Media Influences Diary - Half Term

Alex Turner
I created a Diary through half of the week during Half Term to give people an idea in the way which the media affected me in my average week, even when I didn’t notice it happening. The media is linked to everything around everyone in one way or another from brand names to cereal boxes.

Friday: Searched the Internet for a costume for a friends Halloween party the following evening, saw an advert advertising discount costumes which took me to another website, I was about to buy something however then realising that the costumes take 3 working days to deliver.

Saturday: 12ish saw a poster for the film Couples Retreat, which I thought looked good so on the evening I went to watch it with a couple of mates, saw the trailer for the film Sherlock Holmes which looked really good and it made me think that I’ll defiantly go and see it when its released.

Sunday: Slept all Day.

Monday: Went to Middlesbrough to find something for my birthday, saw an advert in the window of Comet showing a specific laptop on sale, however tempting no cash transaction was made, I then went to a cafe for some dinner, sat down with a Top Gear magazine that I’d bought from W.H Smiths a couple of minutes before hand, and started looking through the car comparison section in the back to try and find a new car that I’d like.

Tuesday: woke up and checked Face Book, had a few birthday party invites, had a quick go on the Xbox on a game I bought the day before, searched the internet for some jobs while listening to music.

Wednesday: went to the cinema again for Orange Wednesdays which I received a text about in my phone the day before

Conclusion
In conclusion, I’ve come to realise how much the media actually affects me on a day to day basis from when I wake up to when I go to sleep. I’ve found that what I stated in the introduction was actually true; for example on Tuesday I saw a poster for a film which I actually ended up seeing and whilst watching the film I saw the trailer for another film which I plan on seeing, another example would also be on Wednesday on which I received a text reminding me of Orange Wednesdays which pretty much forced me to go to the cinema because of the half price tickets.

I started out by making a simple diary without much effort and ended up seeing the bigger picture.

Media Influence - Social Networking Websites - Joe Drury

For this task I am going to see how the media influences me and I have decided to do this by looking at internet advertisements and seeing how they influence me to do something that I wouldn’t have thought of before.

I am going to look at social networking sites like:
http://www.facebook.com/ http://www.myspace.com/ http://www.twitter.com/ http://www.bebo.com/

Before I find out for myself how media influences me I am going to see how other people feel about these advertisements on social networking sites.

I found a question/answer kind of site http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2008/10/social-network-advertising-annoying-effective.html%20And.There is a post on here where Facebook asked its users “Do you mind seeing ads on Facebook?” and 74% said yes and 24% said no. Which is interesting since it’s an official poll that Facebook created and you would expect them to tell their users that they don’t mind advertising but clearly they do.

This is one of the advertisements that I found for Relentless Energy Shots and on the actual page it is right in the corner and it is quite a nice advertisement that doesn’t jump out at you but gives you the chance to click on it and see more, like a video. I’ve noticed that Facebook doesn’t directly show advertisements but they have enabled a function that lets you add friends or ‘become a fan’ of something you haven’t come across before so for example. Whispa chocolate bar could be an icon and you could see it and if you wanted to click, become a fan. Now I don’t know if Cadburys look at this but this definitely is advertising for me because people still see it and acknowledge it.

On Myspace even on the log in page it is full of advertisements but when I actually log in the advertisements are very direct and you can either click on them or you don’t. I never click on these advertisements because I just don’t feel the need to, there’s no reason why I should click it.

This advertisement is very blatant; it even says advertisement below it. For me it doesn’t look attractive at all because I know that it is only there to sell me stuff that I probably don’t want The picture even moves around in the advertisement ‘cell’. Trying to make me click it, this makes me very aware and I am not influenced to access it.

I am mostly interested in the advertisements on Facebook because they’re only advertising if you let them because usually below the advertisement a friend of yours might be a fan and it will mention this, and then it will allow you to ‘become a fan’. And by clicking this you get messages kind of like bulletins telling all that advertisements fans updates and offers etc.

So I think this has a big influence on me because sometimes I see TV shows or sweets that I like or something advertised and I click ‘become a fan’ without really paying any attention, and after this I will sometimes get a post off their wall which shows on mine telling me about whatever I have ‘become a fan’ of.

I really like this because you become a friend kind of and they just put information out there without you actually having to go through loads of rubbish advertisements.

In conclusion I think that Facebook is the biggest influence on me because you don't immediately recognize these advertisements as actually being advertisements, they are where you would see suggested friends so you don't see them all the time and when you ‘like’ them it doesn't take you to a different page. It's the same with ‘become a fan’ button, on your wall you will get whatever you clicked on saying stuff like if there is a competition running or just to say hi, which makes me feel closer to the chosen advertisement. So I can say there is definitely a media influence on social networking sites, especially Facebook.

MEDIA INFLUENCES INVESTIGATION

SEX IN THE MEDIA!

Daniel Batchelor

Media is the widest form of selling because it happens globally. Sex has been a form of advertising since it first began but only in the past decade has sex been introduced to sell products to younger people. In my opinion 10 years ago it was deemed unethical for a child under 16 to be introduced into sex. Now it’s the largest form of selling through the media. I am going to find out how media uses sex to sell products and how some adverts have been banned for being too sexual.

Using sex to sell is something that intrigued me because it provokes such a wide response globally. There have been so many different adverts banned because they were deemed too sexual or perverted and I thought this would be a good route to go down because it is something that won’t stop happening because it sells so many products.

Clothing ranges like ‘Calvin Klein’ has had multiple dealings with using sex to sell in there adverts. In 1995 a ‘Calvin Klein’ advert was banned. The campaign showed teenage models in provocative poses wearing nothing but ‘Calvin Klein’ jeans and underwear. This provoked people into making a negative response to these ads and later they were banned. Here is a link to the advert.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZVk21Pco-c

I personally think this advert was banned for good reason because I found it quite disturbing. I found the voice was horribly creepy and the way he talked to the actors was in a perverted manner. I think the person who came up with the idea for this advert may have seen it as a thought provoking advert but I don’t think people could look past the creepiness of the advert and I think that’s why it was banned.

One of the most famous pieces of advertising that was banned was the ‘Wonderbra’ advert. This advert was seen as a very provocative advert because of the way Eva Herzigova famously said “Hello, Boys” whilst she was looking down at her chest. I personally think that this advert is a fine advertising campaign and should never have provoked the response it got but this was widely seen as unacceptable across the world. This is the photograph that made Eva Herzigova a household name;

People thought that she was too young but the main stir behind this advert was of where her eye line was when she famously said “Hello, Boys”. This provoked a lot of people because they thought it was too sexually inviting but I think looking at it now there are a lot more adverts that are far more sexually inviting than this one and as for revealing too much flesh I disagree. The advert is to promote the sale of Wonderbras so I think that it is necessary to at least have a bra showing on the advert. I think people were quick to judge this advert and how sexual it actually is because I don’t think it is sexual enough to ban nowadays but it worked in selling the product because Wonderbra is still a brand today and I think often that because the advert was banned it gave Wonderbra more publicity so it worked in their favour having the advert banned.

One of the most recent adverts I’ve found to be banned because of explicit imagery is this one by ‘American Apparel’. The advert on the right is the advert in question. This advert is to promote a fleeced jacket.

In my opinion this advert was banned because the girl in the advert looks very young and the pictures are almost pornographic. This advert was only banned in the UK by the UK standards officials because it was deemed to be too provocative and child porn-like and I only agree with this for the bottom 3 pictures. I think those 3 pictures reveal too much of the girl who does look underage. I think this advert is more provocative and exposing then the advert on the page before of Eva Herzigova because that advert was promoting the sale of bras but this advert is only trying to sell a fleece so why does it have to be so revealing?

I don’t think this advert was intentionally made to seem pornographic but I think it does seem that way and because the girl looks underage it would kick up a bad response from people so I agree with the decision to ban this advert.

Another advert that was banned last year which I found was one by ‘Agent Provocatuer’.’ Agent Provocatuer’ is a lingerie company and the advert was banned for being too sexual because it gave off the impression of sex. This advert contained a familiar face to the public, Kylie Minogue. Here is a link to the advert. http://vodpod.com/watch/1224641-kylie-minogue-agent-provocateur-lingerie-banned-advert

I think although lingerie is for women this advert was reaching out to men in relationships. I think they did this on purpose and having Kylie Minogue in the advert reached out to men more because she is an icon and that is how they would imagine there partners in the lingerie.

I think this a fun and tasteful advert and in my opinion it wasn’t sexual enough to be banned but I think because it was Kylie and a lot of people look upto her that was the reason it was banned because she could influence people who aren’t at a legal age.

After all the adverts I have looked at I think that sometimes the more powerful adverts that stick in your memory sometimes contain sex in them. I found that not all of the adverts I looked at should have been banned but I think they were banned for a reason but sometimes the reason is too far-fetched and the people who ban these adverts read into the adverts more then the average person. My personal view on sexualising adverts is that it shouldn’t offend its audience and it should be tasteful. Some of the adverts I found that were banned years ago are even less provocative then the ones I found had been recently banned. I think this is because people were more sensitive to children being exposed to sex and people are more open to the term “Sex Sells”. I think this is a good thing just aslong as the adverts don’t influence children.