Puffery is something that advertisers use to make a product seem better than it really is. In a subway commercial it shows children with shopping carts without parents the children are picked a bunch of junk food. Subway made it seem that subway is better choice than any other place when in reality subway still has chips and soda which are not a fresh choice.

A week ago I was watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the one produced by Tim Burten with my little twelve year old cousin something that he pointed out was that in one of the scenes where there was a giant Wonka bar there was a Disney logo on the candy bar.  I did not realize the product placement as well as my little cousin which made me realize that my media awareness is not on the same level as my little cousins. For me if my cousin did not say anything about a the Disney logo I would not have picked up on the product placement. The world is changing constantly and it is giving new skills to younger children due to the technological advances.

The Murdock Scandal

          PBS front line created a documentary based off of the Infamous Murdock Scandal. The documentary showcased the corruption of The News of the World and how the boundaries in ethics were pushed to new extremes. As I watched this documentary this reminded me of the Enron Scandal that happened in 2001, both of the companies in a sense cooked their books Enron did this by creating secret bank accounts, hiding the income revenues and created a monopoly.  The Murdock Scandal was hiding how they accessed stories, lied to court, created a media oligopoly, and used their power within the media to blackmail others into submission. Both The Murdock and Enron Scandal collapsed due to the thrown of lies that built up the cooperation's. Ethics and morals in the work place are vitally important for a thriving company to stay on top when work ethics are not present that is when corporation tend to have there downfall. 

         

How to Make a Behavior Addictive: Zoë Chance at TEDxMillRiver

The Future of Journalism: Tom Rosenstiel at TEDxAtlanta

The Art of Rhetoric: Persuasive Techniques in Advertising

The Beauty Ideal

Cultural transmission is cultivated through the media and is changing peoples exceptions cross culturally. One example of this is expectections of beauty. Western beauty ideal has become prominent in Asian cultures. Women see american and western beauty in advertising and merchandise and they have tried to replicate this beauty ideal with plastic surgery. Which is altering there bodies and expections of beauty. Cultural transmission is extremely powerful and can change the structure of cultural ideals. Unattainable beauty exceptions are constantly thrown out by the media but there has been recent positive body imaging adds are starting to acknowledge that there are many types of beauty. For example there was a buzz feed video that featured women with different body types modeling Victoria Secret bathing suits. Positive body image adds are rare but are starting to trend acceptance of different people. Hopefully one day these messages will be culturally transmitted in a positive sense.