The busy woman's ad.......

After reading Nikevoulition I really saw things in a different light, Nike went through so much to because deeply embedded in the inner cities and it paid off big time! I found many ways that advertisements crawl into the heart and body of the people who look at them. The most compelling was a jewelry ad that shows a blond woman playing chess, the tag line: "pretty smart". At first I couldn't' even tell it was an ad for jewelry. Interesting, but obviously it is aimed at all those blond woman out there that walk around with a stigma that they are dumb until prove otherwise. The dumb blond jokes go on everyday. And of course with the jewelry she looks beautiful, and now she can play chess. That was so blatantly obvious to me.

The general ambiance I choose for this blog was appealing to the working woman. The woman of today is a woman who works full time and takes care of her family. I found 3 ads that would catch that type of woman's eye and giver her praise yet she can also relate to the ad because of her crazy life. Though there is no fear here every woman who lives this life fears she isn't doing a good enough job juggling everything, so praising this woman through advertisements is smart, catches her attention and makes her feel appreciated, in a world that ignores her struggles sometimes.
Ad #1 Blue Diamond Almonds, this shows a tri-picture:three pictures in one the top half of the woman has a construction hat on and a nice jacket, the middle part has casual clothes on with a toddler boy hugging her leg, and the bottom shows nice athletic legs with running shoes on. The tag line "More than a snack", then it goes on to say, "you are doing more these days, why not pick a snack that does more". This insinuates many things, first you are doing more these days, this is true through the decades a woman does so much more now, career, motherhood, and taking care of herself. The picture is laid over a blue print that says more than an engineer, another way to prove that woman are capable of anything these days. I guess fear could be interpreted if a woman wants to look and act this way she should eat these nuts as a snack.

Ad #2 Playtex tampons this ad shows a business dressed woman running from what looks like an office in the background. The tag line reads "Slow down on heavy days? Not anymore." This ad appeals to the working woman who cannot slow down just for their period. But so many times it is hard to deal with life when you are dealing with a heavy period and all of our responsibilities. Of course she is beautiful and young looking, and happy all the things that our periods seem to strip us of when we have them. But this ad pleads to the working woman who is constantly running from place to place trying to keep up with life, school, kids and everything else a working woman has to deal with. The last thing we want is to slow down for a heavy period.

Ad #3 Monistat Yeast Infection Medication this ad shows again a working woman in her home sipping coffee, reading a note as if she is ready to run out the door. The tag line reads "You do three things at once. Now we do too." Woman are busy, always, we are multitaskers men usually aren't and woman always want that recognition but rarely get it. Also woman HATE a yeast infection, and the side effects that come with it. The woman in the ad is dressed in a tight black skirt, something no woman with a yeast infection would or could wear, however this ad insinuates that if you use this cream your infection is cured faster even with the worst symptoms. So for a multi-tasking working woman, what a better medication but one that does the same. And we woman do this with success, so this medicine must too. That is the message I get, also that I will be cured from this horrible inconvenient infection quickly.

I really like the essay by Neil Postman also he brings up such great points. Many times in ads we are instilled with fear of our actions, and there usually is a solution. Most of the time we are given a way to be better and ultimately live our lives free of sin, I think that his points are true in many ads about relating things to religion. Even if you aren't a religious person most people don't want to sin or be looked at as a sinner, simply in the public eye. I guess you can tell the era in the ring around the collar example. Obviously the guy never did his own laundry, now a days the woman could look at the man and say, you don't like it do it yourself!

Historical Advertisements

The first one that caught my eye was the Marlboro Ad. "Come to Marlboro Country", I think the first obvious subliminal thing here is the man being so high up on the mountain. It directly relates to getting that high from smoking a cigarette, and feeling on top of the world. Of course it is a cowboy in the ad smoking a cigarette with his horse, possibly to instill the strong man figure that Marlboro always tried to portray.

There were several ads that took the humor route to draw people in. MasterCard uses their infamous list of normal purchases, then throws in one weird item that a boxer would never buy. There tag line priceless is well known for commercials, but the humor behind it is this strong, sexy, mean looking boxer buying boxing gloves, punching bag, then the weird one the pink pashminas??? Also the ad about the game Risk was very humorous shaping the globe like a human butt. The game is a strategic war game about defeating the other side, so the obvious humor catches ones eye easily. Another was using the Rubbermaid ad in a burnt garage, however the wedding dress survived the fire, good way to get the readers attention, but kind of humorous how she looks burnt with her hair sticking strait up.

A lot of the newer ads for alcoholic beverages (Bacardi Limon, and Captain Morgan) involved beautiful woman and they are outnumbering the man in the shot, insinuating if you drink their beverage the woman will flock to you. In the Bacardi Limon the hand is actually looking in the bottle and the woman is in the bottle, that is obviously there for that reason. In the older alcoholic beverage ads they show men sitting around drinking together all proper like and happy. The Hennessy ad shows these men sitting around a piano dressed in tuxedo's like it is a after dinner cognac.

On Ad Access I liked the ad for NBC where the whole family is watching the TV but it isn't even out of the cardboard box. Obviously it is around the time when TV's were new to the home. Also NBC is trying to get the point across that there is such good entertainment on their station, people won't even want to finish unpacking the box to start watching. That was a good ad also it is speaking to the fact that color TV is new, and the ad is in color.

Sex Symbols and Analyzing Signs Reading

While searching for an ad to critique I cam across a Calvin Klein perfume and cologne ad. Everyone is familar with the fact that Calvin Klein ads and usually commercials are very sexual in nature. But after reading Sex Symbols and Arthur Berger's checklist for viewing ads I saw a whole lot more.
The ad is definelty sexual in nature, also something unique to CK ads is that it is in Black and White, which I think ads some sexual ambience to the scene. The man in on the woman and they are staring each other deep into their eyes. You cannot really see that background however there is tall grass which leads me to believe they are in a field or in sand dunes, suggesting that they stopped where ever they were and HAD to embrace, by the looks on thier faces they see nothing else around them, this creates a very erotic scene.
They are the whole page, you cannot see anything else but thier bodies touching and them embracing. Again the black and white suggests simplicity, just like the design of the bottle for the fragrance, they are wearing white shirts to add to the simple nature. I think this simplicity helps to bring the attention to what they are doing.
The relationship is very close, it is as if they are about to have sex, they definelty are seconds away from kissing. They are both young, both have long beautiful hair, both very good looking, and completely embracing each other closely.
The bottom of the page reads, "ETERNITY" "Calvin Klein", then timeless frangraces for men and women. One symbolic thing I noticed is that the woman has a wedding ring on her wedding finger. At first glance I would have assumed that they were two young people wanting to have sex, and forced by the overpowering desire to grab each other and kiss. But when I saw the ring I began to think it may be more. The name Eternity, the word timeless, and the ring, makes me think maybe the underlined message is being in love, and finding the right person forever??? The ring I think adds innocense to the ad even though it is so erotic looking. Being that it is a fragrance I do think that the marketing behind it suggests that if you wear this fragrance you will fall eternally in love with your true love and live happily ever after, with passion.

There are a few blades of grass laying over their chests, and you can see the grass in the background. But I think that the close up picture is to have you focus on the passion involved and their beauty. The white shirts stand out in a black and white ad perfectly. He has dirty blonde hair and a sort of surfer hairdo, with the long blades of grass I picture this being at the ocean, and them embracing in the sand, which in itself is so romantic. The deep stare is the focal point however, that stare is so strong, most people particually woman want a man to look at them that way. And well if you buy Eternity it just might happen for you too!

Research Topic-Insulin Therapy for Children with type 1 Diabetes

I have chosen my own topic simply because I find it close to my heart with my son being a diabetic, and I know first hand how Insulin pump Therapy has changed our lives. I intend to prove to my audience that it is a proven better choice, especially for younger children on many levels,and how this technology has changed the lives of millions of children with diabetes. My sources are many but I have narrowed them down to 5 and need to still narrow them down further. They are as follows:

www.childrenwithdiabetes.com, Insulin Pump Therapy page questions and answers, published by Children with diabetes, Inc.

Diabetic Medicine, a journal compilation from the Journal of Diabetes, UK
published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc via intercience.wiley.com

Medtronic, Why Pump Therapy?
published by Medtronic MiniMed, Inc

Kids, Insulin Pumps & You..... A parents guide to Insulin Pump Therapy for Kids
published by Animas Corp.

New Pump, New Life
published by American Diabetes Association

What I found in my research is that the statistics prove that insulin pump therapy is responsible for not only helping children to live a more flexible life but the on an average it has lowered the average blood sugar ranges and decreased the amount of deadly low blood sugar episodes. I also learned that an insulin pump was used on a 12 day old baby that was born without a pancreas! This was huge because even 20 years ago that baby would have more than likely died but due to technology and insulin pumps this baby could be given minuet doses of insulin that a regular syringe isn't capable of delivering, thus allowing to manage such a tiny baby's sugar level, AMAZING. I also was touched by the numerous letters that children around the world have written thanking the pump companies for this device, and the parents as well are thankful for being able to live a less stressful life. I also learned that Insulin pump companies have already created a continuous glucose monitoring system that will read directly to a pump, which one day soon means NO MORE CHECKING blood sugars 8-10 times a day, this device will be implanted and automatically sense the level of sugar in the blood then read to the pump. This means basically an artificial pancreas! I learned lots of interesting things, much I didn't already know so it was a great research project, as far as technology goes, diabetes, and my school project.