I think Anheuser-Busch’s strategy is very effective in targeting younger users of alcohol and especially men. The comedy used in the TV commercials is very juvenile but effective in making the advertisement memorable. The internet and magazine ads and the billboards for Bud Light are continuations of the TV advertisement campaigns and emphasize the brand recognition caused by the TV commercials. Bud Light has been extremely effective in recent years in coming up with creative campaigns that make audiences remember them and think about them when considering their purchase decision. Every year they have a prevalent Super Bowl presence, sometimes running more than one commercial during the game and following up with print and internet campaigns that remind customers of how funny the commercial was. Since Super Bowl commercials are extremely expensive, Bud Light seems to be very successful in marketing their beer to the target market.

I agree with Kate Winslet for suing; she owes it to her fans to be truthful about her exercise habits, especially because she does not fit the Hollywood stereotype of extremely thin. Winslet stated that she strongly believes that women should accept themselves the way they are, so the accusations were extremely offensive to her. I believe she is a great role model for women in the public eye to resist the pressure to be unhealthy. Claiming that such a strong role model for changing body issues and stereotypes lied about her exercise habits would have a profoundly negative effect on her image in the media if it had been allowed. Winslet was extremely bothered by the allegations because the Daily Mail was implying that she was trying to mislead the public, and I think it shows a lot of commitment to her beliefs that she would go to such lengths to ensure readers knew the truth.

Although I am not a Penn State fan, I found myself participating in the cheers and shaking that free pom-pom like I had lived in Pennsylvania my entire life. I found myself cheering on the Blue Sapphire and giving her a standing ovation at the end of her performance. When I went to buy food, I bought a Sierra Mist Pepsi drink with my Tostitos nachos and I remember asking my friend about the Penn State nursing program in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The school altered my perception of it by showing me what a strong community they are and had me cheering for the team along with the students and buying all the products whose creators convinced me of their commitment to consumers. Penn State scheduled the football game, coordinated all the sponsors, planned the halftime show and organized all the school cheers and chants to alter public opinion about the school and persuade people to cheer for PSU football, and they were extremely successful with these strategies.

I read The Kite Runner my senior year of high school for my English class and I loved it, so I immediately purchased A Thousand Splendid Suns because it was written by the same author. Though the latter is not a sequel, the books are very similar in their accounts of the same time period in Afghanistan. My mother bought the book for me because we often share books and she wanted to read it as well. My mother and I also talked about it in great length afterward because it is so haunting. One of the women in the story is forced to chew rocks and break all her teeth because her husband told her that the taste of the rock is comparable to her cooking. The other wife and her child are forced to stay in their room for days without food, water, or any lighting. These are just a few of the atrocities the women faced and could not do anything about as the laws in Afghanistan at the time saw domestic matters as personal matters that should be left up to the husband. Since my mother read it first, everyday she would ask me where I was in the book and we would discuss how terrible the situation was. We would discuss how ridiculous the laws for women were and still are in places like Afghanistan and how lucky we are to not live somewhere like that.

A Thousand Splendid Suns truly affected my perception of my life because I realized that so many of the “problems” I encounter are so small in comparison to problems women are the world face. I realized that a bad grade should not get me upset when I could be living somewhere like Afghanistan and not even be able to show my face when I leave my house. The women in the novel were not even allowed to go anywhere without male accompaniment! The book just made me realize how lucky I am to be a woman in the United States when so many other women are suffering all over the world. The book has also opened my eyes to not just “best selling” books and well-known books but foreign and obscure books. I learned to truly “not judge a book by its cover” and go outside my comfort zone when it comes to books because A Thousand Splendid Suns was extremely sad but it was uplifting in the end and made me consider so many new things. I now enjoy books that are not necessarily popular but that will make me think.

Here is a link to Khaled Hosseini’s website where you can learn about both his books:

http://www.khaledhosseini.com/index.htm

Disney movies first introduced me to the idea of the villain versus the hero. Movies like The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast clearly identify a beautiful hero and a hideous villain. This had a lot of influence on my idea of right and wrong; I thought that it would be obvious if I made the right decision (the sun would be shining, birds would be singing) and it would be obvious if I made the wrong decision. But these lessons are nothing like the real world. In reality, there is no clear-cut right and wrong- most actions and decisions are blurred. There is often more gray area than black or white. It is a rude awakening to find that a path is not clearly identified as right or wrong and villains are not all ugly and obvious. A person can be villainous without actually being a villain and even a “bad guy” may have good qualities. I was thoroughly unprepared for every situation not having a happy ending.

Disney has recently gotten a bad reputation as an evil, mind-controlling corporation because of the massive amount of media it controls and the seemingly ubiquitous nature of its merchandise. A major critique of Disney culture (besides the inevitable “happy ending”) is that it does not provide a lot of diversity in race or ethnicity. True, until this year Disney had never portrayed a black person as a main character in one of its movies, but through the personification of all kinds of toys and animals children are taught kindness and acceptance. Children and parents love Disney and the media Disney produces because it does teach good lessons. I believe too much responsibility is placed on Disney and not enough on the parents. If Disney does not give a good idea of diversity, parents should make sure their children know about different races and ethnicities and how to be tolerant. If Disney creates an all-too-perfect world, parents should prepare their children of dangerous people and places. I loved Disney as a child, but I did not turn out to be intolerant of other cultures and I do not believe every day of my life will have a happy ending. I was blessed with parents who raised me to be a good person despite what people often refer to as “evil” Disney culture. Let’s not forget: parents are ultimately responsible for what their children watch but also for how they think, react, and grow. Whatever the opinion of Disney, it should not get all the blame for skewed viewpoints. I think Disney creates a worthwhile shared culture for children and adults but parents should help them develop healthy skepticism of any media that immerses their children.

Here is a link to Disney’s holdings, showing just how powerful Disney truly is:

http://www.cjr.org/resources/?c=disney

This is a great example of a social networking site impacting the workplace. This case is especially worrisome because of the magnitude of Sawers’ position and how dangerous it could potentially be if the information posted on Facebook was used against him to hurt his friends and family. Posting information, even seemingly harmless photographs, can be extremely telling and dangerous. Users of social networking sites have to be cautious about the information they post. Users also need to be aware of the privacy settings on their profile in order to prevent people from abusing the information they post. I have a Facebook page, but I ensure that only my friends can see the information I post on my page. Only people that I allow to be my friends can see any pictures I post, anything my friends write on page, and any information about my school or work. Today, most people know about the dangers of joining social networking sites and exposing information to strangers, but some people still do not make their profiles private. Social networking sites are great for getting to know people and staying connected, but they can be abused just like all other forms of the internet. Anyone using a social networking site like Facebook should be aware of how to alter their privacy settings and protect themselves from someone using their information in a harmful way.

Here is a link to the article on Sir John Sawers.

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1197562/MI6-chief-blows-cover-wifes-Facebook-account-reveals-family-holidays-showbiz-friends-links-David-Irving.html

Although I watch “The Office” fairly regularly, I had never been to the website until this assignment. I think that the website is extremely successful. The site serves to provide information about the show and its characters. It allows users to delve even deeper into the identity of the characters and makes it seem that the characters are actual people. Since the show is a mock-reality show, the site makes the show feel even more like a reality show than it already does by enabling users to look at photos, read character blogs, and watch character vlogs. Users can even follow any tweets from the cast directly from the show’s website. The site also serves to entertain and provide a diversion from everyday activities by allowing users to play games associated with the show and buy “The Office” merchandise. In addition, the site has a level of interactivity with its discussion boards, twitter communities, fan pages, and character and cast blogs. The web site for “The Office” is extremely effective in serving all of these media uses.

I was very impressed by the website for “The Office.” It has almost everything that an avid fan of the show would want to read or watch. The site does a great job of supplementing the show with photos, videos, and blogs as well as games that allow the user to immerse himself in the world of the show. I have very few suggestions for how to improve the website, but one thing the creators should consider would be adding more interactive aspects to the site. The fan base for “The Office” is already large and it would benefit from a larger community space for fans to talk to other fans and coordinate watching episodes together and so forth. If “The Office” maintains the success it has had in the past few years, it could possibly have the following that shows like “Star Trek” or “Friends” has had. This is definitely achievable through building a communal bond between fans so that they will create an even bigger following. Other than that, the web site for the show “The Office” has everything a fan could possibly want.

Here is the website for “The Office.”

http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/

The first day that I tried to keep track of all the media I consumed was almost impossible. At first I tried to keep a notebook and write down everything I was exposed to, but I soon realized how improbable it is to do. I woke up and immediately checked my email and checked my facebook. Then I listened to my iPod on the way to class, then watched videos in class and checked out the Ning site. Walking through the hallways I saw flyers for all kinds of things happening on campus. After class I went to my internship, which is for a company that does advertisements and promotions for films showing in the Baltimore area, so needless to say it was impossible to write down all the media I was exposed to there. There were movie posters all over the office and my boss gave me research to do on the internet, so there were countless ads and media in those hours.

I did the same thing the next day, trying to keep track of all I was exposed to. It was terrible because it was a Wednesday and I don’t have class, so I realized how much TV I watch in my down time. I spent 2 hours watching TV before I headed to my internship, where once again I did research and saw several movie trailers for films coming to theaters soon. Even when I went to the gym I was listening to my iPod during my workout and watching the TVs in the gym.

It was truly surprising how much time I spent watching TV or on the internet. I have to check my email several times a day for my job at the gym and for my internship and almost all down time I had, I spent watching TV. These habits show me that media is so ingrained in my daily routine that it would be very difficult to avoid it, so I quickly became apprehensive about trying to avoid it.

Trying to Hide

I strategically chose two days out of my week that I did not have my internship to try to avoid all the media I could. On Thursday I woke up and checked my email (just to make sure I didn’t have any emails for professors). I reluctantly left my iPod off and walked to class without music. We used the internet in class, so I could not avoid it there. It took a lot of effort to avoid taking a Towerlight to do the puzzles in between classes. The mere avoidance of my iPod all day was enough to drive me insane. At least at work I managed to just sit and talk to my co-workers because we’re not supposed to go on the computer, read, or listen to music anyway. But even with the measures I took to avoid media, I still found myself popping on facebook when I got home.

The next day I tried the same things, only checking my email in the morning and avoiding my iPod. I didn’t have class but I had to work, so I tried to avoid media on the way to work. Posters around campus and people handing out flyers made it difficult to continue my experiment. After work I broke down and watched TV because I missed it so much, which is sad. It was a Friday so I went out with friends that night and listened to music at the party.

What Does It All Mean?

We are constantly bombarded with media, similar to the earth in a meteor shower. It is nearly impossible to avoid, especially because it is not an individual decision. Even if I wanted to never use the internet, I would have to convince my teachers and bosses to avoid using the internet as well. My whole major would have to change; I’m taking several e-business and information courses that require the use and understanding of the internet. And how would my friends and family get in touch with me if I never used my phone? We have become so reliant on technology that it would be almost impossible to disentangle ourselves from it. Technology has made things so much faster that trying to convince people not to use it would be extremely difficult. We are voluntarily and involuntarily exposed to so much media that most of the time we do not even take notice. At this point it is not forseeable for us to avoid technology because everything in our society has become so addicted on it. Students, especially, are susceptible to media addiction because of the way campuses, classes, and jobs are structured. This experiment helped me to realize that if I wanted to slow my media addiction, I would have a long, hard road ahead of me.

Here is a link to a video about media addiction in America’s youth and how it is becoming increasingly troubling.

Media Addiction Video