Pottery Barn Style

I personally used to go into Pottery Barn a lot, and loved the products that they sell. When I read the article in the Fast Company Magazine, I remembered this store very well. I like how this article mentions designers like Celia Dejada, who actually sell their products in the store. I like how she says that people have to have lives in order to design. This tells me that she knows the customer she is trying to appeal to, and knows what she has to do to make a product that they will buy. her reasoning for this is so that some of the creativity is not lost. She says that it is not matter of what you make for workaholics, which I personally don't get.
I knew that Target was a major competitor against stores like Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and other stores, but I had no clue that it was a big competitor for Pottery Barn. When I look closely, I can see why they are big competitors. They are both able to appeal to teens and adults, and they are also able to appeal to just about anyone. I have yet to see a PBTeen store, but I have read the magazine, and there is quite a large selection to choose from. Pottery Barn is a very small store, with a large variety of customers.

Store Influences

The many stores that we frequent in our everyday trip to our local mall practically pull us into buying their products. I see many teens going into Abercrombie and Hollister, and although I think that it is quite stereotypical, I find myself going into these stores to shop. When in stores as influential as these, it is the environment that makes me keep coming back. Could it be the blasting music, or the half-dresses manikins, or the overpowering scent of their fragrance as you walk throughout the store? I think it is a combination of both. The ironic thing is that all the people who you see working there look like models, and this says to me that they really want you to buy their entire season line, and that they want you to come back. This could also be a reason why they make their employees spend almost their entire salary on clothes.
Another store that I find myself going back to over and over again is Target. I have gone to so many locations, and still prefer going there rather than going to Wal-Mart. I like the overall atmosphere that the store creates, good prices, samples, and good service. They are not bombarding you with so many services, that are at low prices. They offer the basics, after all, i don't go shopping to get a root canal, or get my eyes checked out, I go there to get my shopping done. This is why I like Target, they are found in almost every location, and are very inviting.

Super-Bowl Commercials

I really liked the commercials that we aired on last night's Super-Bowl. I must say that I thought the commercials last year were significantly better though. I really liked the commercials for Budweiswer. The Clydesdale Hank, was very cute, and it was interesting how they made it look the Rocky movies. It was a very good commercial and had a good effect on the audience. I thought this was an inventive commercial. I also thought that the Sobe commercial with the little dancing lizards was cute, but kind of random. One of my favorite commercials was the Fed-Ex commercial with the carrier pigeons, and the huge pigeons. The car commercials were very interesting, and made me think about the cars they were selling, and achieved their goal of getting us to listen to their commercial.

Class debate: 2 ways a woman can get hurt

wednesdays class debate brought up a lot of opinions, including my own. The first thing I noticed was that guys were immediately taking offense to the whole issue of the ways guys are portrayed in the advertisements. I can definitely see how the guys in the class would think these ads are offensive, but at the same time, this article was focusing mainly on the issues that these ads bring up for women, not men. I like how some people in the class actually seemed offended by these ads, because I felt a little offended by them as well, but I think that the author would not have been able to get her point across without using such extreme ads. I agree with the author, but I want to disagree with her extreme ideas.
Also, on another note, I think that companies will still continue to push the limits on sexual tension portrayed in the media. The limits will always be pushed, whether it's showing ankles or shoulders. I do agree with the statement that Maggie Dooley said that we should at least be talking about issues like these and if we are able to do this, then we can at least try to improve this issue.

Two ways a Woman Can Get Hurt

The everyday ads that we see all depict something in common, they all say that this product will make you popular or attractive, or more successful. I agree with Jean Kilbourne's argument that these types of ads can harm us more than they can help us. It is my personal opinion that ads should stop portraying models and actors in commercials, and actually use people that we can relate to.
one of the first things I noticed in these ads, is that the male is usually depicted as the dominant one. Kilbourne did this for obvious reasons, she wants us to see that this is bad, and that we should be promoting men to be good not bad. Also, the girls look like they are enticing the men. Kilbourne even stated in her argument that a dangerous man is the worst kind of man a woman can be with. The ironic part is that a dangerous man is seen as the sexy, desirable, and almost ideal man in our society. These ads are clearly saying that girls should be attracted to dangerous men, seeing as how almost every woman looks like she is bending to the will of a man in one way or another. Also I agree with her argument about how most men can't take no for an answer, and it almost looks like in some of the ads that the woman is saying no, can actually be depicted as a come on.
Kilbourne mentions that sex is seen to be more disconnecting to the audience than connecting. It is basically the sex appeal that we see a hot guy, and we immediately pay attention. I agree with what she says about how women are seen as being these sexy figures trying to ensnare men, while men are trying to be domineering. She mentions how pornography can make a product seem so great, when in reality these products are not as great as they are depicted in the commercial. This is all because they use hot models, and poses that would be seen in pornography. You can see examples of bondage in everyday beer, perfume, watch, and even in college magazines. She says that this can encourage male violence, which can be depicted as being more sexual than emotional. It should be the other way around.
I also like how she says that women can be very judgmental and even cruel when it comes to another woman's sexual behavior. This is so true, deep down, I think that most girls like to depict themselves as good girls and that can be reassuring. This is all the thinking that if we maintain the "good girl" image, and stay out of trouble, then nothing bad will happen to us. I think that there are some women who believe this, but I don't think that being good can prevent things from happening, and that sometimes you can't control what happens to some extent.
I also found the part of her article that showed how Calvin Klein and how he basically mimicked child porn. I found this to be disgusting, especially when I heard about the little boy in the basement being asked to take off his shirt. This is repulsive to think that we need to exploit children in this way to make a profit, like Calvin Klein did by using this ad. Due to ads like these, his critics were seen as being prudish, and showed Klein to be the bold designer that appealed to his customers.
This article clearly states that women can be abused in sexual manners, causing them to have issues later on in life. This article is saying that any girl who reads these ads are at risk. I completely agree that women can be damaged in many ways from the ideas that these ads are showing.

Commercials

Tonight I saw so many commercials, and the one that stuck out in my mind the most as the one about Nutrisystem Nourish. I thought that this commercial could make anyone buy into this product, even my own mother and sister. In the commercial they show how both men and women can get skinnier by eating these meals. They do this by showing before and after pictures, and I thought that some of those people in the pictures do not look like the person on the screen. This is ironic, since we can alter basically any image, so it seemed to me that these pictures could have been a little exaggerated. I also noticed how they even made the husband's say things like "She's my trophy wife." This makes women want to buy this product so that their husbands will show them off. This commercial is trying to reach out to people who are overweight, and this product is offering them a chance to be skinny. The people in these commercials saw immediate results, but that's only because they had to do a ton of exercise, and most of the images could have been modified.
Another commercial that caught my eye was the Verizon commercials. It shows the guy saying " Can you hear me now? Good." It shows how satisfied all the customers are that these people are following them everywhere. Well, this image gives people the warm fuzzy feeling that the will get the help they need and a phone plan that is reliable and you can get service anywhere. The truth is that there are no mobs of people following you around. Making the customer know that they will get the best service available and will be treated like royalty will definitely want to make someone buy your product. That is exactly what Verizon did, they entertained the audience, while at the same time made them feel comforted knowing that you have a huge mass of people working for you.

ONE-ACTS

I really enjoyed the one-acts that were directed and written by Elise Lockwood. She has some pretty good ideas, and I feel inspired to write a short play, but who knows what maybe in store for the theatre department at UHS. I really enjoyed the first production " Playing the Pronoun Game." It showed great dynamics between a girl who has gay parents, and in fact dates a girl. This was a fun way to show those dynamics, and I like how Tina was not going to show Elise's character her art. This play was probably my favorite and made me laugh the most. "Being or Not Being," was very cute and funny. I really liked Ian Ketcham's character, who had so many bad auditions. I also liked how RJ Connors did the whole Brad Pitt thing, and then Ian's character went beserk. Ian made this character come alive, and the funny thing is that I could really see a director doing this in real life. The next play "If Books Could Kill," was my least favorite, and it was a little bit too deep if it wasn't explained to you prior to the show. It was a good plot, but it felt a bit too choppy for my taste in parts, and I think that other things could have been added to make the plot in the play more clear. Other than that, I thought that this was a good play, just could have been better. Heaven was an absolute riot, I loved it. Tony Minott and Daniel Hellman did a wonderful job. I think this was an interesting way to portray the writing of the Bible. It was cute inventive, and very well done. I liked these one-acts for the most part, but I would have liked to see more excerpts from plays written by other people other than just one person, that would have added a little something extra.