DRUM ROLL PLEASE!

BLOGS I COMMENTED ON;

Kendra Hui's "You look so much better in pictures dude..."
Emma Nuesca's "How does my hair look?"
Inggrid Wibowo's "RE: Is Taxing Pop Really a Solution?"
Camela Fejer's "Google Street View"
Mae Tanga's "Say "NO THANK YOU" to photoshop!"
Lester Lampa's "Social Awareness Contradiction"

yay!

Mmmmms, fat!

Oh my goodness, I gotta be honest I was so disgusted but Im pretty sure that Im going to be drinking pop by tomorrow anyways. Say if I did drink pop everyday, I get enough exercise to loose the ten pounds gained by the end of the year. Only the lazy people keep that fat, along with the food you ate with that pop. Exercise does help with your health.
Though, I think that the campaign is very effective. It targets the people's fear of getting fat and it has the visual aspect for people to see what is going into their system. It says "a pop A DAY"for a year though. People might think "Oh, its okay. I dont drink pop everyday anyways." I have always wanted to be a healthier person even before this ad, but it didn't really change my views about drinking pop. I still drink it occasionally and as long as I'm not one of those people who drink it everyday I think that I'll be fine.
The growing obesity in our nation is caused by large proportions because people want the most from what they payed for. The larger the proportion they get, the more fat people gain by thinking they have to finish what they bought and pop makes you eat more. It also makes you thirstier which means you're gonna keep drinking it. You may even end up drinking 3 cans a day!
The video grossed me out. It made me turn my head and look away. It made me rethink about my pop-drinking habbits and how often I drink pop. Though it didn't turn me away from pop for good. I would still probably drink pop but not as much as before.
Canada is greastly influenced by America, Canada may even just be the version of America with less obesity ratings and free health care! So if they start taxing for their pop, then we would probably add another 1% to the additional 14% GST & PST we already pay for. If we do have to pay more for pop, I would still buy it but not as often anymore. Pop companies may suffer from this but Pop would be a bigger luxury than maybe champagne or other drinks that cost a lot.

Mmmm MANIPULATE!

I spent a good fifteen minutes looking at Photoshop gone bad pictures like this one, and laughed at almost all of them. Obvious enough that this girl's torso was manipulated to the extent that if she didn't have that thing to lean on she's gonna be a permanent walking 40 degree angle. It also makes me wonder which part of this model is the real, natural her. If people are gonna be photoshopped anyways, then they could drag anybody from the sidewalk to a studio, have a photoshoot and just manipulate how they actually look into how they wanted them to look. Anybody could be a supermodel nowadays I guess. Think about it; trucker named "Joe" as your day job and be THE FACE OF RALPH LAUREN AS A SIDE JOB! It bothers me that companies are constantly manipulating images, this is why our society had a twisted perception of beauty. The people they look up to in pictures who are "beautiful" don't even look like the person in the picture themselves.
I'm glad that stars have taken up to the no-makeup and photo manipulation trend(although it helps that they're already naturally beautiful. Peter Lindbergh's photoshoot of the supermodels show that you could be confident and beautiful in your own skin without caking your face up with makeup. I think now that we aren't as naive and we are actually aware of the use of photo manipulation in magazines, ads, and even some videos then maybe we could stick with accepting people as they are with no photoshopping involved. It only adds proof to the saying "Nobody's perfect" and "Everyones beautiful in their own way."
Having normal people who don't always fit into our stereotype of what a "supermodel" would look like means that we are getting through the phase of limiting our perception of beautiful as a person that could fit into a size two, now beauty comes in all shapes and sizes! Now, when I see spreads of people who aren't glammed up, I feel proud that society is expanding and opening up to the variety of people who deserve to be on the cover of fashion magazines and walk catwalks. YEAH YOU GO SIZE 16 MODELS, YOU WORK THAT CATWALK!

"COD" isnt just the fish anymore

Video games had evolved throughout the years. Its one of the most influential instruments in our society. Although there are certain ratings like "M" for Mature and "E" for everyone, I still meet six-year olds everywhere who play games that are meant for "Mature" audiences. I understand why parents always comment on how much time their children spend on playing these games, but they should also understand that they have the power to take these games away from their children. Yeah, it's hard for parents to say "Stop playing your games and red a book instead," parents should be paying more attention to what their kids play in the first place (like the rating). I remember when I was little and I was only limited to playing Super Mario on our Nintendo for 2 hours after I finished my school work turned into me playing "Crash Bandicoot" or "Dead or Alive"(which is for mature audiences btw) on the PS1 for countless hours after. I started pretending that I was Coco Bandicoot or Lei Fang. So I understand how these could influence children's play. When you spend so much time on video games, the characters almost start to be your idols
It is good that manufacturers took into the consideration the physical aspects of playing video games. A typical stereotype for a "gamer" is an obese person who eats junk food and microwave "Hot-stuffs" all day, but now that games like "Wii-fit" game out you could be a gamer and get your daily dose of exercise too! So I definitely think that some video games have turned out to be beneficial to the user. Thing is, how many people enjoy doing Wii-fit exercises rather than sit-down games like "Modern Warfare" or "Little Big Planet". I don't play much video games but if I did I'd probably play more of the sit down games. Yeah, "Cooking Mama" is fun but I play it sitting down and really, how hard is it to do the things they tell you to, how much does it actually bring up your IQ?
Look at this. Yup all THIS because they canceled his World of Warcraft account. Is this why parents don't take away their child's video games?

Talk to your child, before they get mauled by women.

I was pretty surprised that Dove and Axe had the same parent company but campaigns that totally went against each other. Its like ordering one of your children to love themselves for who they are and having the other one think they're not good enough so they should smell good to get girls.
1) I was proud of the Dove campaign for real beauty. We get told several times in our lives that people are beautiful in our own way. We're beautiful even if we don't cake-up our faces with make-up, even if we don't look like the people in magazines, or have implants although some people or the media says otherwise. Dove wanted to eliminate the stereotype's about what being beautiful is and I respect them for that. They are raising self-esteem for people out there who were primarily self-conscious about their physical appearance since they don't fit the description of "beauty".
2) The Axe Effect campaign was the complete opposite of the dove campaign. Watching this made me raise an eyebrow. Why were these women travelling to the amazon in bikinis? Did they just walk on water? Women like men who are clean, just because a man smells like he spilled a whole bottle of perfume on himself it doesn't make him so irresistible that it sends us running to tackle him...
3)I think that a parent company doesn't really take much action to ensure that all their sectors express the same beliefs and values. Many products take different approaches of promoting their products and whatever sells-well...sells. Its not a publicly known fact that Dove and Axe have the same parent company, therefore people don't hold Unilever responsible for the contradicting messages Dove and Axe have. Although both ads do exert some kind of message of confidence to the consumer, you're naturally beautiful;you feel just as beautiful as everyone else out there, you think you smell good; some girls might think so too.

Is it? Is it... really?

I love the types of ads that make you feel something or go "AHA!", laugh, or feel something... anything. These ads made me confused and just made me question what the heck they were thinking.
The tape worm ad; Yeah, okay... because tape worms inside you isn't gross at all right? Nor is it healthy for you. Sure, you can eat all you want, but are you really gonna risk your health and go as far as eating tape worms just to stay thin? How bout you just eat right and exercise...? I know its not as easy done than said, but it's the healthier better way.
Blow it in her face ad; Blow smoke in her face why don't you, cuz that's really sexy. Yeah right. One, it's rude and Two, it's called "Second-hand smoke"... yeah you die from that. You die from SMOKING period.
Lard ad; There are many healthier alternatives for lard. I doubt lard really makes anyone as happy as it says on the ad... maybe they just came from a family outting. They also won't be that healthy-looking if they love lard that much. RIght?
Doctors and camel ad; This ad makes people realize that even doctors smoke cigarettes and therefore they think "Hey if people who went through so many years of post-grad medical school smoke "Camels" then maybe I won't die from it." WRONG! Just because doctors choose this type of cigarette doesnt give them a lower chance of dying from a desease inflicted by smoking.

All in all, I think that these ads were ran with the intention of obviously selling a product. Big time companies knew that physical appearance is important to people and thats what they target in order to earn a profit. They pin-pointed people's insecurities. Nowadays, ads are more into healthier options of losing weight, and even cigarette boxes contain warnings of the things that can be caused by smoking. There are more ads on tv about healthy eating and quiting smoking than anything else.

stalk me.

The first thing that came into my head when i tried Google Street View wasn't "OMG I am appauled by this violation of privacy and what if i get stalked and kidnapped?! :O" though it did come to mind, but then I thought "What are the chances of that?". Personally, I think that this technology would be more useful for safety than to risk our privacy. Think about how helpful it would be to the police. I mean, sure everyone can easily see your neighbourhood, but SO WHAT? They could also do that when they drive down, might as well save gas right? We're going green! ;) Plus, the license plates and faces were blurred. Chances are, people would have the same car as you and no one would say "Hey, yea thats her/her car so thats where she is right now", that would be a stupid criminal move. I mean really, REALLY? If by some little coincidence I am in one of these street view photographs, I think it's safer than the picture of me up on the internet right now that doesnt have my face blurred. Makes you think who's really putting your privacy at risk, google or yourself, family, or friends. Kudos to google for inventing this and improving their mapping, this would be really helpful.