U.S. Icon

a. What is the icon?

This icon is the Statue of Liberty in the United States. (NY)

b. Why do you believe it is iconic in the U.S.?

I feel that this is iconic because the Statue of Liberty represents freedom. When we think of the statue of liberty, we associate it with the U.S. and I feel that it is a great representation of our culture.

c. How is it employed outside of the U.S.?

As you can see in the other two images, there is a smaller replica of the Statue of Liberty in France. France gave the statue of liberty to the U.S., so I feel that this icon is a memory of their gift. There is also an advertisement from China for creating a memory of what happened in Tienneman Square. You can use a statue of liberty like model as a memory from Tienneman Square. I think in both circumstances, the icon is used in a positive manner.

d. What are your thoughts on the icons use outside of the U.S.?

I think that since the statue and "memory creator" are both done in a positive manner, it isn't a problem that both countries have a similar product. However, I'm sure it doesn't symbolize the same things in each country. I feel that if the icons were used in a poor or negative manner (if they were degrading the icon in some way) it would reflect on our country, but since the representations are positive, I see no problems with using a U.S. icon outside of the U.S.

The Persuaders

1. When watching The Persuaders in class, I realized a lot more things are involved in marketing than just creating advertisements. I knew somewhere in my mind that market research was necessary, the different things that go into market research (including focus groups and round-table discussions), and the different ways that companies go about marketing (such as the shoe company right at the beginning of the film). As I am not familiar with what goes into the persuasion industry, I feel that I cannot accurately discuss whether or not this is an accurate assesment of the persuasion industries, however, as a buyer in today's society, I can say that the persuasion techniques discussed work. Constantly bombarding viewers with advertisements does create the atmosphere to buy.

2. Social Awareness: Song airlines - Song focuses strictly on women and families, using organic products, low prices, and specifically targeting their marketing to families. Even though social awareness focuses on following a "trend" or a cause, I feel that song airlines fits the social awareness concept because they are focusing on a specific group and organic food. Coolness Marketing: Song airlines - By using coolness marketing, Song aimed to change the way people viewed air travel. Song airlines is catered to women, making it "cool" to fly on Song. Also, Starbucks promoting new artists in their stores is an example of coolness marketing. (Because Starbucks is cool, new artists marketed at Starbucks are cool too). Finally, the iPod discussion featured a man who noticed all of the iPod commercials with the white earbuds, as he put his own earbuds in and began to listen to his own music, he felt as cool as those in the commercial.

3. Commodity Fetishism: The example I have for commodity fetishism deals with emotional branding and dealing with the differences between marketing to a person's head rather than their heart (or vice versa). There are different ways to market to a person's head versus their heart and a marketing team has to decide what to choose when they are creating their advertisements for products or companies.

Culture Jamming

If I were given the opportunity to rework this ad using the process of culture jamming, I would do a few things. I would first change the top image to an image of the model without any of the photoshop modifications, hair, makeup, etc. alterations. I would then change the text to ask why 2x the lashes are necessary when the original is just as beautiful.

I chose this particular ad because I was interested to see that there was a duplicate image, a reflection, as though you're seeing things double. Covergirl is a line of makeup products designed to enhance a woman's beauty by using their makeup. I feel that women are beautiful without makeup, and therefore, these ads are unnecessary. Obviously the opposition to "wear lots of makeup, make your lashes look bigger, etc." is the concept of "normal is beautiful." I think that by showing the image as a regular woman and then the made-up woman along with the text supporting natural beauty, the ad would demand the viewer to notice that they don't need makeup products to be beautiful and that natural is the way to go.

Creative Commons

I visited the Creative Commons website (http://creativecommons.org) and read the case study dealing with the University of Michigan's library. (http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Case_Studies/University_of_Michigan_Library)

This particular case study explains how U-M's library is in the process of digitizing their library and how they're teaching their college students to give credit for work. By using CC, authors still get credit for their work, even if it's in the public domain. This has been very successful for U-M in the field of academic research for both undergraduates and professional academics.

The answer to two questions:
a. How does the Creative Commons project alter they way we understand ownership and copyright?

The Creative Commons project allows the original owner to "own" the rights to their product (image, song, text, etc.) and still allows other to use it for the purposes of research. The original author gets credit for the work, they are acknowledged, but others can use it in certain ways. The author may not get the royalties (especially if the product is in the public domain), but they are acknowledged as the original. As opposed to copyrighting and ownership (where only one person/company) is allowed to use a particular song, image, trademark, etc., CC allows others to modify products to their desire. This site gives new "rights" to the new creations, but credit is always given to the original creator for their work.

b. How does this project affect the subject(s) of a work?

The subject of the product doesn't really change, but the image/song/text/etc. can be changed through Creative Commons. People can alter images to their own use, can re-write or expand text, etc., which creates a new product, with new content, but is based on the same original subject.