The first article from this reading discussed how over the years the looks of action figures have gotten to be extremely unrealistic. In making these action figures look the way they do, the author of this article thinks that it has made males have a very unrealisic goal of what they should look like starting at a young age, and it as caused them to have self esteem issues through their lives. It compared guy's issues about their looks with girl's issues about their looks. It said that action figures were trying to tell males what they should look like.
The author of the second article said that they think that it is ridiculous that people think action figures influence how people look at themselves. She thinks that they are to completely separate worlds and don't have anything to do with each other. The article talks about how action figures aren't supposed to look like real people, because they are not real people. Action figures tend to have powers and are some what mutant.
The first article's one was more serious and formal. The author used information from different studies to support their argument. These arguments were more validated because they had data to back it up. The audience for this reading would have been a more formal, educated audience. The second article had a very informal tone. It was very opinionated and didn't have any proof of what she was saying. it was almost just a rant of what she thought about the subject. This article would have an audience that was informal.
I do not fully agree with either of these articles I think that there should be a middle ground between the two articles. I don't think that the action figures physique really effects how males think about themselves. The action figures may make some guys want to look more like them but over all I think that the young boys that play with the action figures admire their powers or the things that they do rather then their bodies. When I was younger I always played with Barbies, it never made me think that Barbies were what women, including myself should look like. I think that sometimes it would be nice to look like Barbie, but she is not the only vision of a body out there. There are women all over television that don't look like Barbie, in magazines, in real life. It is true that they would make some girls or boys strive to look like their toys because they are their heroes. There are some cases where a child would want to look exactly like their toy, for example: Halloween or toys like My Size Barbie. This Barbie does not have the same proportions that a regular Barbie has, because it is made to look like a young girl so that they can fit in the clothes.

Blog Entry #3

Pro-Ana



Pro-Ana websites should be shut down. The only thing they do is encourage people, generally young women to have eating disorders. Instead of helping them with the disease, pro-ana websites make it easier for people to have it and it gives them ways to make it worse. It supports eating disorders in a positive way, rather then trying to help them overcome it. An eating disorder is a very serious disease. People with eating disorders become obsessed with losing weight and looking like what they think is "perfect".

On the other hand, these websites are a place where people with eating disorders can go to find people who are going through what they are. It gives them a place where they do not feel judged for what they are doing, they can recieve advice from other people or just write what they are feelig. Pro - ana/mia websites provide support for people that have eating disorders that no one else understand. People with eating disorders are often judged in a very negative way, many people don't understand that having an eating disorder in like having a disease, and they can't always help it. It is an obsession.

There are good arguments for both sides of pro-ana. Although pro-ana websites provide support for people who have eating disorders, they should also be helping them find a cure. They should be more of a support group, where people can go for help. It should still be a place where they can go to talk about things they are going through but they should get feedback that doesn't promote them to keep on doing it.

Blog Entry #2

Not Just Sneakers?

My initial reaction to this ad was that it appeals to a very small market of "runners". Not only does this ad attract only runners but it also puts down and criticizes people who jog. On the other hand the ad did pull me in with the heading, because it did not really have anything to do with the actual product.
I am not a runner per se, this ad made me feel a little bad about it. At the same time it kind of made me want to start running, but i was also felt like I was on the outside and didn't really understand the feelings and sensations they were talking about.
This ad promotes running, by saying that it is our given instinct to run and that we are meant to run. It goes as fr as to even say that we were born to run, and if we had not run we would not be here. It talks about all the good aspects of running, like how you can be one with the environment, and how when you are at the peak of your running your senses are heightened. This ad also tries to put people away from jogging, calling it a synonym for half-assed. It is odd because the majority of people would fall into their "joggers" category, so as an ad it is affending more people then it is promoting. It would make sense that it would be in a runners magazine , because it would not do very well in an ordinary magazine.
Pearl Izumi definitely alienates joggers from runners. This ad makes jogging look like a joke compared to running. The marketing advantage of dividing joggers from runners is that it makes the runners feel superior and therefore thinking that they need these sneakers so they can maximize their running experience. This division also has faults because if people are runners, they may think that they are not good enough for these sneakers, almost as if they are too intense, which may discourage them from buying them.
I think that this ad was really good at doing what it wanted to do. It showed a picture of the sneakers, but they weren't white and new, they had dirt all over then so that one could tell that they were really used and that all of their features were taken advantage of. I don't know if this ad was the best marketing strategy, but they really went all out for the angle that they decided to go with.
If I were to only choose one ad to run in a magazine I would run the Reebok ad. It appeals to the majority of people by telling them to run at their own pace, and it is alright to jog. It almost says that as long as you are doing something it is acceptable, and that you don't need to be an extreme runner.