Hyperbole Can Be Funny [Part 2 Media Meditation #2]

I have recently seen a series of television commercials for UbyKotex, a new line of feminine care products. The commercials are based on humor, and definitely caught my attention. Here's one of them:



Below you can find my analysis of the commercial relating to the 21st Century Media Education Tool Sets.

The Triune Brain:

The limbic brain was definitely engaged during this commercial. The music was light, angelic, almost fairy tale-like. The limbic brain continued to be engaged by the images that came across the screen.

The reptilian brain activated when the hissing cat shot came up. It was funny, but at first I was caught off guard.

Then, as always, my neocortex had it's own role while watching this video. I was analyzing the commercial as well as thinking about other commercials for the same type of product.



Eight Shifts:

This commercial is a personal shift. This type of topic wasn't always talked about, and now television is bombarded by feminine hygiene products. They can also be found online, which is a different aspect to commercials in general. This new media allows for people to share the commercials and products with people, especially through social media, like blogging, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

UbyKotex used an epistemological shift for this commercial as well. Like I talked about with personal shift, the brand went from talking about product to making a commercial about it and showing it using images. Images are definitely more interesting than someone simply explaining it.


Seven Basic Principles:

"Reality" Construction/ Trade-offs were utilized well for this commercial. The company used humor to criticize their competitor's commercials. They were basically stating that all the other commercials fabricate what it's like for women to have their period, making it seem like the feminine hygiene products were the solution to all of their problems. They made their product seem more relatable, because the commercial portrayed an average looking female who seemed to feel the same way as other people her age about the typical pad/tampon commercial.

Pacing were also used well for this commercial. It used different clips of what other commercials portray women doing while using their products. The pace was quick enough to keep my attention, and was consistent throughout the commercial. The pattern would be that the female representing UbyKotex would make a sarcastic remark, and a clip would follow what she said.





Persuasive Techniques:

This entire commercial is based on humor. It uses a lot of sarcastic comments that women can relate to. An example I particularly liked was when the woman stated, "I want to hold really soft things, like my cat" and then a hissing cat appears (0:06).

Simple solutions was also used. The commercial was basically saying that the UbyKotex understands women, so you should use their product.

Straw man was a strong factor in this commercial as well. It was solely based on making fun of competing companies to make their own company look good.

As with most feminine hygiene products, this commercial uses plain folks. This technique is used to make the girls in the commercial seem identifiable, and properly represent the company.

Lady Gaga Backlash

Fox News isn't as fond of the new Lady Gaga video as I was. Here is what they had to say about it.

Calling Gaga [Part 2 Media Meditation #1]

Recently Lady Gaga released her most recent music video featuring Beyonce. It is a short film/music video written by Lady Gaga and Jonas Akerlund,who also directed the film. The always eccentric Lady Gaga went all out for this. Watch and learn.

Warning: it's not censored.



After watching this video once on Vevo, I knew it would be a perfect media meditation. It makes a good media meditation because it probably covers every single definition in the four tool sets. I'm going to jump right into the educational aspect of analyzing this video, because I find it so fascinating.



The Brain:

As with all music videos, the limbic brain has a frenzy. There is music playing, people talking, and images moving across the screen.

The neocortex is also highly involved because there are words appearing on the screen at different points in the music video that people must read.




Eight Shifts:

The first shift that I notice is the epistemological shift because the song is going from words and lyrics to an image of Lady Gaga's depiction of the song.

Watching the music video on the Internet is also a technological shift. There was a point in time where music videos did not exist, then they were exculsively on television, now they can be found on multiple websites like YouTube and Vevo.

I am also making this music video part of the discursive shift by talking about it on my personal blog. I am posting my own personal views about the video after watching it multiple times to dissect it.




Seven Principles:

Production techniques were used throughout the video. One that I really liked was showing the view from the surveillance camera's perspective.

Pacing was also used very well. The movements of the camera were extremely quick, and kept me engaged the entire time.



Persuasive Techniques:

The real reason I wanted to use this music video as one of my media mediations was because of the symbols shown throughout the entire film. I watched the video multiple times in a row, and continued to find more symbols. While watching the video I saw: Virgin Mobile, Diet Coke, HP, Quentin Tarantino's Pussy Wagon, Honey Buns, tattoos, Wonder Bread, Miracle Whip, USA flags, Polaroid, Plenty of Fish, Mickey Mouse glasses, and multiple Illumiani symbols. The most prominent Illuminati symbol was the All-Seeing-Eye, where Lady Gaga, and even Beyonce continuously cover one of their eyes with hair, costumes, or by simply flashing "OK" symbol (seen by Gaga a lot over one eye).



Humor was used in the beginning of the video. There have been rumors that Lady Gaga is a hermaphrodite, so to take down those rumors, Lady Gaga makes a joke out of it in her music video. When she is brought into the jail, her clothes are ripped off, and she jumps on the jail bars, revealing herself (well, it was censored). However, when that happens one of the security guards say, "I told ya she didn't have a dick." Then to continue the joke, the other security guard replies, "too bad."

Bandwagon is used because it seems like Lady Gaga is the one to convince Beyonce to be a part of the mass homicide at the diner. Beyonce agrees because Lady Gaga is doing it too.


Testimonial is an obvious one for this video. It uses Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Jonas Akerlund, and even Tyrese Gibson.

Beautiful people is used as well in this video, because of the people listed above. Lady Gaga and Beyonce dance around in scandalous attire, which includes a scene where Lady Gaga is simply wearing a bra, a thong, torn fishnet stockings, and high heels. I'm sure that's attracts a certain crowd.




Scientific Evidence is used in a way. There is a scene where the recipe for poison is listed on the screen. I watched this video on cable television yesterday, and they blurred out the recipe, so I think it's a fair assumption that the poison recipe is accurate.





Lady Gaga outdid herself for this video, and probably used everything from the tool set. These are the most prominent ones that I noticed. Hope you found it as fascinating as I did!

Mystery Revealed

As a part of the Electronic Media Writing midterm, there was a mystery assignment. This is the mystery assignment.

1. After studying media for eight weeks in this class, what have you learned? Be specific?
I have learned how to script video news stories along with TV commercials, using the "Web 2.0 Mash Method." This has been interesting, because sometimes when I am watching a news story, or watching a commercial, I am consumed by what is going on, that I don't fully understand the full effect of the entire clip. I have learned to listen carefully to what the people are saying, what the background noise is, and to read everything that is on the screen. I have also realized how many different scenes there are in a short video clip. I have also learned that blogging isn't terrible, and it may be beneficial to me in the future. Another thing that I may regret saying is, Twitter is not the devil.

2. What is the most important thing you have learned about yourself as a 1. a critical reader; 2. a writer, and 3. a critical thinker in this class so far?
1. I've learned that I look for specific observations while I read the text book, and other types of writing. I also start thinking of possible questions. This has made me a more involved reader, and has helped me retain more information.

2.I have learned that it is hard to write while keeping all the tool sets in mind.

3. As a critical thinker, I am more inquisitive. I have begun to question things a lot more. I have also started to look at movies and TV differently.

3. What's one thing YOU would do differently this first half of the semester if you were to take this class again?
I think that I would have been more open minded to our social networking tools. When I started the class, I did not want to have a blog or Twitter, because it's just another distraction that I don't have time to keep up with. Blogging also seemed very repetitive, because I am constantly told by teachers to contribute to a class blog. I think that if I was more open to learning about these new types of social networking tools, homework wouldn't have been perceived as such a task.

4. What's one thing you would like ME to do differently this first half of the semester if you were to take this class again?
I would like to do more writing. To be honest, without writing my own things, the class seems like a repeat of Mass Media. I think it would be beneficial to write my own script, instead of re-writing scripts that already exist. It would definitely be harder to do, but it would help me in my professional field. I don't really know what I want to do in my future, but I have considered advertising, and knowing how to script a commercial, and even try to do it, would have been helpful. But perhaps we'll do this later in the class!

5. Please comment on the usefulness of the course blog, your personal blog, our films, and our book(s) as learning tools.
The course blog is helpful when I need to refresh my memory. I hardly ever write down my assignments for this class, because I know that we always have something due Sunday night, and I can always find the exact directions on the course blog. The course blog is also helpful for studying, or completing other assignments. When I was looking for three facts that went along with my news script, I went back to the course blog to see what people wrote about for that chapter. It refreshed my memory, and I was able to find the information I needed in the book, with the guidance of my classmates, and what they wrote.

My personal blog has been helpful to getting a more clear understanding about the blogging world. I think it's been fascinating learning about how to customize the blog, and make it aesthetically pleasing. I also have learned about how to save drafts, so that I don't have to copy what I write on Word and save it for another time when I can finish. I have also mastered the art of going back and fixing my mistakes on the blog. It's easy to do!

The books and tool sets have taught me to analyze the media critically. Sometimes, I curse the day that I learned some of the tool sets, because they are always in my mind, and distract me from the mindless viewing pleasure. However, I think that they are are important, and have allowed me to understand how the media works.