In Douglas Holt's, "How is Cultural Branding Different?" he explores why certain brands become icons. Holt are argues that in order to truly become an icon advertisers need to understand what social issues are of the most significance of the time. This means that often times to remain an icon it means a company may need to change it's approach with the changes in social issues of the nations. Ads for iconic brands need to have strong ties with the point of utmost tension within a society. This then means a company can market the product as a way to solve the pressing problems of the time (Holt). Weather it be a time of war and people want peace or a time of division when people want to find unity, a company must be able market the problem as a healer. An example that Holt uses of an iconic brand was Snapple. At its outset the Snapple company was run by amateurs who had no real experience in business and they brought that out in their commercials. This was during the populist movement of the 1990s so Snapple jumped on the bandwagon and went against everything that represented the major corporations. Their original commercials were often times poorly made, but they were very real and natural. They used a woman who did clerical work at Snapple for their commercials instead of some paid actor (Holt).
However, eventually Snapple was bought out by the Quaker Oats company that instead tried to implement more traditional ways of advertising (Holt). Snapple no longer has the same cultural ties it use to have with the American people that used to feel empowered by drinking a Snapple and "sticking it to the man". If you watch more recent Snapple commercials they are much more polished, have real actors, and even make an attempt at humor, but it is not memorable and relatable like the old Snapple commercials use to be.
In an age when we are bombarded by thousands of commercials people are getting more and more sick and tired of hearing yet another one. Many commercials these days leave a negative impression on people because it is simply and annoying. It we have already heard something like it a million times before. That is why if a company really wants to sell their product and make it an icon they must go above and beyond mind-share branding, or emotional branding, or viral branding. They must make their product matter and seem invaluable to us. They need to manipulate their product to seem like it can heal a nation.
Citation:
Holt, Douglas. How Brands Become Icons. Boston: Harvard
Business School Publishing Corporation, 2004. 13-38. Print.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Glocal Scene: A Documentary
Glocal Scene is a documentary made by two young amateur filmmakers from Leeds. It is obvious when watching the film that they have no experience with filming. Their camera is often times very shaky, there are weird camera angles, and poor sound quality. The beauty of it, though, is that adds to the overall atmosphere of the documentary and the idea they are trying to get across. The film has a very organic feel because it is about struggling artists that have very little chance of getting much publicity and so it is up to themselves to get known. They are all very unpolished just like the film itself, but in this way, their true passion for their music shines through because it isn't just about the fame.
However, as is made clear in the film, making and recording music is about connecting with people and that is where the challenge begins. Since, the people who control the music industry is so concentrated it is hard for these local artists who are so different to get well known. Thanks to the internet and myspace, though, many are able to be heard and can create a fan base, however small. Another way for them to be heard is to tour and play in small venues weather it be nightclubs or even people's houses. These bands usually only make enough money to cover the costs of the trip.
The film also presented some interesting points that I never would have thought of before. It is interesting how bands get to another bands that know another band and they are able to sometimes form these small networks that can help each other out. In the film there was an example of a two woman band that had other bands play at there house in exchange for a breakfast of pancakes. The women said that once a band came to play at their house they always came back. Another interesting point made in the film is that the more isolated a city, often times, the more creative and unique the art will be. One gentleman in the film from LA believes that if you are exposed to too much music as you are growing up, you will lose a certain element of innocence when creating your own music. This reminds me of the video we watched during the marketing talk where they were able to predict the ad that the advertisers were going to create based on the ads they passed by on their trip to the studio. It shows how we are bombarded by so much of the same music and advertising that it starts to creep into our lives without even realizing it.
However, as is made clear in the film, making and recording music is about connecting with people and that is where the challenge begins. Since, the people who control the music industry is so concentrated it is hard for these local artists who are so different to get well known. Thanks to the internet and myspace, though, many are able to be heard and can create a fan base, however small. Another way for them to be heard is to tour and play in small venues weather it be nightclubs or even people's houses. These bands usually only make enough money to cover the costs of the trip.
The film also presented some interesting points that I never would have thought of before. It is interesting how bands get to another bands that know another band and they are able to sometimes form these small networks that can help each other out. In the film there was an example of a two woman band that had other bands play at there house in exchange for a breakfast of pancakes. The women said that once a band came to play at their house they always came back. Another interesting point made in the film is that the more isolated a city, often times, the more creative and unique the art will be. One gentleman in the film from LA believes that if you are exposed to too much music as you are growing up, you will lose a certain element of innocence when creating your own music. This reminds me of the video we watched during the marketing talk where they were able to predict the ad that the advertisers were going to create based on the ads they passed by on their trip to the studio. It shows how we are bombarded by so much of the same music and advertising that it starts to creep into our lives without even realizing it.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Local News and Crime
For this week I thought I would take a look at our own local news on how they cover stories on crime in the area. I don't often watch local news, but I remember one evening, a couple of weeks ago the local news station was on in my room and all I heard were stories about a pregnant teenager being shot at her birthday party or a little boy sharing drugs with his friends on the playground. However, I wanted to look more closely at coverage of crime on local Boston news and what form it took. Going on the website for WBZ TV Boston and looking through the video archives, it did not take much effort to locate plenty of the kinds of stories I was looking for. In Gilliam and Iyengar's "Prime Suspects: The Influence of Local Television News on the Viewing Public" they argue that almost all coverage of crime will follow a certain "script" that people can come to expect when watching the local news. It is probably the formula that news stations have found captures the biggest audience. In a way the news stations are forced to create this drama, that is not to say that they are making up the crimes, but that they need to portray it a certain way so that in a sense it is like all those crime scene TV shows that people love to watch. Gilliam and Iyengar suggest in their article that their are two crucial elements to the crime script are that the crime must be violent and it must have a suspect. They say the coverage must have a "cast" which you will see over again when their are reports on the same story. Like in TV shows the audience becomes familiar with the characters and sympathize with the victims while wanting to see the suspects brought to justice. Sometimes I wonder if people ever lose sight of reality always watching stories like these on the news because it is not just a show where things always happen in a clear cut way and in the same pattern every time. I found a story about the recent attack on a mother and her daughter, that resulted in the of the mother and hospitalization of the daughter. In watching the initial reports on the attacks it is all very well scripted as Gilliam and Iyengar might say. They give details about the violence and brutality of the crime and about the victims. There are also shots of the typical crime scene with area marked off with yellow tape. They show the responses of friends and neighbors who are all shocked that such a thing could happen in their picturesque little town. Then, there of course is the description of the possible suspect, or suspects in this case. It all seemed to fit this model that most local news stations seems to follow. To check out the actual video click on this link for: New Hampshire Town Reeling From Murder.
Monday, October 5, 2009
The Music Industry
In class this week we talked a lot about the music industry and how the concentration of power within the industry has led to a lack of diversity in mainstream music. Although, advances such as the Internet have made it easier for independent bands to get their music out there and heard, it is still very difficult for these bands to ‘make it big’. Major record labels tend to employ businessmen as opposed to people who actually know something about the creative aspect of music. Their job is to sell. And as Croteau & Hoynes state nothing sells like success. This is why when you turn on the radio most songs sound the same. They play it safe by trying to sell what they know has sold in the past. In a lot of way I think it is very obvious that there is so much more meaning and truth in music made my more independent artists. Just by listening to the lyrics you can see how some music is literally poetry put to music, whereas more mainstream songs tend to have repetitive cliché lyrics that are easily stuck in your head despite how annoying they are. There is also a certain difference in sound. Mainstream songs tend to have a very commercialized sound, meaning very computerized or almost too perfect. Whereas, there is what has become this whole genre of music which is called lo-fi. Songs are often recorded in this way because a band can’t afford any better recording equipment, but it gives the music this very real and raw sound. In a way when you know a band is not making very much money, because they aren’t signed to a major record label that promotes them so much that there is no room for any new artists, and yet they still continue to put their music out there any way they can, then you know that for them it is really about the music and sharing it with others and not about just getting rich and famous. And in some ways you kind of find yourself glad that they don’t get signed by a major record label because then they would lose a lot of their creative freedom and be forced to fit into a certain mold and lose aspects of their original sound that their original loyal fans loved so much. Although I am not hear to say weather certain bands sound better or worse once they finally get signed to a major record label, I think there is little doubt that they often times do sound different. An example would be the band Modest Mouse that was originally signed to an independent label. Starting with their album The Moon & Antarctica they signed on with Sony’s Epic Records. Then with the album Good News For People Who Love Bad News they hit mainstream success with their hit singles “Float On” and “The Ocean Breathes Salty”. Although, I think there are still some catchy songs that I enjoy on their album Good News For People Who Love Bad News, you can tell there is a more poppy, polished, and commercialized sound to their newer albums.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Commercial Culture
In our class discussion on Friday we discussed the topic of heroes/idols in our culture that are a result of mass media. The mass media allows us to take glimpses into celebrities lives all the time. People come to admire and look up to celebrities for a number of reasons. Sometimes they admire the for their work and others admire them for the lifestyles they have. I think it is interesting to look into how advertisers have used this to their advantage. Their are always commercials in which celebrities are used to help market a product. The idea is to lure people in by actually selling this idea that if you buy their product you will be just like that particular celebrity and have the success that they have. A couple weeks ago I saw a documentary that just came out called September Issue. It is a documentary about the editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine, Anna Wintour. A point that they really emphasized in the documentary is that Anna Wintour was the first person to put celebrities on the cover of a magazine. Now most popular magazines feature celebrities on their covers, in this way people are encouraged to by these magazines that are filled with hegemonic ideologies about how to be the "ideal person".
One commercial I have seen aired a lot recently is a cover girl commercial with Drew Barrymore. The commercial is flashy and glamorous and Drew Barrymore is a familiar face with a household name. In the commercial Drew Barrymore says, "When it comes to lashes, I say the bigger the better." So, not only is the commercial suggesting in order to look pretty you need our mascara to make your lashes longer, but also Drew Barrymore is personally suggesting it. In our society girls are encouraged to wear make up in order to look like better versions of themselves and in order to cover up any possible flaws. The advertisers want girls to think, "if I want to look like Drew Barrymore and lead the kind of life she does then I should buy this mascara".
In Gitlin's Prime Time Ideology: The Hegemonic Process in Television Entertainment, he does make the important distinction that this commercial culture does not create ideologies, but instead it reproduces and concentrates on certain ideologies that have come from popular social movements. In this sense though, advertisers view the masses as consumers that are trying to achieve an ideal life and be an ideal person. Gtilin also points out that, "Time and attention are not one's own." When we are sitting back and watching our favorite TV show it inevitable that it will be interrupted by commercials trying to sell us another product we probably don't really need, but we sit there and watch it anyways. And weather we listen to it on a conscious or subconscious level some part of it is bound to stick with us.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Me and the Media
I think that it is painfully obvious that as a part of this society, and especially with as much privelage as we have, it is almost impossible to escape mass media. It is definitely a part of my life that I would not willingly give up anytime soon. Although, a lot of times the way I consume the media is a waste of time, especially when it comes to spending hours in front of the computer, a lot of times times mass media is keeping me informed and connected with people. I also won't deny some of the incredible entertainment value in the mass media. However, one of the main reasons I wanted to take a class on Mass Media and society is that in the past I have often found myself wondering what I were to find if I was to look under the surface of what was actually being presented to me. Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
Even in the short few weeks since I've been here at BC it's interesting to see how some of my habits have changed concerning mass media. Living in Egypt I never watched much TV. We didn't get any of the channels I would really want to watch and my family just didn't watch all that much TV. So, I would only watch some of my favorite shows that I happened to have on DVD or that I could borrow from friends. At the time most of the news I got was from listening to NPR every morning on the internet. My mom, who is an avid NPR fan, would play for all of us. Now, being back in the States I prefer to actually watch the news on TV or read it from my subcriptions to the Economist and the New Yorker, which have been having trouble finding their way to my mailbox at BC. Also, I have been going a little TV crazy. There is a TV actually in my room that is easily accessible and there is always something on and in my dorm room we have it playing in the background. Sometimes when I'm bored I find myself watching something I might not even enjoy just because it's on. I think the novelty of it will wear off soon. I hope.
Besides the internet another part of mass media that is a huge part of my life is recorded music. However, I don't really follow much mainstream music so I don't really listen to the radio or watch MTV, if they even have music on MTV anymore. But, I don't know what I would do without my ipod or if I somehow lost all the music I have on their.
I'm really hoping this class will help me open eyes a little more to the actual role mass media plays in society.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
I always had this idea in my head that blogging meant posting all the intimate details of your life on the internet for anyone who cared enough to look at it. Being a private person this of course had no appeal to me whatsoever. Besides I honestly did not think anyone would care. So now, I guess I'm going to try and break the stereotype I had in my own mind about blogging. While looking further into what people have to say on their blogs I realized a lot of it is more an unafilliated way of reporting. So in my blog I am going to attempt to report how mass media influences my life personally as well as the influence I believe it has on society as a whole, but I'm still not sure anyone is going to care.
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