Video games helped shape my career choice

Today in class we talked about all of the good things that video gamers gain from playing the games that they have come to love. A number of things were mentioned, specifically strategy. Now for all of those people who claim that video games do nothing but pollute our minds, here is a success story for you. My career choice is essentially based around strategy. I believe that a majority of my skills for problem solving, critical thinking and strategy come directly from the video games that I have grown up playing my whole life.

Currently, I am a senior advertising major getting ready to graduate in a few weeks. As you can imagine my job hunt is in full force. My ideal starting job is being an account coordinator in some sort of advertising agency. Here is the definition of an account coordinator: a junior level professional found within the advertising and marketing industries. Working as part of a larger STRATEGIC team on a campaign, the coordinator provides administrative, STRATEGIC and creative support to the project manager, ensuring the campaign is developed and executed in an efficient manner.

Now, I 100% believe that I would not be as efficient as finding ways to problem solve or plan out strategy for anything if I did not put in countless hours of gaming. They taught me how to get from point A to B and also how to find the best possible way there. So I say again, I'm a success story, thanks video games for helping me land two possible jobs and countless interviews!

Social Media and the Food Revolution

I would argue that social media and food are two of the most important things on discussion and consumption in today's American society. Especially with today's youth; it is what we have grown up with for if not all, but a majority of our lives. I believe that social media directly stemmed the "golden age" of food that we are in today.

How do I know that we are in the midst of a food golden age? Well, if you ever watch the Food Network or Cooking Channel, you will realize that food has really taken on the form of art, more so than in the past. There are shows on now that are specifically about showcasing how food can be art, for example, Sweet Genius, Cupcake Wars, Sugar Dome, Iron Chef and Ace of Cakes. Chefs all around the world are beginning to no longer see themselves as just a cook, but an artist. More so than ever, there are "super chefs" that are the equivalent of rock stars in the social media world. Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis, for example, are part of the veritable pantheon of culinary giants that have begun to grace the masses with their social media presence. Often times, both of these rock stars show off their culinary creations via social media and this, in turn, drives people to experiment for themselves and become "amateur" culinary artists.

Now, I've only slightly tapped what social media has meant to the food world. We talked in class today about it's effect on fast food and dieting, but I believe that it is the real culinary arts that we have seen the most change.

Maybe I AM De-sensitized....

In the Stahl article, it was talked about how the theme of war is huge in culture right now. To me, video games come to mind in regards to a major way that war is portrayed to the masses. Growing up in this generation, I have played video games all of my life. In a number of cases, these games have some sort of tie in with war. Right now on Capitol Hill, there is a major debate on whether or not video games attribute to violence in teenagers and young adults. Many people feel that video games are a direct result in today's youth being de-sensitized to death and war. Answering that accusation is easy, for me anyway. I think I am de-sensitized to war and death, but video games aren't the on reason why. Also, these games do not give me the fuel, or the passion to go out and join the army.

NCIS, Homeland, The A-Team, Zero Dark Thirty. Hey, these are not video games, but damn, do I love to watch them religiously. These examples, more than video games, give me the want to go and do what the protagonists are doing. I want to be very special NCIS agent Tony DiNozzo, I've even applied to NCIS before. In every single episode of the show, there is at least one dead body, and the NCIS team usually ends up killing at least one person. I'm fine with that.

This is me, a 21 year old American blatleny saying, that I would rather go be an NCIS agent than going to join the military. Sure, I've lived a soldier's life virtually, but I'm not de-sensitized enough to put myself through the real thing. I beleive that other forms of media have forced my de-sensitization. NCIS for example, I could do that.

Reaction to Gender Testing

Going along with our discussion in class today, I do not see the big deal on the gender testing of Semenya. Sports often times are all about fairness, if a certain participants level of performance is ever called into question, they are investigated. In track, specifically, there have been many cases about questions in gender. For example, in the most recent Olympics, Carmelita Jeter was also criticized for being overly masculine. However she did not get tested due to the fact that she was open about her gender. As long as the nature of the game and competitive edge is always in tact, there will be no controversy. But, in Semenya's case, when a dominant performance comes around it is more than okay to do any specific tests that confirm there was no cheating.

This will not change in the future due to the fact that athletes are always becoming more and more freakishly athletic. When something happens that we have never seen before, it's going to come into question, look at the NASA moon landing!

Parody in Advertising

In our reading for today (2/19) there were a few examples of cultural jamming that lead to parody in various advertisements. For example, The Gap and how they used to promote buying khakis with various celebrities and how they were "made fun of" with the statement that "Hitler buys khakis". Now, being an advertising major, I have studied a ton of instances to which this has happened to major brands. I know that the people on the brand side of the busieness absolutely hate when this does happen. However, from an advertising standpoint, it brings additional exposure to your brand.

Sure, in the case of The Gap, it was not good exposure and in most cases it is not great exposure. But even in the bad instances, people, for the most part, recognize the parody and always go back to the brand.

http://www.adpunch.org/most-interesting-parody-ads-in-the-world.html

Take these parody advertisements in this above link. Each one of these makes you open your eyes towards the brand but in most cases, we are not going to stop eating McDonalds or will not stop drinking Absolute. These ads just show us the humor in the brands that we know and love. Perhaps this is just my opinion due to the fact that I am around these conversations everyday, you be the judge.

Super Bowl Commercials - Too Much Hype (Bonnell1)

I'm an advertising major. Every year one of the biggest days for the business is of course, the Super Bowl. Advertisements are at the highest price ever, but with that comes the largest viewing audience of the year. In many cases, people watch the Super Bowl for only the ads. I see no problem with that. However, my main pet peeve is each year the hype for these commercials is huge, but each year it just seems like everyone is disappointed.

I can understand people not liking every single commercial, but just because they aren't all amazing does not mean that they should all be called "bad" commercials. My roommate was arguing with me today about how each ad needs to knock your socks off. My main argument was that that was literally impossible. Advertisements are targeted toward different groups of people, an Audi commercial that we thought was epic could be completely irrelevant to an older demographic. Or another example would be that older demographics loved the Dodge Ram Farmer commercial and the younger age groups just didn't get it.

Here is my point, the Super Bowl commercials are hyped up way to much that it is not possible for these companies to keep up with our expectations. Certain ads will be amazing, but due to the fact that companies are trying to reach so many different people, every single ad cannot adhere to our liking.