Assignment 5-1

Weekly Written Analysis 5

I have a love affair with bugs. To be specific with Beetles, Volkswagen Beetles that is. Since I can remember, I love these cars. They are a synonym of fun and cute to me. How can you see this car and not painfully want one? Beetle survived decades and many trends and styles. I wonder if Beetle like cockroach can even survive atomic war.
I have no idea how Beetle survived the test of time but it did. I feel like they are getting more popular nowadays again. I see more and more of these cuties on roads every day. I remember Beetles from my childhood. Back then, they were more of a little, cheep and poor quality car. The production started in 1938. Yes, that is correct first Beetle left a factory of Volkswagen in 1938 and the production continued until 2003. The original car is not too different from his now used, newer brother New Beetle. Over the years, the exterior design changed very slightly. I think that there is no other car known so well by its distinguished look and there is no other car that has so much versatility. Owning a Beetle is not just having a car, it is sending out a statement. Every country and every owner put their own mark on their Bug.
Beetle has been part of popular culture since 1960s. The former “hippie car” lost his old status and became more of a hipster car. I love seeing the personalized versions of this car. I remember seeing a red one with a gigantic toy key on the back, green one with little flowers all over and many candy like colored Bugs decorated by their proud owners.
I have to say that my eyes get bigger every time I see the yellow Beetle convertible. One day, when I am done with school and finally buying my first car, you know it will be a yellow beetle.

Assignment 4-1

Weekly Written Analysis 4

Since I already used the reality show The Hills for the other assignment this week I decided to just go with it for the analysis too. It seems like in last few years there has just been rash of reality shows. We all could probably agree that none of them have much of artistic or intellectual value. Some of them are interesting to watch like The Amazing Race or The Passport for example. There are few that I absolutely cannot stand.

One of them is the VH1 reality show The Hills. For those of you that did not see The Hills yet let me explain you what is the show about. There are few main characters, somewhere between 20 and 30 years old rich L.A. kids, their time is filled with lunches with friends, partying, vacationing or shopping. Their conversations are mainly about gossip, relationship problems or what restaurant are they going to dine. Very few of them have been ever shown working and I could not tell you what any of them are doing or where does their money come from. There is something about the bunch of young, rich, unintelligent people that have not added anything into the society that really annoys me. Especially when there are so many young people those are hard working and have accomplished so much. I would not have that much against this show if the “real” people in it would not be made to be such a celebrities. Call me crazy, but to me a celebrity should have at least some talent. I do not understand the cult following this show. Why do admire people that never worked and got everything handed to them? Maybe it is all about wishing it was us. I am sure that there are many people that wish they had been born rich and they do not have to go to work and school every day. It is an idea, that I am sure all of us have think about before. What if I was born rich? I do think about how much easier my life would be with wealth. On the other side, when I turn on the TV and see what money does to peoples character and perception of life I am glad I was born poor.

The Hills – if you have not seen it you have certainly not miss much. The description of the cast members could as well be rich, young, white, skinny and useless. I cannot help but wonder what young people see in this show. Why do we look up to rich and pathetic?

Assignment 3-2

Ritual Development

a. What is your understanding of the word "ritual?"

In my opinion, rituals are acts performed in the specific time with religious need, emotional need, or social need, demonstration of dominancy or affiliation, obtaining acceptance, status or approval. Rituals can be performed in privacy or public, they can be performed by individuals or in the groups.

b. What rituals do you observe in our society?

We do many rituals every day and about most of them, we do not even think about. We kiss our spouses when we leave house, shake hands with people we are introduced to, wave to our neighbors, go to church on Sunday. Then there are more special rituals we perform only for special occasions. For example we have turkey for Thanks Giving Day, we dress up for Halloween, have an egg hunt for on Easter, etc.

c. What rituals do you observe in your family?

I was raised in Catholic family so we would go to church every Sunday morning. During the Christmas, we had many special rituals that had to be repeated every year. For example, during the Christmas dinner none of the females at the table could get up, everyone has to get a walnut and apple before dinner, we could open gifts after dinner on evening of 24^th.

d. Are there any rituals that you can identify that are prevalent today? If so, what are they?

There are still some cultural and religious rituals that are visible in our society. The handshakes or hugs when people meet or the order we sit at the Sunday dinner table. Many of us practice some kind or religion that requires rituals. Christians go to church on Sunday; Muslims pray 5 times a day and feast during the Ramadan, Jewish go to temple on Sabbath and fast during the Hanukkah, etc.

e. What ritual would you like to develop for either our society or your family?

I wish to preserve the rituals from my culture and my religion. In addition, I would love to develop special rituals with my own family such as dinning together and spending quality time.

Weekly Written Analysis 3

Week Analysis 3

The Most Interesting Men in the World

I have been fascinated with TV commercials for long time now. This interest is one of the reasons why I choose to study marketing. Many of the commercials are annoying and in my opinion ineffective but from time to time, there is commercial that really catches my interest. Recently one of the campaigns that I paid attention to is a commercial for Dos Equis.

This campaign is not only very well done visually but also captivates the attention and fulfills the purpose. Commercials show grey bearded man sounded by beautiful woman unusual situations. The narrator introduces this man as the most interesting man in the world. At the end, you see him sitting at the table in what appears to be a bar surrounded by good-looking women. “I don’t always drink beer but when I do I prefer Dos Equis,” he says.

Unlike most of the beer commercials, this one is very sophisticated. The older gentleman appears to be more suitable for whiskey advertising than beer. Even he himself admits that he does not always drinks beer. What? He does not always drink beer? It is very unusually for the spokes person to admit that they do not always use the product they are advertising. Obviously, the most interesting man on the world is too “cool” to be drinking beer all the time. The most interesting man on the world do not need to be all over the product to propagate it. He just mentions that he prefers it. The most interesting man on the world is persuasive that after watching the commercial on television I had to find out who he is. Well he is a made up character. Witch made this commercial even more interesting. No real person can be the most interesting man on the world for everyone.

There is only one more question that needs to be asked. Did the commercial fulfill the purpose? It does not matter how well it the commercial made visually and how great of the idea it is. The commercial has to make you want to go and buy otherwise is useless. I am not a big beer drinker but last night I ordered Dos Equis in the bar for the first time. I did not like it too much and I would probably never even think about buying it if it was not for the most interesting men in the world. Because picture is worth a thousand words, I include a link for the commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2SSZA0CjdQ.

Icon Analysis 2-2

The three contemporary popular culture icons I have chosen are Elmo, Superman and Madonna.

I actually did not grow up with Elmo but right after I came to America I feel in love with the furry monster. Elmo is the star and main puppet from popular children’s show Sesame Street. Elmo has been around for 24 years although he has not been in the original cast of the show. This red furry monster with a mind of four years old is extremely popular among toddlers and young children. To me Elmo is impersonating of everything playful, happy, loving and curious that is hiding inside four years old.





My second character does not need an extra introduction. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it is a Superman! This character has been around since 1938. Today he has much more competition than ever. He has to compete for the popularity with all kinds of new heroes. However, that does not trouble him at all. Superman is still one of the most recognized icons all around the world. Every decade a new Superman stories are made into the movies, cartoons, video game and everything that you can imagine. I remember superman from a show with Christopher Reeve that I use to watch as a child. Superman as a character was always a symbol of heroism without the need of recognition to me.





Last, one of my icons is Madonna. For so many years, Madonna seems to never stop. Music, books, film, clothing lines, charities and all kinds of other stuff made this icon very easy to recognize. Madonna’s first album appeared in 1983 and since then she recorded eleven albums. She has also made 22 movies and directed one in last year. Madonna will turn 41 this year but her fan base is anywhere from 10 to 80. I personally do not thing that Madonna is a great singer, actress or designer but she is a genius marketing person.

Weekly Written Analysis 2

Skinny Jeans

Popular culture is always changing element. What is “in” today will be “out” tomorrow. Probably the most changing and visible element of pop culture is fashion.
How terrible the fashion of the 80’s seems to us today. It is possible that ten years from now we will think the same way about fashion now. About a year ago, I vowed never to wear skinny jeans. Well a year went by and now I only wear skinny jeans. I am not always perused by the lattes trends but I guess sometimes I give in. It is humorous how much they look like something out of the 50’s and yet so ultra modern. They actually started in 50’s and surprisingly men originally mostly wore them. They were always here, in every decade following but in 2006 they are at the top of the popularity again. Skinny jeans go with everything. You can dress them up or down. They come in all kinds of colors; you can buy them in any clothing store and price range. I believe that there is not a celebrity that have not been seen and photographed wearing them. Everyone loves skinny jeans. If you are businesswomen, stay at home mom, teenager or a punk rocker you own a pair. One has to wonder where skinny jeans would be without the marketing. What came first? Did we discover the versatility of skinny jeans and they become popular or the other way around.
They maybe a little tight sometimes but thank you for skinny jeans. We will gladly suffer a little bit of discomfort for our “skinny friends”. They have been here the whole time and we just know find out that we cannot live without them. Fashion repeats itself all the time. That makes me wonder what is going to be next. Just please, please, please do not bring back the wide leg jeans.