Media Meditation #2

This is the first commercial I can remember. I was five years old and it was during the 1995 super bowl. Between the San Francisco 49ers, and the San Diego Chargers. I thought it was the funniest thing i had ever seen.
 
  Today I look at it with a critical eye and can see the tools of persuasion they use. They use repetition with the amount of times they say Budweiser.

  They use nostalgia, the was they say bud, weiser. it reminds me of Marco Polo.

Humor, watching talking frogs is funny.

Sex, they used a sexy tree frog, and when the frog is "laughing" it looks like he could be humping.

. Media Meditation

I have listened to classical my entire life and since I started college I have fallen in love with it. I use classical as my ADD medication. When I study I go to Pandora and click on “Violin Features”, the composers bring my head into a place where I can sit for hours and not need to fidget. On Valentine’s Day I went to my first classical concert. The concert was held in the McCarthy Arts Center, St. Michael's College. Natasha Koval-Paden played an all-Chopin program as it was the Polish composer's 200th birthday. Proceeds benefit the King Street Center. The concert was beautiful and really tapped into the limbic brain. The emotions that Koval-Paden could make you experience with the flick of her finger made her feel like a puppeteer and the hearts of her audients martinets. I loved the concert and can’t wait to go to my next classical concert, perhaps the Vermont Symphony Orchestra.

State of the Union 2010 (don't watch the video in front of your kids)

I was taken away by Obama when watched The State if the Union. I had to work the night of the address so I used my DVR to record it. After I got out of work that night I went home hoped into bed and turned on the speech. All I saw were big smiles and big promises, this made me feel good as I fell asleep. I am an independent voter so I don’t have any predisposition to dislike Obama. When I woke up in the morning I realized that I had fallen asleep at some point in the speech, so I had to watch to watch it again. This time I thought that I would watch it with my “Media Tool Kit” as I’m watching the address I noticed Obama seems to be trying to sell himself to us. He uses Flattery: of our work ethics. Humor: the bank bailout was as popular as a root canal. Testimonial: Obama loved this technique he told us about many blue collar Americans that were so grateful for all of his polices. Fear/Defensive Nationalism: “There no reason Europe or china should have the fastest trains or new factories that manufacture clean energy products”. I don’t like how he uses “Washington” as if he is not part of it. These are just a few of the many “Tools of Persuasion” he used. But what I think is the most amazing thing of all is that even thought he had such a long State of the Union address (at 71 minutes the longest in 45 year) he seemed to say nothing. Not to say the topics he touched on were not important in there own right but I don’t feel like Obama wanted to more that skim over any of the more controversial questions.if you would like to check out the White House Website Click Here.  


Don’t be afraid to disagree,

James Wicks