Media are lying to us!

Here are two pictures: the first one is the original one; the second is the retouched picture featuring on the cover of Nitro magazine.
On the first picture, the model:
looks older, has a bigger nose, has cellulite, has a yellowish skin, dark circles.
On picture number two, they made her nose smaller, her skin has as a better color, she has no dark circles, her eyes looks better, her hair have more volume and looks nicer, she seems younger, is thinner and has no cellulite.
Nowadays, tons of people dream about pictures from magazines. They want to be as beautiful as these people. We do not realize that no matter how beautiful a model is, new technology such as photoshop is going to be used to make the model look better. No one is physically perfect. Behind a nice picture are hidden magicians such as: the make up artist that tries to embellish and hide imperfections of the model, the hairdresser, the stylist, the photographer.
When you dream about a picture, you should never think that this is reality. A professional make up can change a person into a hot one. Media are creating a world of illusions where we like to be. Superficiality is the king in this place. Media made us obsessed with images and appearance. We want to look like those models, those stars. Media are selling us dream. They want to show beauty, hotness, sexiness. Our world is becoming unreal. How many person these images are influencing. Beauty business is going very well. We think that by over consuming beauty product, we may change who we are. You can also ask for plastic surgery help to access your beauty dream but aren’t you going to become a stranger to your environment. Are your liking for yourself or your appearance. We need to stop to believe all what Media are showing us. We are not ignorant. We need to wake up and stop dreaming. Media send us fake images to make us feel bad about our appearance. We are not in competition with these images. We need to accept who we are and stop this superficiality of society.

Teenages revolution

I am an intern in Time Warner Public Access in Santa Monica. Last time I was working there, I saw a show interview about the new movie of Ann Finnegan, a new producer. I also had the chance to see a preview of her new movie Plastic makes perfect.
The movie talks about a big change in the teens of nowadays. It shows young girls wearing hills, make up and sexy swimsuits. They actually behave like her mother. From the back, we believe they are at least eighteen , but, then we realize that those are kids and they are having an unusual behavior for kids of their age. There is also a scene where they talk about sex and check out the guy who is cleaning the swimming pool.
With such a controversial movie, Ann Finnegan wants to show that the new teen generation is not what it used to be. Girls do not play Barbies anymore, they want to be Barbie and fool around with ken.
This movie is definitely going to shock people because of the straightforwardness of the dialog. It is also an important movie that is showing the change that is happening in the new generation. Kids are growing up too fast. They do not live a childhood for a long time. They want to act like adults. They want to dress like adults. This movie is denouncing this. Kids should not act older than they are. Society is sick because of all the media and images that kids are exposed too, they are acting differently. They want to be the sexy models on the magazines. They want to seduce boys as girls do in the television shows. It is becoming dangerous because sometimes, we have problem to figure out what age someone is. It may be dangerous for teenagers that may become victims of pedophiles.
Kids should try to look older or imitate the adults at the point that they kinda look alike. Media are dangerous and the results of it are underage kids trying to pretend they are older.

It ’s all about packaging!

Why do i choose one cereal packet to another? Is it because of the size? of the composition? Maybe it is because i just like the nice packaging of the brand.
Here we have a Kellogg’s corn flakes cereal box. To promote their cereals, the brand had chosen an Olympic champion, Michael Phelps. He looks happy and have a big smile on the front picture. He looks healthy and very sporty because we see several pictures of him swimming. The images used should have a powerful impact on the buyer. The buyer will make a connection between the champion and his cereals. Apparently, corn flakes seems to be the best breakfast for all wannabes sport champion. It looks as if the cereal had magic power; it is as if they could change you. By giving so much energy, you will become a winner.
What is funny is that the package is also patriotic. They use the color red and blue of the American Flag and also there are many stars on it. Moreover, you can see the American Flag on the swim hat of Michael Phelps. There are also sentences used to reinforce this patriotism. Kellogg is a “Proud sponsor”, Michael won gold medals “representing his country with pride”. There is also the poem “Amazing Awaits” that is totally over patriotic.
Amazing Awaits
where we least expect it, or
after training for it all our lives
it awaits in Our Olympians.
In all Americans.
In the honor of victory
and the glory of pursuit.
with a nation behind us,
with a world before us,
and within us all…
amazing awaits
The words honor, nation, glory, victory have a big impact. You want to be the best. You want to win for your country. That is the goal of the Olympic Games, to push the patriotism in his excess.
Moreover, it is written that you can get a poster of Michael Phelps. It is also fat free, cholesterol free, diabetes friendly although it contains sugar and high fructose corn syrup. There is also an overuse of vocabulary involving superiority. They use the words proud, winner, amazing, performance, legendary, record, pride. Kellogg Corn flakes is also the Original and the Best. All these words are selling you the product. They want to make you believe that it is the best and that it is connected to champion and victory.
Finally, there is the results of the Olympic competition of Michael Phelps. These results are obviously amazing since he is a eight gold medal Olympic champion.
With such a packaging, it should not be easy to convince the buyers that this cereals are the “Best and Original”.

bad jesus

There is a cartoon I just found on the website www.dig.com at http://www.explosm.net/comics/1467/   that I really enjoyed.

The cartoon shows Jesus doing what he usually did according to the church which was being able to turn water in wine. According to the situation, this action does not look good at all because Jesus is not suppose to have a drink since he is driving.

To me, this cartoon is not in favor of Jesus or religion. It appears that Jesus is tricking one of his believer. He shows him something and change it into another thing.  This may relate to many things religion has done in the past. For instance, the religion war. The church said it was to bring the right religion to the pagan and heretics but what happened was that the real purpose of it was gaining  territory, possession and more power.

The friend of Jesus in the cartoon is blind. He believes and trust Jesus blindly. He has faith in him and does not think that he will never be deceived by him. The last drawing shows a dark side of Jesus. The cartoon is also humanizing Jesus because this is human nature to lie. Nobody is perfect so why will Jesus be perfect? This cartoon may want to warn people to not trust too easily. Good and bad coexist and is find in everyone even in the church.

Does The New York Times likes Obama?

This last Wednesday, The New York Times edited a picture of two candidates to presidency : Obama and Mc Cain. These two picture were very different.
First, Obama was looking bad on the picture. He could barely opened his eyes because rain was pouring on him. His face looks terrible because it was probably hard to stay under that cold rain without an umbrella.
Then, we have a great picture of Mc Cain showing him with a great smile and looking very confident. Obviously, he did not have to endured the same hard rain than Obama. He looks very relaxed opposed to Obama who seems very tensed.
These two opposed pictures show us that the newspaper publishing them has an opinion about the candidates. If it did not have any, we would see both candidates looking similar and not as contrasted.
Maybe, the media do not tell us directly what is their point of view but indirectly, they try to influence us. Visual images such as pictures is a great way to catch our attention and honestly, who will not think that Obama looks terrible on this shot?
Does The New York Times likes Obama??
Is up to the pictures to tell you…

The President has humanity

I went to the movie theater yesterday and saw the last Oliver Stone movie: W. It is a very interesting movie telling the most important moments of the life of George W. Bush, actual president of the United States.

What is interesting is how is showed the character of George. Although, the president of the USA has made a lot of mistakes and is not really loved in the country, the movie gives us a new perspective on who that person is. It is not all negative. It is not about blaming W, but showing that after all, he is a human like everyone else.

The movie shows both negative and positive side of W. It also emphasizes on his difficult relationship with his father, and his humanity. We see him suffering from alcoholism and fighting it. We have compassion for him whenever he has to deal with his father because it is a very uneasy happy father-son realtionship. We see him breaking down and appearing at the worst of his presidency. There is a moment in the movie where he is unable to answer a question from a journalist and that moment is very important because we see the main character being the opposite of what he is suppose to be. A president needs to have an answer for everything and as soon as possible.

But finally, the president is only a figure and is not really the one in charge of the country. It is what many people do not understand and what try to explain the movie. The president is the representative figure of a country. He is the one who signs documents that he is not even making. If he is not very strong, he becomes some sort of muppet that poeple below him in the governemnt are articulating. He is not the only one who makes law, takes decision. The governement that surrounds him has a lot of influence on him and make him do things he may have not done by itself.

The goal of this movie is not to show George W. Bush as a smart men who knows what he wants and what he is doing but, more to show that he is a human; He commits errors, he has problems, he is passionate, he is not a good speaker. To me, this movie was made to show that evry bad things that happened recently, are not only because of the president. More people than just him are responsible for it. Even if the movie maybe spoof in some and ridiculises the president, it is not in a complete negative way. After seeing the movie, I had a less bad opinion about George W. Bush and I am not pro him.

If you do not like the president, you should at least see the movie for the mazing performance of Josh Brolin, amzing actor who was nominated for the movie ”No country for old man”. He portrays perfectly George W. Bush.

Give me that piece of nugget or I’ll chop you with my chopsticks!

Advertisers are being so creative sometimes that they make us believe things about a product. I found a pretty interesting Mac Donalds ad that you can check out on: http://www.adweek.com/aw/creative/best-spots/article_display.jsp?creativeId=269838

First, this ad concern the chicken nugget product and also the participation of Mac Donalds for the Olympic Games in China. The action is set up in China on the countryside. The musical background reinforced that Chinese feeling. The two Chinese kids were splitting a bowl of nuggets and only one is left over.

Here, there is no comments about the nuggets, no close up that will show their crispiness or their freshness but, the only fact that the kids began fighting for it makes it attractive. The ad will remind the audience in a bad way the movie Tiger and Dragon. The fight is pretty intense and every punch is allowed. The kids are obsessed about catching the last piece of nuggets.

The creative technicals used here makes me forget that the ad was for Mac Donalds and the Olympic Games. I got more focus into the kids fight and what they were ready to do than thinking about what the ad was for. The fight has a very comical effect because it is indeed funny to have kids fighting with chopsticks for just a piece of food. The piece of nuggets here may have a symbolic which is to represent a gold medal because it is the Olympic Games time, the food fight is not only to get a piece of chicken but to win it so as to get the first place.

Propaganda

I was at the movie theater yesterday and I saw a very powerful ad for The National Guard of the army. You can actually watch it on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2j6j-vf6Ks.

At First, I was not sure if it was a preview of a movie or a new song from a rock band….To attract their target market which may be more people from 18 to 25 years old, the advertisers did their job efficiently: they have a rock sound as the soundtrack, they use car race images and shots of soldiers in mission. The rock song has lyrics such as” i am an American Warrior”, “they call me warrior”. The word warrior has a very strong connotation to power, respect, fear. Some young people may like the ad, may want to be a “warrior” for real. It sounds very cool according to the sound to be an “American warrior”.  That word so many times pronounced is now resonating in my head. If I pronounce it just one more time, that is it, I am really going to believe that enrolling myself in the army will make me a “warrior”.

Then, they try also to show a very positive image by using kids. The soldiers love kids, they are nice to them, they do not want frighten them. Wars do not appear as a horrible thing. The reality is omitting in the ad. It is not enough realistic. Here, they are really trying to associate Army with the cool attitude. Your life will look like a rock song if you join the Army. Everything they show is for me propaganda.

I hope not everyone will just think the Army is “cool” because their song was powerful and can intrude and brainwashed your mind.

Healthy Message

When I went back to France this summer, some advertising on television made me smile. On every food commercials was appearing at the bottom of it, a phrase saying:” for your health, you should not eat too greasy, too sweet or in between the meals”.

Obviously, it is the government that forced the advertisers to ad that sentence in order to fight obesity or any kind of diseases related to a bad nutrition in France. The problem that the Food companies should have now is the fact that, that little sentence telling the audience to be healthier has definitely an impact. After watching these commercials, the thing I remembered the most was actually that line. I did not remember for what kind of product was the advertising. It is really crazy how a little line can change everything in a commercial.

Although the advertising goal is to make you buy something, in the food commercial case, the purpose of the message has been hijacked. If you think about the line telling you to be healthier, you may eat less so buy less. At least, you will get healthier but at the same time, the food economy should change a little bit.

If the government keeps on doing things like that, I am sure that one day, we will see: “Food kills” on every food packages as we are already reading smoking can give you cancer or kill you on the cigarettes packet.

Sexy Cosmo Girl

Hello,

I went online today on the Cosmopolitan website. I got into the archives covers and got amazed by the originality of the magazine… I looked at the nine covers published in 2008. What struggled me the most is how many times the word sex or sexy is used on the cover. Every month appear on the cover these words and also, how to have sexy hair, butt, and tips for men and girl relationship. Nothing really changes, except the model that is different each month on the cover, most of the topics remain the same; they are just turned or placed in the different way to make look the magazine different and full of new advice. Oh, I forgot, they also do change the background color.

I knew many magazines tend to repeat themselves because they always sell the same kind of idea but if we think what we are reading and the impact it may have on us, I may believe Cosmo readers should all be sexy, with amazing hairstyles and all men eaters because of all the good tips they were given.

It is not that I am against those kind of magazines, everyone need some relaxing reading sometimes but, when you think about the content of it, it is hard to imagine that many girls are working on its production. According to the topics, being sexy is what all women should be. It is kind of disappointed that the women should be some kind of object that if not capable to think should at least be nice to watch.

Now, I can not wait for the next cosmopolitan cover, are they going to talk about sexy things???