"Advertising and People of Color"

In "Advertising and People of Color", the authors discuss the lack of ethnic diversity in print and television advertisements. Although the essay was written in 1995, unfortunately, the same type of behavior occurs today. According to the reading, in the 1980s, many of the advertisements featuring minorities were based on stereotypes that displayed "crude and condescending images". For example, the Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix ad which displayed a fat, bandanna wearing, black mother who spoke improper English. Or the Cream of Wheat ad that played as though all African-Americans have a hard time spelling, many advertisements are meant to be funny, but come off as demeaning to minority groups.

Then, the essay talked about how the different minority groups took a stand and protested against the advertising agencies. I don't really understand why it's a problem for some people to see minority models in print or television ads. The way I see it, a black model can do the same job that a white model can do, but maybe that's just me!! I think in today's society more minorities are being used in advertisements, but still not enough. This country claims to practice equal opportunity and give its citizens equal rights, then again, its real easy to SAY that!!

"My Wife and Kids" 2

Fortunately, this week, I was able to catch another episode of My Wife and Kids. Luckily, this episode was just as funny as the last one I was able to watch. On this episode, Claire, Mr. Kyle's daughter, was eagerly awaiting her senior prom which was fastly approaching. A boy she had always liked, asked her to go with him, and everything seemed perfect. That is, until she found out that her parents volunteered to be chaperones at the prom, just so they could keep an eye on her.

To make things worse, Claire's mother Jay, seemed to be more excited about the prom than she was. She made it a point to make sure she had the perfect dress, the perfect makeup, and that Michael, her husband, wore a tuxedo to match. Michael, of course, was more focused on making sure Claire's date kept his hands to himself and didn't try anything. Claire constantly complained about her parents going, but it didn't change anything. Then, on prom night, after Claire's date had arrived, and Michael had given him the rules, Jay came strutting down the stairs wearing the same dress Claire was wearing. She, of course, had planned it out, and thought it was the cutest thing ever; but Claire couldn't be any more upset, and thought they would look stupid. However, no matter how much she complained, Jay wasn't going to change; so they went off to the prom in the same dress.

Once they arrived at the prom, things got even worse, for Claire. Her parents stole the show. They danced, and danced, and danced, until they made history becoming the first non-student couple to win prom king and queen. Some of the other students thought Claire's parents were incredibly cool, but Claire thought just the opposite. She stood in a corner the whole night moping. Even when her date tried to cheer her up, it didn't work. She wanted to leave and thought her prom was a disaster because her parents were there.

After a few days had gone by, Claire still wasn't talking to her parents because of how they had embarrased her. They couldn't get Claire to forgive them until Michael went upstairs to her room to talk to her. He told her that the reason why her mother had been so excited about the prom was because she wasn't able to go to her prom. On Jay's prom night, she was in the hospital giving birth to Junior, Claire's older brother. After hearing such a story, Claire couldn't stay mad at her parents, so she forgave them. The moral of the story is, although we all get embarassed by our parents sometimes, they usually have our best interest at heart, and don't really mean to embarass us. So, the next time your mother or father completely embarasses you, think about what their intentions were, BEFORE you yell at them!!

"How Advertising Informs to Our Benefit"

In "How Advertising Informs to Our Benefit", the author discusses how advertisements can sometimes be helpful, while other times be misleading. Ads are normally used to persuade people to buy products. In many ways they're helpful because of the information they give about a product; but they can also be misleading because of the information they leave out.

In the reading, the author explained how the Kellogg All-Bran cereal ad that opened in October of 1984 was somewhat deceptive. In the ad, Kellogg claimed that the National Cancer Institute believed that "a high fiber, low fat diet may reduce your risk of some kinds of cancer." Coinicidently, Kellogg's All-Bran cereal had nine grams of fiber per serving, the most of all cereals. So, Kellogg promoted their cereal as if to say, "If you eat our cereal, you won't get cancer," which probably isn't true. Then, the FDA and FTC started fighting over whether the ad was legal or not.

So, advertisements can be misleading by tying things together that don't relate, or by leaving out important information. For instance, acne advertisements can be misleading because of the wealth of information they leave out. Many times, in acne ads, the seller says, "4 out of 5 dermatologists recommend our product." However, they never say who those dermatologists are. For all the consumer knows, they could be anybody. Plus, it seems like every acne ad, diet ad, or toothpaste ad has 4 out of 5 doctors recommending the product; so, either all of those products are really good, or someone's lying or telling half-truths.

"My Wife and Kids"

First off, let me start by saying that normally, I don't have much time to watch television. After coming to school, going to work, chillin with my girl, playing basketball, and kickin it with my boys, there really isn't much time left for tv. And when I do, I don't really watch a wide variety of shows. I mostly watch sports, sports-related programs, and reality tv. But, seeing how there really isn't any good reality television shows airing right now, and I don't want to just talk about sports over and over again, I thought long and hard about how I'm going to do this assignment every week.

This week, thankfully, I was able to catch an episode of "My Wife and Kids". For those of you who don't know, its the show based around the comedy of Damon Wayans, who plays Michael Kyle. On this particular episode, Junior, Michael's son, discussed with his parents how he wanted to bring his new girlfriend over for dinner. They complied, of course, but when she arrived they were completely shocked. In walked Vanessa Scott, who, to my enjoyment, was being played by the gorgeous Meagan Good. As she took off her coat and went with Mrs. Kyle into the kitchen, immediately, Mr. Kyle turned to Junior and asked how he could "hook up" with such a beautiful young lady. To make a long story short, they had a wonderful dinner, and she left. But the show really got good when Junior invited Vanessa over after his parents left for the opera, and he had the house all to himself.

Once she arrived, they talked briefly downstairs on the couch, until Junior invited her up to his room to read a comic he wrote. Once there, Vanessa found a poem Junior had written for her and asked him to read it to her. This, of course, led to a romantic kiss on Junior's bed, and would've led to more, until Vanessa sat up and told Junior that she always imagined their first time would be more romantic with slow music playing and him telling her that he loved her. Then, the scene switched to both of them laying in his parents' bed with Musiq Soulchild playing in the background, and Junior telling Vanessa he loved her. So, everything was perfect, right? Not quite. Unfortunately, Mr. Kyle tricked his wife into leaving the opera early. Once they got home, they both rushed upstairs to their bedroom to use the bathroom. Needless to say, they caught Junior in mid-stroke!! The only bad thing was that "To Be Continued" popped up, and the show ended.

Seeing how the show only plays re-runs now, I probably won't be able to catch the following episode, but this episode was good anyway. I think I lot of young boys have gotten caught with a girl either in their house, or the girl's house. So, a lot of us can relate. If you get the chance, you should watch the show because its really funny. But I hope this summary wasn't boring to you, and if it was, OH WELL!!

"Hanes Her Way" essay response

I want to start off by saying that I don't usually read into commercials like the author of the "Hanes Her Way" essay does. However, now that I think about it, the commercial doesn't really make much sense to me at all. As a young male, to me, underwear is underwear frankly. In my opinion, you can't go wrong with boxers. For women, however, I realize this probably isn't the case. As far as the ad, I definitely thought that the guy reminiscing about his mother and childhood after looking at a pair of old, dirty, worn out panties was weird, nasty, and most of all, corny. He must not have had a very clean mother or pleasant childhood. I really didn't understand how a wonderful marriage tied in with underwear either. I guess the advertisers were trying to display to women how wearing Hanes underwear will make their marriage everything they could ask for. This, however, couldn't be any further from the truth.

Honestly, I feel like simplicity is a must in advertisements. If the consumer doesn't understand your advertisement, then, obviously, it won't be very effective. On the other hand, if the consumer understands your ad, but it doesn't make sense to them, it won't work either. Overall, I felt like whoever wrote that particular "Hanes Her Way" ad, should go back to the drawing board and try again. I'm sure some people understood it and maybe even thought it was funny, I just wasn't one of them. At the end of the day, underwear is still JUST underwear, and will always be JUST underwear.

Who cares, right?

Name: Paul Leapheart (lee-part)

Year: Freshman, but you couldn't tell, could you?

Major: Undeclared, but leaning towards Journalism

Words to live by: "I'm full, but I ain't ate enough; I'm good, but I ain't great enough."-Lil Wayne