Nathan R – Blog Closed for the Winter 2014 Section

Hi All,

the blog is now closed. I won’t be looking at it again this term.

best,

Nathan

Behind the Apple Products- Braveen R

In “The fetishism of the Commodity and Its Secret”, Karl Marx deals with the concept of commodity fetishism. Commodity fetishism is the concept of when consumers lose touch in understanding the labour placed into making the final product. The working condition of Apple at FOXCONN is seen as terrible as the workers are constantly working, placed in bared window dorms and the amount of stress associated with employees is outrages. We as consumers, when we consume the good only think about how well the product will help us, but we fail to realize the working condition of the employees making the product. We then have this fetish to constantly buy the product. In the video, it shows the amount of the production the employees are creating, the fast of the pace, their working condition and their living condition. This shows that consumers fail to realize the work put into making the product. The commodity creates a fetishism among the consumers.

Mountain Dew Racial AD – Braveen Ravi

In DuCille’s article “Black Barbie and the Deep Play of Differences” talks about how the black barbie contains stereotypical attributes while holding the same frame as the white barbie. For example, both barbies had the same body and face, only difference was the paint color and the clothing and the accessories it possesses. In this commercial by Mountain Dew, portrays negative stereotypes towards the black community. The ad pushes forwards the negative stereotype of black people as crazy, criminals and vicious. The portrayal of negative stereotypes of the African American group creates a racial message to the mass. The criminals lined up portray negative stereotypes of criminals such as du-rags, gold tooth, and over sized clothing. This ad presents racial profiling similar to the Barbie Article were Mattel used stereotypical features and clothes to represent the Barbie.

Obey and Culture Jamming – BRAVEEN R

Culture Jamming involves the notion of disrupting the media culture and mainstream media. A common tactic is graffiti, stickers and poster. This picture is the OBEY logo. Usually seen in forms of posters and stickers. The image is Andre the Giant which is replicating the idea of panopticon and authority. Andre is a 7 ft 4 retired pro wrestler who weighted in at 520 pound. He’s image represents an authority like figure, hence on the bottom it says obey, in means of obeying the authority/propaganda. The image presents an antiauthoritarian message.

Tim Rocke – Slave to Tobacco (And Sexism)

The above ad, published in French magazines, is an anti-smoking ad that loosely translated says that smoking makes you a slave to tobacco. Although positive in intention and quite attention grabbing, the ad is quite sexist. It uses a cigarette as a euphemism for male genitalia, suggesting that smoking makes this woman a slave to tobacco such as providing sexual favours makes her a slave to men. Has this ad gone too far? Does it depict women as subordinate to men, or is it an attention-grabbing advertisement promoting a good cause?

Tim Rocke – Gucci & Sexism

The two images above are ad’s typical to Gucci, both being extremely sexist. The picture on the left consists of a scantily clad woman covering her almost-exposed genitalia while crawling on the ground around crotch-level beside a man. The second, and even more blatantly sexist depicts a man sitting on a bench with a woman laying over his lap, appearing to either be spanked, or have her bottom felt up by the man. Both ads depict women as being subordinate to men. What exactly are these advertising, again?

Tim Rocke – Toshiba Denies New Ad Is Homophobic

http://www.buzzfeed.com/copyranter/toshiba-denies-new-ad-is-homophobic

The article listed above explains Buzzfeed’s distaste of Toshiba’s new ad campaign targeted at college-aged men. The specific ad in question depicts a young man who asks his roommate for his hand-written notes from his tablet. The roommate sends the wrong document, which is his doodle of a muscle-clad centaur-like figure. He is embarrassed when he realizes, and his roommate seems weirded out and disgusted. 

Although meant to be light-hearted, it is clear in a time of open-mindedness and inclusivity that advertisers need to be more careful in what they are depicting. Although I am sure most people would find it strange to see their roommate of any gender drawing sexualized pictures of mythical creatures, the frame it which it was presented made in homophobic and therefore, inappropriate. 

Tim Rocke – Veet Apologizes After Backlash Against Ads Shaming Women for Having Body Hair

http://time.com/56032/veet-apologizes-after-backlash-against-ads-shaming-women-for-having-body-hair/

This week, hair removal company Veet quickly pulled their ad’s that critics claimed shamed women for having body hair. The ad depicts a woman who lets her body hair grow out, only to be eventually depicted as a much larger, heavy-set, hairy man. Understandably, this enraged women everywhere who were told within 30 seconds that the body hair they are born with will actually determine their fate as the opposite gender, should they let it grow out. 

Tim Rocke – Social Media Marketing

This infographic illustrates the positive outcomes of social media marketing in 2013. There are a few important take aways from this. First, it states that only 74% of CMO’s believe that social media will translate to hard ROI this year. It also states that 64% of marketers are implementing social media into marketing plans. Although presented as a positive point within the framing of this infographic, this data shows that social media marketing is still not on-par with more orthodox forms of advertising. No other forms of marketing would be implemented without a clear thought that it would create a solid return on investment, nor would any other form of marketing material be used without it first being in a marketing plan. These two points alone highlight that whether social media marketing is effective or not, it still has a log way to go to be seen as a legitimate player in the industry, alongside tried and tested orthodox methods. 

Tim Rocke – Trendhunting & Feminist Fashion

Here is an example of two lessons converging into one. The above picture is from trenhunter.com, which, from its name I’m sure you can guess, is a website dedicated to coolhunting, and finding the newest trend. This particular picture came from a recent article on new “hipster” looks. This specific picture is dedicated to non-gender specific fashion. With clothing not dedicated to the bodies of either men or women, the oppressive nature of fashion, and in particular, this advertisement, are completely gone, solving the problem of the feminist clash between whether fashion is oppressive or empowering to women. In this case, it is either oppressive or empowering to HUMANITY as a whole!