Evolution of Video games
Tax on pop
Bad photoshop
Google Street view
Ad of the past
Dove Campaign
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Hey, Guess What? I Can See You....
Google has ones again made a very exciting new feature in their website. They launched a new application called Google Street View last October 7, 2009. This application allows people to search addresses and view it from street level. This was made possible when Google decided to drive around different cities. They drove vans that had a 360 degree view video camera attached to the top. When they are done roaming around, they compiled all the images to create one large 360 degree photographic map. The way they thought of doing this was simply remarkable. It is indeed a very exciting technology. Who knew technology has evolved this great since the past. Although it is a new and artistic way to view streets around the city, there are a lot of issues at stake. I looked up my personal address and good thing there wasn’t any photograph of me. If your picture was taken in a public space, you won’t become part of the public domain. Privacy laws are being broken because of this. When you’re face is being used in public without your permission is a violation of privacy law. I disagree on what Google has done when they disobeyed human rights. Google thought of a way to protect our privacy. They blurred out the faces of people and the number of license plates in the vehicles. I don’t think this will be enough to help deal with the privacy concerns that many will have if they see their likeness online. Some people tend to be really careful and even though their faces are blurred. Some people are cautious and don’t want any part of them being in a public website without their permission because of personal reasons. Many things can happen because of this new application Google has launched. It depends on how you use it to know if the application is bad or good.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Is Taxing Pop Really a Solution?
This post was a bit surprising for me because I never thought that people are still very conscious on what they consume to be fit and healthy. In many years, different advertisements, campaigns, and commercials are being made to show people what food is right to eat and to know which is junk. Schools also support this program by replacing chips and chocolates with granola bars. Physical activities are also being instituted by schools. The cafeterias also cook healthy foods. Instead of frying French fries, they are now baked. One commercial was made by the New York Health Department where a man is drinking a pop but instead of the pop flowing into his mouth, it was fatty liquids. This kind of scare campaign was very effective; people will really be disgusted and stop drinking pop. When I watched the commercial, I was disgusted at first but it didn’t stop me from drinking. The good thing is I don’t always drink pop because I prefer to drink water. There is one problem though for pop-drinkers, after a while of refraining from drinking they will be back on the habit of drinking pop. The growing obesity in our nation is an epidemic of large proportions. Almost all of the food we eat are unhealthy and cause us to grow fat. Even though we eat vegetables like potato it can be unhealthy if it was turned into French fries which contain a lot of oil. Most of the foods we have are cooked with oil so it can be very hard to prevent having fatty foods. If the government of Canada put taxes on pops and chips, I would be ready to pay large sums of money on chips because I rarely eat them. I also prefer water than pop so It won’t bother me if they put taxes on pop.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Photo Manipulation on Hiatus in the Media
These advertisements which have been photoshopped badly are really embarrassing for the company and the model’s part. The company should be sued for making false images of people. I feel embarrassed for the models that let their bodies be changed drastically. I didn’t have any experiences in seeing these images when I flip the pages of magazines. This was my first time seeing these things and I was really shocked when I saw that mistakes like this happen. It really bothers me when companies allow these mistakes to be published and to let other people see the mistakes they have done. They should check all their work twice to make sure that there will be no mistakes when they publish it. This new trend doesn’t bother me at all. The trend where actors and models let their picture taken without wearing make-up and not letting the photographers edit their faces by using photoshop. This will show people what “real” beauty is. It is not as beautiful as the manipulated ones at least it is real. I don’t know if that trend will stick because more people will tend to want the faces and bodies which are edited because it is much better-looking than the original ones. The idea of magazines and runways using “normal” people meaning the ones who don’t have a perfect body like the young, the old and size-16 ladies is a smart thing to define what real beauty is. The thing is the magazine and runways would not be attractive as it used to be because the models are different. With these changes I don’t think more people would buy magazines and watch runways when “normal” people are being used. Even though the idea is to show people what real beauty is, people will have a hard time coping with it and tend to crave for the old type of models.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
The Changing Face of Video Games
I can relate to this post very well since I am also a gamer. I started playing video games while I was about 7 years old when my mom bought me a “Gameboy”. I really liked playing with that but my mom also balanced my activities such as playing outside with neighbours or playing badminton and basketball with my family.
Games today are very much evolving from the Nintendo Gameboy to the Nintendo DSi, the Playstation to the PS3 and PSP, and the Xbox to the Xbox 360. For every console people are making big changes so that more people would buy the product. Probably the biggest change so far is the 2D games turned into 3D. This change is why most people are persuaded to buy game consoles. They changed every type of games from racing to shooting games. In the old days racing games were just in 2D and you move left and right to keep your car between the sides of the road. Shooting games were also in 2D where you point and shoot your gun to your enemies. Now racing games are in 3D and when you drive you need to know a lot of things like brake, acceleration, engine, and a lot more just like you are driving a real car. Shooting games are also in 3D where you will see a real shooting experience where you reload, change guns and have a certain amount of life. These games are putting all of the youth inside their homes preventing them to do outside activities, homework and certain responsibilities. But not all games are doing this; one game console called Wii made by Nintendo is a video game but uses your body to play. This is a fun exciting console because while you play you move around your body for example while playing bowling in the game you need to move your arms like you are really swinging a ball.
Not all video games are bad for us. It depends on how you use it and how long you play with it. There’s nothing wrong with having fun in your life, just don’t overdo it.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Social Awareness Contradiction
1.)
The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty was an excellent idea to promote self confidence amongst women all over the world. It started on 2004 and launched 3 phases of their campaign. The first phase is about a much-talked-about ad campaign featuring real women whose appearances are outside the stereotypical norms of beauty. The ad then asked the viewers to judge the women’s looks and invited them to casts their votes on the website. The 2nd Phase was advertising featuring six real women with real bodies and real curves. This was created to discredit the stereotype that only thin is beautiful. The 3rd phase was a global study where it is revealed 91% of women ages 50-64 believe it’s time for society to change its views about women and aging. Today the Dove Campaign’s focused on how girls today are bombarded with unrealistic, unattainable messages and images of beauty that impact their self-esteem.
2.) The Axe Effect Campaign was a smart way to advertise their product to men. The campaign really made me laugh hysterically and also made me amazed on how they came up with that idea of advertising. The commercial made me laugh because on how exaggerated the advertisement was. There are a lot of exaggerations in these commercial; how could there be a million of women in their bathing suits in an island, how could all of them smell the scent of one guy while spraying axe all over his body, and why are the women act like wild animals in the clip. These things make up the commercial really interesting and a bit of humour.
3.) I think the parent company has some responsibility to ensure that all of their different sectors uphold the same sort of beliefs and values. The views of the sectors should be the same because it reflects the views and mission of the company.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Response to Ads of the Past
Ad #1
The 1st ad is telling us that tape worms will help us stay thin even though we always eat. They are right but they are somewhat wrong because having worms in your body can cause you a lot of diseases. You can just eat right and exercise regularly to keep your body fit.
Ad#2
The 2nd ad tells people that if you smoke the cigarette in front of women’s face, they would eventually be attracted and tend to “follow you anywhere”. It is stupid because if you do that to the women, instead of being attracted to you they will be disgusted.
Ad#3
The 3rd ad shows us that a family is happy because they eat lard. This is not a bad thing but the ad is making people think that the only source of happiness is lard. Too much lard will cause obesity and some other sickness.
Ad#4
The 4th ad tells us that doctor advises that smoking a cigarette called Camel is better than any other cigarettes. Doctors do not advise smoking any cigarettes because it is bad for our health. They used doctors as examples of people who use Camel because almost everyone knows doctor knows what is good.
I think that all of the ads are not appropriate because all of them have irony on them. I think money and power allowed these types of ads to run. By looking at these ads I think America's society is greedy for money that they will try to convince people to buy their product by using false ads. In today’s advertisements almost all of them have false information or sometimes impossible situations but not really obvious. The second ad is saying that women are really weak when their face is blown by a smoke of the cigarette.
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