Media: the world is pretty much consumed by their addiction and love towards television, movies, brand names, people...all because of how the media displays their "products". We've come to live in a world where--as in a friend's blog showed in an advertisement--14 years of a person's life is consumed watching TV is a fact, not a fantasy. We've come to live in a world where people no longer look to be individualized, but rather model themselves off of drug-addicted, party-all-night, boy/girl-crazy famous people who don't even have control over their own life. We live in a world now where media can persuade Eskimos to buy ice, as now people can persuade others to buy or watch anything with how they display their product or how the advertisements jazz up the message they're trying to get to their viewers. But, what people don't see is the underlying message of the advertisements, what's really hidden beneath the surface and what marketers are really pitching to us. Even if it's a surface message shown, people still don't get past the beauty of the ad itself! After becoming a critical thinker and putting my nose to the grindstone with understanding and analyzing media more closely, I can finally see ads for what they really are.
Before this year, I was definitely one of those people who would just stare at an infommercial and think, "My gosh, that's so brilliant!!! We need to buy this product!!" My mom would ask what for, and I'd pretty much relay the entire commercial back to her stating all the facts Billy Mays had said about how powerful OxyClean was or how my favorite singer was showing me how her lashes really flared with a CoverGirl mascara product. My mom said I could be a realestate agent or an advertiser myself, because I really could explain how great a product is even if it wasn't mine! I would normally just laugh at her comment and be, "What do you mean?" Until now, I didn't really take what my mom said into account, but now listening to her I finally realize what she meant. It showed two problems within me: how much media I was exposed to, and how easily persuaded I can be at the media's hands. If a person is just constantly consumed by television programs, ads from magazines and commercials, and images of how people should look, dress, think, speak, etc., they'll be in serious danger. They'll lose not only their personal identity, but a lot of money from their wallet! I realized that within myself, I had watched so much TV that it wasn't the commercials that were repeating themselves millions of times to me (even though they were...), but it was I who was watching so much TV and re-watching that I had exposed myself to those commercials so much that I had memorized every aspect of them! And, the fact that I still wanted to buy the product instead of smashing my TV for having showed the commercial so much shows how advertisers really did sell to their audience.
After all of this--dissecting media, analyzing advertisements, understanding marketing and advertising techniques, paying closer attention to what the world has to sell--I see media in a whole new light. When I was younger I'd watch infommercials, memorize them without realizing it and try to sell the product back to my parents without realizing I was becoming the advertiser myself by saying the commercial back to them. From the end of middle school til now, I never payed attention to commercials as I got over, I would just fast-forward through them and get straight to my show. Now, I really look into: "Okay, what technique are they using to try to sell this to me? Is it working? What part of me, what need are advertisers trying to appeal to? Why are these such odd color schemes? Why is the voiceover sounding like this? Is it for a purpose? Is all of this for a purpose?" I don't just look at the pretty colors or the glittering effects they use on the product to make it look special or different, I analyze what commercials are trying to do, what advertisers are trying to sell. They sell more than the product, but an idea along with the product saying "buy this and you'll be popular," or strong, fit, beautiful, happy, rich, famous, and whatever else you could name. I don't want to be that kid anymore that goes and can repeat the commercial to her parents and say "Can we buy this?? The man on the TV said it was great, and did you see what they did in the commercial with it?" I want to be the girl who says, "Dad, we don't need another nerf gun. It's just like every other one that you bought with different colors. Advertisers are trying to appeal to your need to dominate and aggress by showing how tough kids look with the gun. Plus, they're weasel-wording you; it probably doesn't shoot 50 feet, they said up to 50 feet, so probably like 40 or even 30. Don't fall into their advertising trap, they'll just come out with the newest nerf gun in a few months."
I consume a LOT of the media if I look at it now: music, movies, TV, magazines, books, so much more. I read Seventeen magazine, I get catalogs from stores I love shopping at with skinny models and not much of an equal race ratio at that, I get television not projecting a great image of all women and saying they're beautiful, music downgrading our genders, images being projected of women that aren't positive. I've always believed I was a good enough performer to make it a career, but seeing how you don't see a lot of Asians in TV or movies, and even if they are they aren't main characters or they're image is made fun of and abused, really discourages me from even trying to make it as a performer. Not seeing girls my size and that they have to be skinny and white really makes me think I can't wear those cute clothes or pull off that same style with my gender and body type. The media does a lot more than just trying to sell a product, it tears down a person. The media has created the image of the "perfect woman" that's completely unattainable, yet girls try and pursue it anyways and only hurt themselves because they can't reach it. The media is a tool not only to sell, but to project a certain image: white, skinny, tall, and famous women are the most beautiful, the most powerful, get all the guys, and are the happiest. We see it in ads, we see it in movies, we see it in television, we see it everywhere. Why can't we see a powerful black woman who can stand alone, proud and beautiful of who she is and everyone standing by her? Why can't we see an Asian woman as the hero and not be made fun of for those stupid stereotypical "Asian accents" and so on? Why can't we see an Arabian woman as something beautiful and powerful as a leader without a man by her side, and nothing terrible that the media has conjured up? The world is imbalanced in its image of women, both race and size. Media has driven girls to punishing themselves for not being what media defines as "beautiful" and pushes them to their limits to try and achieve this terrible goal that shouldn't ever be striven for. Media hurts us, in more ways than one. It doesn't just take our money, it takes away our pride in identity.
After having this blog and becoming a critical thinker and media analyzer this semester, I finally understand media. Being aware of ad techniques and what they appeal to makes me a smarter consumer, knowing I shouldn't buy into a product because of a celebrity testimonial, but how good the product really is. I shouldn't try buy the Nike product because the actors looked powerful using their brand of shoes, but focusing on whether they're really comfortable and how durable and well they work. I no longer look to buy, but to understand the message behind media. What are they really selling me? The idea that I can become popular and pretty and awesome with the product they're trying to sell me? I don't look to become like the people in ads anymore. I don't want to have to feel pretty by using their product or try to gain friends with a product, I want to feel pretty in spite of the media and its products, and have friends who love me for me, not love me because I have the mascara Sofia Vegara used or hate me for loving music from the Four Seasons and Broadway because it's "lame" by the media's standards and not what's the "latest and greatest". Through this experience I've not only gotten a better look at media and what it's truly selling me, but a better look at myself and how I've changed because of it. I don't want the persona of the rude girl who gets what she wants and talks back to her parents because everyone loves that show, I want to be the girl who respects her parents and daughter and is proud of who she is, not of what others believe her to be. I don't want to have the "latest" product, but what I feel is durable and useful. I've become not only a smarter shopper but a stronger person about my image because of realizing the media's hidden messages. Not many look into media like it's a big deal or realize the true realities of the media and what it's really selling to us, either because they just don't see it or they aren't ready. Give it a go, you might discover something about yourself besides how much you really spent on buying into OxyClean, Old Spice, Apple Products, sodas, makeup, and the list could go on and on.
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