Magazine Advertising (blog 14)

Hey everyone,
So since we are blogging about something other than our medium we picked, I'm going to talk a little bit about advertising in magazines. My personal favorite magazine is Cosmopolitan, and there are tons of advertisements in there, and lot's of pictures of beautiful people. It almost lowers your self-esteem sometimes.

Many of the advertisements shown in the magazine are using beautiful women to sell their products. They use sex appeal to sell things. It is hard to look at some of the things sometimes and not wish that you looked like one of those women. I think that some of the advertisements are a negative thing. Some younger girls look at these and decide that they aren't good enough and may decided that they aren't "pretty" enough. Many girls even develop eating disorders. The eating disorder link gives a few stories of young girls who died from eating disorders, due to media exposure. There is hope though for some of the girls who have problems with themselves. There is a advertising deal going on with the Dove company, Called the "Campaign for Real Beauty".
It uses real women to advertise, women unlike the one's in the magazine all made-over.

In my opinion the world could use more advertising like that. It shows women that there is more to beauty than external beauty. And, that not all beauty in magazines is what everyone is after. I believe that Fruit of the Loom also uses real women in their advertising, no matter what their weight, or looks. They aren't all stick thin like the ones in the magazine. I think that kind of advertising is a good start to getting people to feel good about themselves and live with what they have.
So What is your opinion on media advertising? How does it make you feel?

(Blog 13) Advertising in the Media

Hey Everyone,
Well since we can write about anything this week, I have decided to write about advertising and the effects it can have on people. There are so many different kinds of advertising, whether it is advertisements for products, places, or organizations, they can be positive or negative. They use advertising in almost everything including movies. And, some things they show really aren't advertising, but can portray the message that something is cool, but really is wrong.

In movies there are different things advertised like products, and if a character in a movie is using that product it may influence you, subconsciously, to want to try that product. These products range anything from clothes, to food. But, some things that are portrayed through movies are not positive. Some show things like drug use, and they may kind of show that it is okay because the people rarely ever get punished in the movies.

In media sources like public television, there are a lot of good things going on in the media. There is one organization that has those "Above the Influence" commercials. They are showing kids who are making bad decisions because their friends influence them, but then show the kids turning their lives around and showing them "Living Above the Influence" of their friends. That's just one of the good advertisements. And I think it could help kids make a good decision about not doing drugs.

But, on the other side there are commercials that show drinking and other bad behaviors. There are alcohol commercials that show people having a good time drinking and make it seem like everything is ok with alcohol. They show sex appeal to sell their product also.

So I think that the media for the most part is not always a good thing and it shows a lot of negative things like bad behavior and other needless things that you don't need like junk food and stupid info-mercial products.

Steriod Usage in the MLB

Hey everyone,
Well since it is almost baseball season for the MLB, and I'm a crazy Minnesota Twins fan, it's gotten me thinking a bit more about baseball lately. So I figured I would write about something baseball related, it is not really a positive aspect of the game, but in secrecy has unfortunately become a part of the game. I am talking about steroid usage. We tend to hear more and more about the use of the performance enhancing drugs as the years go on.

I have found an article back from November of 2003. In this article it says "Steroid use in baseball is no longer a rumor. It's a fact." So to me it seems that steroid use was sort of unheard of. They had heard rumors of big league players using steroids but no one believed it. So in the 2003 season they gave a drug test to all the players, 1,200 players were tested and 84 players tested positive. This was the MLB's first "slap in the face" that players were using illegal performance enhancing drugs. Cheating. The fine for it now is a 15 day unpaid suspension or a $10,000 fine. It doesn't seem like enough of a punishment to me. $10,000 isn't that big of a deal for an MLB player, and a 15 day unpaid suspension isn't really going to hurt them financially!

It really isn't enough of a punishment because look at all the little kids that look up to them. There are not only influencing the kids into thinking that steriods are alright, but they may be letting the kids down. Kids do not want to see their role models do wrong. Just look at the role models that are out there now who have done steroids. Three major ones are Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa. Among these players there are more, I have found a list of a handful of players who have used steriods.

In my opinion, the players should be suspended and fined but for more than the punishment they get now. And, I really don't think that they should tell the public who is doing steriods, just no make it so public. Kids and others could look at that and maybe think it's alright, because they never really hear about the negative things that happen to the players who are doing the drugs. All that really gets shown in the media is that they were using and then they show the player, maybe at a press conference, apoligizing. That isn't enough!!