Professors of Law, Authors, Media Critics, CEOs, Corporate Consultants, Pollsters, Columnists and Reporters as well as Ad Agency Strategists were interviewed during the production of “The Pursuaders,” a Frontline documentary about how marketers influence not only what we buy but indeed how we, as consumers [targets], think and feel. I found part of the message to be reassuring; but only one part --the part that said, “Somebody out there is listening.” Billions of dollars are spent each year to study what we (as consumers) want just as millions of man-hours are focused toward interpretation of the many studies. The large part of the message though was disturbing but was equally disturbing was my own personal jaded indifference to the reported efforts of large corporations and politicians. Somewhere in the presentation I understood that ‘they’ wanted to control me and not only me but also our future generations including my children. Somewhere along the line the message was accepted, analyzed and then strangely, dismissed.
According to Douglas Rushkoff, one of the many participants of the Frontline interview, “Television commercials are stories, too, and they are designed to impress brand values upon us with the force of cultural mythology, securing and extending our most deeply held beliefs.” He goes on to state, “Today, the most intensely targeted demographic is the baby—the future consumer. Before an average American child is twenty months old, he can recognize the McDonald's logo and many other branded icons. Nearly everything a toddler encounters—from Band-Aids to underpants—features the trademarked characters of Disney or other marketing empires.” Can I, as a grandfather, continue to ignore the efforts of advertisers to cultivate and develop strategies for the coming generation? Asked in that fashion, perhaps I can. It’s fairly easy to reassure myself by saying that my children are okay but when I hear statements such as, “The fresh neurons of young brains are valuable mental real estate to admen,” (Rushkoff, Branding Products, Branding People, par 26) I’m no longer certain of my indifference. The brand marketers want to “do more than just develop brand recognition, they literally cultivate a demographic's sensibilities" as they are formed. They have a long-term coercive strategy that is specifically targeted toward young minds as they are developing.
A nine-year-old child knows the sound of the Budweiser frogs and can recite their slogan (Bud-weis-er). Of course, nine-year-olds have no interest in beer, yet --and marketers have no hopes of a 9-year old consumer. Well, not for another nine years.
WELCOME
Welcome to our Eng 100 Blog “Conversation Beyond the Classroom”! The title of this blog refers to the community of active readers & collaborative learners we are creating by sharing our academic writing for Eng 100 with each other + a larger group of students, instructors, academics, and just about anybody who chooses to follow our blog! When you write and post your reader responses here (and, later, as you write your essays for the course), I encourage you to use this audience to conceptualize who you are writing for and, most important, how to communicate your ideas so that this group of academic readers and writers can easily follow your line of thinking. Think about it this way: What do you need to explain and articulate in order for the other bloggers to understand your response to the essays we’ve read in class? What does your audience need to know about those essays and the authors who wrote them? And how can you show your readers, in writing, which ideas you add to these “conversations” that take place in the texts we study?
As students of Eng 100, you will use this blog to begin conversations with other academic writers on campus (students and instructors alike). We become active readers of each other’s writing when we comment on posts here. And, best of all, we are using this space to share ideas! I encourage you to use this blog to further think through the topics and writing strategies you will be introduced to this quarter. As always, be sure to give credit to those people whose ideas you borrow for your own thinking and writing (you should do this in the blog by commenting on their post, but you will also be required to cite what you borrow from your peers/instructors if and when it winds up in your essays. More details on that later…).
Finally, keep in mind that writing to and for this audience is a good way to prepare for the panel of readers (faculty at WCC) who will be reading and assessing your writing portfolio at the end of the quarter. We hope that as a large group of active readers, we can better prepare each other for this experience. But, in the meantime, let’s have fun with it! I am really excited see how far we can take this together!
--Mary Hammerbeck, Instructor of Eng 100
As students of Eng 100, you will use this blog to begin conversations with other academic writers on campus (students and instructors alike). We become active readers of each other’s writing when we comment on posts here. And, best of all, we are using this space to share ideas! I encourage you to use this blog to further think through the topics and writing strategies you will be introduced to this quarter. As always, be sure to give credit to those people whose ideas you borrow for your own thinking and writing (you should do this in the blog by commenting on their post, but you will also be required to cite what you borrow from your peers/instructors if and when it winds up in your essays. More details on that later…).
Finally, keep in mind that writing to and for this audience is a good way to prepare for the panel of readers (faculty at WCC) who will be reading and assessing your writing portfolio at the end of the quarter. We hope that as a large group of active readers, we can better prepare each other for this experience. But, in the meantime, let’s have fun with it! I am really excited see how far we can take this together!
--Mary Hammerbeck, Instructor of Eng 100
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