Social Awareness Contradiction

Some of you may recall Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty from our Unit 3 Media Madness Seminar or from your own experience. So just to review, back in 2004, Dove launched this compelling campaign, targeting women, reminding us that everyone is beautiful in their unique way. A powerful message is sent to all those who listen to the campaign. Here is their mission statement. Dove truly wants women to realize the kind of effects that the media has and how often we are all bombarded with images that make us question our own beauty and make our self-esteem plummet.



You may also be familiar with the Axe Body Spray Axe Effect Campaign Ads. In these commercials, you can see men using Axe Body Spray, which results in women chasing, sometimes frantically and irresistibly after them. Leading men to believe that this would actually happen if only they used this product! (Seriously?!)



Axe and Dove seem to have contradicting messages, but here's the kicker: they are owned by the same parent company - UNILEVER!! This is a company that has been named as one of the World's Most Ethical companies in 2009 by the Ethisphere Institute. So how can this be right? One parent company overseeing two "kid" companies with completely opposing viewpoints.

Here's something to blog about:

1) How do you feel about the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty? Does it make you feel better about yourself or do you see it as just another marketing grab?

2) How do you feel about the Axe Effect Campaign? Does it make you laugh hysterically or roll your eyes in disgust? Explain.

3) Do you think a "parent" company has some ethical responsibilty to ensure that all of its different sectors uphold the same sort of beliefs and values? Why or why not?

ADS OF THE PAST - DID THEY REALLY SAY THAT?

We all know that ads have been around longer than many of us. Some ads in the 50's and 60's used some great design concepts and had some pretty good messages, whereas other ads, make one wonder and ask, "were they joking?" Take a look at these ads closely and comment on each message that you see. Some will surprise you. Give us your opinion of the ads telling us whether or not you think the messages are appropriate. What do you think allowed these types of ads to run? What might these ads suggest about society in America at the time? Can you compare these ads with the ads that are running today? What do you suppose these ads say about gender roles? Use your analytical skills to process what you see.

Hey Guess What? I Can See You...

On Oct 7 2009 Google launched their new application called Google Street View. This application allows people to search addresses and view from street level, photographs that were taken of the area, Google decided to drive around selected cities with vans that had a 360 degree view video camera attached to the top. When completed, they compiled all these images to create one large 360 degree photographic map.

Although this is very exciting technology - there are a lot of issues at stake. Take a moment and look up your personal address. What do you see? Is there a photograph of you online that was taken without your permission? If you are in a public space - does your likeness become a public domain? What kind of privacy laws are being broken? Do you agree or disagree with what google has done? Google claims to be protecting your privacy by blurring out the faces on people and the numbers on license plates. Do you think that this really helps to deal with the privacy concerns that many will have if they see their likeness online? Tell us what you think of the new Google Street View - do you agree or disagree with what they are doing?

WELCOME MEDIA ARTS CLASS OF 2009 - 2010 !

As part of your media arts course you will be required to create and maintain your own blog. Blogging has quickly become a very popular form of communication, expression and online journaling.

Throughout this course you will be required to reply to 6 different media/communications issues or topics that will be posted here for you to respond to on your own blog page. Each response must be no less that 300 words and should have some supporting visuals. This blog that you create is going to be specifically for our course; any additional items that do not pertain to the course material are not acceptable. You may however post additional entries provided that they are discussions relevant to media arts and communications technology. You will also be required to respond to 6 other people's blogs with thoughtful ideas and comments.

So go forth and blog!