Skylar

I'm doing my presentation on the power of imagery, looking back at a few different blogs. Imagery sticks with us, even if the memory connected to it does not. In fact, most people do not have memory's from their early childhood, but they have images. One of my earliest image memories is from when I was about, 2. and my parents watching on television the Berlin wall fall down. Some say we don't have any memories before the ages of around 4. I don't believe this is true, especially with imagery. a picture is worth 1000 words, and the media companies surely know this.

Throughout the semester Ive learned a lot about media and its role in our lives, its easy to overlook how advertising effects us in many ways, but when you get down to it, it effects almost everything about us. Ive learned a lot about the problems caused by the media and a few ways to help fix these problems, but personally I believe many of the issues caused are just things we have to deal with. One of the things I find very saddening that the media has created in our modern society, is our standard for beauty. ever since Barbie dolls came out on the market and Coca-Cola ads had pretty blond women we've had an obsession with sex in our advertising. Even when it comes down to little things, we use sex to sell just about anything. I pointed a rather funny ad I found in one of my blogs. In this image we see using a popular singer and celebrity to sell, UMBRELLAS! dressed in short leather and a white shirt we see sex being blatenly used to sell even the most obscure of products, not to mention the umbrella isent even being used for it purpose, bringing the idea that its just used as a fashion symbol rather than something to keep you dry. My thoughts more elbaorated on this subject can be found here,

"Within this ad we see a line of "designer" umbrellas, as if it matters what name is on your umbrella, not to mention in this image the umbrella is not even being used for its purpose, TO KEEP YOU DRY!, the umbrella is being as a fashion statement They are trying to sell, not the product, but the image that goes along with. Using celebrity's to sell products is common in the advertising industry, it ads and extra boost to the visual aspect of the ad. The people most likely swayed by this image are the people who follow week by week fashion, but in the middle class area of fashion, not the high class area where not only is name brand everything, but your status by wearing the brand is equally important. The product is supposed to make you feel like your more "important" than you really are, in the fashion world sense. Popularity is everything. People less liekly affected by this ad are people in the real world who don't care about silly designer embrellas and by a 5 dollar one to keep them dry..." Media and its influence is all around us, there isent anything we can do about it in modern society, sure we can choose to ignore the billboards we pass on the road, or mute the commercials in between our shows, but either way that media is there, and it is influencing in ways were not even aware of sometimes. Just through a simple glance at a photo so many fragments of ideas and thoughts are forced into our brain, a flash of memories and connotations relating to the photo. In a previous blog I also talk about an image of a young Vietnamese man being shot in the head by a general, I used it as my example for a charged image. People may have different reactions to the photo but the fact is most of us have a reaction, usually one that causes us to think. The media is known to use this technique as well, putting a shocking images such as this one of the front page of your paper is sure to draw attention. Some may think its grotesque and disagree with the editors choice of displaying the photo, but as the saying goes, there is no such thing as bad publicity, A technique used in the past, and even recently in magazines has been to put in images that seem normal, but really aren't. I can recall an image from, I believe it was a sociology book of an ad with a woman with 3 legs, these types of ads are used to draw our attention, and sometimes even on a subliminal level, some ads use them blatantly almost as a satire of that type of media, and yet, they are still using it regardless of whether it be in a comical sense or not. Ive gotten to the point in the media industry society we live in, to try and ignore as much as possible, and when i cant ign ore it, disect it and try to find the true meaning, everything has a bias and I want to find that bias, and perhaps have a better understanding for why its there. Sometimes its just fun to laugh at the media and how ridiculous some ads are, like Axe Body Spray ads, while they are mocking the sex sells idea, they are still using that idea to their benefit, Axe is a very popular product and many people use it, perhaps in a small way believing the ads even though they are completely false. I try to cut back on my media consumption, I used to just watch TV because I was bored, And I dident care much what was on, I now no longer have cable TV and choose which shows I want to watch or not online, this gives me more power against the advertising companies and also gives me more time to work on other aspects of my life. I suggest you do the same. If you really could count how many shows you really like and watch on television, chances are you can watch them online with minimal advertising and less interruption, I have found having cable TV only has a few benefits,the few being the History Channel and other learning broadcasts.
 * Learning Outcome 5**
 * Learning Outcome 6**

Things to Take Away:

1. Advertising is Everywhere, get used to it. 2. Don't let advertising control you, you decide how to interpret it. 3. Investigate, don't let information wash over you. 4. Avoid television commercials. 5. Cut back unneeded media consumption. Too much information can be a bad thing.

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