Penelope aka WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!

What do you get when you get big name celebrities and a pig? I'm going to go out on a limb and say the worst movie ever! Penelope has yet to be released yet but this movie looks horrendous. Really Reese Witherspoon?! REALLY?! I wonder what they were thinking when they read the script--"Well I have nothing better to do" The movie is about gorgeous Christina Ricci and she has a pig nose and overcomes societies' beauty standards and grows to love herself. No Extreme Makeover could help Ricci in this movie. And Reese Witherspoon is the punk friend and comic relief?! I'm so confused!! If anyone makes a poor judgement call and actually sees this movie please let me know how it goes because I will not be seeing this one..

Wellness

So, I am a sophomore and in Wellness 1. It's a joke, I know, but this class is starting to feel like group therapy! People really do not censor what they say to the class. I know more about these people's lives and I don't even know their names! I feel like I'm in AA or some anonymous, court administered meeting. In the beginning I liked wellness; we talked about wellness of yourself and la di da-it was what I expected. Now when I go to class I leave feeling awful for these people in my class and question my own behavior. Today I learned that more than 5 people had alcoholics in their family and how badly is affects their life. WTF?! Downer. I know that that is bad to say but I'd rather just not know about these things about people I do not know at all. And my teacher eats it all up. He LOVES how my class is so open, just added fuel to the fire. Maybe this class is overwhelming for me because I am so non-confrontational and it irks me that some people can just chat all damn day about their cocaine-addicted brother..Yea, you sit in this class and try not to feel awkward...

I even bet La Lohan didn't have to do this shiz in Rehab!

I'm just sayin'

So we've been talking a lot about bad advertising in both of my advertising classes, creative and ethics and this commercial I want to rant about is, in my opinion, BAD! Do they have a category for just BAD? I learned today about "teenage boy humor" and "sexual inuendos" but is there a type of commercial for just disgusting. Okay, well here it is: the new Wendy's commercial for their fish sandwich. YUCK! When I see that commercial I literally gag! First, they bring the sandwich to the table, which looks like a chicken sandwich. Then she actually looks at the sandwich, which some of us really do to check for spit or stray hairs but she is remarking at how fresh and tasty the sandwich is going to be (I'm sure.) Then they pull a piece of the sandwich, it's some kind of "arctic" fish, and then they talk about how wendy's doesn't use questionable foods. If they have to defend themselves, then they probably have something to hide. Like really eating a Wendy's sandwich makes you think of glaciers and icebergs, which is what the commercial shows. Anyway, we all know fast food isn't fresh no matter how they slice it. I have come to grips with these terms about the legitimacy of fast food but this commercial reaffirms how SICK the food really is. Anyway, check it out and tell me what you think!

Brown Baggin' It

Today I brown bagged it in the meadows lobby. No, not THAT kind of brown bag you alcoholics, but the dance program that the meadows students put on each semester. This is why Brown Bag rocks : 1. It's free. 2. We got out of my advertising ethics class to support our fellow students 3. And most importantly, the dancers are incredible! The dances were unbelievable! I have some friends in the programs and it's so cool to see what their niche really is. Some students choreograph the dances and others just dance their little tootsies off! The only problem with brown bag is that it is not advertised enough! Since Temerlin is in Meadows, maybe a project for the advertising kids would be to promote Brown Bag, or any event that Meadows hosts. Also, if my teacher had not been kind enough to let us out, I would not have been able to go see the program at all. It was so cute to see a class of young kids, literally eating their brown bagged lunches and enjoy the show. My friends came up to me after the show and were so grateful that I came and supported them! Some people might say that dancing or theatre is not a real major but they work their butts off and take it very seriously!! So if anyone has free time around noon this week go to the Meadows lobby and be mesmerized!

That's Texas for ya!

I would just like to point out that I was able to lay out by the pool today -date check- February 24th! What the hell? That isn't kosher. Although I am very glad that it's not freezing and miserable BUT! and this is a huge BUT-tomorrow is probably going to be cold and overcast. Every day is different and I hate inconsistency! One day it's gorgeous and swim suit weather and the next day is literally flash flooding! It scary how Global Warming affects our environment but is global warming doing this to Dallas?!

On a side note about Texas, the primaries are coming up March 4 and Barack Obama had a crowd of 17,000 come out and support him at Reunion Arena! I learned in my Adv. Ethics class that in January alone, Barack raised more than 30 million dollars, Hillary raised 13 million and McCain raised 11 million. It will be very interesting to see who will win Texas because it is such a huge state in terms of delegates!

Intertextuality

This Superbowl ad, the E*trade baby is a commercial that I think the advertisers took a lot of "old formulas"(talking baby, gross effects, etc) and tried to make a new commercial with it. First, the talking baby-Quizno's anyone?? That was my first horizontal thought. Then I start vertically thinking and talking babies reminded me of the Kirstie Alley and John Travolta movies-Look Who's Talking then that low budget film Baby Geniuses. Then there's all the YouTube clips of laughing babies and Charlie biting fingers. Talking kids are cute; they make people laught. I think they are cuter than the talking animal commercials, those can get creepy. Intertextuality is like my mind map: one thing leads to the other and next thing I know I'm equating this commercial to The Exorcist (the spit-up at the end..ha). The commercial is cute, quick and gets the message out : E*trade is so easy, even an infant could do it. BUT it doesn't really say how to do it or what is a good trade--I don't think I would trade online but then again many people might.

These don't make sense

OKay, so I decided today that cologne/perfume advertisements are the worst attempts of trying to sell a product EVER! It always goes like this: famous celebrity, slow-mo walking sequence, contemplation of how good they look and then a cheesy, "I feel good because I smell good" smile. Plus, the celebrities probably get paid oodles of cash for just being featured in the ad--they most likely won't say a word throughout the whole spot, but i suppose the audience can get the point without words?? So confusing. The only cologne ads that are funny and sell the product are the Axe ads, but a high-end cologne is more highly coveted I suppose. Just goes to show that us common folk are obsessed with Hollywood and think they are cooler than us. Here are two different clips of Matthew McConahahy's Dolce and Gabbana ad, and Charlize Theron's Dior ad. See if you can spot the difference..trust me it's hard!!!

PS they always drop trou whenever they try to sell fragrances?? why??!