Blog Post #7 - Hurricane Katrina & Looting

One of the first exposures to racism in the media that I encountered was after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. After the storm passed and the streets were flooded, two special images of survivors appeared on Yahoo.com. The first showed a white couple wading through the waist high water with bags of food, with a caption that described them “finding” the supplies. The other was a picture of an African-American man wading through the same water with similar supplies, only this time he was described as “looting” the supplies from a local grocery store. Was the African-American not trying to survive just the same as the white people? Intentional or not, these two pictures clearly displayed the subtle racism the media can display.

The two images & their captions side by side. 

As soon as the observation was made, the photos went viral, sweeping the nation and causing many to question the apparent media bias. Many turned to the blogs to voice their disapproval of the current media system. America soon found itself in a media war, debating the difference between “looting” and “scavenging” during a natural disaster crisis. I was very intrigued by this whole scenario. As a child, I though newspapers and the Internet could never be wrong. For the first time that I could remember, the media blatantly did something racist. I was pretty offended for a while, but after diving into the media much more as I have grown up I have realized that the media makes slip ups like this much more frequently than one would think. Is this the media bias? We may never know for sure. 

Would you consider this "scavenging" for a shelter or "looting"?

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Blog Post #6 - Sexualized Women in Advertising

In the past decade, more and more commercials have started to display women in a very sexualized manner, exploiting their appeal to men as the key point in many ads. Back in the day, advertisements displayed women as caring housewives, allowing themselves to be controlled by their husbands and utilize the product in question to please their spouses.

One advertisement from the 1950's that shows a woman catering to her man's needs.

 However, in this day in age, advertisers are exploiting female’s sexuality to appeal to men and their deepest desires. One of the most successful advertisements of this year’s Super Bowl was Kia’s new ad for the Optima. This ad featured model Adriana Lima waving the checkered flag in a very skimpy outfit for a high-speed race, all in a guy’s dream. This is just one example of many advertisements on television today that shows women in a sexual manner.

The Kia Super Bowl ad with Adriana Lima

However, advertisers have been known to push the limits in regards to displaying women. One Heineken ad I saw during a football game displayed a bottle of the beer rocking back and forth on a tan table. As the camera zoomed out, it became apparent that the bottle of Heineken was actually on a naked woman’s back, as the lady was having sexual intercourse with two guys at the same time. This commercial, while very funny, was immediately pulled from the air and now can only be seen on YouTube. The line is very clear on what is appropriate for television use and what is not. Although the extremely sexual commercials are funny at times, I do believe that television should be relatively conservative in how sexual advertisements display women. 

The banned Heineken ad.

Blog Post #5: Rick Perry's Anti-Homosexuality Ad

Blog Post #5: Rick Perry’s Anti-Homosexuality Ad

Last year, Texas Governor Rick Perry ran for the Republican Party nomination for the presidential election of 2012. During his campaign, Perry released an advertisement that instigated harsh criticism from the LBGT (Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgendered) community. In this advertisement, Perry is shown standing in an open field, saying “there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.” Although his main point of the advertisement was to express his conservative ties to his faith, he angered many Americans and even caused some of his campaign staff to lose faith in his political views.

The advertisement, entitled "Strong" has over 8 million views to date.

When this advertisement was released in early December of last year, the criticism came pouring in, mainly online. The video was published to YouTube and received over three million views and a half million “downvotes” in just three days, with many commenters expressing their disliking of the ad. Even some notoriously conservative members of the Republican were reluctant to support the ad. As the advertisement spread, members of the community made parody videos of the ad, showing how ridiculous and hateful Perry’s message truly was. My aunt is gay, so this ad was especially offensive to my family and I. Even though I live in his state, I could not support Perry at all. At the end of the day, this ad is one of the main reasons why Perry lost many supporters and ended up losing the nomination to Mitt Romney. 

One example of the numerous parody ads that were released in the ensuing weeks.

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