Page 50, 53, 107

Promotion

The promotional approach I have decided to take is to create a television commercial. This commercial will air on channels such as Bravo!, Oxygen, MTV, Style Network, and E!. Our commercial will do a great job on these tv channels because these channels target the same customer as we do; young style hungry women. We will air it one to two times during each show, we feel that this is an appropriate amount of air time, because it isn't to excessive nor is it not enough. "'It's one thing to capture someone's attention, but another thing to hold them for three minutes,' Smith said." We don't want our customers to become annoyed of the commercial so much that they will just change the channel and never experience the message that we are trying to get across. "That is why it is critical to understand how a strategy and idea can work across media and how to start a conversation with people. To simply place an ad conceived for print in mobile media is not enough. One must understand what each medium can do and do well and what people want on that platform or device."

Advertising Concept:

To continue with assisting with our customers guilt-free purchase we want to show her that this jacket doesn't just have to be a "one time wear" type of garment. "Very few products, services, or groups are unique; most are parity products, that is, they offer qualities and functions similar or identical to those of their competitors. Branding and advertising differentiates these parity products, services, and groups in a crowded marketplace." Many people, when they are shopping they will find this shirt, dress, jacket, etc., that they really like but what instantly goes through her head is "what can I wear with this?" "will it go with anything in my closet?" "Will I actually wear it, or will it just sit in my closet?" Come on ladies you know what I'm talking about...

"The brand idea is based on an insight into the audience that makes the brand relevant to them. It must exemplify something—tangible or intangible—that people find compellingly relevant to their lives." The concept of this commercial is to show our customers all the different ways and times of day that this jacket can be wore, it just helps her see that "Hey this jacket is worth buying because I can get a ton of use out of it!""...Ads that make people watch and then act..." This commercial will start off during a cold fall day in the city, our stylish girl she doesn't let the cold weather effect what she wants to wear nor does it effect her mood. She goes out and meets her friends for lunch and then goes and gets a cup of coffee. She's having an amazing day, having fun, feeling warm and cozy, and of course feeling confident. She is on her way home, she's crossing the street and accidentally bumps into some guy. She doesn't really pay attention or even looks back to see who she bumped into. She just keeps walking and yells "SORRY!" Next the sun is setting and she is getting ready to go out with her friends and have some fun adventures around the city. She has no cares in the world, she is feeling so confident and so spontaneous. She has no thoughts about tomorrow, her mind is in the now. She's living it up with the people she trusts the most and no one else can stop her.

Another approach that would probably be great is to create a spread in a magazine. This spread will be similar to that of the commercial concept.We will have 3 pages; page 1 will show our girl wearing the jacket going to meet her friends to have lunch, page 2, our girl will be crossing the street and accidentally bumps into a guy, and the 3rd page will be of her all dressed up having fun with her friends  having a girls night around the city. This spread would be in magazines such as Vogue, Harper's Bazzar, Miss Vogue, and Elle. These magazines target that trendy sophisticated women that we are looking to connect with and assist in a guilt free shopping experience. 

Citations:

Landa, R. (2010). Advertising by Design: Generating and Designing Creative Ideas Across Media. Wiley. Page 49, 50, 108

The Big Idea

"A big idea is a solid, creative, on-brand idea that is large enough and flexible enough to be used effectively across media for a period of time."

"We have to generate ideas and content that people will seek out, that pulls people in across media. When so many people stay continually connected throughout the day by mobile phone or computer, each person decides which advertising messages they care to receive and where to hear or view them." The idea for this advertisement is to show women that they can buy whatever they want as long as it makes them feel happy, empowered, confident, and sexy. "The ideas we generate will have to use media to build relationships and dialogue with people, allowing two-way conversations, offering utilities." A lot of times we get those moments where we instantly see a sweater or shirt that we love but then we start to think to ourselves... "will I actually wear this?" Or you'll get people making you feel guilty for buying a jacket that looks similar to the ones you already have. "What differentiates a brand is how it is characterized, its visual and verbal identity as expressed in each media unit and through every point of contact. Simply stated, differentiation is what distinguishes one brand from the rest."  We want our customers to have a great shopping experience without having to second guess theirselves. To reassure them of their purchases we will air a commercial showing them how they can style one piece of clothing to make it work for any occasion and at any time of the day. We also want to show our customers that they can be confident without having to be influenced by others around them.

Citations:

Landa, R. (2010). Advertising by Design: Generating and Designing Creative Ideas Across Media. Wiley. Pages 49, 52, 68

Competitive Analyses

The brand that I have decided to create an advertisement for is Necessary Clothing. They are an online retailer that caters to sophisticated stylish young women. One of the companies that I feel is direct competition for Necessary Clothing is clothesenvy.com this company is also an online retailers. "Most often, two brands are compared for their functional benefits (our brand of nail polish makes your nails harder or our insurance company gets to the scene of the accident faster) or attributes (our burgers are broiled on an open flame while the competing brand is fried or our potato chips are unbroken contrasted to the broken chips of the leading brand or our organization treats animals more humanely)." These retailers carry stylish and on-trend clothing at surprisingly affordable price. Although there are many other online retailers that can potential be a competitor for Necessary Clothing, Clothes Envy was the one that had the most similar product mix to them. A few things that Necessary Clothing has an advantage in are: they have more options within each clothing category, they have better shipping rates for international orders, they allow their customers to take part in their website by letting them post pictures of how they wear Necessary Clothing, and they carry accessories. What Clothes Envy has over them are: a more appealing website, and they catch your attention by saying that if you sign up you will "receive 10% off your next order."

Citation:
Landa, R. (2010). Advertising by Design: Generating and Designing Creative Ideas Across Media. Wiley. Page 112

Quilt Leather Jacket:Slogan

"It's Always Necessary!"
This slogan helps kick out all of the guilt that may go through our customers minds. We all have experienced having second thoughts when it comes to shopping and we get those tiny voices going in and out of our ears saying things such as "you already have 3 jackets like that," and "you should spend your money on something more important." But NO! not this time. Here at Necessary Clothing we give our style hungry customers the satisfaction of getting anything they want without feeling as if she has committed a crime.

Week 5 EOC: Super Bowl Advertisement

Who?

This Super Bowl 2013 ad was for the Doritos brand. More specifically for their famous Nacho Cheese flavored Doritos.

What?

This commercial is about a little girl that wants her dad to play with her, and of all things, she wants to play dress up. At first he says no but then she brings out her "secret weapon," DORITOS! It automatically changes her dad's mind, he even takes it to the level of putting on makeup. The next scene shows his friends coming in and catching him. What is key about this scene is that he didn't even have to tell them why he was all dressed up, they knew exactly why, and so they all join in so that they can have a taste of the Doritos and ultimately they are all happy, well except the wife/mother.

Where?

This Doritos commercial is taking place in a family's house, but they only show one location which is the daughter's room.

When?

The scene is set in present time probably before or during football season because the father and his friends where all hyped up about playing football before they saw the Doritos bag. 

Why?

This ad is trying to show the audience that Doritos taste so good that you will do just about anything to get a little share of the bag. 

The reason why I like this ad was because of how the little girl got her dad to play with her. With this crazy, fast, and busy world their is not always that time or balance between work, family, and friends. This commercial showed that the dad really wanted to play football with his friends but instead ended up spending quality time with his daughter, and as a bonus he was also able to hang out with his friends and she got more people to play dress up with her. When I saw this commercial,it actually wasn't when it aired at the Super Bowl but just a few weeks ago, and it just made me laugh because of how cute it was that the father and his friends were not ashamed to play dress up and makeup to have some chips. 

Week 4 EOC: Role of Women in Contemporary Advertisements

"While demeaning ads were more omnipresent in the '50s and '60s, their modern counterparts can give vintage ads a run for their money."(1) Sexism in advertising has always been an issue but it seems like nowadays instead of advertisements not portraying women as equal to men it is exploiting women in a sexual way. But nonetheless something that hasn't changed from the 50s' to present time is that advertising is still showing women in an non-serious manner.

Positive:

This advertisement is depicting women in a good way, because it is addressing how women are viewed in today's world and it doesn't show any form of sexual content. Women have always been seen as just a "trophy" and this ad is telling women everywhere that they do not have to stand for that, they can be more then the stereotype that has been around for years. Women can be intelligent, assertive, persuasive, strong, hard working, just as men have been viewed all this time. 

Negative:

This is an American Apparel Advertisement that of course is less provocative then most of their ads but still in a sense depicts a women in a negative way. Most of American Apparels ads are far out there, shocking, and if I may say like a porn ad. Instead of putting the focus on the clothes they decided to catch people's eyes by having their models show sexual and nudity content. You probably wouldn't even realize that this advertisement above is actually an ad for shoes. They have pulled the attention towards the two models and what they are doing, instead of what the are actually selling, and that is how the present all of their advertisements. "The latest ads on the retailer’s [American Apparel] website show various women disrobed whilst donning the retailer’s staple garments, but disrobed to the point that instead of observing the clothes one is instead observing the model’s buttocks and breasts. Which brings the assertion that what the line has in essence done is to present these women as soft porn objects du jour."(2) In the 50s and 60s women were shown in the form of sexism, they were shown as being nothing else but good for cleaning, cooking, taking care of the children, and looking pretty. Now, fast forward to the present day, the advertising industry has taken it to a new level but still in a sense has kept that women are only good for looking pretty to sell products. "'As a professional working woman, I find this kind of ad focus very offensive,' said Roberta Shulman, president of Women in Advertising and Marketing, an industry group in the Washington, D.C., area. 'Women have worked very hard to be taken seriously. These kind of ads go back to denigrating women, making them sex-symbol objects. We're beyond that.'"(3)

Citations: 

1) These Modern Ads are Even More Sexist than Their 'Mad Men' Era Counterparts. Retrieved on October 23, 2013 from http://www.businessinsider.com/these-modern-ads-are-even-more-sexist-than-their-mad-men-era-counterparts-2012-4

2) American Apparel back to Exploiting Women. Retrieved on October 23, 2013 from http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2012/04/american-apparel-back-to-exploiting-women/ 

3) The Media Business: Advertising; Gianni Versace raises eyebrows, and hackles, in The New Yorker. Retrieved on October 23, 2013 from http://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/25/business/media-business-advertising-gianni-versace-raises-eyebrows-hackles-new-yorker.html

Week 3 EOC: Tobacco Advertisements

    1. Determine the scenario: What happens in this frame?

         In this advertisement the tobacco company, Philip Morris is trying to relate its new product to the feeling a mother has for her new born child.

    2. What is the setting? What are the conditions?

        The setting of this advertisement is meant to show an intimate and special moment between a mother and her child. They want to show its customers that a child is to its mother as a cigarette is to its customer, and that it is a special relationship.

    3. Who are the people or groups?

         The people in the advertisement are a mother and her new born child.

    4. What is their point of view around this specific experience?

        Philip Morris point of view on their new product is that it is a softer gentler taste then their other products.

    5. What are their goals?

        Their goals are to satisfy its customers in a new why. They want them to "enjoy the gentle pleasure, the fresh unfiltered flavor, of this new cigarette, born gentle, then refined to special gentleness in the making."

    6. What are their assumptions? What are their perceptions?

         Philip Morris assumption to their new product is that it will satisfy you and create a strong emotional relationship between you and your cigarette.

    7. Are there conflicts? Is there cooperation?

         The conflict of this advertisement is that the company compared their product to a mother and her healthy new born child. Another conflict that this advertisement portrays is that it is okay for parents to smoke around their children let alone their new born children.

    8. What are the outcomes?

            Back in 1956, when this advertisement was launched it wasn’t uncommon to smoke in front of your children and then hug them. Smoking back then wasn’t as restricted as it is now and the people in the 50s weren’t really informed about the health problems associated with smoking cigarettes. So this advertisement wasn’t much of a shock back then, but when people see it now we consider it wrong and unethical.

This is an advertisement that I found to be unethical. Ralph Lauren used this model in its advertisements but the ad on the left was Photoshopped wrongly. It portrayed the model to look as if she had an eater disorder. It showed that the brand Ralph Lauren supports the stereotypes of the fashion industry, that all models don't eat. Although models are skinny it doesn't mean they don't eat. The fashion industry is trying to fight against this reputation that it accumulated over the years and this so called "mistake" on Ralph Lauren's behalf is not helping in the least. The editors of this advertisement said that they didn't realize how distorted they had made the model look, but I think that that was untrue. How can you not realize this distortion?! Plus don't advertisements pass many eyes before it is published or launched so how come no one pointed out this problem before it went into the public eye?

Week 2 EOC: Health Insurance

For the pass few weeks there have been tons of debates and concerns about the health care laws that will be taken into effect for 2014. “The new healthcare law means that next year everyone in the country will be required to have health insurance or pay a fine. Those with private insurance, however, aren't required to sign up, and those on Medicare or Medicaid will not have to change their coverage.”(1) What is the purpose of the new healthcare law that will come into effect? "The Affordable Care Act (ACA) expands access to coverage to millions of Americans, a goal health plans have long supported, but major provisions will raise costs and disrupt coverage for individuals, families, employers, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries."(2) With all of the different emotions and opinions on this subject it is hard to say if making health insurance mandatory is the right thing to do or not. Many will say that it is unconstitutional because it is basically forcing us to buy something that we don’t want. On the other hand we all need health insurance whether we need it right at the moment, a few days from now, or within a few years, it will at least give us a safety blanket if we ever should need it. So with the rise in the concern about health insurance in America, insurance companies are have become very interested in appealing to the younger crowds. Problem is that many young people don't believe that they need health insurance yet because they are so young. How will the ACA help young adults? “Before the President signed the Affordable Care Act into law, many health plans and issuers could remove adult children from their parents' policies because of their age, whether or not they were a student or where they lived. The Affordable Care Act requires plans and issuers that offer dependent coverage to make the coverage available until the adult child reaches the age of 26. Many parents and their children who worried about losing health insurance after they graduated from college no longer have to worry.”(3) In order to appeal to them companies must have deals that will eventually benefit them for when they get older or benefit them in present time, such as if a customer doesn't have to use the coverage for around 3 months they will be credited a certain amount of money back that they pay to be covered by their insurer. This could really help appeal to the younger generations because they will have the safety of being covered if anything should ever happen, and if they don't have to use the insurance they can be credited with a percentage of their money back, to go towards what ever they would like. This approach will be very effective because young adults are just starting out in the world trying to keep steady jobs and pay bills, so if they are able to earn a little cash back it will definitely help them out a lot.

Citations:

1) Understanding What the New Healthcare Law Means for You. Retrieved on October 9, 2013 from http://dailynightly.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/25/20695336-understanding-what-the-new-healthcare-law-means-to-you?lite 

2) Affordable Care Act. Retrieved on October 9, 2013 from http://www.ahip.org/Issues/Affordable-Care-Act/ 

3) Young Adults and Affordable Care Act: Protecting Young Adults and Eliminating Burdens on Businesses and Families. Retrieved on October 9, 2013 from http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq-dependentcoverage.html