The media plays into this by integrating love themed stories into every day shows. To either encourage participation in the love affair or smite the single life.

I dislike the  forced lubby-dubby and happy go-lucky nature of this “holiday” because all it is is a money grubbing scheme. Why limit the love affairs to a single day, when if you really love someone your consistent throughout the relationship.

The target audience are definitely couples, who may feel forced to spend money on material things that wont matter in a week.

http://www.movieline.com/2010/02/7-ways-howard-stern-would-change-american-idol.php

Howard Stern is considering replacing Simon Cowell on American Idol. I don’t watch AI, but if H. Stern became the judge I would. He spoke on his live radio show about the changes he would make and I for one love it. He points out what he would have done in the past seasons.

The thing I love most about Howard, after readint this article, is how he points out who the audience is for AI. Teens. Stern will stress image and relatability to the audience. Which, now thinking about might take away from the actual singing talent, which doesn’t really matter since it’s a popularity contest anyway. The fans vote for who they like best.

It seems like Howard Stern is the big draw of this all. American Idol might finally go away but the move of bringing him in will get people like me to watch to perhaps spice the show up and keep the show alive.

I don’t even feel like AI is about the contest anymore and more about the fans. The show knows it’s dying and needs to bring in talent that will draw in more viewers. Howard’s changes will help find a suitable candidate to appeal to the fans, because it’s all about the teens. The main audience. He will find somone people can get behind and relate to.

I can’t think of any AI winner who has done anything after a year, besides Kelly Clarkson, who is still no where to be found. Winnning AI gets you one year of fame or two then nothing. Hopefully Howard will find someone who can both sing and appeal to the fans.

My input to make this show better is to have the contest happen less often. There has been an AI every year, it’s popularity is high but it’s been decreasing the past years. If an AI took place every 4 years or 2 year, it would give it more prestige, keeping it’s popularity up.

I hope Howard S. replaces Simon, whose tough impressionable act got old, because he’ll spice up the show. He’ll be frank and will look for a person who the fans want.

This video is about getting a degree in growing Medical Marijuana. Quick note, it’s going to play right when you click on it, something I despise because I never expect it then question where that noise is coming from.

anyway, you can get an actual college degree in growing MJ. Man did I pick the wrong major. In Michigan students go to Cannabis college, many have graduated already, and are now legally able to grow and sell marijuana. The problem with this is, although it is legal to grow, smoke and sell, it’s illegal to obtain the seeds to grow. Which makes no sense. you got to “break the law to follow the law” like the founder said, only points out the stupidity (I wanted to use a better word) of the government. an issue that needs to be resolved.

quick note, I’m not capitalixing my a’s because I spilled soup on my laptop two years ago so I have to copy and paste the letter whenever I need to use it. The letter under it is also not working that’s why I used an X in cap..

Everyone’s got in their mind that legalizing MJ will help the economy recover. Which, sure I don’t see why not, but why is the government still adding confusion to the subject? Over 50% of america smokes MJ and I would assume more than 50% are ok with it. There is an episode of family guy that explain why MJ is illegal today, when it obviously shouldn’t be according to the constitution. More or less it’s the governement trying to run our lives, deciding what’s best for us instead of leaving it up to the individual, what decisions they should make.

The point of this article/video is to bring more attention to the failing economy and a short term solution for it’s recovery and how confusing the government is making it. Just legalixe it already. The arguement of how it’s a gateway drug is null because in countries like amsterdam where it’s full blown legal, use of other drugs, hardcore drugs like heroin have gone down, and by this point I think we can all agree that reefer madness does not actually exist. Further the example of how the media influences the minds of the masses.

I have a dream that one day MJ will be smoked anywhere and everywhere, by anyone regardless of illness or skin color. I have a dream that one day will learn to relax and let people make their own decisions about their life, except when it involves the endangerment of other. This day will come.

anyway, I was browsing Digg.com and expected there to be lots of news about the big game. There wasn’t much, except for this:

http://www.mania.com/super-hero-bowl-marvel-vs-dc_article_120351.html

It was a play on the words, Super bowl, adding hero in it. I love superheroes, and sports so I’m this ad’s main audience. You can view it for yourself but it has Marvel vs DC and lists which characters would play certain roles on a football team.

I liked DC’s line up better, because for one superman in the quarterback but more importantly Batman is the head coach with Wonder woman as offensive coordinator. Marvel has the better defense though and Professor X is the head coach so he’ll probably read batman’s mind, but batman is always prepared and will trick him. Each side is just as powerful, both with their own advantages.

I would really like to see this get made. Either into a comic book or preferrably an animated movie. I’m more excited about the Super hero bowl rather than the actual super bowl.

as fun as this article is, what’s the point? It doesn’t add any excitement to the real super bowl. It doesn’t do anything. Great Idea but it doesn’t go anywhere. It briefly mentions the real game in the first couple lines of the first paragraph and actually detracts attention from it, saying how the colts and the saints aren’t rivals like DC and Marvel are.

also I want to point out the influence of videogames on the superbowl. an article on yahoo mentions that the for the past 5 out of 6 years the madden football videogame franchise has successfully predicted the winner of the big game. This year it predicted the saints. madden is a good simulation of the actual game, having been successful 5 times out of the last 6 years is impressive, but no one will know for sure until the final whisle blows at the end of the game.

I listen to Frosy, Heidi and Frank, a hilirious talk radio program on AM 790 every morning at 9 a.m, on my way to santa monica community college. Do you like how I just advertised them?

anyway, they were speaking about how The supreme court pass whatever law or bill/ piece of paper, allowing corporations to fund however much money they want to an campaign candidate.

Meaning they have full control of the media. Which means the richest person in america controls the country. This is true because, these funds will be used for ads. The masses will be flooded with these ads that may distort the truth in order to get the people the socialist want in power to run the country through.

Of course we still have to vote for them, but instead of hearing actual messages and plans from the candidate we get ads of them.

Frosty suggested instead of ad campaigns, which should be banned, there should only be debates so people get the message and only the message straight from the candidates mouth. Then the masses can truly decide for themselves whose policies they want to help this country achieve great things.

I haven’t heard the state of the union address yet, to see if Obama mentions the removal of the cap on corpation campaign funding, but I don’t see why this had to be changed. It seemed like someone talked to someone to get this changed to help the corporations control of better.

unlimited money and full media control, washes out the true politicians whose messages fail to reach the masses because Obama’s face is all over the screen and on every bumper sticker and wall out there.

It’s about professional wrestling and how, wrestling entertainment Juggernaut, WWE may finally have some competition; TNA.

Growing up I watched wrestling all the time; I would talk about at school with my friends. We grew up in the golden age of wrestling when WWE was in their attitude era, going up against WCW.  The trusure of seeing The Rock and Stone Cold, my favorites, facing Mankind, The Undertaker, and The McMahons kept me glued to WWE.

Wrestling’s death came once WWE bought out WCW. I was still watching because the storylines of an invasion from the competition were fantastic.  The coming of the 2000′s helped Chris Jericho, another favorite, quickly reach success. He used the gimmick of Y2K and the anticipation of a new decade to draw my attention as well as many others.

Only WWE was around and I started growing older… anyway I’m going to skip the rest of my history story and start analyzing.

This entire article is an ad. It brings up how TNA is going up against WWE on Monday Nights now. Which means competition. Competiton made WWE write better storylines and have better talent, back in the day. Once they bought out the opposition, they began focusing on their audience and how to make more money off them. Their audience is the young crowd with several adults too. I stopped watching when they kept John Cena as Chamion for an entire year only to push his merchandise and because the fans liked him most. WWE now uses guest host, who are popular at the time, to host shows to draw in their audience as well.

WWE has guest hosts and the article advertised Cheech and Chong as hosts as well as The Rock. I am a fan of these guys, so after a couple years of forgetting about wrestling I’ll be tuning in to see  program them and which program, TNA or WWE, creates the best universe. Because we all know it’s ”Real”.  

The use of competition fuels both programs to create better storylines and then becomes beneficial to the audiences. They are focusing on entertainment and quality of the product they put out rather than spitting (I wanted to use another S word, but didn’t, which you might be thinking about now) out whatever the kids want, because the kids want it and will force their parents to get it for them. Better business more money.

With the draw of quality, I’m hoping, and old favorites , I’ll  see for myself if wrestling is being resurrected.

She had 10 plastic surgery procedures done in one day. She is addicted to plastic surgery, she says. This girl was everywhere, just for getting plastic surgery. Either she has some major issues and wants more attention or people are concerned about this, maybe both.

Who really cares about her? Sure, ten surgery procedures is a bit much but why is this even a story? I don’t see the appeal. Plus, what kind of message is she sending to her fans? if she has any, but I guess she does if the media is so concerned about her.  I bet at least one kid out there looks up to her and has decided she doesn’t like how she looks and also wants to get surgery done to fix her cosmetics. Terrible role model, terrible news story.

From my point of view, Heidi is famous for no reason at all. What exactly is it that she does? Why is she so important?

I’m not going to go into whose fault I think it is, but instead will point out how big this story is. The media was obsessed with this story. Well, not to the point of Michael Jackson, but it was everywhere. Long story short, the ratining were bad for both shows, however on Martin Luther King Day, in three different cities, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, people crowded around whatever place they crowded to support conan.

I fail to see how this is important. If the people didn’t want Conan to go, they should have just watched the show. Instead they rally for no reason at all. Zero. Nothing came out from those rallys. Conan’s show is still ending but he’s still getting paid $32 million dollars, for doing nothing.

I feel a vast majority of the American population is more concerned about entertainment news and worry less about important news like Scott Brown, politician who won Kenendy’s seat in the Senate and, more importantly, the 41st “vote against Democrats’ health care bill, the magic number required to kill it or anything else on Obama’s agenda in Congress.”

I don’t watch the news or tv for that matter but in what I do see I’ve seen coverage of Leno and Conan a lot more than I should have. Whoever controls the media now isn’t informing us the way we need to be. It’s just my opinion, Scott Brown and Health care is much more important.

Hopefully, this story will reach more light and the bill will be scrapped so both sides can begin anew, starting with all the provisions they agree on first,passing those, then moving on.

To further my point, the headline to the Scott Brown story is

“GOP’s 41st senator gets movie star’s greeting.”

people value entertainment news more than news that actually concerns them.

Anyway I remember what you said professor, I know you’re the only one whose going to read this, about how looking at the ads in newspapers or magazines help you figure out who the audience is. Well it’s no secret men follow ESPN more than women, but looking through the lastest issue the ads prove it. I had to see this for myself because I never exactly realized this before.

I don’t have the magazine in front of me but I can recall from memory the giant full page ads that appeared on every other page or after the stories. The first ad I recall is about a giant truck. No woman would want to drive a monster sized truck, so this one is definitely geared towards men. However, some women do so I wont judge to quickly.

The next ad was about a Tv. It was advertising how slim it was, 1.2 inches, and we all know the slimmer the better, right? This ad was different because it had a young female and a young male. This one was aimed towards both sexes who enjoy watching their favorite teams play in HD on a slim Tv. I recall what you said about how the main character in an ad is usually represents who the ad is targeting, so this one caught my eye because I did not expect to see a woman. The main characters  are the man and the woman, but most likely the woman is there to attract attention to the ad, because she was the first thing that pops out when you turn the page.

The next ad, the one that sealed the deal and affirmed your theory(?)/statement and the one I’m proving about ads determining who the audience is, was about shaving cream. A giant can of shaving cream. This magazine is definitely for men. Not to mention Danica Patrick who is pushing motor oil. Beautiful girl attracting attention to a masculine product.

This blog is more about how I am now more aware of commercials and ads and the message they send. Before I would just see a commerical or any other ad and just pass it off, now I see for myself the thinking and logic behind each one.

If you live in Los Angeles you probably drive from point A to point B, all the time, like I do. Unless, you’re one of those people who bike everywhere; and if you are, please get out of my way. So often you bike people think you own the road and I have to be super careful not to hit you. You have a right to the road just as much as I do but, when I have to swerve into the other lane just to avoid you, you’re probably better off on the sidewalk. Especially those of you who don’t wear HELMETS. They’re meant to save your life in case I hit you and you hit your head. I have too much going on to hang your death, because of your refusal to wear a helmet, on my shoulders. I’ve gone way off topic so let us get back on track.

The point I’m trying to make is, if you drive you have, at one time or another, sang in your car. I sing in my car all the time and, in fact, I’ve seen plenty of other people who do it, even a pair of old ladies who were singing and dancing in their car and, believe me… it was truly a sight to see.

I bring this up because the other day I was driving and I happen to notice a billboard. This advertisement caught my eye because I related to it, which I’ll explain further. It had a picture of a lady, fairly young, who also happened to be driving, because her hands were on the wheel at ten and two, like you’re supposed to have them but, who honestly does that besides women and old people? She had a look on her face like she was singing. Hey, I’m driving and singing, that might as well be me on there or you.

The advertisement was for American Idol. I forget what it said exactly but, it was encouraging people to audition. It said something along the lines of, “Hey, you sing in your car so try out for American Idol, who knows you might win and become famous”. I’m paraphrasing a lot but, you get the idea. After seeing it, I was filled with ideas of auditioning and winning.

The marketing behind this billboard is genius. It’s not everyday I see a billboard and actually think about it; unless, I’m hungry and drive past a giant big mac. It’s genius because, about 90% of people sing in their cars; I know this because of those TVs at the gas station that give you something to watch and read while filling up. Now if 90% of people sing in their cars, there is a good chance they will see this billboard and be convinced they might actually have a good singing voice and audtion, even I breifly considered it except I know I don’t have a singing voice.

The advertisement connects to the 90% of people who sing in their car and to those who dream of becoming famous. There is only one thing I don’t like, and it’s the fact that it’s a billboard. I worked at a marketing company for about two days and the message I got was that billboards are out of style and don’t capture the attention of people like commercials do. The only reason I saw this billboard was because I was stuck in traffic, but there is probably a wide range of people who could be affected by this advertisement if it was a TV commercial playing on the gas station TVs instead of a billboard, because if you drive you probably fill up at a gas station with TVs.

I really hate conclusions, so because this is my blog and I can write it however I want, I’m going to end it abruptly. Before I do, I’ll leave you with a Too Long; Don’t Read version (TL;DR)

TL;DR: Billboard encourages people who sing in their car to audition for American Idol. It gives them the idea they have a good singing voice and might have a chance to win and become famous. The advertisement is aimed at young people who sing in their cars and dream of stardom. Too bad it’s a billboard.