"Salespeak"

The article, "Salespeak" by Roy F. Fox, talks about a girl named "Pepsi" who lives in a Pepsi world, where person, product, and hype have merged with everyday life.  Within her life you see who nearly part of her life is somehow linked to sales.  For example when her mom and her are watching the Nike commercial and then Pepsi then wants those shoes.  I agree with Fox when he says salespeak targets a younger audience because when i see commercials that interest me I want to go buy that product.  As for my mom she can watch many commercials and not feel as tempted as me to buy that product.  Sometimes I do think it is because of our generations being different.  I also agree when Fox says, " Salespeak is more than a voice we hear and see; we also wear it, smell it, touch it, play with it.  This is so true, I feel as if everyone is always trying to stay up to date on the new brand new products that become available.  It is hard not to when everywhere you look there is a certain brand name product being sponsored in some way.  For example, if you are stuck in rush hour traffic typically people start looking around at the many billboards that are advertising products.  

I found it interesting when the article talked about Channel One because my high school started watching Channel One my senior year in high school.  Therefore i was able to see firsthand what Channel One was all about.  I enjoyed watching Channel One because it was a break form school work but it was just advertising certain products like other television shows.  Therefore i did not see the purpose of taking away quality education time to watch it.  I found this article to be very interesting because it really made me realize how much of an effect salespeak have on our everyday life.

"And Now A World from Their Cool College Sponsors"

“And Now a Word from Their Cool College Sponsors” is a about two young men, Chris Barrett and Luke McCabe from New Jersey, who created their own version of buzz advertising. However, they were actually selling themselves as advertising spaces in exchange for payment of their college expenses. They received offers from over a dozen companies. They chose to be the “spokesguys” for First USA which is one of the nation’s largest credit card companies. First USA agreed to pay each of them $40,000 in tuition, room, board, and books as they entered college in So Cal. Their jobs were to spread the sponsored message of smart budgeting and financial responsibility. They also had to make campus appearances, serve on a student advisory board, and publicize financial tips for students on their website. For doing all this, they also attracted millions of dollars in free publicity. Barrett and McCabe received offers from cell phone services and another to sell mints, but they wanted something that everyone could relate to; that was money and plus the company didn’t want them to sell anything. There were expectations from the company which included them having to wear their First USA gear wherever they made public appearances for them, each had to maintain a C average and also had to adhere to the terms of a moral clause; if they were to misbehave, the deal would be off.  – I think that this was a great idea for these two guys. They were just entering college and wanted to figure out a way to pay their way through. The expectations of the company were not bad and it was an easy way to get a “full ride” to the college of their choice. Plus, they only had to keep a C average, not misbehave, and wear their ‘company clothing’ when making public appearances for the company. I wish I would have thought of something like this.  

"Meet 5,000 New Best Pal's"

In the essay "Meet My 5,000 New Best Pal's"  by Janet Kornblum, she explains how having online network friends is different then having face-to-face friendship. I would have to agree with her, just because you are friends with someone on facebook or myspace doesn't really mean you are friends with them. I know some of my friends have a little over 1,00 friends on facebook and they only really know about half of them if even that. Just because you are friends with people on facebook or myspace does not necessary mean you are friends with those people. I know at times there are many people who will ask to be my friend on facebook because we both go to West Chester University but sometimes I don't even know them so I either decline or accept them. Some of my friends just like to see how many friends they can have on facebook because it makes them feel more popular if they have a lot. Kornblum even talks about how people try to collect friends to see how many people they can put on their network due to popularity reasons. Therefore I agree with this essay that there is a distinct line between friendships and friending.  I also found some of this essay to be funny especially when it talks about the girl named Valerie and her myspace friends. I think that is dumb how she wont be peoples friends if they don't have a certain amount of friends but then she will be friends with someone else she might not know because they are cute or something. Although at times this essay was also sad because it talks about how some teens look for friends online because they don't have any friends. It was interesting how the author explains how their are rules that were made by many using myspace because if they are rules i never followed them. I refuse to have myspace because I feel it is unsafe and dumb I will just stick to facebook.  

"Supernatural Girls"

In the essay "Supernatural Girls" by Kathleen Sweeney she talks about the supernatural girls on television shows starting to emerge in the 1990's. She used many examples that many of us may be familiar with such as, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, X-Men, and Harry Potter. I agree with what she is saying, supernatural girls have given females a different reputation now. Young girls look at these supernatural girls in television as role models. I know when I was little I use to always watch the Power Rangers and wanted to be just like the pink female range. She could beat up all the guys, I thought that was so cool. Also watching the Power Rangers lead me to play sports with all the boys instead of girls because I felt I was accomplishing more by beating a boy at a sport. I mean the Pink Power ranger always beat up the boys so thats what i wanted to do through sports. I wanted to have the power that the Pink Power Ranger had which is what Sweeney talks about in this essay. For example Buffy in the television show was a powerful female that many younger females looked up to her. Every child has a role model of some sort and they try to be just like their role model. 

"The Mulatto Millennium: Waking Up in the Age of Racial Ambiguity"

The article "The Mulatto Millennium: Waking Up in the Age of Racial Ambiguity" by Danzy Senna was interesting to read. In the beginning of this article the author is angry about the idea of multiracial identification but at the end she becomes neutral. It was interesting that her parents raised her and her sister according to their race and wanted to make sure people noticed that. I also thought her list of actors/actresses in Hollywood that might not know they are black was very funny. I didn't even know some of those actors/actresses have some African American decent in them. I have a couple friends that are half black and half white and their complexion is a majority white but they are still clarified by the public as being black. I don't understand why people label people in those certain categories, I feel like it is disrespectful to do so.  At times i found this article to be a little funny at times. I especially found the last category "Black Folks You Kinds Wish Weren't Black" very funny because some of my African American friends don't categorize Michael Jackson as being black. 

"The Rules of Attribution" - Deborah R. Gerhardt

I totally agree with the article "The Rules of Attribution." As a student I feel we are not  educated enough about what plagiarism is.  I mean don't get me wrong all throughout my high school career we were always told if we plagiarize there would be extreme consequences to pay. We were always told not to do it but not fully showed what would be considered plagiarism.  I know many of my friends in high school that committed plagiarism and were never caught. But then I had one friend that wrote her entire paper using her own words and only took five lines from a web site without siting it and got in a lot of trouble.  She told my teacher and the principle that she did not know what she did was wrong.  This happen because we were never correctly explained what plagiarism is.  When I was reading this article I felt horrible for Ms. Viswanathan because she too was not educated with the basic principles of plagiarism. Therefore from not being properly educated about the principles she finds herself not able to do something she loves such as writing. Also in the article they compare the situation to the sport basketball and I totally understand what they are talking about.  I play basketball and we are always aware of the rules that the NCAA added or got rid of before our season starts. It is sad to know that coaches take the extra time to go over the rules of a sport every year weather they are old or new rules but teachers cant take the time to go over the basic principles of plagiarism. 

When I came to college I really understood a lot more about what plagiarism is. I agree with Deborah R. Gerhardt that computers have made plagiarism easier to do. I feel like everyone has been guilty of plagiarism one time in there life whether they were caught or not. Many teachers are now starting to really crack down on students plagiarizing therefore it is important that we listen to what Gerhardt said about plagiarism. As students it is important for us to always "give credit where credit is due" such as Gerhardt states.

"Popular Culture In The Twenty-First Century"

  This article by Billy Ivey and Steven J. Tepper starts out explaining how much popular culture has changed throughout different centuries. Within this article they relate and compare popular cultural from other centuries to this century such as the new devices such as iPod and TiVo. They also talk about how technology is starting to become to much of peoples lives. For example non-professional musicians are able to to create their own music without being trained. Which is good because it gives everyone a chance to fulfill there dreams rather then just the famous artist.

 This article really makes you think about the twenty-first century and how popular culture is really becoming a big factor more and more. Reading this article made me realize that the more technology we have the more it starts to  separate families from spending valuable family time together. In stead of sitting around the dinner table listening to each other tell stories we now turn on the TV and watch people tell stories about themselves. Although throughout the years popular cultural has helped many try to make their dreams come true. Such as many music artist who put their music on myspace and youtube to get their music out there for people to listen to. 

I also thought the one paragraph was very interesting when it talked about in past centuries people when people listen to music it was live not on a CD that can be replayed over and over again. Now in today's century we are able to not only buy the CD and listen to that same song but we are able to download the music and even burn our own CD. Ivey and Tepper ended with a good sentence saying that we have to find a way to thicken our cultural life for all Americans. That is so true..

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