Questions

1. Do people shy away from overly sexual advertising?

2. How can sexual advertising cover different products in different fields?

Website Design

To start with the bad, we have www.siphawaii.com

There is too much wrong with this website to fit into a blog so I will focus on the glaring issues at hand. There is absolutely zero negative space in this design. Every inch of the page is covered in some sort of text or complex image and our eyes have no logical place to fall into focus. Such as I discussed on the Time magazine cover, there are no angles or balances to lead our eyes to a central point so we are lost looking at a big blur of junk without actually seeing anything. Also the entire page is in the brown hue or tint and it further adds to the plop of text and images thrown on the page as it all blurs together. Another interesting rhetorical shortcoming of the designer of this eyesore site is that every few lines or images talks about some sort of special sale and if everything is on a special sale, nothing is actually on sale. This page is saturated with sale opportunities, text, and the color brown.

Next we have a wonderfully designed site, www.wendys.com

This website has a very strong and standard design template. The outside border of the site is a general earth tone to not distract the reader but centralize the reader's eyes to the middle of the page. Now the cups on the left side create angles towards the center piece of paper that most likely contains the message of the website. The right side of the page uses distinct colors on smaller, individual advertisements for the site while not disturbing the balance created by the left side of the site. Immediately upon looking at the site, it is very clear that the designer is Wendy's as it is clearly identified in the top left corner without too much clutter or distraction. This website has tremendous balance between background "negative space" and the important pieces of the image. This is true even inside the middle box as the background behind the cups, middle box, and right side advertisements is placed very out of focus and of very mellow cool colors.

Magazine Cover

The passive blue background immediately creates a sympathetic or passive lens through which we will be viewing the magazine cover. That giant expanse of light blue surrounding the text and fish head also refer to the expanse of the ocean and how we should all be open, sympathetic, to hearing this argument. Blue is a color usually associated with the beauty of nature and calmness leading us towards a serious article but not serious in a sense of intensity but a sense of deep focus and attention must be payed to this topic. All of the angles and lines of the picture seem to slant towards the middle, such as the fish head and the gradient shortening of the first three lines of text, to emphasize the most important piece of information the cover is giving us, "Can farming save the last wild food?" This question is clearly the emphasis of not only the magazine cover but also the article. The fish is also depicted in the "fish out of water" state, hinting that the fish, or fish in general, is struggling for survival. The cover, and the article, lead us to believe that there is hope for fish and that is very possible for a comeback and continued survival. The problem presented is obviously very somber as a "recent report by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean found that the world's marine species faced threats 'unprecedented in human history.'" The links between the text and the cover continue as the articles funnels itself into a very somber conversation on the future of fish. And just as the cover gave us hope the article ends with "aquaculture can be one more step toward saving ourselves". The rhetorical devices used on the cover of the article act as an exemplary introductory paragraph on this case as we are prepared to read the article upon viewing the cover.

Walsh, Bryan. "The End of the Line." Time July 7, 2011. July 20, 2011                                                                   <http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2081796,00.html>.

Second line should be indented but the post was not cooperating*****

Works Cited

Works Cited

Lovaas, Karen, and Mercilee M. Jenkins. Sexualities & Communication in Everyday Life: a Reader. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2007. Print.

Marietta, Don E. Philosophy of Sexuality. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1997. Print.

Freewrite

Sex sells and it always will. Everywhere in the world and in everyday life sex sells. From old spice ads to clothes to cars. Mainstream media is drowned in beautiful women and sexual entices. Every day people see ads on tv or in stores where sexual appeal is the only driving force and the most amazing thing is that they work. We see a beautiful woman and associate what she is wearing or doing with beauty. The Old Spice man has nothing to do with Old Spice except he is the stereotypical perfect male appearance and Old SPic slaps their name on top and now Old Spice is associated with perfect men. When we see shoe commercials on tv, the advertisement is more focused on the beautiful people than the actual shoe product. What would advertising be without sex? How would a company react if they were told to market their product using the product's features? Can it be done or is advertising simply manipulating the viewer into associating two normally separate things to create a false connection.

Mind Mapping

Does it Suck?

• Elephants suck. They are big, clumsy, and do very little with their daily lives and I forgot exactly which political party this pertains too so it sucks that I can't remember that.
• Mr. Obama doesn't suck. Mr. Obama was given some unideal circumstances to work with as a president and although we all may not agree with him, he has done a decent job.
• Harry Potter doesn't suck. He is my boy and I love these movies because what isn't cool about being able to do all of that "magical" stuff.
• Mac doesn't suck. I just recently got a Mac and it is much faster and has many more features and shortcuts to make a more user friendly PC.
• Star Wars doesn't suck. Star Wars is one of the greatest movie sets of all time and like Harry Potter, all of the "magical" stuff is awesome.
• Facebook doesn't suck. Facebook is  great social network for staying in touch and sharing media such as pictures and movies.
• McDonalds sucks. The food they cook there is horrible in so many different ways, ranging from bad tasting to bad for you.
• Clemson doesn't suck. Clemson is a great school and so far I love going here because of the great family atmosphere.
• Lady Gaga sucks. Her music is horrible and she is nothing but the next teenage girl fad that will phase out in 18-24 months.
• Justin Bieber sucks. He is worse than Lady Gaga in that he won't last another 18-24 months and people will forget about him before that.
• Sudoku doesn't suck. They are a great easy way to pass time in an airport or in a boring class.
• Avatar doesn't suck. The visual effects in that movie and how spot on the computer animation was brought us seamlessly into an imaginary world.
• Xbox doesn't suck. Playing video games is a great way to kill time at night with some friends although you need to do your work first.
• American Idol sucks. Why should their be a show about being trying to become a singer when we already have thousands that we know are good at singing?
• Glee sucks. I have never watched this show but the concept of a musical on television seems to waste the whole idea behind television.
• Cigarettes suck. They are extremely unattractive and once you get stuck on them it is very hard to fight your way off.
• Guns don't suck. I make this statement because there is a place in the world for weapons, we just need to be more responsible with them.
• Abortion doesn't suck. Abortion is a personal choice although it should come with specific circumstances and not be a public practice.
• This interestingly dressed dog doesn't suck. I actually find this picture kind of humorous, almost abiding with incongruity theory discussed today.