LAST POST EVAR.

I'M SO HAPPY TO BE DONE THIS UNIT. :)

Yay for accomplishment!

Anywho, 
I just wanted to create this post to take up some 

 s p a c e :D:D:D:D

and to remember which 6 posts I've commented on.

Here they are;

• aliciaatienza; sec. 04 - Hey, Guess What? I can see you...
• sarahbrown; sec. 02- ADS OF THE PAST - DID THEY REALLY SAY THAT?
  
• stephanietam; - sec. 03 - Social Awareness Contradiction
  
• angelimarteja; sec. 01 - The Changing Faces of Video Games
  
• alexdepompa; sec. 01 (powell) - Photo Manipulation on Haitus in the Media
  
• stephanietam; sec. 03 - Is Taxing Pop Really a Solution?

GOOD BYEEEEEEEEEEEE !

6; Is anyone else thirsty?

The thought of having 365 cans of soda is disgusting.

The thought of having an extra 10 pounds for each time we drink 365 cans of soda is more disgusting.

If you ask me, yes. The scare campaign is definitely effective. Not a single person would be able to watch that video and not worry about the sugary drinks they consume regularly. Even though I think that I'm okay with watching what I eat, the video did make me think about how much sugar, salt, and fat we consume through delicious junky foods packed with preservatives.

Obesity in our nation is pretty bad. If we don't do anything now, America will definitely continue to grow.
And grow and grow. Perhaps Vince the Shamwow-SlapChop guy will help us. He's the only one who could make lame infomercials entertaining...

Oh yeah, by the way, for that comment in the blog about 'healthy menu choices'... Never, ever, get those McDonald's salads. I don't think they're any healthier; probably a waste of money. You might as well get the better tasting french fries. The lettuce tastes like paper and the dressing sauce has a lot of calories and fat... There's really no point in trying to eat healthy at McDonald's, I guess.

Anywho, I think the new tax would raise a lot of commotion in North America. Canada would definitely be pressured into the tax if America agrees to it. Although the tax would definitely promote healthier living for most of us, I think that the tax would just be too much of a hassle. Soda companies would lose so much business; we don't need anymore people going around without jobs. Besides, real soda or chip junkies wouldn't really care much for a meager 15 cent tax raise... Or perhaps they'd just turn to the diet alternative.

Which raises another point - why are they not putting the tax on for diet sodas? Aren't diet sodas equally bad - if not worse - than normal pop? In place of regular sugars, they use artificial sweeteners and Aspartame as a substitute. Aspartame. Which is made of 10% methanol. Which is a deadly alcohol. These sweeteners increase the release of fat storing hormones and cause you to crave more sugar. Oh, not to mention that diet sodas have a high sodium content, which can make you even more thirsty than before. Hooray for cancer and kidney failure!

(I got this picture off the internet. Nobody sue me.)

I don't think the tax would have too much of a positive effect. I definitely applaud their efforts in trying to increase health awareness and trying to help decrease the severity of obesity, but just because a certain drink may contain less calories and sugar, doesn't mean it's any better.

Wow. Look at this! They're selling booze at Burger King now? Haha, let's hope they don't offer that combo at the drive-thru...

5; HAHAHA. Photoshop fails are ♥. & I want this T-shirt.

I feel bad for those models though. What kind of contracts do they sign when they're asked to model? 'I hereby agree to any mutations made to my body'. Just sign the dotted line...

And speaking of lines, look at the lines of the wall in the picture. It's totally slanted! ...Look at what the model said:

"When doing a photo shoot, you really have to feel confident about your body."

Sorry sweetheart, your photographers don't think so. :|

Gosh, yeah. It does bother me that popular brands and companies are constantly crossing the line with excessive photoshop manipulation. What does distorting the human body do to the minds of us who live in a non-photoshopped-world? People who live in reality? 

Flipping through magazines and internet pages, seeing countless images of sexy men (woo!) and women... To be honest, I never really thought about it before I took this course! Deep, aren't I?

But yes, yes, now that I think of it, it really does transform our definition of beauty. We're all so caught up in looking slim and appealing to the opposite sex... For what? Do we lack self-confidence? Or do we like attention?

Girls and boys are writing to Santa Claus for TNA jackets and praying that the Tooth Fairy might help take some inches off their waists. It's crazy.

As for the new trend of us normies modelling... I sincerely hope it will stick. Haven't we all had enough of the fake and fabulous? But hopefully the reaction to the trend won't be, "ew, she's old" or "ew, she looks normal". It will be really strange, seeing unglamorous, normal people on magazine spreads. But I think it'll definitely catch some eyes.

So thank God for people like Peter Lindbergh. People with enough insight and courage to differentiate themselves from doormats. And daaang! Even though they're supermodels... those ladies looked fantastic. And they were just being themselves. Bare. Unmasked. Un-photoshopped. Real.

Ahh... haha... You too, Robert.

Now stop giving me that face.

Please.

4; SLICE. FILLET. roll. CHOP. SAUTÉ. GRRATE. FRRYY! PLATE.

I love video games. LIKEOHEMGEE,VIDEOGAMESAREMYLIFE!!!!!!!!!♥

I'm just kidding. 

No, but seriously. I love video games. :)

Haha, remember the good ol' days? The 1990 consoles? Which are the only consoles I've ever owned... :'(

Look at the size of those controllers! Heck, the cartridges are bigger than the average hand-held console nowadays! I showed my cousin my SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System -- and you thought I was joking when I said this was the only system I had) and she thought it was 'one of those thingies where you watch, y'know, those movie thingies'? Using my 6-year old deciphering-whiz skills: Woah. Is that chunk of plastic some old-school DVD player?

Uh, right. No, that's not quite it. 

But man, technology has totally advanced in quality. (Watch this. That was a bad video game even 2 decades ago!) Instead of just entertaining ourselves for hours with amazing 8-bit graphics, we can now stimulate our bodies and minds with fun games like Brain Age, Big Brain Academy, WiiFit, WiiSports, and Cooking Mama! 

...Okay, maybe not Cooking Mama.

Parents might argue that 'video games are terrible! They are a waste of time and money! Look at my son. He's 43 years old and still living in my basement playing with his Xbox-360.' Or that might just be my mother... KIDDING MOM. But in all honesty, if us kids and teenagers and 43 year olds didn't have video games, we'd just find another way to waste time and money. We've got our television, our music, our internet, our movies... We can't blame it on the v-v-v-v-v-video games. (Lame joke.)

I think video games are evolving into something incredible. Producers have noticed the flaws and criticisms towards gaming, and have cleverly manipulated them to create fun games that promote healthy living! Cool. I totally support the new genre of active gaming.

Oh my. Oh my goodness.

Okay, as much as I love video games, people like this tend to take it a little too far...

3; Take the Axe to the Dove! (...That's a little brutal, Caitlin)

1) The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is great. They advertise pro-feminism outwardly which creates a good name for Dove, but I noticed that the encouragement of their products is a lot more subtle. Sneaky, huh? Anyway, I do believe that this (for whatever reason that Dove started this campaign: more money or helping little girls everywhere) is really a win-win situation. A clever way to promote their company positively. I think more programs and campaigns like this should be created to positively encourage and target everyone in society.

2)  "How on earth did they get that many women? ...Gosh, how many pairs of bikinis did they need for that shoot?!"

Really, that's all that comes to my mind when I watch this... I love Axe commercials. I think that they're really funny, not to mention, really effective. They tell us all what goes on in the mind of the average man, am I right? ;) 

But it's a little upsetting that the main message of Axe is:

'Getting the girl has never been easier, thanks to the Axe effect. As devoted users know, women can’t resist anyone wearing those great fragrances!' 

Yeah, I got that from Unilever's website. Axe has a lot of clever advertisements. It's a shame to see that their talent is used in a way to promote anti-feminism...

3) If someone had told me that Dove and Axe were owned by the same company, I never would have believed it! That two seemingly opposite companies - one, creating a campaign to promote natural beauty and self-confidence in women; the other, completely exploiting women for their product - are run by Unilever (and to top it off, they were listed as one of 2009s most ethical companies?). I'm sorry, but it feels dishonest in my opinion. Why did Dove run the campaign in the first place? Was the purpose solely for helping girls and women be free of the media? Or was it just another sneaky campaign to promote their products? Knowing that Dove and Axe come from the same company just makes me think that Dove is only doing it to promote their products. I might sound a little cynical, but it seems as if Unilever and its children are great at doing what they do: manipulating women to sell their products.

Look at this picture. DON'T YOU JUST LOVE IT? ;D

Now that's real beauty. 

2; Woo, Worm Pate !

In our American and Canadian history textbooks, women were never treated as equals until the 1920’s (correct me if I’m wrong). Still, three decades later, we can see a lot of prejudice against women just through their advertisements. In the following advertisements, I feel that women have been a huge victim to advertising.

What? The only thing that caught my eye as I was scrolling down the blog was “FAT” and “BANISHED!”. So much for subtle advertising. (Notice how there's a woman there. In a pile of food.) Besides, don’t tape worms eat out your organs? Huh. If it seems like a miracle product, there’s probably some major life-threatening side effect to it. No big though, right?

‘Blow in her face and she’ll follow you anywhere’. Hah! How obedient.

Will she roll over on command too?

Aww, look at that! It's a typical American family laughing and coming home from a long day at the beach. (Has anyone seen Ellen Degeneres and her view on the Snuggie? "Look at that shot of the happy family at the game!") Wow. Just wow. And doctors smoking Camels? Did they know about the life-threatening side effects of tobacco? Seeing as how they approved of tapeworms... uh, no. Clearly, ignorance makes for awesome ads.

‘Thank God our ads aren’t this dumb’, 

is what my first thought is.

But what if, in another 30 years down the road, 15 year olds like us are laughing at our dumb advertisements and lame fashion statements? I guess that just shows us how powerful the media really is!

1; Google Street View

Google Stalk – I mean, Street View has just made creeping a whole lot easier! Don’t you just love technology?

Google’s new application is definitely cool. There is a huge advantage for familiarizing oneself with an unknown neighbourhood. Instead of looking at old-school maps full of confusing lines and text, people like me (with no sense of direction) can get a feeling of where they’re going. And unlike expensive GPS systems, Google Street View is absolutely free and accessible to all those with internet.

When I first heard about it, I searched up my address and to my surprise, saw my house. It was so cool! I had spent the next half hour navigating from my house to my uncle's to Ward... Along the way, I could see familiar homes, people and cars. But I don't think it's much of a privacy issue. Google has blurred out pictures and liscence plates, which helps, but I think the main point is that GVS was made with the purpose of navigating. We shouldn't be looking out for the unlucky people whose embarassing stunts are caught on camera. (although I do admit, IS fun...) Besides, isn't it interesting to see what the other side of the world looks like?

Yeah, yeah, it’s controversial alright, but really, anything successful always starts out controversial, right? Maybe not... Either way, I think the whole “Google is stalking us!” is getting a tad bit out of hand. For our society to advance, we just need to get over the little things and appreciate what the hard working people have done for us. There’s really no doubt that Google Street View is one of the best current technologies to assist with road navigation.

Hehe, doesn't it look like a huge explosion of milk? Apparently, as the Google people were taking pictures, a pigeon dropped by and... well yeah.

meeeeeeeeeedia arts;

have no idea how to edit my layout...

yeah.

testing. (: