Products Here, There, and.... Nowhere. (Blog #6)

I watched the show New Girl in search of product placement on sitcoms. I have watched the show before, so I felt like this was a good place to start. FIrst I watched the pilot, where a heartbroken girl, Jess, finds out her boyfriend has been cheating and moves out into an apartment full of men who clearly do not know how to live with women. Their exchanges are very awkward and it seems that they regret their decision to let her move in. In an attempt at normalcy, they take Jess out to find herself a rebound, which they try to coach her through. After a flop or two, she meets one and seems really happy, especially to be going out on a date with him the following night. Long story short, the guy she was supposed to meet stands her up and her three roommates in and save the night and save her from wallowing in public. 

When I watched this episode, I searched for product placement, I watched carefully so as to see what brands were showcased and what stood out. In the opening of the show, when Jess meets the men, one of them is wearing a New Balance shirt with the logo (almost the same color as his shirt) barely visible, especially if you are not paying attention to that very closely. I kept watching, not seeing any logos at all, until I had a glimmer of hope about halfway through the show, a laptop with what I thought was the apple logo on it. Upon further review, the apple logo was covered with a different circular emblem, and an iPad that was used in a scene that followed almost directly also did not display the logo. As I continued watching the show, I took note of the fact that when they were out, beer bottles always faced the opposite way so that labels were not visible, and if they were not turned around, they were blurred and out of focus. All in all I determined that none of these were product placement, but I thought that maybe this had to do with the fact that the episode was the pilot episode of the series. Pilots can be very different from the rest of the series, different sets, different actors, etc. I decided that for this reason, I would watch a later episode in the series. 

In this episode, Jess and her roommates face even more trials and tribulations, all as awkward and funny as the Pilot was. Jess is determined to gather the rest of her belongings from her ex’s house, but the guys determine that her ex is her own personal Kryptonite. All in all, at the end of the episode, Jess gets her belongings back and everyone is happy. 

As far as product placement goes, during this episode, the only brand I saw that were recognizable to me were on her bathroom counter. I spotted a Scope bottle and a bottle of Aussie hair mousse, however, even though I recognized them, they were still blurry and hard to make out. Nothing was particularly easy to pick out. One of the guys used a cell phone that I identified as motorola, but no logo yet again. Even Jess’s car in the numerous times it was shown in the episode was absolutely logo-less. Finally, at the end of the show, I recognized a bag that she carried out of her ex’s as Vera Bradley. 

All in all, I was surprised that none of these things were showcased more to the viewers. I did not count any of these things as product placement, because none of them were blatant or repeated. Things were shown once, or not explicitly shown at all, and that to me, felt as though the viewer was not meant to see the brand. I was expecting to see a lot more product placement throughout the episodes I watched, but when I thought back to all the other sitcoms I have watched before, I honestly could not remember ever really seeing a lot of product placement during them, unless you count the Girl Scout Cookie episode of Friends. 

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (blog #5)

I watched The Daily Show from December 16, 2014. 

In this episode, Jon Stewart discussed the Congressional Budget passing, cracking jokes about Hanukkah, Bill Cosby and cheez whiz in a segment which was titled based on a Wes Anderson film and was called “The Grand Budget-Passed Hotel.”, talked about drivers’ safety in South Dakota, and featured Paul McCartney and his new song that has been featured on a video game.  

Jon Stewart made fun of the way that the media and congress have portrayed the passing of the Federal Government’s budget as miraculous or ground-breaking, or even monumental. He insinuated that this was far-fetched, and made the comparison to Hanukkah, calling the passing of the Budget “Congress-ukah”, and comparing “keeping the lights on” to the burning of the oil in the temple. Stewart also talked about the other last minute provisions that were slipped into the budget without people knowing. Amongst these were raising the personal donor limit (to $324,00) and “white potatoes now being classified as fresh vegetables.” Much of the opening section featured Jon Stewart’s usual politically satire, aimed solely at Congress and the Federal Government, on of Stewart’s (and Stewart-esque talk show hosts’s) favorite targets. 

The show then went on to a segment called “Jon Steward rewards his inner 13-year-old boy.” This segment discusses the risque name of a South Dakota driver’s safety campaign, one which was meant to catch people’s attention by using a ridiculous slogan turned hashtag. Jon Stewart and his “field reporter” discussed this campaign and, of course, took the joke further than the campaign even suggested. 

Finally, the show wraps up with Paul McCartney being featured on the show with “Hope for the Future.” They discuss the former-Beatles’ star success in the music, which point in McCartney’s career was the point which friends and family stopped questioning his pursuit of a musical career, etc. Apparently, Paul McCartney has recently written a song which was featured on a video game, which McCartney shamelessly plugged, so the men bantered about video games before wrapping up the show. 

In my personal opinion, I think the style of reporting that Jon Stewart does degrades the news that he is communicating to people. I think that while he does communicate real facts and stories, he spends so long making the same joke about the story that he is covering that when all is said and done, you end up learning very little, and instead you are left with his little quips about the news and not what is really going on in the real world. 

I believe that, as with all things, there is a time and a place for jokes in the news, or about the news. I do not think that Jon Stewart ever really finds that suitable time and/or place. I have always found that many of his jokes can be distasteful and often times offensive. I find that Stewart often bashes different political parties and even specific people, especially when he has nothing more clever to say about whatever story he is trying to make fun of at that particular moment. 

I think that a news source should be informative, and with the redundancy of Mr. Stewart’s jokes, his show can not truly be considered “informative”. First of all, Stewart discusses so few topics on his show, in such little detail that it is hard to follow without prior knowledge on the subject. The Daily Show could certainly not suffice as a primary source of information on current events and important topics. I find that, without that prior knowledge, especially when making so many quick jokes about the same story, it is very hard to follow and difficult to even understand what the subject of the segment is, in many cases. 

Secondly, Stewart belittles so much of what is going on that it affects his credibility, in my eyes. I have trouble believing the things he says that are meant to be informative because I am questioning the things he says because so many of them are so far-fetched and obviously untrue that it taints the ones that actually are true. In segments like his second one of this show, I find myself thinking that the story cannot be true because it is far too ridiculous, like his other jokes and story lines, that I immediately write it off in my mind and disregard all of the information that is being communicated to me. Also, in segments like his first segment, he jumps around so quickly that I cannot follow and therefore think that his discombobulated stories cannot be of any great value.

I do not think that comedic news can provide enough information, or enough believable information, that it can actually be informative and beneficial to society, especially as a primary news source.  

AM v. FM radio (Blog #4)

I listened to two radio stations tonight, 99.3 WZXR, one of my area’s FM radio stations, and also 890 WLS, an AM radio station based out of Chicago. As with my last entry about the magazine, I tracked the ads that I listened to, versus the information that I heard. 

On the AM radio station, there were absolutely no commercials during the 20 minutes of  listening I did, which is, of course, 0%. I tuned into Stephanie Trussell’s talk segment, which consisted mostly of calls from people from different areas, and interacting with Mrs. Trussell, a very well-informed and eloquent woman. I actually really enjoyed listening to the show, which I was surprised by because growing up I remember complaining anytime my mother’s radio choice wandered to talk radio. I found a lot of the conversation really interesting, from FaceTime Christmas, a reality that always feels very much a possibility with my older brother living in Hawaii, to racism vs. bias, a topic which is very relevant to today. 

On the FM radio station, I heard 9 minutes of commercials, which is 45% of the 20 minutes I listened to. This station consisted more of local commercials and rock music, with very little talk from the hosts. I enjoyed this too, as I enjoyed the type of music that I was listening to, however, I find commercials, especially in that amount were sort of bothersome and broke up the flow of the show. 

While I am an avid music listener, I honestly found the talk radio more interesting. Perhaps this was because listening to the host talk to callers felt a little bit like people-watching, but I think a lot of this was because I found the topics, which were highly relevant to what’s going on in the world around us, very interesting, and also because I found the commercials (local commercials I have heard over and over) extremely boring. The AM radio was clearly more informative, I feel like I really learned something listening to it, like I wasn’t just numbing my mind with noise. Honestly, I think I might start passing time on long car rides by myself with AM radio. 

Good Housekeeping Article (Blog #3)

Janes, B. (January 2015). The Biggest Winner. Good Housekeeping, 260(1), p. 82-87.

This article focused on personal improvement and getting the most out of life. Jillian Michaels offered her “Seven Steps to Success”, which included, define and detail very specific goals, do your homework, take responsibility, and use mistakes; reframe failure, amongst others. 

This article was honestly pretty inspiring. I’m not the biggest fan of “Steps to Success” and similar  “checklists for life” type of articles and web posts, a fact that I think I stated in my first blog post. Regardless of my personal feelings towards them, these articles are EVERYWHERE right now. Life does not follow any specific formula, you can’t plan for everything. That being said, this article was so loosely constructed that I did not mind it. I wouldn’t really say that it was useless, but I think much of what the article had to offer was fairly straightforward. 

I chose this article because I borrowed two magazines from my grandmother, Better Homes and Gardens and Good Housekeeping. I felt that my options were limited, so I chose the article that I felt would have the most “meat” to it. It was between the inspirational Biggest Loser star or a mom who developed and produced an alternative peanut butter. It happened to be the cover story of the Good Housekeeping. To say that my choice was not based on convenient would be a lie, however, my grandmother offered me about seven magazines to choose from (my parents stopped subscribing to magazines years ago). 

After finding and reading the article, I flipped through the pages in the magazine, curious about what else was in it, which served me well, I found a recipe for a chicken soup that sounds divine. I found that there were 44 pages of ads in the magazine, out of 145 pages, if you count the back cover, which is one huge ad. I did the math, that’s 30.4% of the magazine’s pages with advertising on them. I chose, however, not to count the pages that have clothing or home decor items pictured, listing where they are from and price. I felt that these images were the magazine’s stories, and not advertisements for these companies. 

I thought that this was a low number for ads in a magazine, I’m used to seeing one on every page, it seems. I honestly am not sure, though. I, like a lot of people my age, stick to mostly online sources of articles like these, in the era of buzzfeed.com, I think that in some ways, magazine use is dying off, and so is advertising being paired to the subject matter of the website and article. I know that these days there are different online advertising services that advertise things that fit your interests or your search history, and that’s something that magazines don’t do, but I am okay with that. 

I felt that these ads were all appropriate to the magazine. Advertisers seem to really know the magazine’s clientele and are advertising for them specifically. Most of the ads are for health products, or healthy foods. This really seems to follow the overall theme of the magazine, as well as many of the points in the article that I read. Everything felt very cohesive. 

“Teacher found guilty of indecent assault” Williamsport Sun-Gazette, page B-2 (Blog #2)

I live in an area that is right down the road from the home of Jerry Sandusky and the Second Mile program. This article, in fact, is written about the town in which many of Sandusky’s victims were born and raised. 

The Penn State Scandal and all that it entailed really affected my area. Opinions separated people from each other, and minds were set based on support of Penn State Football, and sometimes, very little else. I, myself, am not a fan of anything child abuse related, but then again, who is? 

Despite what opinions and previous biases I may bring to the table, the topic always sparks some controversy, and thus I was intrigued. Given my knowledge of the area, I was expecting a story that was very one-sided. I expected to read total support of the district attorney and very little on the side of the defendant. I honestly thought that this article, given the area that it originated in, was honest and unbiased. Both sides’ stories were told and given support, which I certainly hadn’t expected. 

I was unsurprised, however, that the Sandusky trial and the recent accusations of Bill Cosby were referenced in this article about indecent assault. I feel that this case, the bias of the article’s case, the author was fair in representing both sides. Factual information many times is skewed in this sense, especially given the area that I live in. I am very used to hearing, as sad as it may be, biased and prejudiced statements against all types of people. I was expecting to read these things and was pleasantly surprised. 

The Virtual Reality (Blog Post #1)

This post was intriguing because the subject is something we all know, something we all think about, I know I do at least. Personal media has become such a big part of our everyday lives, we are genuinely surprised when people don’t immerse themselves in this technological virtual reality. Everything has turned to fluff. 

So many people out there are talking about nothing. I read these would-be subliminal articles titled “328 things you learn in your early 20’s” and “27 things to do during midterm week of your first semester of college” or “How to be a mediocre girlfriend”, and I can’t help but wonder if this is what 21st Century “philosophy” will be known for.

As a member of this society, I celebrate and cherish the wisps of meaningful media that I come across. I try to soak in the good, the small bits that seem to separate themselves from the so-called noise. I appreciate the bloggers who use complete sentences, I appreciate the Instagram accounts that post high-quality photographs of meaningful subject matter, I appreciate the tumblr accounts of poets trying to make something of their words.

I believe that the good comes with the bad. There are treasures hidden in everything. Though media may be overwhelming and in our faces, there are still scraps of critical thinking, wisdom, and an understanding of ourselves and others in this crazy world and virtual reality that we find ourselves in.