What Should I Do?

So two of my classmates did their ad analysis speeches on the NIKE Lebron James 'Rise' ad, and I couldn't help but wonder where I had seen it before.  And then I realized that Lebron is not the only one who did a "What should I do?" commercial.

Julian Wilson is, in most professional opinions, the future of surfing.  He's only 22, but he is the talk of the town and is being prepped to become the next big thing.  He will begin his rookie season on the ASP World Tour this weekend, and is said to be a serious contender for the World Title.

But Julian come under some fire in January when he switched from his longtime sponsor, Quiksilver, to Nike 6.0.  Quiksilver was his first sponsor at the age of 13, and Julian never showed any inclinations of changing their relationship.  So when he suddenly left Quiksilver to join the Nike 6.0 team, many people were left scratching their heads.  He was also accused of being a sell-out, and only being interested in the money.  So Julian and Nike 6.0 made a teaser trailer which parallels the Lebron James 'Rise' ad.

Julian Knows Surfing from Nike 6.0 on Vimeo.

By using the same phrases, such as "What should I do?" and "I'm not a role model," Julian and Lebron are both standing up to their criticism.  They are acknowledging that people think badly of them, and they are trying to get a response from them, as if to say, "Well since you don't like what I'm doing, do you have any better ideas?"

Companies often use commercials to save face.  Nike is a great example with Lebron, Julian, and probably most famously, Tiger Woods.  Other companies that have used ad time to issue apologies have been BP after the Guld of Mexico oil spill, and Toyota following their mass brake failures.  More and more companies are using commercials not to sell a product, but to admit to their audience that they are trying their hardest to make things better.  It is not only about what they are selling, but about the attitude of the company.  If they people can get behind the companies moral standards, they will be more likely to buy the product.  

Product Placement

Last weekend my roommate and I were watching television, and we noticed something a little odd.  The show was so overwhelmed with product placement, it started to detract from the actual plot.  The main character had urgent news for her best friends, so she takes her brand new Windows phone out of her pocket to call them.  They pick up THEIR new Windows phones to talk to her, and so on.  Just a coincidence?  Not a chance.  In television and movies, the camera shot never just happens to zoom in on the Toyota symbol on the grill of the car, or accidentally show a boy playing on his Apple iPod.  All of this product placement in deliberate, and companies will pay big money to have their brand shown on a television screen.

Take Hawaii Five-0.  I personally love this show, and watch it every Monday night.  But every time the character need to go anywhere, they hop in their Chevrolet, and off they go.  Especially in their Camaro.  They LOVE the Camaro.  Even during commercial breaks, you can't escape Chevrolet.  At least one commercial every break is for Chevrolet cars, and another might be for some other kind of General Motors company.  It's good for Chevy, because they are getting so much advertisement time, but it gets pretty annoying after a while.  I honestly don't care about what kind of car they drive, or what kind of cell phone they use, I just want to watch the show.

THE Hawaii Five-0 Car

The use of product placement has been so blown out of proportion in the past decade or so that you can hardly go to a movie of watch a TV show without seeing some sort of product advertising.  Another, not so obvious example is in the Spider-Man movie.  When Peter Parker first discovers his abilities, he is seen shooting webs around his room, and he tries to grab a Dr. Pepper can.  This is a great example of product placement.  The can could have been any generic type of soda, but the Dr. Pepper emblem is very clearly shown.  Companies love product placement because it endorses their product in an arena that might not otherwise show what they are selling.  And many times product placement is so subtle, that you consciously don't even realize it  is there.  And that is exactly what the companies want.  So next time you are watching a TV show or at the movie theater, see if any product placement is used, and is it actually effective?

Super Bowl Commercials: How far is too far?

I'm sure just about all of you watched the Super Bowl this weekend, and some of you didn't watch it for the football.  If you don't care about football, you watch the Super Bowl for the commercials.  These aren't just any old commercials, the Super Bowl is the mack-daddy of advertising.  Companies pull out all of the stops to secure a 30 second slot on that Sunday night.  A successful commercial will be the talk of the town; and a flop can cause companies to stall.  In the recent years, each commercial tries to go bigger than the last, with some being drop dead hilarious and others leaving you saying, "Huh?"

The commercial that had the most buzz about it pre-Super Bowl was without a doubt the Kim Kardashian Sketchers Shape-Ups ad.  Kim Kardashian is, along with Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie, famous for being famous.  She's got a TV show, a shoe collection, perfume, and her own Silly Bandz, yet she really has no marketable skills, except for being pretty.

This commercial was, frankly, absolutely ridiculous.  The only reason people were so excited about it was because Kim was not wearing a lot of clothing, and people think she's hot.  The whole concept is that if you buy these shoes, you won't have to have a personal trainer to keep you fit.  All she did was act like she was having sex with a dude, then walk around some, then compliment another dude on his ugly shoes.  It is just me, or was everyone else confused?  Advertisements in the past 20 years or so have gone from informing people about the good qualities of product X to trying to grab people's attention, even if it has nothing to do with the product.

This commercial blurs the line between being sexy but appropriate and being plain inappropriate.  The sexual innuendos are so overpowering that this commercial could never be played during regular prime-time hours.  Yet Sketchers just paid a lot of money to have it shown during the 4th quarter of the biggest football game in America.  Why?  Because that football game is watched mostly by men over the age of 18.  And what gets a man more excited than a slightly sweaty Kim Kardashian?  Advertising companies need to focus more on the product and less on getting a reaction from a commercial.  People might actually buy their products.

President Obama's National Prayer Breakfast Speech

So today in class, while many of our classmates were attending President Obama's speech in Rec Hall, those of us who actually came to class watched his first speech of the day, at the National Prayer Breakfast.  For those who are unaware of what the National Prayer Breakfast is, it is an event which takes place on the first Thursday of February in which a few thousand American and international political figures gather for a celebration of faith over breakfast.  The President has spoken at this event ever since Dwight Eisenhower, and this year was no different.

President Obama gave a fairly normal speech for this breakfast.  He hit all of the important points, and displayed his Christian faith, but I personally felt that there was something off with his speech, both in presentation and within the speech itself.  President Obama has always very charismatic, but I felt that this morning, he seemed very awkward behind the microphone.  I know that the speech was directed at the people at the Breakfast, but he must have known that he was being filmed.  So why did he NEVER look at the camera, or even anywhere close to the camera?  His eyes went from his notes, to stage right, to his notes. to stage left, and so on.  I felt that this made a sort of disconnect between the President and the audience (at least the online audience).  His speech could have been very poignant, but his lack of connection with the cameras, or even the people sitting by the cameras, kind of ruined it for me.

I also felt that his speech was slightly disjointed.  He began the speech by saying how people nowadays are too caught up in the quest for money and power to appreciate the real gifts of life.  I feel that this is completely true, and to have the President acknowledge it is great.  He then somewhat abruptly switched to speaking about his faith.  I realize that he was speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast, and the point is pretty much to celebrate religion, but his speech turned somewhat weird.  Maybe it is because I believe in a distinct separation of Church and State, and to have the President speak about one religion is a little biased, but I believe that many other people were put off by this.  But I don't feel that he really had his heart behind what he said.  He seemed distant, and almost bored.  Why do President's feel obligated to make a speech at a function such as this?  I would much rather them not make a speech than make a half-hearted speech like his.

See his speech here.

This I Believe

This I Believe

Bob Dylan: The Master of the Protest Song

That's a lie.

I was in a funky mood earlier.  Nothing on my iPod was matching my mood, until I shuffled into some Bob Dylan.  Has their ever been a musician quite like him in terms of protest songs?  The 1960's were years of turmoil in the USA, and Dylan captured the uneasy feelings in his songs.  Rarely using anything more than his guitar, his harmonica, and his voice, Dylan voiced his opinions on the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the lives of Middle-Americans.  His weapon of choice was his tongue, with which he wrote one the the most instrumental protest songs ever, "Blowin' In The Wind."

This song blows my mind.  Really.  The more I listen to it, the more profound it becomes.  Musically, it's phenomenal.  It's genre-bending, not quite folk, not quite country, but whatever it is, it works.  Now on to the lyrics.  Wow.  If any of you have not heard this song, you are truly missing out on the crowning jewel of America's finest songwriter.  


"How many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn’t see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind"

Dylan is commenting on the average American's reaction to what was currently going on in the world.  The 60's were pretty tumultuous, yet the majority of the people were either oblivious, or indifferent, to what was going on.  Dylan is basically saying that people will just continue to pretend that bad things are happening, while they are happening right in front of them.  The fact that the answers to all of these questions are 'blowin' in the wind' gives it a sense of uncertainty.  Wind is a real thing, yet how can you describe it?  We are constantly surrounded by wind, but to actually SEE wind is nigh impossible.  So basically what Dylan is saying is that the answers could be right in front of our face, we just can see them properly.  

Dylan was very strongly anti-Vietnam, and to this day, is against the War in Iraq.  He also participated strongly in the Civil Rights Movement and worked to raise awareness of the incredibly harsh living and working conditions of farmers in the Mid-West.  And 'Blowin' In The Wind' was not his only protest song (it was just the one I like best).  Others include 'Masters of War,' 'A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall,' and 'Chimes of Freedom.'  His songs surpass any that came before, and have been used as the classic example of songs used for protest even to this day.  Dylan changed this country's view on the use of music to spread a message.  
Full Lyrics

Make the Audience Listen

How many times have you really tried to listen to a speaker, but they just couldn't hold your attention?  It's happened a fair few times to me, I'll admit it.  There are just some times when the speaker's presentation is too bland for human consumption.  Whether its their monotonous voice, or sometimes their all-around lack of enthusiasm, speeches too often lose the attention of the listener, and therefore become pointless.

I have heard too many speeches than I can count that, while having interesting topics that otherwise would hold my attention, were presented in such a dull way that I couldn't have paid attention for more then thirty seconds.  The biggest faux-pas in speech making is a monotonous, dead voice.  The speaker could be presenting on the single most captivating topic in the world, but if the way they present it is boring, the audience will zone out before you finish your first paragraph.  Think about the parents in the Charlie Brown movies.  I know it sounds harsh, but that is what kids think that most speeches sound like.  Remember in elementary school when you studied Abraham Lincoln?  Everyone read the Gettysburg Address, yet all I could ever remember of it was, "Four score and seven years..." and then I was off in a day dream.  It was because my teacher read it off of the paper in that Charlie Brown voice!

On the flip side, if a speaker was talking about the most boring thing in the world (health care? the sex lives of snails? Jello? Take your pick.) but delivered their speech with incredible enthusiasm, you would be more likely to actually listen.  A totally captivating speaker will win the contest every time because they kept you on your toes.  So next time you go to make a speech, think of the poor audience that is forced to listen to it.  I'd rather them waste an hour of their time being thoroughly entertained than they waste an hour wanting to stick pins in their eyes.