The Persuaders

Advertisements are always looking for the new angle of trying to sell their product. This show teaches the way the advertisement world functions. All of these companies were trying to show us what a commercial is really hinting towards, for example a Cheerios commerical is not just selling cereal but selling a feeling of reliability and warmth and building a friendship with it's consumers. It's just cereal. In one part of the show a man was interviewed about the feeling that bread can give. The man was asked if bread makes you feel warm, friendly, and other feelings. The man kind of laughed saying no he doesn't feel these things when he eats bread but then he answered yes that bread makes him feel lonely. How can bread make you feel lonely and why would he suddenly change his feeling on bread?
After the show we looked through magazines to find other advertisements trying to sell a feeling. We found that many car adds try to sell feelings of family and friendliness, reliability. One add was selling a mini van with a DVD player, the DVD player will make the kids happy keeping them quiet and behaved so mom and dad are happy. Is TV the answer to everything now? We discussed the Nike adds, just do it. Mr. Viles said what is just do it, he noticed that the commercial voice never says just do it because people would feel like they were being told what to do. When it's just written people will just do it. Advertisments try to sell a feeling with their products, does it actually work?

Merchants of Cool

The Frontline video was in tune to the lifestyles of teens and the marketing campagnes. I have to agree that parts of this video act superior to the society they are also apart of. I did think the video was correct about the "mook" and the "midriff". I can easily see people in my own high school who are perfect examples of the "mook" and the "midriff". The "mook" being the stupid, girl crazy guy and the "midriff" being a girl who is obsessed with her looks and shows a lot of skin. I liked the observation made that cool is always changing. Whats cool now is not cool later, so what is the deffinition of cool? Is there any way to tell what the next cool will be?

Local History Proposal

I grew up in the small, quiet town of Plymouth Maine. I have chosen the Village Store as the place that sums our town up the most. The village store is a small, friendly, unique and country like place. People go to the store in the mornings to catch up with friends and enjoy a nice hunter’s breakfast. While checking out you are greeted by a friendly cashier who knows almost everyone in town. The Village Store sells fishing and hunting gear which many people in Plymouth do.
I am planning to make my presentation on a slideshow. I am going to use pictures of the store and compare them to pictures of Plymouth as my first source. By comparing the pictures I will be able to show the similarity between the Village Store and Plymouth. For my second source I am going to find old articles from the newspaper that show what kind of a town Plymouth is and then compare it to The Village Store. For my last source I am going to interview people about the Village Store and find their perspective. This how I plan to present my Local History Project.

What is an American

We all know what America stands for, the land of opportunity and freedome. Who are the people know as the Americans. To me an American is anyone who legally lives in America. There are Americans who do good towards America by contributing to society, but if you choose not to, that doesn't make you any less of an American. I don't think there are a higher class of Americans, as long as you are legally an American you have a right to be an American. Being born in America doesn't effect if you are an American or not. It shouldn't matter where you were born, what matters is what you choose to do with your life.