Native Advertisements

Native advertisement is when news companies agree to “sneak” advertisements into their reports disguised as actual news. This takes many forms though primarily is found in print advertisements. Below is a link to one such native advert.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/abagg/kid-rave

The audience seems to be adults, as the title grabs the attention of the viewer effectively, be it parents or children. The audience then finds that there is a company, CrizKiz, which plans fun and adventurous parties for little kids (6-12 years old). As we can see from the first few lines, it attempts to persuade the reader that this kind of party is superior to other young childrens’ parties.

The text is made of a lot of pictures attempting to show the different party style and also the reaction of the kids as better when compared to the norm. The tone is excited yet laid back. In that, the kids are very clearly having a great deal of fun and the parents in the pictures are completely okay with what is happening around them.

Like many other native advertisements, it blatantly advertises CrizKiz, but tries to conceal its own bias, which it does not do very well. It uses personal pronouns in order to appeal to a wide range of people, hence creating a bandwagon effect. The engagement comes in the title when it mentions a group of elementary school students raving like adults. It is high developed through the pictures and sentences to seem like a real news article. However, it is not diverse in structure or word choice. It uses very few literary devices, trying to seem normal and spontaneous. 

Generation like

Empowerment was a word heard often in the video Generation Like and in social media at large. But how much empowerment if any does social media provide? Firstly it is necessary to analyse where this empowerment comes from. The empowerment comes from as sense of achievement tied to the number of likes you have, erday the number of people think you are right. The thing is, the empowerment happens at the expense of others. When some people say something 1000 may like/agree, for other the number could be less then 10. It empowers at the expense of others. That said, yes it can indeed provide the kind of empowerment that having a roomful of people say you are right did in the past but on a larger scale. So the answer to the above question is sometimes.

Odd Videos

For my video, I choose to do Empty Walls by Serj Tankian. Link is displayed below for those who have not seen it as well as a transcript.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSBj4XxYd7k

"Empty Walls"

Your empty walls...
Your empty walls...
Pretentious attention
Dismissive apprehension
Don't waste your time, on coffins today
When we decline, from the confines of our mind
Don't waste your time, on coffins today

Don't you see their bodies burning?
Desolate and full of yearning
Dying of anticipation
Choking from intoxication

Don't you see their bodies burning?
Desolate and full of yearning
Dying of anticipation
Choking from intoxication

I want you
To be
Left behind those empty walls
Taunt you
To see
From behind those empty walls

Those empty walls
When we decline, from the confines of our mind
Don't waste your time, on coffins today

Don't you see their bodies burning?
Desolate and full of yearning
Dying of anticipation
Choking from intoxication

Don't you see their bodies burning?
Desolate and full of yearning
Dying of anticipation
Choking from intoxication

I want you
To be
Left behind those empty walls
Taunt you
To see
From behind those empty walls
Want you to be
Left behind those empty walls
I taunt you
To see
From behind those empty walls

From behind those empty walls
From behind those empty walls
The walls
From behind those empty walls

I loved you
Yesterday, before
You killed my family.

Don't you see their bodies burning?
Desolate and full of yearning
Dying of anticipation
Choking from intoxication

Don't you see their bodies burning?
Desolate and full of yearning
Dying of anticipation
Choking from intoxication

I want you
To be
Left behind those empty walls
Taunt you
To see
From behind those empty walls
Want you to be, left behind those empty walls
Taunt you
To see
From behind those empty walls
From behind those empty walls
From behind those fucking walls
From behind those goddamn walls
Those walls...
Those walls...

In the video, we see a large group of children playing war. Normally this is not of much note, as it is something done in ignorance of what is implied within the word and the actions behind the word. The loss, permanence, pain, change, and fear are largely unseen to children. They act as though they were shot stay down for a minute then jump right back up as if nothing had happened. This case however, shows us children playing war with full knowledge of its toll. This fact is evident in the way they play. Some are shown being executed before their implied families. Others are shown piloting the famed 9/11 plan. Still more are shown in the bouncy house, acting as though it is a prison. This is, as it is intended, appalling. The implication is one no being with the ability process emotion wants to have. It says that, those represented, are malicious killers with no regard for the sanctity of life. And all that from those who are represented as our future, the most pure form that we can be. What is the purpose behind it? It serves as a means to rebel against the increased tensions between America and Iraq/Iran. But who was marginalized (not represented) in that video? Everyone was marginalized. In the video we see kids of both genders and many different ethnicities all partaking of the violence. This is intentional. And it is one of the primary reasons it bothers us. It shows humanity as a completely evil and warmonger thing. That is what makes it an effective form of protest. 

Written Task #2 question

I chose to do the first two ads I showed, links attached
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oapOBX_qGWQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFA0xYbFY0I

The ads I choose involve quite a bit of marginalization. The ads depict those of Asian descent as having one personality. This marginalization is common to both ads.
The first ad tries to sell a cereal known as rice krinkles. Doubtless, the mascot for this cereal, the small man, was chosen because the primary ingredient is rice. Additionally the man is very impatient in regards to the education of the child. Specifically he yells when the child cannot remember the word 'krinkles'. After that, the ad proceeds to misrepresent the culture it steals from.

There are several problems with the image above. To start, the lamp depicted is the stereotypical chinese lantern. This kind of lantern, most closely resembling the sort used in temples and shrines, is one of only five kinds of chinese paper lanterns. The tree in the background is now considered Japanese not Chinese. Though the art started in China, the people of Japan were the ones to continue and refine the process known as Bonsai. Additionally, the costume the boy is wearing only represents part of the truth. It is known as Hanfu, a style of clothing popularized in the time just before the foundation of the Chinese republic. A rickshaw, mentioned throughout the commercial, is a form of sedan chair. Sedan chairs were used to move nobility from place to place so they would not need to walk.
Both ads have a similar take on language. In both cases, the narrator has trouble pronouncing "R" and "L" any differently. For that matter, he also has trouble pronouncing most of the words he says in a border line comical way. He speaks them with a very heavy accent. His word choice is poor, almost at a child's level. His grammar is just as poor. These are all stereotypes of people of asian descent. Everyone of these stereotypes reflects the thoughts of the past.