Thursday 18 August 2011

Color and Products

Today I went to eat lunch at Subway, and began to notice several things from the perspective of a student studying pop culture. Like several other popular chain stores/restaurants such as Panda Express, Starbucks, Target, Coffee bean, etc., Subway has its own specific color patterns, schemes, font types, and logos specific to its own company. This goes along with this idea of consumerism in America, how companies want you to be accustomed to a specific pattern associated with a business brand to alert your brain when you see it. A theme of Subway is that they are wanting you to “eat fresh”, and the colors they use to decorate their bags, cups, walls, etc., are all very clean and fresh colors, i.e. white, yellow, green, as opposed to heavily greasy foods that use obnoxious and nauseating colors (McDonalds, Burger King, Sizzler/very dark reds, browns, yellows, blacks, greens.) This usage of colors and patterns is not random. There is a psychology behind how the human mind reacts to certain colors, and then thus creates different reactions and moods such as hunger or thirst, specifically for restaurants and drink places. Colors such as red or yellow tend to make us hungrier (McDonalds), whereas colors like green tend to make us feel thirsty (Starbucks). As a result, the companies are luring us in by directly attacking our subconscious brains and triggering feelings that they want us to feel. Then, they give in to our wants with their products.

Thursday 11 August 2011

Goldfinger

(GOLDFINGER REFLECTION)
Regarding how I contributed to our group presentation of James Bond: Goldfinger, I discussed how the film creates a need for material goods in society, as well as influencing commercialism and our resulting warped points of views regarding what is wealthy and the value of money. I first noted how the entire plot revolves around this obsession with gold and wealth. I pointed out how, in summary, the film’s villain Auric Goldfinger wants to devalue Fort Knox’s gold in order to raise the worth of his own wealth. It shows how in our own society, people will go so far to accumulate wealth and become richer, simply for their own benefit. In terms of how our regular society/culture derives from this, Goldfinger wants to devalue the other people’s gold with radioactive energy to raise his own value—he is not merely satisfied with amassing huge sums of money, but rather he wants to harm other people with a lot of money. This is like how in our society of business today, it is all very competitive and companies easily become jealous of other competition and try to get higher than them.
I thought it was an interesting side note how the title of the film is simply “Goldfinger”. In this way, it directly focuses on the theme of gold and wealth. The movie could have been called a number of any other titles that do not refer to money or wealth, yet with a name like “Goldfinger”, we are already focusing in on the theme of gold, money, and wealth. Other James Bond titles such as “Die Another Day”, etc. not have any mention of wealth or the obsession with material goods in society.
In observing the film, I saw how much of the modes of transportation in the film are all very rich and extravagant. James Bond’s new car is explained to him as to having all sorts of gadgets and special effects. Also when Goldfinger transports people, it is with a private jet—again very fancy and large. It is not a small car, or small airplane.
The talk and discussion of money in this movie is very casual, alluring to how we spend money so frequently and never really think about it. Goldfinger, when explaining his Grand Slam operation, says “you can have the million today, or ten million tomorrow”. He says this so casually, yet it is such a huge sum of money.
In addition to the use and obsession of gold, there is this ongoing theme in much of Bond’s films, really in a majority of popular main stream spy/action movies, of having the best gadgets, tools, clothes, drinks, and so forth. This has influenced our society today in that we always want an upgrade on our products and are willing to spend the large amounts of money to acquire such devices. Not only does this influence our material mentality, but our physical/gender mentality as well. I said how the character of James Bond fits this ideal male figure, and all men/boys are expected to fit this type of image if they are too adhere to society’s expectations of the ideal masculine man. Just as Bond is seen as cool with all his gadgets, I noted how today we judge people by the type of car they drive and what type of cell phone they have.
To close my section of the presentation, I asked the class a discussion question of how they think the media influences pop culture in terms of expectations and wants for material goods and wealth, and how it changes the way we perceive the meaning of success and being rich.
(REGULAR ENTRY) - chapter 10. Page 315.
I have noticed how much we are influenced by the media and what we view from the television and news. All of this put together creates what we as a society feel is reality. However, it is only based on what we see in the news, and the “news is not an unmediated ‘window on the world’, but a selected and construction representation of reality” (Barker 316). The news is only a sliver of what is truly happening in the world, and we thus need to broaden our views of what we perceive to be reality. It seems that people have narrowed their visions so much that it is restricted only to what other people are telling them and mainly the people on TV and on the news. It is not enough. If we just pay attention to the TV and media news, “we may note a significant omission” (317). This omission is largely due because the media is so controlled that it is revealing only certain sides and parts of stories that are, in turn, only smaller parts of what the world truly represents.
In terms of news, it seems that we largely consider “the unexpected [as] a significant news value” (317). We only become interested once something becomes the unexplainable or the unnerving. If something is too ordinary, it is passed as boring. We need to learn to value everything and truly see how everyone and thing has something to offer the world.
It is true how “the media are seen as a reflection of a class-dominated society” (318). The media is controlled by the upper class of rich people that have control of television stations and producers. Thus we are controlled only by what they present and therefore their point of view. This is wrong. As individual people, we have withered away to followers, and need to again take a stand. We cannot be brainwashed by others. The human mind is a great thing with great gifts and outstanding potential abilities, yet largely it is thrown away due to distractions and a pressure of society to conform.
Works Cited:
Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice. Sage Publications 2008. Print.


Thursday 4 August 2011

A changing world

(Blog 3): A Changing World
Although we may not realize it, the world that we live in is constantly changing from one year to the next, and from one generation to the next. In today’s post, I will be noting changes and differences in pop culture from the past, to the presence, and make some predictions about the future. Although we mostly think small in terms of changes, “changes are not confined to specific nation-states. Rather, they are implicated in processes of globalization” (Barker 141). Our single nation is not the only thing undergoing change as the years pass by. Instead, it is how different countries affect one another that truly create change, whether it is for better or for worse. Things are not changing in a simple manner. Instead of simplicity, change is “multidirectional and chaotic rather than singular and linear” (Barker 141).
One major issue that continues to rise in popular culture is the changing economy. This has been seen by the “concentration and centralization of industrial, banking, and commercial capital in the context of increasingly regulated markets” (Barker 151). Many years ago we did not think so much about money, jobs, and such—but now in our current economic status, they seem more vital than ever. In terms of a changing and challenging economy, states have altered they way they see their relationships with other states. As a result of our economic situation, the “global recession hastened a renewed globalization of world economic activity” (157).
For example, China is trying to rise in power and eventually overtake the USA. Additionally, the place where we get most of our oil from, Iraq, has gotten much negative light regarding the September 11th attacks and remains as controversial as ever. This all results in a highly competitive world where “the development of the extractive/manufacturing industry” (Barker 151) works “as the dominant sector, together with the growth of very large industrial cities” (151). Because China manufactures much of our goods and at the same time is rising in global power, our state and government must be careful to remain both in good relationship with them and be able to stand its own ground.
Globalization is referred to as an “increasing consciousness of the world” (155), and today we are becoming much more aware of our planet than before due to several things, in addition to the aforementioned items. The craze of global warming has been brought to much of our attention, and other global/natural disasters affect our thinking of the environment including Hurricane Katrina, the Japanese disaster, tornadoes, and so many others.