Advertisement and Culture: What does it all mean?

Lately in my Language and Literature class, we have been discussing the world of advertising and what effect ads actually have in the culture and society that we live in. Most of our focused on this topic has been narrowed towards finding hidden messages in ads and identifying their intent towards it's audience. In the wise words of Arthur Asa Berger, "There's more to advertising's message that meets the casual eye." In order to investigate this topic even further, we were divided into groups and given a task to analyze an add and present it to the class.

This is an advertisement from the USA Army. Although there is no direct indication of the year that It was published, we can assume that It is rather recent based on our knowledge of current events such as the War in Iraq (American troops currently fighting).  The intended audience of this advertisement is rather obvious as it is targeting American citizens and encouraging them to join the army in order to develop acceptable job qualities, making their chances higher in getting a job later on. Those interested in this particular profession surely must have military experience and a fighting passion to defend their country.

Both sociological and political attitudes are used in this advertisement which help reflect a certain message towards their audience. We can clearly see that the soldier in the image is striking a bold gesture, more significantly, currently in battle as the photo is being taken (the intention). As the image shows strength and boldness, this delivers a positive and encouraging reflection towards the advertisement's audience, with the intent to make it's spectators proud of their country. In addition, the advertisement promotes further awareness for those around the United States by bringing light towards the issue of war and it's relevance and importance in our present day world.

As for the content and theme of this advertisement, it follows the subject of war, roughness, boldness, and most importantly, independence. This can be reflected upon the reader by directly looking at the "message" being delivered while looking at this advertisement (i.e.: the characters, the objects, any determining factors).

Personally, my group and I did not agree with the use of space and organization in this advertisement as we found that there was a poor use of axial balance within the advertisement. While we were presenting, we used the example of "If we were to see this on the street, we wouldn't think it was an advertisement advertising the army."

As previously mentioned, the advertisement's audience can get a very direct idea of the ad's intentions by looking at it, without having to search for specific "hidden texts". In this image, we see an American soldier leaping from one rock to another. While he is doing this, he has a strong help and bold expression on his face, we assume that he is in the middle of battle. He holds his gun high up in the air majestically. Looking further into detail, the gun is very close to the sun, also having a possible hidden symbol of "strength" (Example: the sun is hot and we see it as a striking  and empowering element of life, the weapon in his hands delivers this message as well). All in one, this creates an encouraging and rough ambience.

Following the fact that this is an advertisement, there is of course some kind of information or text found within the ad itself. At the bottom of this image, there is a small paragraph providing the reader with further information on the add's intentions. The text displays information on the benefits of joining the army in the US in terms of what this experience will bring you later in life, and how it will positively benefit you. There is slogan at the end saying "ARMY. BE ALL YOU CAN BE."as well as a vague claim that stands out within the text, "The best place to start a business career isn't always in business." There statements may or may not push the reader to inquire further on the information they were given, but will certainly leave them remembering words or expressions that stood out.

In conclusion, I definitely think that this advertisement marginalizes a particular group of people in society. In this case, the army is seen as marginal importance, influence, and power in our everyday lives.

Work Hard, Play Hard

They say that If you work hard for something, you'll eventually get it. Lets look at some common everyday examples. Say you're working at the office, you've been filling papers all week, collecting your bosses coffee every morning and at some point you just feel out of it and just worked out to your limit. But at the end of the week, when you receive that pretty little envelop with a pay check inside, you know you've done well and that all that hard work was definitely worth it.

So here are, living in a world where "Money is everything" , and the strive for success actually gets us places. In fact, where would anyone of us be today if we didn't have a goal to reach every step of the way. You wake up, goal number 1, you get out of bed, goal number 2, you get ready for school/work, goal number 3, and the list goes on. The strive for success comes with the great inner responsibility to push yourself to run that extra mile to achieve your goals. We work hard, do our best, and set our eyes on a goal. The question is, are we always rewarded in the end? NO.

Once students graduate from their hardworking years of university, one of their first goals is to find a paying job that will financially support them and rewards them with the lifestyle they need. The question here is, is there a certain age that we need to be to begin being paid for handwork? And, why has society agreed upon working adults getting paid and not young students?

Right now in the United States of America, based on statistics there are 81.5 million students in school (not yet graduated). Although this is a rather large number, this doesn't mean that all of those students are succeeding in school. In fact, 80% of students in the United States are not adequately prepared for the next most important chapter in their lives, University. 90% of cases have shown that when success is encouraged, performance is improved. "Success is everything". My question to the public is, if most of the working population is driven by success, why isn't everyone being rewarded with money? In this case, I am talking about students.

Getting paid as a means of being rewarded for handwork is a very reasonable deal. If students were to be paid for getting good grades in school, this would ultimately leave them hungry for success, resulting in an on-going pattern of setting a positive "goal". Scientific and psychological studies have shown that most of the teenage population will most likely do something knowing that they are getting something in return. If a student wasn't doing so well in school and were "lacking off", this would give them a chance to act upon that and put in effort for good results and, eventually, be rewarded. Call it a selfish act, but in the end we all have to fight for ourselves.

Shocking statistics have shown that 65% of Americans would live on a deserted Island all by themselves for an entire year for  1,000,000.

If students were to be paid after receiving good grades in school, this would not only push them further into the strive for success but a valuable lesson would also have been applied to our young learner's minds; working hard and making good choices does have its results. A sense of mature responsibility would also have been gained by learning the importance of being financially independent. For example, appreciating the value of money and not always begging mom and dad for toys.

As you get older and eventually attain a job, you obviously receive a salary that is paid to you regularly. When I say job you're probably thinking about accountants, doctors, pilots and actors. I am trying to explain to you a reasonable reality. Students are eventually workers, who do what they are told (most of the time) and apply their knowledge at school for 7 hours a day for a week; the same amount of working hours as any other adult. So why aren't they getting paid? Some may argue that it's because their young. Let me ask you this, how does that a bad thing? The younger you start, the faster the lives of our financially independent growing youth evolve.