The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas

     I was on my phone during a commercial break, and I heard a song in the background that made me look up to see what commercial was showing. I didn't really know what to expect. At first look, I saw checkerboard floors, women dancing, and maids pouring milk into what I can only guess to be a bathtub. It also shows a women playing the drums, a young woman and an older man playing chess on the ground, a suspicious-looking young man reading a newspaper, and a lowering chandelier. All of this is going on in a retro checkerboard floored setting. At the end the commercial quickly smacks down the words "Just the Right Amount of Right Wrong," which is followed by a second of cosmopolitanlasvegas.com.
     This commercial made me do a double-take, because it made no sense to me. Nevertheless, I was confused enough to search the commercial on YouTube.

     If I was confused watching this commercial, it must have had the same effect on everyone else who watched it. That was probably the impression that the director and writer of the commercial intended from their audience. This being a commercial for the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, the target audience are adults in the prime of their life--from 21 to their early 30s. 

     The commercial appeals to its audience with the need for prominence. If young adults go to the Cosmopolitan, they will become part of an elite group who will party with them all night and they will have have a good time. The commercial makes it seem like the Cosmopolitan will offer its guests everything they need to feel at the top of their class. I mean, they must feel pretty high class and fancy with that giant chandelier they've got going on. The way that the people in the commercial are dressed even show that they are to be admired. This need for prominence also goes along with the advertising technique of snob appeal. Cosmopolitan will make its guests part of an elite group of people. They show this through the classy and glamorously-dressed people. I must mention the chandelier again, because those always seem to make people look and feel wealthy and important. 

     This also appeals to the audience's need for attention. This is especially shown through the woman walking across the floor like a model. Putting the spotlight on her gives the audience the impression that they too will feel noticed while on visiting the Cosmopolitan. Even the lighting of this whole commercial focuses on each of person, while making the rest of the footage dark. This brings attention to the people, and we can be just like them--feeling important and being noticed--if only we go the the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. 

     The thing that was most confusing to me was the ending line "Just the Right Amount of Wrong." The word "wrong" has a negative connotation, and I don't think I want to be involved in anything that I shouldn't be doing. Just that one word can discourage its audience. But then again, there are a whole lot of people who choose to live dangerously, and in that case, the Cosmopolitan would be the right fit. I also thought that the last line was really vague. What exactly has the right amount of wrong? And what do they mean by "wrong"? That line brings up a lot of clarifying questions.

     Overall, this commercial is effective in trying to reach out to its target audience by showing them another life they could have. 

     

Campbell's Wisest Kid with an Awesome Beard

     While flipping through an older issue of Better Housekeeping, I came across this ad for Campbell's soup, cream of mushroom soup, to be exact. It shows an enticing picture of chicken broccoli alfredo and a recipe to make the dish for the family. But the thing that caught my eye was "The Wisest Kid in the Whole World," who is a young boy with a beard meditating in a far-off land. He denies broccoli on the side, and he likes it right in his alfredo. If that's how he likes it, shouldn't all kids be eating it? 

     Considering that I found this in a Better Housekeeping magazine, the target audience is probably moms who are always trying to get their children to eat their vegetables. This being, this ad appeals to mothers' need to nurture. Seeing this ad will make moms feel the urge to cook their children the best meal while also feeding them broccoli. And apparently the wisest kid in the whole world likes and recommends broccoli, so it must be the way to go. 

     Although, the wisest kid in the whole world makes a vague selling point, because I'm not sure if Campbell's means that children will become wise and grow a beard with their soup, or that a wise kid is the mascot, so why not buy their product. In this ad, Campbell's in not even advertising broccoli, but cream of mushroom soup--it's not quite clear what they want from me. Either way moms look at it, I think that the wisest kid in the whole world will make them assume that Campbell's will make their kids wise.

     This ad also satisfies our physiological needs. I mean, just look at that chicken broccoli alfredo. Food is always good, right? So this will make people, especially moms, want to make it for their children. And it's with broccoli. Yeah, that's a bonus--feeding those kids right. Our physiological need for rather appetizing food will encourage us to buy Campbell's and recreate the dish ad pictured in the ad. 

     The advertising technique that was used here was simple solutions. The ad tells us that by buying Campbell's all our problems will be solved. Moms won't have to force their children to each broccoli, because Campbell's cream of mushroom soup with make it taste delicious. And while children are chowing down on broccoli, they will be turning into the wisest kid in the whole world. Well, probably not, but that's what Campbell's seems to claim. Maybe children will become just a little bit smarter with the right amount of vegetables to tend to their growing brains.With one can of Campbell's, moms can solve their problems about their children eating vegetables and make them smarter one bite at a time. 

     Although all I will be able to remember about this ad is the youth with an awesome beard, I think Campbell's did a good job convincing moms to buy the product. In this ad, Campbell's included the needs of mothers, as well as what the soup means for their children. 

Tornadoes: Language Dissection

Tornadoes have swept through the South and Midwest, wreaking havoc and claiming lives. The story on the tornadoes have been presented to us through different online news sources, each having its own use of language. These sources' use of language effect the way that readers react to the event.

The first news source I looked at was from Fox News. The title of the article already got me confused: "Dry, cool air mixed with warm moisture, add in heat, and deadly tornado outbreak is cooked up." Was the author attempting to use clever wordplay to make a deadly tornado seem like a simple disaster whose recipe included different weather patterns? The whole title is vague, because I'm not quite sure if the author is trying to make light on a deadly twister or emphasize the horrible weather the South has been having. If only that was made clear, because those two seem to be on different ends. The article continued to talk about "cooking" the weather to create the tornado breakout. Using the word cooking in terms of weather seems to be out of place. It has a positive connotation, because it makes the tornadoes seem like they're not doing much damage, as if they aren't wrecking havoc and killing people.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/04/29/dry-cool-air-mixed-with-warm-moisture-add-in-heat-and-deadly-tornado-outbreak/

The second news source was from The Huffington Post, entitled, "Tornadoes Kill More Than A Dozen People In Arkansas, Oklahoma." This article focuses on the destruction and people's accounts of the tornadoes across Arkansas and Oklahoma. The first thing that caught my eye was, "And then all hell broke loose," when describing people's reactions to the coming tornado. This phrase has a negative connotation that makes the reader feel scared and picture the erupting chaos. This feeling of terror is followed up by a paragraph with words like "destruction," "killing," "flattening rows of homes," "shredding cars," and "demolishing a school." These are strong words that makes the reader feel sympathy towards the people stuck in the tornado zone and provide a sense of the disaster.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/27/arkansas-oklahoma-tornadoes_n_5223589.html

The article from CNN did not evoke much emotion, but rather presented the facts and brief one-sentence accounts on the tornado. However, CNN did use vague numeral amounts describe the information. Terms like "repeatedly," a number of," "tens of thousands," and "numerous" were vague numbers that could be left up to interpretation.  Nevertheless, CNN did give provide an informative article on the tornadoes that did not appear to sway the audience to feel any specific way.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/29/us/severe-weather/index.html?iref=allsearch

The final article was from NPR, and it did not evoke any strong emotions to sway the audience one way or another. NPR writes that the "deadly tornadoes have wreaked havoc in the South." This describes the destruction and what actually happened, but doesn't go so far as to use words that evoke an emotional response from the reader to make them feel sad or sympathetic. This sentence is followed by, "leveling homes and claiming at least 28 lives." The words leveling and claiming are neutral, if not positive words to describe the effects of the tornado. It was much better to use these words instead of "destroying" or "killing," which has a connotation of a horrible disaster (even though the tornado is). NPR's word choice makes the effects of the tornado seem less disastrous.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/04/29/307960239/to-survive-a-tornado-first-run-to-shelter-then-grab-a-helmet

By looking at the language used by these four sources on the same story, I found that each uses language differently to evoke and emotional response (or not) from the audience. Fox News had me confused from the start because of the title, and the rest of the article only made the tornado seem pretty average. Huffington Post used strong language to make readers feel sad and sympathetic. CNN and NPR, however, did not use strong words that evoked emotion. Instead, both sources represented the facts on the tornadoes without attempting to sway the audience with language.

5,000 Seems Reasonable

I would like to say that I am not drowning in an average of 5,000 advertisements every single day, but I feel like that would be a massive lie. I can't just watch TV or go on the Internet without or even go down the street without ridiculous ads being thrown in my way. 

I can never remember a time when media wasn't a part of my life. I couldn't watch an episode of Dragon Tales without a quick commercial break where there were advertisements trying to reach out to toddlers with the latest must-have toy. Honestly, it never really bothered me--I even kind of liked the ads. They were fun and colorful, and that's all that matters to a little kid, right? But as I grew up, I became more annoyed by the never-ending stream of commercials. I would change the channel, but it seemed like every single channel had commercials on all at the same time. How convenient. 

With that being said, I would say that I consume more than my fair share of media. Sure, watching TV and all the commercials that go along with it is one thing, but the Internet and walking around is another. There are always ads on the side of the screen while I'm on the Internet searching for a current event. Even the streets are plastered with ads. There's no way around it. With the TV, Internet, and on the streets alone, the amount of ads I am subject to on a daily basis is more than I am willing to count. 

By being exposed to advertisements at such a young age, I feel like I have become numb to all strategically-created commercials and other ads that I am exposed to everyday. The media has been embedded into my life since the very beginning. I know that the ads are here, but I feel very unaffected by them. Growing up in a media-dominated world, the tools of advertisements seem to go right through me. I've seen it all before. After a while, they all seem to be the same kind of ad all mushed together. 

When I see a commercial, I don't really care for it. All I see and hear are clever words strung together along with HD-friendly people representing X brand. I'm not drawn to the products in advertisements. I am aware of these constant ads I am bombarded with each day, but my eyes seem to gloss over the deeper meaning, only seeing the nice picture in front of me.