Alabama - Lester Beall

When I found this picture of the remains of this house, nothing but a doorstep and a few beams, it broke my heart. I immediately knew I wanted to focus on the aspect of making homes for people in Alabama again. I tried to emulate Lester Beall's designs by including diagonal stripes, simple text, a black and white photograph of the issue, and red, white, and blue to connect helping people in Alabama to patriotism. I also put a white triangular shape around my text to symbolize the tornado itself, with the aftermath below. I wanted the poster to be simple and striking, so I opted out of a lot of extra effects and symbols. I wanted the image to speak for itself.

The original image.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_124675937593174

Women in Advertising

Bayer's "Great Ideas" advertisement is a perfect example of the transition between the beginning of the objectification of women in advertisement in the Art Nouveau period and modern advertisement. His advertisement depicts women as a big part of decadent living, both as an object and as a source, and puts a negative spin on this "collage depicting affluence and decadence" (Meggs 347) by including a quote from Theodore Roosevelt, "The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, and love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life." This implies that women are a byproduct of these things that Roosevelt says will destroy the country.

Women are pictured alongside money, diamonds, gambling, alcohol, and fruit that represents decadence and sexuality. Words like "Daily Double" and "Corruption" also encircle the main blonde woman. 

Today, it seems like this objectification and over-sexualization of women has been carried out to an extreme in advertising. Though instead of it being criticism as it is in Bayer's ad, it is a tool to push products by placing them on and around attractive women. Unfortunately, as it is often said, sex sells, so this pattern keeps going. I think it's absolutely ridiculous, particularly when the sexed up scenes in the ad have basically nothing to do with the product. Companies like Dolce & Gabbana, Calvin Klein, and American Apparel seem to just focus their ads more on the sex and women than on anything that they're selling, and sadly it works. Women are still associated with decadence and excess, it's now just seen as a positive thing that sells product. In my mind, it's not much better than pornography, and a lot of it is just, for lack of a better word, stupid.

Um, this is hot? It's more awkward to me. Like, kind of Leah Marie awkward.

Is she being raped? How is this good?

Again, just awkward.

The focus is definitely not on the jeans.

Because some of the pictures I found are extremely inappropriate and just awkward, I am posting a link to another blog post with a good collection of them.

http://damalagaitianwoman.blogspot.com/2010/07/im-just-saying.html

Nixon Esquire image

The Nixon cover of the Esquire magazine suggests that Nixon is effeminate and hiding behind a mask of make-up after losing the previous election "partly because [his] 'five o'clock shadow made him look evil.'" (Meggs 398) It inspires doubt subliminally by inferring that he is not who he claims to be and that he needs a team of people to help him cover up his real self. It is very straightforward and does not need words to convey its meaning. It also focuses in a subtle way on the people surrounding Nixon, his campaigners and team who were enabling his mask.

This parody of the Obama "Hope" posters is both similar and different in its approach to criticizing the former presidential candidate. This image does use a word, but only one, and it is more of a visual interpretation because it copies the way the original poster says "Hope" or "Change" at the bottom. The word "Obey" is used as a graphic element in that it holds the Obama campaign logo as well, associating his campaign with a dictatorial type of leadership. The way the word changes the picture can be compared to the way the hands with the makeup change the meaning of the Nixon picture. In this image, Obama has a firm expression, which while in the normal posteer is to make him seem dedicated and determined, makes him seem a bit threatening. This image equates Obama's posters to the pictures that dictators post of themselves throughout their countries to intimidate the citizens. Though this picture is more about Obama's supporters than the man himself; it is a satirical comment on the Obama supporters that were trying to shut down opposing media during the campaign through lawsuits and intimidation, saying that their efforts are like the intimidation methods used by dictators to stamp out all opposition to their reign. Sounds harsh, but it was a crazy campaign, with some seriously crazy political support and opposition.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

I was super excited when I found out we could use this movie for extra credit. I did watch it again for this, but honestly I could have written this without re-watching, it is one of my favorite movies.

I have not fully read the comics yet, but I love how true the movie stays to them. There is a bonus feature on the dvd that goes through the first few scenes of the movie with a frame-by-frame comparison to frames from the comic book. Many of the shots are directly taken from the comic and have an incredibly unique feel. The text, lines, and other marks worked into the movie also give it the feel of a comic and an old video game, and the narrator and sound effects continue the video game feel. Plus this movie is just FUNNY. The humor is fantastic, filled with awkward sarcasm and geeky pop-culture references (particularly to classic video games) that are right up my alley. Fast visual humor, fun music, and bright colors add to its distinctive style and make this movie a blast to watch, even if I'm not really the biggest Michael Cera fan.