Food Porn

I found a video of Rachel Ray in the "Kids Corner" segment of her show. She made a statement in this video that the reason children are picky eaters is because we don’t sophisticate their taste buds enough. So according to her, if we buy expensive ingredients, expensive gadgets, and fallow her wise recipes that our kids won’t be picky eaters and seem somewhat more sophisticated in nature. She declared that we "dumb down our food" She seems to want to make the consumer of the program feel as if he or she is doing something wrong, or neglecting their family and friends if they do not have the same ingredients, or have the same recipes as the lavish ones displayed on the TV. Food porn consists of sensual visual presentation, cooking food and presenting it beautifully is an act of servitude, a way of expressing a gift. Thus the feeling of neglecting your family and friends if you do no present the gift properly. The Food Network blurs the line between advertising and content; there is basically no difference, the show that you are watching is one giant infomercial selling various products. They want their products being sold to intergraded fully into everyday life of the consumer, so instead of wanting a product, it is believed that you need the product in order to have the lavish displays on the TV. Cooking Shows promote an upper middle class lifestyle enhanced by the appropriation of goods. Food Porn is incredibly sneaky and incredibly effective in selling you what they want to see you, most of the time without you even noticing you’re being exposed to Food Porn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qgIb3liUww

BRANDS!

For me personally, anytime I go purse shopping I always check and see if there are any Kathy Van Zeeland purses where I’m shopping. If you step back and think about it, what makes a Kathy Van Zeeland purse any different from any other purse? Yes the style of the purse is a difference, but all purses do the same thing. They all hold what you want to put in it. It is a bag, nothing more. Yet you would almost never see anyone walking through the mall with a plastic bag around her shoulder or in her hand in replace of a purse. It’s all about being fashionable, stylish and having an expensive brand. Most brand name purses sell for an average of 100 dollars. Would anyone purchase a hundred dollar plastic bag? No, however if you put a label like Baby Phat, Kathy Van Zeeland, Guess, Rockawear on it, people would look at it differently. The media plays an important role in this way of thinking pattern. The reason why I got started into liking Kathy Van Zeeland purses was because my friend showed me hers. All the media has to do is get one person started on something and then it will spread like wildfire. The media did not directly get me into this certain brand of purse, the media got my friends directly, and I caught on to it because of them. In other words the media does not have to have everyone watching all their commercials and looking at all their ads, they just need a single person, a trend setter to notice it, then it will catch on to  other people indirectly without them even knowing they were affected by the media. We may know in our heads that it’s just a brand name, and is exactly the same as the cheaper version of the product however we are still drawn toward the more expensive product for the fact of the name. people greatly underestimate the power of brands.

does the media depict you? or who you should be?

I believe the media doesn’t go out in search of what people truly are, discovering how people live their lives, how people solve problems on their own, and the different reactions people have to certain situations. I believe the media rather goes out and decides how the people should behave, how to react when in a certain situation, what music they should listen to, what clothes are considered “cool", and what jokes should be considered funny. The media to me is a trend setter; the media is a leader, not a follower. The media does not depict me and who I am; the media depicts who I should want to be. It is almost impossible to escape all the outside influences, for example the television. If I choose not to watch an episode of the jersey shore, I will still know what happened in that episode due to the rest of my friends watching that episode. Everyone talks about it, the cute little catch phrases will be repeated, all the hilarious moments will be laughed about. Before I know it I will be laughing along even though i did not see it, and then will have the urge to go home and watch it on Hulu. That is how strong the media has a grip on people. Even if you yourself want no part of something, that doesn’t mean the rest of the world is going to have the same opinion. The media shapes our thoughts and perceptions, even if it’s not directly; it can be though our friends under the influence of the media. For example, if someone starts humming a song, you will start tapping your foot without even realizing your doing it. As mentioned before, I do not see any type of media that adequately depicts me; however I do see that it depicts who I should want to be.