An assault on popular culture

Ooooooh boy, where do I start?! I was looking for a critique of mass culture theory and I came across this video. This video is blaming pop culture for the end of society as we know it. He's touting it's all trash, hyper-sexualized, vulgar, immoral, and even the reason for the rise in teen suicide. While I do agree that television shows and music have become much more sexual and violent in nature over the last 20 years, I don't agree that anything that strays from that isn't or can't be popular. Reality TV isn't all bad. I am a BIG fan of Chopped. While most of us will never have to make a dinner using Cheetos, cinnamon candy, and tuna cheeks, it showcases critical thinking and ingenuity.

He states that "postmodernists want to annihilate the distinction between high culture and popular culture. They want to turn everything on its head." The goal in this, he says is to "completely undermine the foundation of Western civilization  and leave us open for subversion and capitulation." I don't agree that the distinction should be annihilated, but nor should it be what it was. Our heritage and art should be available and accessible to anyone and not all modern art are bad.

A prime example is the Okuda installation in the Seaport district. It's an outside installation and therefore accessible to everyone. I think the pieces are cheerful and intriguing. This art is popular and encourages healthy activity, going for a walk.

He references one of my favorite movies "Ideocracy" in his rant. While I used to agree that we were heading down that road, and the current world situation seems to support it, there are rays of light everywhere. I don't agree that if we do end up there, that popular culture will be the cause of it. More information is available to anyone at any time of day than at any time in history. Of course, turning on a screen and jumping on the internet immediately immerses you in pop culture. Designs, colors, ads, and paid search results are all there to try to influence your thinking but it's not a guarantee that they will.

 Paul attempts to make the case that counter culture doesn't exist anymore, that teens are depressed because they have no outlet for their angst. I don't find this to be true. In music, alternative music is huge, and one of my favorite genres. Skater culture and grunge are still very much alive. Rock and roll is still alive.

There is so much in this video, I could write for hours analyzing every minute of it. Perhaps I'll come back to it again in another post.

POSTMODERNISM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjcrdBvGNqw&index=4&t=0s&list=PL8YtsooGljrlPkr7Ija54C6TtpCElse9j

I chose to use the video “Postmodernism in Advertising Explained” to write my post about. This video goes in depth about how postmodernism is shown in modern day advertisements, with two prime examples. The video refers to two advertisements, one for mend cologne, and another for clothing. In both, the symbol being portrayed is unclear to the viewer if they are unaware of what the advertisement is for. In other words, the cologne advertisement could be a reference to many different things, as it features tan well toned men covered in oil feeding grapes to each other. Is this a grape ad? Is this a gym ad? Upon first glance it is very unclear as to how the advertisement is trying to capture the viewer’s attention. An example I found in a similar situation is an advertisement I found for Levis jeans. Although there are jeans in the photo, it is very confusing as the person holding the jeans is a mermaid. In other words, someone who does not necessarily wear jeans (the mermaid) is promoting a pair of pants. In my opinion, this is to attract viewers in an effort that is different than other jean companies. People who appeal to the idea of mermaids may buy the jeans as they correlate the jeans and the mermaid in their mind. Although this attracts the viewers as it is different than “normal”, it’s still a weird approach when there are so many different advertisements constantly appearing in places we look on a day to day basis such as social media, the news, search engines, emails, promotional mail and so on.

Post Modernism in Advertisements

          Post modernism is all about the way answer questions we have for the world. As the video explains, at the beginning of time the people turned to the church for the truth, as God was all knowing, therefor knew all the answers. As time went on, and technology advanced, people turned to the printing press and newspapers for the truth. When the Scientific Revolution went on people relied on logic, reason, and of course science for the answers to all their questions. However, these scientific advances has failed us because humans have changed the outcome to these answers. Because these scientific advances has left us with an unclear meaning, we are left with post modernism - which is simply us searching for answers. This is where advertising comes in to play off our lack of clear meaning in the world. Ads are commonly leaving us with more questions than they answer, which is the key problem in a post modern world.



Many ads today follow the same type of logic described in the video. Take this Abercrombie & Fitch ad (or really any A&F ad). There are 3 guys, shirtless in what looks to be a great conversation. That's great, but what is this ad supposed to be selling? Isn't Abercrombie a clothing store? They make cologne, too, but there's not description of that either. Instead the company has left us to want their products simply off the looks of these young men. Even though the companies logo is attached to the picture it falls under the post modernism category because it leaves us with more questions about the company and their products than what we had before hand.Po
         

Feminist Frequency:Toy Ads and Learning Gender

In the video Toy Ads and Learning Gender by Youtuber Feminist Frequency an important distinction is pointed out between the advertisements of toys marketed towards boys and those towards girls. Boys toys were often sold with action and adventure, while girls toys were full of domestic work and child rearing. While boys were being challenged, getting dirty and getting into adventures girls were left cooking, shopping and looking after the children. Even similar toys were marketed differently depending on whether they were for a boy or girl. For example two different sets of Moon Sand were advertised, one set for a boy and another for a girl, the only difference between the two commercials was that while the boy's set was more focused on building while the girl's set was all about decorating. Even the plastic toy jeeps were different for boys and girls, with the girls jeep being endorsed by barbie and the boys being tough and ready to kick up some dirt. Clearly advertisers have two different expectations for boys and girls and what they would like to play with. Even computer games and electronics had divisions, boys could become pirates and go have adventures upon the high seas, while girls could become fashion models and do their hair.
These divisions in toys marketed towards boys and girls are harmful and limiting. Boys are encouraged to build, explore and challenge themselves, while girls are left behind to care for the children, cook supper and look pretty. Girl toys are limited and hindering, they may be pink but they lack creativity and imagination.

A few countries, such a Sweden and Quebec, have taken legal measures to ban advertising aimed at younger children due to the influences that they can instill. Maybe we should look into making some legislation to protect our innocent children from the gender stereotyping of our advertisements. This video was really an eye opener to me about the real distinctions between toys meant for boys and those meant for girls. I remember being bothered by this issue as a child and the impact it had on me and my perception of gender. We should really monitor the advertisements that can have an effect upon the young and influential minds of our children.