Blog #10

Now that I have completed the initial stages of my Final Project, I have realized that the two clips that I am remixing are perfect for what I am trying to accomplish. I began with a scene from the movie High School Musical 3 and mixed in a music video from the band Evermore. The video is for a song titled "Hey Boys and Girls (Truth of the World part 3)" and it depicts a group of adults dressed up as different professions (doctor, soldier, nurse) dancing on the set. This video helps illustrate the impact that mass media has on influencing young people to conform to societal standards in order to make money, thus allowing them to participate in a propaganda saturated culture in which they submit to the media giants to provide them with "Truth". Evermore created an imaginary drug called "Truthagen" to highlight the numbing effect that mass media culture has on children and adults alike.

Now all I need to do is further synthesize the two videos to fully reveal the similarities that entertainment has with mind control in our globalized world.

Final Project

For my final project, I would like to combine video and music media. I think its a great way to get a personal message across by combining these two popular forms of entertainment. I'm not quite sure yet what I want to do, but I think I'll have a much better idea after discussing it with my classmates. I think one of the biggest challenges will be finding two pieces that fit well together. Perhaps even using multiple movies clips with one song would work best for creating something interesting and new.

Another challenge will be to create something that makes sense to the viewer. With my remix project, I had to explain a lot of what I was doing, so in this next project I'll try to make the message more apparent without explanation.

Remix Project

For my remix project I chose to remix this video:


At first, I was convinced this guy was a real preacher, though after watching it a few times I noticed at the bottom of the screen that he is really just a performer. I feel that although he has a good point about consumerism, his method of using religious rhetoric is distasteful and absurd. He uses religion to get across his argument even though he is not religious himself. I took the clip of him talking about American consumers reconsidering listening to him and juxtaposed it next to him saying "They're tempted at this moment!' to highlight the fact that religious minded people might be attracted to him listening to him, but they're really being deceived by his appearance and the the context he is portrayed in.

One comment on youtube expressed:
"I agree, there is a growing population of people that instantly become distrustful or cynical when they hear an apparently unprovoked "Hallelujah" by a random religious person. Especially when he's preaching Anti-Consumerism and yet has VERY nice clothes. Hopefully they're made in North America, but buying locally doesn't address the OVER-spending and credit problems going on, just globalization and sweat shops."

I tried to highlight the absurdity of his persona and gimmick, such as the fact that he is protesting Victoria's Secret and comparing himself to Jesus driving the money changers out of the temple.

This project is supposed to have a degree of humor in it, but it still retains a degree of seriousness, considering the seriousness of the issues it revolves around; consumerism and the desperate state of our economy. Even though this interview was posted several years ago, now is the time for us to really examine our culture and how we approach important matters.

Podcasting in the School Library

I have listened to podcasts before but never created one. One interesting podcast I've listened to before was called Radiolab. It was more of radioshow because it was about 30 min long but it still involved a lot of sound effects and was very educational. After reading these two pieces, I believe it is something that I could enjoy creating because it helps engage the listener in the topic. Podcasts could be useful at Fort Lewis in order to educate students in a variety of ways. They could be used to aid in registration or to promote on campus events.

Podcasts are different from radioshows because they are much shorter, and are only meant to entice the listener to find out more about the topic. Podcasts can be inserted in between radio programs, like the Wheaties advertisements in "Mars is Heaven".

Wiki Lore and Politics in the Classroom

Before reading this piece, I was pretty familiar with wikis. Like many Fort Lewis students, wikipedia.org is often the first place I go when researching a topic. I'm glad that wikis in general are being recognized as a trustworthy source of information. The fact that they can be peer edited actually makes them more complete than some scholarly journals because they incorporate different points of view.

Not much surprised me about this article; it's pretty self explanatory. It did help me understand wikis better because it used real life examples of students using them in the classroom. It gave me a sense of how peer editing could be beneficial for collaborative projects, an area which I think may have been lacking on my part for our first assignment just because I am not too familiar with the process of creating wikis yet.

Some of the disadvantages of using wikis are that they can increase anxiety by adding a competitive side to assignments. Looking at some of the other wikis, I feel like the one I created is quite inferior. However, I feel like the topic I chose did not have a lot of material that could be covered, so in that sense, wikis are less of an intellectual creation and more of a collage of information.

The advantages are that they decentralize the classroom and provide students with a virtual workspace that can save time and energy. They provide an archive for students' work that can be reviewed as needed. Wikis also resemble a lot of the mainstream media that students use in their daily lives, so they are more familiar with the format and function. Wikis can help students become more involved with the world of social media and integrate their expertise into the work world.

Thinking About Multimodality

I see Takayoshi and Selfe's main argument in this piece to be that teaching multimodal composition is an effective way to get students more involved in what they are learning and can also help accelerate their comprehension of material. I agree with this argument, especially since students are surrounded with multimodal compositions outside of the classroom and are engaged in creating them as well.

The implications that this piece has for a class like ours is that we are going to have to incorporate many aspects of rhetoric and composition in our productions. We need to change the way we look at multimedia. We need to look at it not as a form of entertainment but as a valuable tool for education.

Their discussion of multimodality adds to what we learned in Daley's piece because it further highlights the importance that media has in helping people retain information. Major events in history have remained in the public's consciousness due to photographs taken, as well as news broadcasts, such as during the aftermath of 9/11.

I see this piece fitting in with our blogs because this is our chance to create our own media as well as critique media within our culture.

A Vision of Students Today

I find this lolcat picture to be quite true. I have been assigned so much reading in this past week that I am extremely hard pressed to find time to accomplish. But, at least I'm learning, which is why I'm here in the first place.



Need I say more?



Poor Pluto. I think we sometimes forget in this college environment that we are all still human. Too often we carry over the habits we learned in highschool into our "adult" lives. This picture made me think of the painful feelings of rejection I felt in highschool. Although I feel much more accepted at this school, I still notice other students who are still pushed to the fringes and left out in the cold.

Expanding the Concept of Literacy

Ok, I'm finally getting around to blogging about this. I found it difficult to really get into this article but as I read, it became more interesting. I agree with the argument that colleges need to expand the concept of literacy to multimedia. Yet I also understand why the scholarly world has so long valued text, as it is the best tool for education and literacy. I think in this modern age, we forget that text is still a form of media. The invention of the printing press revolutionized the way information was distributed. I don't think multimedia literacy is in any danger of being lost; there is always going to be a need for that type of knowledge. As Royce said, if everyone becomes multimedia literate, we're going to be out of a job! But a teacher is only as good as their student, and if high school graduates have no knowledge of multimedia creation, the field is going to progress a lot slower. For this reason, there is a demand for media educators in preliminary education, even though not many people realize it yet.

Perhaps what those in the education profession need to realize is the symbiosis that artistic development has to do with literacy. Literacy at it's heart is the ability to analyze and think critically, and that is exactly the purpose of art. Art, however, is the literacy of life. The reason text is becoming so outdated is because students aren't finding it relevant to their personal lives. Why are movies like Star Wars and Harry Potter so popular these days, especially with younger people? The reason is because although they are based in fantasy, the experience feels real. Multimedia engages the senses and transports the viewer into an alternate world, but it also opens up the doors of the subconscious mind and helps the viewer to look inside them-self. For this reason, I believe the growth of media literacy can be used as a positive force in students lives, balancing the desire for drugs and alcohol. We are all searching for something, trying to fill the void within ourselves, and for me, that void is being filled by my growth as an artist and my education in the field of media production. I am also seeing a potential as a high school educator emerging within me, which I never in a million years would have imagined possible.

Interactive Media

So begins another course in media literacy and such. Looking back on my previous posts, I am proud of some of the groundbreaking ideas I have come up with, but also disappointed in my often ignorant and judgmental tone. Oh well, it was the most chaotic semester of my life. If you want to know more, just ask.

I would like to apply myself a lot harder than I did previously, and I think you will see my determination reflected in my work. I have only had a little experience with this program, Blogger and Photoshop, so I don't think I'll be much help to other people just yet. I am a fast learner though so you can expect me to be a pro pretty soon.

Media Literacy

Well I can honestly say that this class has been and incredible learning experience. It comes as a strange realization that some people are part of a culture that has reality spoonfed to them on a daily basis. The human mind is an extremely moldable thing, but that's to be expected, the world is a very hard place to live in, no matter who you are. Rich and poor alike, some people strive to make the best of what they have, and others squander it in one way or another. Everybody has their good days and bad days, but however you want to explain it, there are people who don't really care one way or another what happens in the rest of the world. Sure, we all hear the opinions of political commentators who think they understand the views of the real politicians, but truth be told what goes on in Washington is most often kept a tidy little secret until after the bills are signed and the American people are burdened with months and years of unfair economic decisions.

And that's what it really comes down to isn't it? Our government is constantly pushing us to consume more and more. The constant stream of advertisements are aimed at creating a demand for the product being promoted. But perhaps we should ask ourselves, how much do we really need? Is that new pair of shoes really going to make our lives a whole lot easier? Much like the coke bottle in "The Gods Must Be Crazy", I think the function mass media serves is more of a distraction from the really important things in life. That is, without proper media literacy skills.

Media literacy is more than a concept, it is a tool. It's not a tool that many people have either. I'm not quite sure how I've acquired these skills in such a short time, but my eyes have definitely been opened to the fact that our world is fast changing. Media will be more and more useful as a way to keep society connected and informed. Individuals can plug into mass databases and as more information becomes available, people will need to understand the internal language of the messages they recieve.

The creation of media really needs to be revolutionized in order to serve the people who recieve it instead of prodding them like cattle to the slaughter. There is definitely hope for our world, and mass media should used as a means to unite and conquer the challenges that face us. This is a state of emergency; its about time somebody sounded the alarm.

Cool, Refreshing, DISTGUSTING.

We live in a culture dominated by advertising and consumerism, and at the heart of it all is the alcohol industry. Anyone who watches football and other primetime sports is going to be bombarded by beer ads featuring bikini models or "average joes" aimed at getting you to buy their product. Beer drinking is depicted as a social activity that makes you happier, funnier, and sexier, all of which are lies that people buy into every night and day. The truth is alcohol does not make you a better person in any way; what it does do is turns you into a fat, lazy slob who can barely function in everyday life. Any positive light companies such as Budweiser shine on drinking are myths constructed to keep you coming back for more bubbly pisswater.

I have learned from experience that drinking and partying only creates the illusion of a social life. Most times the night starts out with a few people sipping beers, chatting, listening to music, and having an overall good time. But as more and more people show up, the drinking escalates, the plastic cups, cards, and beer bongs come out and the decibel level jumps about 100%. At this point you can't even have a conversation over the sound of the drunken shouting and cavorting.

People drink in order to gain a sense of confidence in social situations, particularly with the opposite sex. But if you are hoping to establish some sort of romantic attraction with an admired individual, the worst way to go about it is when you are inebriated past the point of remembering said individual's name. And if you do manage to form some sort of physical connection with someone, your senses are going to be so dulled that you'll probably wake up the next day realizing that if you hadn't drank yourself into oblivion, you wouldn't hate yourself so much for lowering your normally high standards of responsible behavior.

Last but not least, consuming alcohol doesn't make you any more attractive than you already are. In fact, it most definitely makes you uglier and more unhealthy. The average caloric content of one beer is about 100 calories; factor in the "drunk munchies" and your stomach will hate you for days to come. How is pushing your digestive and endorcrine systems to their limits supposed to make you become anything but a hollow, pathetic excuse for a human being?

I've drunk with the best and worst of them and I may have had some good times here and there, but if I could do it all over again I would have never let the foul stuff touch my lips and I'm doing my best to make sure it never does again.

Faggots

Ok, some people may not agree with what I'm going to say, but I really don't give a fuck anymore, this has gone on too long. Homosexuality is wrong, case closed, end of story, stop complaining about how miserable your gay little life is. People are starving, the world economy is collapsing, disease, war, global warming, and countless other evil things are destroying the world, and all you sexually frustrated men and power hungry women can think about is poor little me. I'm sorry it had to come to this, but you really need to get over yourselves.

After watching the movie "The Celluloid Closet" (what the hell is that supposed to mean anyway?), a few things became apparent to me. First, homosexuals are severely immature, they are nothing but overgrown children with unresolved Oedipus complexes. Watching a bunch of "sissy" men flaunt their depraved sexual preferences honestly made me want to puke. Some might may say that I am just hiding some latent homo tendencies with my outrage and disgust, but what they fail to understand is that if that were true, then everybody in the world would be gay and there would be nothing they could do about it. And homosexuality does occur in nature, just watch two male dogs get to know each other and soon enough one of them will end up on top of the other one, exerting his dominance with glee. But guess what also occurs in nature? Cannibalism, murder, rape, abuse, neglect, and greed.

It seems us humans aren't much better than animals, at least in the physical sense. But we have laws in order to keep us civilized, in order to keep those beastly criminals at bay so the rest of us can live our lives in peace. How long before we accept ourselves as we are? Whether you believe in God, evolution, or both, as I do, you should see that we are born a certain gender for a reason. "But what about those people who are born with both sex organs?" you may ask, "those transgendered people who don't belong in either category." All I can say about those people is that we have surgery and hormone therapy. People criticize the parent's of those transgendered babies for trying to give their child the most normal life possible, saying that they should just allow them to be who they are, but how can you judge them unless you are in their position? Just like foster parent's who don't tell their child they were adopted until they are at an age when they can understand, these parent's have a very tough decision to make, but I admire them for choosing with their child's best interest in mind and loving them just the same. I guess what I'm trying to say is, we all have disadvantages in life, and homosexuals probably have double, but just be thankful to be alive and don't waste your time worrying about what sex you should be. Take a look in your pants and the answer should be pretty clear.

Media Journal #3

In this blog I am going to talk write about one of the oldest mass mediums in existence, the Holy Bible. What is it about this book that leads people to believe that it is in fact, inspired by the all knowing benevolent creator of the universe? You should know right now that I believe this to be the case, well, almost. Most people should agree that if there is a God that loves us and wants us to be happy, then it would make sense that he would inspire such commandments as, "Thou shalt not kill", and "Love thy neighbor as thy self", but there are some very controversial instructions in the Bible that have led to its increasing unpopularity. For example, one passage that has given me some trouble recently comes from Titus, chapter 2 verses 3-5, it says "Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God."

The pastor at my church brought up this passage a few weeks ago in order to address the issue of who wears the pants in the marriage relationship. I can't even remember exactly what it was that he said, but I know that it made me uncomfortable. But why should a passage that instructs women to be obedient to their husbands make me, a young Christian bachelor feel uncomfortable? You'd think I would have been jumping for joy with the knowledge of what's in store for me. But as I delved deeper into this issue, taking into account the current feminist philosophy that is quite popular today, I realized that something has gone terribly wrong in the Christian church.

We have become so obsessed with pleasing our elders, fitting the mold of the typical suburban nuclear family with 2 cars, 2.5 kids, and money pouring out the ears. When it is put that way, you come to realize that the word of the Almighty has been distorted so irreverently that 50% of marriages have ended in divorce and Christianity on the whole is on a decline. For someone who believes that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the human race, this fact is very sobering. It's possible that one day nobody will experience the joy that I have upon realizing that despite the fact that all I have accomplished in my life amounts the nothing, that I still have hope; I still have a chance at complete and utter happiness in this sweet, short life. While I don't believe it will come to this, there is still a huge task to be undertaken if the world is going to take us seriously.

What's a man to do? Well, I can start by admitting that I have been pathetic, lazy, and ungrateful for all of the beautiful ( I mean inner beauty as well), self-sacrificing, determined women in the world. I can start by rejecting the lies that are fed to me about what it means to be a Christian. And most of all, I absolutely must vow to never, ever take for granted a certain angelic woman in my life who is the only one I have ever truly desired. I just hope she will understand that up to now I have been imprisoned by lust, greed, envy, sloth, gluttony, wrath, and worst of all, pride. I now have no choice but to turn my back to the world and try to spread to word, the true word of God.

"The Corporation" Reaction Essay

The movie "The Corporation" made me realize a few things about capitalism. It seems that when it comes to a capitalist economy, you're either for it or against it, there is no gray area. Therefore, if you are not a capitalist, that makes you a communist. If there's one thing most people agree that Americans should hate, it's communism, but why? Is it the fact that the people have no say in the government? Could it be that without any form of competition in the marketplace, the system is bound to collapse? Those would be some good guesses, because in America, everyone is free to reach the top, so long as they work hard and never give up. Just look at our new President, Barack Obama.

President Obama started with humble beginnings, his father was a Kenyan exchange student and his mother came from a working class family in Kansas. HIs father abandoned him at the age of two and only saw him once before first losing his legs in one car accident and his life in the second. Obama had a very difficult childhood, his mother re-married and moved to Indonesia, though her new husband was an alcoholic and abusive. I learned these facts from Obama's book, Dreams From My Father, and I've come to realize how much I actually have in common with our commander in chief. My father also abandoned me at a young age. Although I had a relatively stable childhood, my mother became involved with an abusive alcoholic after divorcing my step-father after twelve years of marriage. Like Obama I have had humble beginnings, yet I am now at a point in my life where my future has never looked brighter. Perhaps this is because my troubled past is for the most part behind me, but I believe it is also because of the opportunity that I have been afforded by governmental policies that have allowed me to live comfortably while I work for my education. Obama has stated that student loans and grants made it possible for him to get a good education, which ultimately has led to him becoming the first African-American president in the history of the United States. That's no easy feat, and if I'm going to have any hope of rivaling his achievements I'm going to have to do a lot more than become President, after all I am a white male, it can't be that hard, despite the fact that I've inhaled on several occasions.

What I'm trying to explain here is that we don't live in a country with perfect equality, and we probably never will, but we can level the playing field. The truth is we don't have a true capitalist economy, we have a oligarchy, a rich minority who control virtually everything from the military to the media. You might be surprised to know that this is the exact same system in place in China, a communist country. We have been communists ever since 1913 when we went off the gold standard and created the Federal Reserve. Our money is based on faith in the government instead of a tangible currency. We receive vouchers for working in the large communes of office buildings and other businesses. Granted, we have a little more freedom, but with our dwindling resources, we don't have much time left to celebrate that fact. Soon enough we may be rounded up into work camps without pay so that The Corporation can make a profit. When you look at it that way, you realize the US and China are the best of friends, at least their governments are, because they have the same goal, the enslavement of the human race. I just pray that Obama is who he claims to be, that the system hasn't corrupted him like the others. He is the only hope we have, we are in the 11th hour, if he fails, we are all going down with him. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Rush Limbaugh.

Media Journal #2

I'd like to use this entry to discuss something that's been on my mind for a while, namely, pornography. You may not know it, but its pretty much everywhere you look these days. It might not be the kind of of stuff that would make a priest rip off his collar in rage or a mother cover her child's eyes (though often times it is), because we have laws about that sort of stuff. Pornography is defined as "obscene writings, drawings, photographs, or the like, esp. those having little or no artistic merit." Most people who live in contemporary society are subjected to obscene media content on a daily basis. You might agree that we are constantly exposed to pornography on a daily basis even if we don't choose to do so.

Advertising is an industry that has grown so large in this day and age that you can't escape it. If you watched the Super Bowl, you may have noticed the degree of obscenity that was a component of the numerous commercials. GoDaddy.com for example featured humor revolving around augmented breasts in a courtroom. I don't know about you, but that's all I really remember about the commercial. That, and the fact that a Danica Patrik, a leading female role model, chose to sell out her image for the sake of this advertising gimmick. This is what advertising has come to, blatant offensive material in order to garner attention for a whatever useless product someone is trying to sell, in this case, a website domain. Well, I know some people could benefit from this combination, such as somebody interested in starting a porn website. If you don't believe me, just go to the GoDaddy.com and you might be-veary surprised.

Media Journal #1

It's taken me a while to write this because the media has been letting me down quite often recently. As of this semester I have changed my area of study to English Communications and I'm already having second thoughts about it. Those who work in the media are supposed to be noble defenders of Truth, and I spell it with a capital 'T' because I'm not talking about just facts, but an honest, candid vision of justice and integrity. But everywhere I look, I see those in the media abusing their positions in order to promote their narrow minded views. I'm not referring to a specific political party or other type of affiliation, I mean that nobody, not a single person who commands the attention of the masses is doing the right thing right now. Since when did journalism become a profession of deception, madness, and cheap tricks?

I feel like I'm wasting my time everyday that I read the newspaper or the news online. If you were to go to cnn.com right now, all you would find are pointless stories about freak incidents or mindless speculation on the political climate. The problem is that we're so used to this kind of representation in the media that we have come to believe that this is what its all about. Granted, there are some honest truth seekers out there, but the majority would have us believe that they're reporting with our best interests in mind when they are really just puppets of those in power.
There is a real problem with the structure of our society today and the place of media in it. What I want to see is somebody taking a stand for what they believe is right and doing it right now! Enough of this cowardly bullshit of anonymous telephone interviews are retaliation against employers after you already get fired. Speak out while you're on the air, when you really have everyone's attention. Forget about the consequences you'll face, you may lose your job, you may get a lawsuit, you may even go to jail, but something needs to be done and it needs to be done on the "Corporation's" time so that maybe they'll get the message that people are fed up with they way they are handling things. I know not even CEO's can be perfect, but they are in a position of power and its about time they make up for they're utter lack of accountability.

Simulacrum Reading

The message of the "Simulacrum and Simulations" text by Jean Baudrillard was simple. Any false construction of reality is doomed to fail because those who experience it are ultimately going to be able to hold it up to perfect scrutiny. Reality is something that interpreted differently by everyone, but we are still able to understand that everyone is conscious to some degree. It is for this reason that huge empires are doomed to fail because they cannot possibly convince everyone to buy into their lies. As in the example of Watergate, the US government created a scapegoat, Richard Nixon, in order to convince the world that there was some sort of justice enacted by his resignation. But did Nixon go to jail? No, he simply retired to some big estate just like every single president in the history of the United States who didn't get assassinated, excluding Jimmy Carter, that hippy had nothing but his peanut farm to go back to. So, in conclusion, the government totally sucks.

Burn After Watching (Media Consumption Blog)

Saturday Feb 14

10:00 am
Woke up, listened to music

2:00 pm
Played Guitar Hero on Xbox 360

4:00 pm
Went to dinner at Gezpacho's with roommate's parents, litsened to Christian rock band "Third Day" in car. Cigarette advertisement on side of building

6:00 pm
Watched "Fool's Gold"

10:00pm
Watched "Burn After Reading"




On this relaxing Saturday, I realized how much media interacts with our personal morals. We may try to conduct our daily lives according to a certain code of ethics, yet mass media is constantly interfering with the boundaries we attempt to set. This Saturday my roommate's family came to Durango, bringing with them a new plasma TV from my mother's house in Denver. When they arrived, we almost immediately hooked up our Xbox 360 and popped in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. I must mention that my roommate comes from a conservative Christian background, and I couldn't help feeling a little uncomfortable considering the rock 'n roll songs on the game accompanied by scantily clad animated dancing women.
Later on in the night, we went over to the motel his parents and younger sister were staying and watched the movie "Fools Gold". In the movie, the two main characters are a divorced couple searching for treasure in the Caribbean. At one point, they reconcile their differences and proceed to make love in the basement of a church. Once again, awkward. Finally, at the end of the night, we go back to our apartment with his younger sister. Another friend of ours comes over and we watched another movie "Burn After Reading". As if the day couldn't get any worse, his teenage sister is exposed to rampant adultery, murder, and at one point, George Clooney unveiling his creation of an erotic rocking chair with a built in dildo. Add in Brad Pitt getting a bullet through his head, and it became clear that the popular media of today does not take into account anyone's personal values but the people who create it. Enjoy at your own risk, and if need be, burn after watching!

Ad Deconstruction

Tim Close
Ad Deconstruction

This advertisment appeared on the back cover of the "Time" magazine 2008 year in review edition.This full page is a joint ad between the American Red Cross and BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) medical supplies. The ad is intended for readers of Time Magazine, most likely adults in a non-profit medical profession who wish to purchase BD medical supplies. The detail that suggests this is the statement describing how the "syringes made by BD have delivered more measles vaccines than any other company's" and "BD SoloShot syringes are ideal to deliver the measles vaccine because they automatically disable after injection, which prevents reuse and potential spread of infectious diseases."

It gets our attention with the picture of the girl and the baby she is "wearing". We are accustomed to seeing pictures of starving children in Africa and I think that desensitizes us. The fact that this girl is smiling and healthy makes us believe that BD and the Red Cross have made her life better. The ad also describes how there has been a life saving vaccine for measles since the 1960's yet it is still a leading cause of vaccine preventable deaths in the world.
The story that this ad tells is still one of pain and sadness. The girl is taking care of a baby girl, probably her sister, indicating that their parents are deceased or missing. They are covered in dust, indicating that they have lived in poorer conditions before arriving at the safety of the Red Cross. There are other children as well as adults in the background, which is further proof that they are now being completely taken care of.

There is an appeal to emotion by using a picture of two innocent children. If we were shown a picture of a happy family we wouldn't feel any reason to try and help the situation. Because the children are alone, people might feel a desire to nurture the children in any way they can. The ad associates the product with life and hope. The advertisers are trying to get you to believe that if you use their product, you can give the gift of life to someone in need too. The overall message of the ad is that you can make a difference in the world by supporting either of these two organizations, either with a small donation or by going overseas to volunteer for them.
This ad doesn't really try to use and clever language or phrases to trick you into buying its product. The logo for BD is a person with open arms, symbolizing that they are dedicated to all human needs. It sends a simple message that children are in need and so many lives can be saved with a simple precautionary immunization. The captions provide relevant information about what is causing meaningless suffering in the world so that the reader knows where to go if they want to help.

The camera angle is a close up, just above the little girl, highlighting her need for protection and care, but also illustrating her perseverance and chances for a bright future. An unintended effect of the ad is that it could cause people to feel angry about the fact that large medical companies are profiting from the urgent need for medical care in third world countries. People could also feel that the ad is too optimistic, considering the amount of people still dying from the disease.

I think the ad is quite effective because it is different from most of its kind. I feel that the companies involved do have a sincere desire to help the needy and they are just trying to get the message out. The ad isn't particularly shocking, so perhaps they should try to make the situation seem a little more urgent. There is a fine line that you have to walk when portraying these types of situations and I'm not sure what I would do if I were in the advertiser's place.