Uncle Drew

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

About three years ago, Pepsi started a campaign called Uncle Drew where NBA superstar Kyrie Irving takes the persona of an elderly man who goes to different parks to "school" people in the game of basketball.

The whole campaign is extremely entertaining and clever because it appeals to both younger and older audiences who watch basketball. In the beginning, Uncle Drew (an old man himself) refers to players such as Oscar Robertson around the 1960's and 1970's. The pickup game also takes place on an old playground with wood baskets.  The campaign is using nostalgia to attract older viewers who can better identify with playground courts and old NBA legends who appreciate basketball because it was a game of skill not a game of athleticism.  The ad also sends the message that older generations can be cool just like younger generations.  The ad appeals to a younger crowd because everyone else in the ad is around their 20's-30's, including the players and those watching the pickup game.

Throughout the four different episodes, they feature other NBA and WNBA players dressed up as elderly people. It was pretty cool to see these players that I watch currently (I won't spoil who appears).

The whole campaign follows a simple plot: Uncle Drew is trying to find his fellow high school teammates and put the team back together. What is most interesting to me about the whole plot is Uncle Drew constantly saying the most important thing about basketball is "getting buckets"(It basically means scoring). However, this basketball slang term has a pretty huge effect on the younger generation of basketball players. A bit after the first episode came out, I would constantly hear from kids wanting to "get buckets." After paying more attention to the commercials, I realized Pepsi pretty much created this term and it somewhat went viral throughout the basketball community.

When I first watched this about three years ago, I believed that the people in the audience were real and not actors. Now, I am pretty skeptical that this is true. One peculiarity is that the plot is so interesting and the filming is so well done I lost sight of what the commercial is about.  My dad also loves the commercials,  I asked my dad yesterday what product the ad was trying to sell, and he had no idea.  This is because he became so engrossed in the ad.  This is great for the viewer, but I am not sure it is the best way to sell Pepsi Zero.

"Snow Day"

Nike's stylized "Snow Day" commercial caught my attention right away. The company's use of more than 20 professional athletes including Rob Gronkowski, Ndamukong Suh, Odell Beckham Jr., Le'Veon Bell,  Antonio Brown, Elena Delle Donne, Paula Findlay, Paul George, Draymond Green, Sydney Leroux, Carli Lloyd,  LeSean McCoy, Ben Roethlisberger, Eric Weddle, Steven Stamos, etc., is unique. Even though the plot of the ad climaxes with a football game, the use of athletes from all different sports is attempted to appeal to a wide audience. When I saw all of these athletes together, it made me feel more drawn into the ad because of my admiration for all of these talented athletes and because I am a fan of a lot of different sports.

This particular commercial is appealing to multiple target audiences. Children will often find themselves looking up to these superstar sports figures as they admire their talent and want to emulate them. Nike knows this and implicitly tries to make kids feel that if they see those certain professional athletes wearing nike attire, they can be just like them by buying nike gear. The ad also applies to an older audience because of the nostalgia they would feel when they used to be able to play football on the streets, something that now tends to take place in rural areas.    

An interesting concept of the commercial is the concept of making these athletes appear more like average people. In the beginning, we see Rob Gronkowski who is pretty massive in sized with his feet dangling over his bed. In this interesting twist, professional athletes start emerging one by one out of very ordinarily looking homes.  A concerted effort is being made to make these superstars appear ordinary.  To this end, the athletes are not named and because they are not wearing their uniforms it takes a few views to determine the name of some of the athletes. 

The whole idea of a Snow Day is catered towards those living in the East Coast of the U.S. because the West usually will not get snow.  My older brothers were born in Boston where it snow a lot and quite hard during the winter.  I can remember Aaron telling me how much fun snow days were.  He would go to bed hoping that he woke up to the words snow day. The plot based is a great deal of fun and a nice departure from plain vanilla Nike ads that just emphasize the superiority of Nike products. 

In my view, I believe the ad is very clever. 

Link for the commercial below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2P5E7cFt9s

Is Carl's Jr. Changing Things?

Carl's Jr. is famous for trying to persuade young men and women to buy their products by utilizing commercials in which young sexy women in bathing suits or bikinis are eating their burgers. The company tends to use famous and sexy models or social figures like Paris Hilton in order to accomplish that. However, having Ronda Rousey as the feature endorser offer a nice change from the usual Carl Jr. commercials.

If you did not know, Ronda Rousey is supposedly the greatest UFC Women fighter in the world (well maybe not anymore since she lost). So why did they use Rousey in their commercials? Obviously Rousey's likeness is not yet uniformly known because the commercial introduces her by name which is not the case with other Carl's Jr. commercials.  The negative implication is that her likeness is not yet fully engrained in the minds of viewers.

The commercial begins by showing Rousey holding her title belt.  The advertisement is trying to associate eating Carl's Jr. breakfast with winning.  Rousey is not your typical feminized endorser. She looks strong and powerful in the ad.  This raises the question of whether the ad is trying to appeal to the fantasies of men or to the empowerment that many woman are now looking for.  I would suggest Rousey is an effective endorser because she can appeal to the fantasies of men and to women who are searching for representations of female empowerment rather than stereotypical depictions of gender.

It may be that the advertising firm is not quite sure how to portray Rousey or at least are concerned not to take her female empowerment depiction too far.  The ad ends with Rousey smiling for the first time and the words "with a sweet side."  She is depicted to be somewhat more demure and traditionally sexy at the end of the ad.  This sweeter and softer looking Rousey is what lingers in the minds of the viewer.  


Link for the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI2YwwTDr5w

Stressed Out

Stress is the feeling we have when under pressure. We have all encountered it. It is a horrendous feeling.

As I turned on the radio, a song called Stressed Out was playing. I immediately was able to relate to this song. It talks about how different life was than as an adult. The song is an effort to validate the nostalgia of an easier and simpler life. The chorus sings: "Wish we could turn back time, to the good ol' days, When our momma sang us to sleep but now we're stressed out."

When we were children, life was not that difficult. Our parents guided us in every direction, and we did not have many personal responsibilities. School was also much simpler. I remember preschool was mostly about playing and socializing. There was no homework load.

One of the next verses contains the lines, "We used to play pretend, give each other different names, We would build a rocket ship and then we'd fly it far away,
Used to dream of outer space but now they're laughing at our face,
Saying, "Wake up, you need to make money."

There is a huge juxtaposition between the childhood games we used to play and the responsibilities of adulthood, especially having to make money in order to support ourselves. We are given much more responsibilities as we age and this is the pressure the song is talking about. School is no longer about playing and the homework load is much larger than it was before. For me the phrase "wake up you need to make money" could be replaced with either "wake up you got homework to do" or wakeup "you need to be at school by 7 AM."

I agree with my teacher Mr. Maxwell who said that my generation faces more stress than any of those that preceded mine. I feel that there is stress all around me as well as the self-induced stress I create in myself. An increasing number of students are stressing about the grades they receive. Why? Well, they are so concerned about whether and which colleges will accept them. Why are they so concerned about the colleges they go to? They believe they have to get into a prestigious college in order to get a good job and do well in life.

In our current society, stress is an immense problem. A never ending vicious circle is created. Once you get into college, then there is the stress of doing well there. When you graduate, then there is the question of what job you will get. Once you get that great job, then the question of how much you will make arises. That is followed by the desire for promotions and raises. Stress just never ends. Who knows maybe it is stress that helps perpetuate American capitalistic dominance.


Link for the lyrics below:

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/twentyonepilots/stressedout.html

"Perfection"

Advertisements concerned with promoting outward appearances are seemingly everywhere. There is no doubt that many people feel insecure about their image. Some want any type of reassurance of how they can magically change how they look. Advertisers jump on these insecurities to promote products that will supposedly change appearance. One such add appears above.

The advertisement is promoting a bar called "Supreme Protein."  The goal of the advertisement is to dupe viewers into believing that by eating Super Protein bars one can look just like the man and the women in the ad.  It is extremely difficult to not notice the woman's thin waistline, and the man's enormous pectorals (which are probably larger than my head). This advertisement tries to persuade the audience that people can achieve "perfection" by eating these protein bars. However, perfection can be seen as vague.

What does perfection look like? I have been always told that no one can attain perfection. Sadly the advertisement associates perfection with a thin waistline and a sculptured body. The bodies shown in the ad are not only not achievable by most people regardless of what they eat, but also cannot be attained without working out which the advertisement conveniently fails to mention.  Ads like the one above are more likely to create insecurities among the audience and lead to issues like anorexia.   These types of adds are particularly dangerous to teenagers and youth who are much more susceptible to societal pressures.  I would have far less objection to the add if the word "healthy" replaced the word "perfection."

One fascinating aspect of the advertisement is the surrounding that was chosen.  The large breasted women and the muscular man are juxtaposed against mountainous terrain.  The terrain is filled with ridges, indentations and protrusions, collectively viewed as imperfections especially when juxtaposed against the chiseled bodies of the man and the women.  This raises a very interesting question.  Are the obviously photoshopped bodies of the man and women "perfection" or in fact is the natural beauty of the terrain with all its ridges and protrusions "perfection."  My answer to this rhetorical question should be obvious by now.

George Orwell on Correct Grammar and Syntax

I partly agree and partly disagree with Orwell’s contention that grammar is irrelevant as long as the message of the author is clear.  One of the difficulties I have with Orwell’s position is the premise of his argument: that in fact it is possible to be clear while simultaneously being grammatically incorrect.  For as long as I can remember, teachers have corrected my grammar.  As I have grown older, using proper grammar has been reinforced in me by reading books, which of course use proper grammar.  This makes it very difficult for me to separate the message of a written sentence from its grammatical construction.  This is especially the case with long sentences that grammar would dictate should include periods and or commas. For example, take a look at the following grammatically incorrect long winded sentence: John is obese John loves food John is nice John is unhappy John is made fun of John wants to commit suicide.   The message that poor, nice John wants to commit suicide because he is unhappy due to his obesity gets lost because of the writer’s failure to use commas, periods and or semicolons as well as his redundant use of the proper name John.  

Interestingly, I do not have the same difficulty decoding oral messages which use imprecise grammar.  I believe this is because oral language is neither generally corrected by others or required by societal norms to adhere as strictly to precise grammar as written language. This previous sentence includes an example of where in fact I agree with Orwell’s position.  Interestingly, if the grammatical error were not highlighted in bold it may have been unnoticed by even the most diligent reader.   I believe that Orwell is indeed correct with respect to grammatical errors that are commonly made and no do not involve punctuation. This is because common grammatical errors like “neither or” are not embedded in our consciousness so they do not interfere with clarity.   I used to always say, “I am good” in response to the question “How are you?” instead of “I am well.” The mistake of using “good” instead of “well” like “or” instead of “nor” is just not structurally embedded in my brain to interfere with clarity. For the reasons discussed above, I partially agree and partially disagree with Orwell’s position that grammar is irrelevant as long as the message of the writer is clear.