The Science of Shopping 12/7/14

In Malcom Gladwell’s “The Science of Shopping,” he claims that businesses and stores don’t just want to know behave in their store, they have to know. Malcom Gladwell writes based off of the work of Paco Underhill, an urban geographer who studies the habits of shoppers. Paco Underhill states that people walk how they drive, on the right side. Therefore, when shoppers enter a store, they tend to walk towards the right side of the store after they enter in. Paco goes on to say that shoppers now spend less time in stores and want more room to shop so they aren’t cramped in the aisles.

This was a strange article to me at first. All Paco Underhill does is record shoppers, yet learns so much from videos with no audio. What I can take from this is that when people shop, they glance quickly, and if they intended on buying something then they will buy it. However, if they are just browsing, they will glance for a couple minutes and leave the store. This tells me that people want things now if they don’t see what they want, they won’t bother wasting time. I can tie this in with my expansion essay saying that advertisers are getting better at targeting consumers that even the quick shoppers pause to examine ads, thus saying that ads are doing their job.  

Tim O'Brien The Things They Carried 11/23/14

In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, he tells war stories and post war stories. Reading the first couple of chapters, this book seems to be like a random book about war. As I read farther into the book, O’Brien began to talk about “story truth” and “happening truth.” Story truth is telling a fiction story that could be true or hold meaning. For instance, O’Brien gave an example of the story about the four soldiers who were walking along a trail, a grenade then lands at their feet and one of the soldier’s jumps on it saving the rest. O’Brien says (through story truth) that the real story is; four soldiers are walking along a path when a grenade lands at their feet, one of the soldiers jumps on it and they all die anyways. O’Brien said that is the true story that never gets told. Happening truth is what is really happening or has happened. For example, I have read the book The Things They Carried. That is true and it happened. Through story truth, Tim O’Brien tells readers fictional stories to show how horrifying war really is and that you don’t get glorified while raising your hands to the heavens as you die.

Proposal for expanstion essay 11/16/14

For my expansions essay, I have chosen my mini essay that focuses on the article, “What We Are to Advertisers” by James B. Twitchell. I have only touched on a three out of the eight categories which Twitchell discusses in his article. I want to turn my focus more on four categories: strivers, achievers, makers, and strugglers. I will modify my argument in saying that advertisers mainly focus on these four categories when selling their product. I will use Jack Solomon’s argument in his article, “Masters of Desire: The Culture of American Advertisers” that the American dream is to be an elitist, and a majority of TV advertisers feed off of this idea. I will be including a Buik commercial to show how two categories (strivers & achievers) relate with one another while supporting my argument. I will use the following key terms and phrases to guide my research: ads towards handymen, bargaining & deals, American dream through ads, how advertisers sell, advertisers appealing to today’s society, and advertisers techniques to sell & middle class.

What We Are to Advertisers blog #4

Summery: The essay "What We Are to Advertisers" by James Twitchell is based on how advertisers see us as consumers. This essay can be found in Signs of life in the U.S.A. Twitchell tells us that advertisers split us up into 8 groups: actualizers, fulfilled, believers, achievers, strivers, experiencers, makers, and strugglers. Twitchell claims that advertisers label us to these categories so that they can pick and choose what type of consumers they want to advertise to. These categories are used to reach consumers of all ages male and female. Advertisers then position themselves and their ads to reach the right group of consumers.

Analysis; As I was reading this article, I could easily put a family member to each of the categories. I believe that each of the 8 categories are valid and will continue to be. It's interesting to see how advertisers split consumers up so they can target who they want. It is also beneficial to consumers to know these 8 categories. Knowing how advertisers think of us (consumers) can help weed out the trickery of commercials and help consumers make better choices when buying a product.

/They Say I Say "And Yet" Chapter 5 09/28/14

Summery: In chapter 5 of They Say I Say, it gets into the "I say" part of writing. The title of chapter 5 is "AND YET" as a way to distinguish what you say from what they say. For instance, there is an example of an essay in this chapter, written by Gregory Mantsios, that uses "voice markers" along with the word "yet" to distinguish the writers point of view from the point of view he is arguing against. In Mantsios's first paragraph, he uses the quote (or voice marker) "We are all middle-class," to show an argument that has been made. Then he starts off his second paragraph with "Yet class divisions are real" to distinguish his point of veiw from the argument that was being made. The chapter goes further in saying we can use "I" in our essay to help differentiate our views from others.

Response: This chapter helped me a little more with understing how to distingish arguments with reading them and writing them. I know now to pay attention to "voice markers" like quotes and prases that set apart arguements from others. The example of the essay with voice markers and the one with out, helped me really see how important it is to use quotes and transitional words like "yet" to dinstinguish arguments. It used to be hard to stay focused and distinguish what some writers were trying to argue, but now I feel more confident in discoverying arguments in material I read in the future.

Maya Angelou I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings 9/14/14

Summery: I want to talk about Maya Angelou’s book “I Know why the caged bird sings,” but more specifically I want to talk about what happened in chapter 11 and 12. To start off, Maya Angelo and her brother Baily were sent off to live their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas when they were 3 and 4. Angelou and her brother lived a childhood not knowing who their parents were or what they looked like. Angelou and her brother eventually make their way to live with their mother via their father. Angelou was 8 years old when she moved in with her mother. In chapter 11 and 12, Angelou describes in detail being molested by her mother's boyfriend. She talks about how Mr. Freeman (her mother's boyfriend) threatened to kill her brother if she told anybody about what happened. 

Response: I found great interest in reading this book from the first chapter on. At first, I saw it as book about a young child's rough times and took the assumption that her hard life would only make her the person she grew up to be. Little did i know that Maya Angelou was molested as a young child. These two chapters made me sick as I read through them. I couldn't help but feel bad for Angelou, because no one let alone a child, should ever have to experience that. In the end I guess it goes to show that even one of the most idolized and inspirational people can face some of the same problems that the average person faces. Some of the greatest people are still just people. It's foolish to idolize some people thinking they are perfect and that only they have what they want in life with no problems to overcome. 

Steve Craig Men's Men and Women's Women 8/31/14

Summary: In Steve Craig’s article, “Men’s Men and Women’s Women” he discusses four different types of commercials. Craig titles these four types of commercials: men’s men, men’s women, women’s women, and women’s men. First off, these four categories describe different types of gender portrayal. For instance, Steve Craig says that a men’s men commercial features masculine men that are free from commitment and that seek adventure. Along with male fantasy, women’s women and women’s men cover the female fantasy. For example, women either like a sexy single male or a sensitive man that will do for his woman.

Response: I agree and disagree with Steve Craig in that these four categories still exist today. Commercials like the ones Carl’s Jr. advertise with a model eating a big cheeseburger uphold that Steve Craig’s categories are still used today. However, with commercials like AXE featuring attractive women that lust for the guy that uses their product, to me it leans more towards Jack Solomon’s “Masters of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising” when Solomon talks about being an elitist. Solomon states that we want to be equal yet rise above the rest.