Please select one of the following options:
1) View 1 hour of
children’s TV programming (e.g., Saturday morning network or cable
programs, (not PBS or educational) and
pay special attention to the advertisements. Answer the following questions: 1)
List and describe the show you watched and all of the products advertised. How
many are specifically directed to children? How many of these advertisements
involve food(drinks, candy, general food, etc.)? Describe these food products
and the persuasive strategies used to sell the product. 2) What is your
assessment of the potential health effects of these products? 3) In Europe,
many countries prohibit or severely restrict advertising directly to
children,particularly for food-related products. Do you think this is a good
idea? Why or why not?
2) Select a health
or fitness magazine (if you are male select magazine directed to men; if you
are a female, select a magazine that targets women). Spend some time reading
and viewing the magazine. Immediately after reading the magazine, reflect (and
write about) how you feel about your own physical appearance. At this moment,
are you more likely pleased or displeased with your physical self and your
health? Do you feel more or less motivated than normal to exercise, diet, or
engage in physical activities? Do you feel happy or sad? In other words, how is
your mood relative to how you felt before reading the magazine? How might this
magazine have influenced your definition of what a typical college-age man or
woman should look like?
Brett Lee
ReplyDeleteOption 2
I spent some time reading through Men’s Fitness. I don’t really spend a lot of time researching or reading about fitness, so I was kind of surprised at what I saw. I consider myself a really active person. I run everyday, play basketball weekly, and love spending time hiking, snow-skiing, and water-skiing. But when I looked through Men’s Fitness, the first thought I had was that I wasn’t fit. In my observations, there were only two types of people featured in Men’s Fitness. The “before” men were all obviously overweight and unattractive. The “after” men were all extremely muscular and were at a level of fitness that is completely unrealistic for someone that hasn’t completely devoted their life to fitness and has the right genetic makeup to begin with.
If I did live an active life to improve the way I looked, I think that it would be easy to feel discouraged about my personal current appearance. I don’t exercise to look like that, but to be overall more healthy. While reflecting on if my experience looking through Men’s Fitness makes me happy or sad, I can definitely say that it doesn’t make me happy, while I don’t feel really sad at the same time. Maybe this is the third-person effect, but I feel that it will really have an impact on those individuals that really struggle with their body image.
After looking through Men’s Fitness, I wonder how they make their money. A very small percentage of people look like that, and those that don’t can’t feel good about themselves while viewing endless unrealistic depictions of the male body. Although there there is a lot of content in these magazines that is very beneficial, like nutritional tips, for the most part I think that it’s not worth most people’s time.
Sara Anderson
ReplyDeleteBlog #5
Option 2: After reading Women’s Health Magazine, I honestly feel less beautiful. Although I know otherwise, I feel like the magazine’s images of photoshopped, bronzed and incredibly slim women portray an ideal that is not realistic. At this point, I am thinking about all the ways I could improve my health to feel and look healthier. I feel displeased with my current health and physical self because I just learned many ways I could improve. I feel somewhat more motivated to exercise, but not in an optimistic way. I feel society’s pressure to be the “perfect woman.” I don’t feel particularly happy after reading the magazine. I honestly feel frustrated with myself that I don’t exercise as much as I wish I could. My mood was probably a little more optimistic before I read this magazine. (I will read a spiritually uplifting article somewhere else and get myself back to happy.) I see how some people can become obsessed with health and exercise when they don’t have spiritual grounding. It can be a never-ending cycle of trying to look like the photoshopped celebrities.
This reminds me of my high school days when I faithfully read fashion magazines. I thought that I had to keep up on all the latest styles, buy the best brands and stay incredibly skinny to be beautiful. I read about numerous ways to treat my hair, skin, nails and spent hours looking at hairstyles. Walking down the halls of my high school was very important to me, like walking down the runway. I realized the pressure I felt to look perfect and its negative effect on me. I discontinued my magazine subscriptions. I tried my best to read the Book of Mormon everyday and make that my foundation instead of the magazines. I realized inner beauty should be my first priority.
These health and beauty magazines are not all bad. There are some positive tips for health and beauty. Both are important, even to the General Authorities. When I was in the MTC, the leaders stressed the need for all the sisters to use makeup and maintain their hygiene. Although this has never been something I struggled with, I found it very interesting that the leaders of the church wanted the sisters to dress and look well. If we consume too much of the health and fashion magazines, I believe it can have a negative effect on us and become consuming. We should be careful to reflect whose idea of beauty truly is most important to us.
Andrea Wise
ReplyDeleteOption 2
After reading Shape magazine, I do have to admit that I feel very eager to work out more and to become healthier. It motivates me to live a life that will improve my body. I do have to admit that every girl is air brushed with perfect bronzed skin, so in this case it makes me realize that I am not like that. So it makes me feel less beautiful. I feel like this magazine makes me feel pleased and displeased with my physical self and health. I feel pleased because it makes me feel like I am not to far away from having a healthy body like the girls in the magazine. It makes me realize that I am not as unhealthy as other people are. It makes me feel displeased in a way that my skin does look as good as the women in the magazines and sometimes I wonder how those women get their bodies so perfect. It makes me motivated to workout more often and to have a healthy diet. This magazine doesn’t make me happy or sad. It just makes me want to get up off the coach and do something active. This makes me believe that the typical college woman is very fit because the women in the magazines look to be close to my age. So it makes me assume that I should look close to this at this age. But I know that magazines have Photoshop, so it does not make me feel bad.
The things I like about this magazine is that it provides so many tips on how to become healthier. I actually use these tips and I have seen results. I also find the articles in there to be very interesting. I enjoy reading this magazine even though the perception of an ideal woman is a little bit distorted.
Option #1
ReplyDeleteFirst off before I get too detailed on my Tv watching experience, I just want to say I was surprised that during the whole hour I watched Tv there was not a single food or candy or drink commercial. I watched two different shows on two different channels and neither channel had any sort of food commercial.
The first show I watched was 'Thunder Fate's on Cartoon Network. The show os about humanoid cats who fight evil in the universe. This particular episode was about them trying to keep this super powerful sword away from the main evil guy. It was pretty exciting.
I surprised with the commercials because they only had one commercial break during the whole show. Why can't more shows be like that? During that commercial break they advertised for two different shows on the network, 'Adventure Time' and 'Total Drama's. The next commercial was about new Pokémon Black & White trading cards. With every pack of cards you buy you get a special code to unlock new content online. The last commercial during he break was aimed at parents. It was an infomercial about a lunch bag that could keep food cold for up to ten hours. During the commercial they promoted healthy eating habits by suggesting to parents that they send their kids to school with healthy lunches. I'd imagine that there would be positive health effects front this commercial because they want to people to send their kids to school with healthy lunches over having people have their kids eat school lunches.
The second show I watched was 'Finesse and Fern's on the Disney Channel. The show is about two brother's and their older sister. They hve different sorts of adventures building cool stuff. This show ended up having three commercial breaks. The first was extremely short and focused on Disney's XD show line up. It featured two shows based on Spiderman and The Avengers. The second commercial break started of with a made for Tv movie called 'The Race to Witch Mountain' starring the Rock. The next commercial was for Lysol. It was geared towards parents, but I found the commercial interesting because it featuredva family eating dinner together. The lest commercial break only featured shows on the Disney Channel. The only commercial that really featured food was the Lysol commercial. I would say it featured healthy eating habits because it showed a family eating together
I don't think that it would be necessary to restrict food commercials to kids, but I do think that here should be equal airtime for commercials promoting healthy eating. It would be nice if food companies had to give a certain percentage of their advertising spending to go towards supporting these healthy eating commercials. Either that or food companies would have to display a PSA banner during their commercials promoting healthy eating. I know they do this in France and it works quite well.
That should be THUNDER CATS not Thunder Fate's. Darn autocorrect...
Delete1) I watched Scooby Doo, and here are the lists of advertisements I saw:
ReplyDeleteFirst commercial
-A doll, lalaloops
-Stroage- space bag/ new dual-sue bag,
Second commercial
-Stompeez: cute slippers with personalities
-Progressive.com : take a picture of your license , insurance
-Gamefly.com: comes game in mail, parents save money and can cancel anytime
-Honey Nut Cheerios
-Creditcards.com, compared hundred of cards to get the best one “search, compare, and apply”
Third commercial
-Another CN show advertisement
-Livebutterflygarden.com , 10Xbigger than a real life, about 10 days they turn into a butterfly
-Pokemon trading cards
-A new Tom and Jerry game
Forth commercial
-Domino's cheesy sticks
-progressive.com
-Music bullet, portable speaker, 7 hours of power
-Shoedazzle.com, 20% for first customers
How many are specifically directed to children? 10 out of 15
How many of these advertisements involve food? 2
Domino's and Honey Nut Cheerios are not bad food, but very children-targeted products. Both of them appeal children very well. It was interesting to see Domino's focused only on cheesy sticks because children love those. Honey Nut Cheerios put children to eat its food in the commercial, so children want to copy those children on TV.
2) I personally think that those products are very healthy products as long as they don't overeat them. If I keep watching the cartoon, it may have had more commercials about candies and sweets.
3) I don't think that is necessarily a good idea because no matter what TV does, children are still exposed to those food at the store, school or in their community. If those countries limit the advertisements on TV, children are less exposed to look at those candies; however, I do not think the candies and sweets are necessarily bad. I think that prohibiting the advertisements are a little extreme. For example, that happened in Sesame Street. They changed Cookie Monster to Veggie Monster. I think that was a little too extreme as well.
1) I watched Cartoon Network’s “Regular Show”. It was a show about the life of a raccoon, a blue bird and their friends. It’s very violent, vulgar and lame. It was on cartoon network at 6:00 in the evening.
ReplyDeleteAdvertisements:
*Other shows on cartoon network
*Disney Pixar “Brave”
*A CD of popular music
*Online Video Games
*Gerber Life College Plan
*Men in Black 3
*Pop Tarts Frosted Mini Crisps
*Lala Lipps Lil’ Sister Dolls
*Battleship The Movie
*Lots and Lots of Jets and Planes - Air Show DVDs
*Online Tom and Jerry Video Game
*Chocolate Kelloggs Krave
*Shirley Temple DVDs
All of the advertisements were directed at children except the Gerber life insurance grant ad, and the Shirley Temple DVDs, which both specifically mentioned parents and grandparents.
The first ad for food was a commercial for Pop Tarts Frosted Mini Crisps. The ad itself didn’t have very much information about the product, it just showed kids eating and having a good time. There were bright colors, happy music and balloons popping. The second food ad was a commercial for Kelloggs Krave chocolate cereal. There were no people, just animated cereal and chocolate running around excitedly. This reminds me about our discussion we had last week about how children perceive things differently than adults. The advertisements don’t need to persuade children of anything other than the food will make you happy if you eat it.
2) Last fall when I had 5 minutes between class and work I would often grab a pop tart for lunch. I can personally witness to the fact that pop tarts have about zero nutritional value. Freshman year I lived largely off sugar and had some malnutrition problems about midway through the semester. These products are really tasty, but not at all healthy.
3) While I think that restricting advertisements targeted at kids looks like a great idea from a health standpoint, I don’t agree with it politically at all. There are too many mediating factors between the advertisement and what the kids actually eat. Responsibility for health would be taken away from parents and given to government officials. These officials would have to answer questions about which advertisements were ok and which were not allowed, whether or not to include print, radio & the Internet. The whole process could become highly politicized. The current process of requiring nutritional information to displayed on the product is enough. Leave the rest up to parents.
***I also thought it was interesting that they were advertising “Battleship”, a PG-13 movie during a show targeted that was for a younger-than-13 demographic.
Option 2
ReplyDeleteI chose to peruse Self magazine and I found that it was more positive than I had initially expected. The tagline across the top of the cover says, "A new plan for real women," and I feel that overall this magazine is more realistic than most. I know that it still uses its trick and computer editing but the suggestions that it makes are things that I have applied in my life nutritionally based on information learned in college courses.
As far as my own physical appearance, I feel that I don't look like the women in the magazine but I don't need to be as small or as toned as they appear. Having a six pack is not one of my desires though I know I could lose a few pounds around my mid section and only reap health benefits from doing so. I do feel motivated to evaluate my body and practice more of an exercise regime. But I don't feel like I want to be the women in this magazine.
I still feel happy right now because I know that as far as my body goes I have been blessed with things that many others haven't. My sister struggles constantly with her weight and often works out twice a day but hasn't reached her ideal body image. I am averaging working out once every two weeks and I feel great about myself. Knowing the genes that I could have makes me grateful for how my body is naturally. I suppose I am still comparing but I am comparing to the realistic possibilities for my physical body instead of the idealized ones that I'm supposed to desire from a magazine.
My mood has gotten better because I feel good about the fact that I already eat the way that they suggested in many instances and I know that if I wanted to be littler my body would likely comply. However I know that I am a healthy size for my height. I am reminded that I should be working out more but I also know that I have been getting my cardio through participating in activities such as football, softball, and frisbee with friends. Perhaps my confidence resembles something closer to the male ego than the stereotypical low self-esteem of a female but I would prefer to have an inflated view of my attractiveness than an unrealistic and possibly self-degrading view.
I am likely to think more about exercise in the upcoming week and hopefully I will get to the gym regularly if I set my mind to it. Waiting for my leg to heal has hindered some of my desire to use it and cause more pain.
Michal Savage
ReplyDeleteI selected a female weight training magazine and that particular issue focused on abs. After reviewing the magazine, I am not extremely pleased with myself. I have noticed that I have felt very self-conscious since reviewing the magazine. This must be like cultivation theory that the more we are involved in media the more we believe it is an accurate portrayal of the world around us. I was very self-conscious and even though I have tried to avoid those thoughts it was still weighs on my mind.
I don’t think I have ever looked at any magazine and afterwards felt pleased about my self appearance or health. It seems that I always compare myself to the magazine standard. However there have been some magazines that have motivated me more than others. This particular magazine that I reviewed was slightly motivating because of some tips that they offered, but overall the experience left me feeling very negative about my own health.
Before reading the magazine I was in a fine and pleasant mood and afterwards, although I am still happy, I can tell that it is something that has been weighing on the back of my mind. However, I believe all media can have this type of effect on us. Any media we participate in we can be left with the effect of the comparison from what happened. The media, I believe, strongly shapes how the general populous feels the standard should be.
I thought it was particularly interesting because I wasn’t critical of others around me after reading the magazine, rather it was all internal. I didn’t think it was necessary to condemn others, but I was very harsh on myself. Overall, I just learned that unless I am prepared to be motivated to get myself to work out, those magazines are not for me.
Chase Lucero
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2
Well, I would say that I definitely have a greater desire to work out. After reading this magazine for a good amount of time, seeing the pictures, and reading the articles I am a lot more pensive about my body and about the appearance of my body. I feel like there are some major aspects of my physique that I need to change –and fast! Haha I definitely feel displeased with my body and health. After reading the magazine and seeing all the health tricks and do’s and don’ts it’s pretty evident that I am not doing things the way I probably should be. One thing in particular that really caught my attention was the portion sizes. It really threw me for a loop to see the size of food that I should be eating. The portion is significantly less that what I am currently consuming.
Through reading through parts of this magazine I feel much more motivated or rather, desirable to do work workouts and eat better. The only difficult part is the application of those desires. But, I do still feel a greater desire to go out and do that.
I wouldn’t exactly say that this makes me happy nor would I say that it made me sad. I would say that I feel a little bit more embarrassed about how I have carried out my physical fitness. I have become pretty lax in the way that I do things and this was evident/obvious after reading these articles. In other words, my mood has taken a turn for the downside slightly but it’s not so much being sad than being ashamed of my work ethic and laziness. I need to make some changes in order to really feel like I am putting in an honest effort.
I have always seen the “typical college man” as a little bit different than me. I have always felt like I am just a little bit larger in size than that guy. But through time I have just come to accept it. Am I striving to be better, skinnier, smarter? Of course. Do I still realize that I am not at that point? Of course. But, in a way I just become acceptable of who I am. I still feel the need and desire at times to be like that vision of who I could become but in the end of the day, I haven’t really changed much and I still continue the same.
After looking through Women’s Health magazine, I feel like I need to be healthier and exercise more to improve my physical appearance. I see all the fit women in the magazine and it motivates me to become like them. I’m a little displeased with my own image and health, I realize I can improve a lot of things and need to before I look like the women in the magazine. At the same time, I am not completely displeased because of my habits already. Viewing this magazine helps motivate me instead of completely discouraging me. I feel the need to go try the new exercises it suggests; I feel inclined to go to the grocery store and buy healthy foods. It also makes me want to go outside and do something fun and active. I don’t feel happy or sad, just anxious to try these new workouts and diets. Before reading the magazine, I felt the same way, just less motivated. The magazine motivated me by showing me how much I still need to improve on. I can definitely have a higher commitment level. This magazine does tell me that the typical college-age woman needs to be fit and healthy. While this is very important in life, I also know that everyone is not perfect. These magazines are helpful, but at the same time they can be a waste of time. They give good advice, but if the reader is not in the right mind set and situation, the magazine may only discourage them, doing more harm than good.
ReplyDeleteSpencer Cornett
ReplyDeleteThis assignment came at a funny time for me. I joined Gold’s Gym about a month ago because I got to a point where I just no longer felt like I looked good, I didn’t feel healthy and I wanted to lose weight. When I picked up a copy of Men’s Fitness and read through it, I was even more convinced that I needed to get back into shape.
Something I noticed when I first started going to the gym was just how out of shape I looked compared to other people in the gym. After looking through Men’s Fitness I am convinced that those people that made me look out of shape looked like they themselves were out of shape compared with some of the bodybuilders in that magazine.
As I said before, when I started going to the gym a month ago I already felt like it was time to make a change and to start exercising more and eating right. After looking at this magazine that fire is burning as hot as ever. I am not happy, but I am not sad about my body either. I used to be a top notch athlete and I am motivated to get back into the shape I was when I was 19 years old. I feel driven. I feel emboldened, but I do not feel sad or happy about my current physical state. I can say that I feel more angry than sad when I first read the magazine. Angry at myself for letting it come to his and angry that I haven’t acted sooner. I know that what I saw in the magazine does not reflect what an average college male should look like, but nonetheless I do feel like I no longer want to look like all the “before” pictures that I saw.
After having read through Men’s Health Magazine I feel reaffirmed in my current goal of getting in shape and looking great physically. Right now I feel pretty out of shape and have not had the time and energy to try to get myself to go and work out. Consistently I have found myself in the stage where I am contemplating working out but never taking the actual steps to do so. But, with that being said, I have been able to find time to do so. I have actually been working out and reading this magazine has helped me to try and feel better about doing so.
ReplyDeleteI feel more motivated to maintain healthy eating habits and making sure that I am engaged physically in keeping myself healthy. The magazine seems to be an over exaggerated example of what it means to take care of myself but I believe that I am doing my best to try and take care of myself and making sure that I look and feel good. I felt good about working out and I know that I am going to be able to make the most of what I am doing as I am working out.
This magazine reinforces the idea that physical fitness and maintaining a health lifestyle as an important quality of our lives but I do not believe that a ripped, ultra muscular body type is what I would consider the ideal image for a college aged individual. It is important to me to make sure that I am physically fit because growing up that is something that was instilled in me. It is the idea that I think I support but not the image. My ideal image of someone healthy is much different than that of those that are taking what is being said in the magazine at face value.
After reading Self I am much more displeased with my appearance. Throughout reading the magazine I kept thinking 'I should go for a run or hit the gym'. I of course will not act on that thought process but I definently think it the whole time I'm reading. I feel like I need to work on eating better because those women have to eat amazingly healthy to look like that. I feel slightly more motivated to go to the grocery store and have a field day in the produce section but in the back of my mind I know I'm not going to eat that food. It takes way too long to prepare. One of the reasons I never read health and fitness magazines is because it kills my self confidence. I eat out every night and do not exercise but if I did that still would not make me look like those girls. How do they sculpt their bodies so perfectly/ Do they not have a life and spend their whole day at the gym? The way those women look is not realistic for someone who works or goes to school. But that does not stop anyone from wishing they looked like that. If I had to define my mood after reading this magazine it would be frustrated. When I walk around and see people my age I will be able to nitpick on all their imperfections and it does not really end up helping anyones body image unless you are an exact replica of the model in the magazine.
ReplyDeleteI decided to borrow my roommate's "Fitness" magazine, May 2012 issue. I was sitting next to my best friend while going through the magazine and it was very interesting to observe how she and I had very different reactions to it. The cover has a picture of a 48 year old woman who is beautiful, in amazing physical shape and looks like she is in her 20's. My first reaction was, "Dang, that woman looks amazing for her age!" Hannah, my best friend's reaction was, "Wow, she must spend so much time working out and staying in shape. I will never look like that."
ReplyDeleteWhile flipping through the pages I gained an increased desire to live a healthy lifestyle but not an abnormal desire to workout or change my diet. I am a believer in eating right and staying active already, so while reading the magazine I took mental notes on helpful hints and advice about recipes that I would like to try. The content, pictures and articles didn't make me feel negative about my physical appearance, but it did make me excited to continue living the way I do. My idea of what a typical college-aged woman should look like did not change because the people in that magazine are not college aged, they are older, and they are not typical people, they are very active and very health oriented. My mood after reading the magazine didn't change. If anything it made me more happy because I was thinking about all the recipes I want to make haha Hannah's reaction was much different than mine.
After looking at the cover I asked Hannah how it made her feel about herself. "Like crap. I feel like a cow. This makes me want to start running and never stop." While we continued through the pages she stopped paying attention because she said, " I can't look at it anymore." The magazine obviously made her unhappy about her physical appearance.
I guess this goes to show that everyone is different.