Final Presentation

Sarah Palin stands by made-up word 'refudiate,' compares self to Shakespeare

Sarah Palin stands by made-up word 'refudiate,' compares self to Shakespeare

Global Fast Food: 23 Menu Items Sold Abroad

Global Fast Food: 23 Menu Items Sold Abroad



An example of cultural context? A company alters it's products based on the culture of its geographical location. America has a culture where beef is the most widely consumed meat, that is different in other cultures; as seen by the products they have available.

Video for class

The video above will be used for one of the final two critique assignments. If you have already presented your in class critique you should watch the video to be able to participate in the discussion for Week 8.

The Old Spice Guy Now Making Custom Videos for Fans via Social Media

The Old Spice Guy Now Making Custom Videos for Fans via Social Media

This is such brilliant marketing by Old Spice!

Bud Light Commercial - How to make your Marriage Work.

How to make a marrige work. In our culture as opposed to non-western do base marriage and the creation of a family on something as temporal as the emotion of love. This commercials is RIGHT on code - The daughter asks for instructions on how to make a marriage work; and the mother responds with what I believe is JOKE - The response the mother gives the daughter reinforces the code Love and Marriage = FALSE EXPECTATION.

An American

you're American... if
· You believe deep down in the First Amendment, guaranteed by the government and perhaps by God.

· You're familiar with David Letterman, Mary Tyler Moore, Saturday Night Live, Bewitched, the Flintstones, Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, Bob Newhart, Bill Cosby, Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Donald Duck, the Fonz, Archie Bunker, Star Trek, the Honeymooners, the Addams Family, the Three Stooges, and Beetle Bailey.

· You know how baseball, basketball, and American football are played. If you're male, you can argue intricate points about their rules. On the other hand (and unless you're under about 20), you don't care that much for soccer.

· You count yourself fortunate if you get three weeks of vacation a year.


· You're fairly likely to believe in God; if not, you've certainly been approached by people asking whether you know that you're going to Heaven.

· You think of McDonald's, Burger King, KFC etc. as cheap food.

· You own multiple telephones and a Televisions.

· Your place is heated in the winter and has its own bathroom.

· You do your laundry in a machine.

· You don't kill your own food.

· You don't have a dirt floor.

· You eat at a table, sitting on chairs.

· You don't consider insects, dogs, cats, monkeys, or guinea pigs to be food.

· A bathroom may not have a bathtub in it, but it certainly has a toilet.

· It seems natural to you that the telephone system, railroads, auto manufacturers, airlines, and power companies are privately run; indeed, you can hardly picture things working differently.

· You expect, as a matter of course, that the phones will work. Getting a new phone is routine.

The list continues on http://www.zompist.com/amercult.html also available are list from other countries.

Culture Code: Luxury and Food/Alcohol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqeMwcl6p_E

According to Rapaille's Culture Code, the Code for luxury is MILITARY STRIPES. The purpose of luxury is related to money, which according to the Code is PROOF of one's success. Luxury not only proves one's success and status in America, but also shows it off for others to see.

In this recent Acura ad for their Driven By Reason Sales Event, we see four different individuals who are all showing off their most prized luxury items, and explaining why they are so important and unique. The tagline of the ad is "There are excuses for spending money on luxury; and then, there are reasons." The ad attempts to explain that some people purchase luxury items for the sake of them being expensive for whatever reason, but they are not truly a smart investment because all the items presented are purely for show. While an Acura not only shows off one's luxury and military stripes, but also shows off more since it is a smart buy and the car serves more functions for the owner than just to show off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRuNxHqwazs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-3qncy5Qfk

These previous two videos are obviously parodies of energy drink ads and not ads themselves. However, they play on the same concept of the Code for food: FUEL. The only reason we have energy drinks is to give us whatever fuel we need to wake us up and get us through the day. Energy drink companies and ad agencies play on this need to make their product more desireable by making them appear "extreme" or "in your face," as these videos demonstrate.

I also find it funny how one of the flavors in the second video is "gun," which is also the Code for alcohol. Sometimes products like energy drinks and their effeccts on people can be so overwhelmingly powerful even with substances like caffeine that can also be seen as a dangerous weapon as alcohol can be.

Weight Loss and Cultural Codes

In the text The Culture Code, author Clotaire Rapaille discusses the prevalence of obesity in America. He asserts that being fat is not the problem but rather a solution that some choose as a coping mechanism to other life situations. Through his research he determines that the American cultural code for fat is CHECKING OUT.

A common theme in weight loss commercials is that weight loss is hard to attain and often those struggling give up or "check out." However Weight Watchers stays on-code enforcing that they offer simple tools to keep the dieter "keeping on."

Besides the obvious dialogue of the commercial I found it very interesting that Jennifer Hudson was the chosen spokesperson. In 2008 Hudson's mother, brother and nephew were murdered by her brother-in-law. Only recently has she broken her silence about the tragedy, saying that "it was all a blur, it was surreal," and going on to say that she didn't leave her room for two weeks...or essentially she checked out.

I found it very on-code of Weight Watchers to not only use the dialogue but to use a spokesperson who has experienced something very difficult and tragic. While the commercial did not address the issue, it may show the dieter that if Jennifer Hudon can pull ourself out of a rough situation and get herself fit and healthy so can you. I thought it was an interesting use of cultural code and a latent message in the advertising.

The Commerical is portraying instances where the consumer can experience the luxury of shopping. It provides the viewer with images of upscale stores and the happiness it brings to those who shop within Cherry Creek Shopping Center. The close proximity of the actors emphasize commradre and the comfort of being together looking for the 'right' item and having an abundance of choices.

As Rapaille explains in Chapter nine, page 160, while shopping is wonderous and life-affirming, buying sends a different message especially to women. The idea of shopping is to search for good deals and one-of-a-kind items that may bring happiness and fullfilment to those within the shopping 'zone', but not necessarily to buy the item. Rapaille explains this to be the alibi process in which, not making the purchases provides the alibi for going shopping again in the future, thereby giving the shopper another reason to go back to the malls.

Besides the manifest messages of 'buy', there are the latent messages as well. The commerical emphasizes the status and class that is associated with shopping. Being able to make purchases without concern for money, emphaisizes a financial freedom. Some people even go as far as to save hundreds even thousands of dollars to plan shopping excursions in order to have the illusion of belonging to the same upperclass or status level if only for an hour or so.