Best Advertising in the Country

Posted on by jesse

The once-a-year Super Bowl commercials are a thing for several reasons. Firstly, the Super Bowl is the most watched event in the United States of America. The only event in American history that had more viewers than the 2023 Super Bowl was the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. From a marketing standpoint of view, this is obviously going to be the best opportunity to make sure as many people see the ad as possible. Not just that, it’s also the best opportunity to make sure they are actually paying attention to it. The commercials at the Super Bowl are renowned for being powerful, emotional, funny, and unique. Therefore, some people probably watch it just for the commercials!

https://www.forbes.com/sites/prospernow/2012/02/06/the-power-of-super-bowl-advertising/?sh=a61e3472cbb5

The more emotional commercials, like the ones used as examples for this assignment, tend to show the more human side of the company. In my opinion, I would be willing to bet that most of the time this is done, it’s purely for profits and not so much for just doing the right thing given the fact that these advertising slots can cost millions of dollars for a single minute. The marketing professionals with these companies know that if they pull on your heart strings, you will be very engaged with the ad and giving it your full attention. Your brain will be storing it in memory more efficiently. Therefore, once you are fully immersed in the powerful and emotional story of the ad, you will tend to remember the brand name that is displayed at the end better.

https://youtu.be/TSJEKU9qKJI

Respect & Responsibility

Posted on by jesse

Those are two very strong words when it comes to the world of art and ingenuity. When it comes down to it, one of the biggest driving factors that inspires creativity is the incentive of recognition. I’m very sure that it would be completely devastating to spend countless hours, days, weeks, months, or years on a new project or piece of art, just to have someone else copy it and take all of the credit for it. I kindly ask anyone reading this to put themselves in that person’s shoes. Just imagine for a moment what that would feel like. It is absolutely inhumane if you ask me.

To be honest, I was very disrespectful and inconsiderate in the creative realm myself before taking these classes. I suppose I just hadn’t ever stopped to think about the fact that using copyrighted music in my video projects was rude, wrong, illegal, and disrespectful. I’m glad that I can see that now today and act accordingly. After all, if we don’t practice good ethics and let all responsibility go out the window, the incentive of recognition becomes compromised. With that jeopardized, the flame of inspiration may be short-lived in what could’ve or would’ve been potential new artists.

Strategic Storytelling

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It’s no secret that people tend to process information that is in story form better than information that isn’t. This is for several reasons. One, we tend to be able to retain and remember the information better. Reading something in story form typically will make it seem more significant and interesting to the reader, therefore, causing them to better remember. Something else the story form does, is help viewers relate to the character, share perspectives, and empathize with them. This makes it more personal to us.

Another appealing aspect to information told in story form is it isn’t just an assortment of random facts. It is a series of events that demonstrate cause and effect. Whenever someone reads something or watches something, they are more than likely trying to seek out the story being told within it. Story telling can be used for all sorts of multimedia tactics. It is employed in marketing and advertising all the time. In fact, I would say that if your ad or marketing strategy doesn’t somehow involve telling a story about a problem and how your product or service can solve that problem for the consumer, then it probably isn’t going to be very effective!

https://www.health.org.uk/newsletter-feature/power-of-storytelling

Liberation

Posted on by jesse

It would seem that so many people have found what you could call liberation through virtual worlds such as Second Life. This platform gives the user the ability to fully customize their avatar. The possibilities are limitless. Like one individual said in the video, “People treat you the way you look.” This is unfortunately sad but true. With Second Life, people can change the way they are dressed, their gender, skin color, ethnicity, race, or species at the click of the mouse. They can change it as often and as much as they like. This gives the users the ability to create their own version of their selves that they feel more comfortable with and portrays who they really are more accurately. For many, this can be a life-changing experience. Especially for those with disabilities! This is truly freedom from the bondage of our natural bodies.

Aside from the avatar aspect of Second Life, the platform is special in many other ways. I had no idea before using it that it had it’s own in-world economy and a unique currency with a fluctuating exchange rate! Users can build, create, and design items in the game that can be sold for in-world currency. Users can even find a paying job inside the virtual world!

I am very amazed at how much Second Life is capable of. It is like discovering a whole new world that you never knew existed. I am happy for all the individuals who have experienced the freedoms and liberties that come with it’s use and I can’t wait to explore it more.

Size Matters!

Posted on by jesse

I want to start off by saying “100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People” is probably one of the most interesting books I have ever read. It’s a blessing when you are very interested in and intrigued by a textbook. It is so much easier to absorb the information and get as much out of it as possible! The section where the author is discussing the use of fonts covers several different reason why fonts matter and what they do for reader retention.

First off, the simplicity of the font allows the reader to easier recognize patterns in letters, words, and sentences. A lot of what we are doing when we are reading is actually just pattern recognition! For example, cursive can take longer to read because it may be harder for someone to recognize patterns compared to arial. It is also believed that if the font is harder to read, than the reader tends to perceive things such as written instructions for tasks to actually be harder to accomplish than if the font were more easily readable.

The author also states that we should keep font size in mind. They explain differing perceived font sizes due to the x-height of the font. This is the height of the lowercase letter x. This can vary between fonts and make them appear to be different sizes when they are actually the same point size. Lastly, the author touches on contrast. It is always important to make sure that your text contrasts well with the background. The book gives us a couple pointers such as the fact that black text on a white background promotes the best readability. I have learned tons of new things since I started reading this book. Super neat! One thing the book doesn’t cover though is the fact that different fonts can send different messages. The following YouTube video talks a little bit about that.

Inspirational Education

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Here are three documentaries that I found to be inspiring. The first is titled, “The God Delusion”, by evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins. In the film, Dawkins sets out on an adventure to document the absurdities of religion as we know it. He interviews preachers, priests, televangelists, creationist activists, and more. I think I have Richard Dawkins to thank for what I would call a revelation. It is his works that helped me get to where I stand today as far as theological views are concerned.

Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion

Another documentary I loved, was Neil Degrasse Tyson’s take on Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos”. I spent countless hours watching this series when it first came out. I do remember receiving harsh backlash from religious groups, which I found interesting. It wasn’t just the content of the series that was intriguing, it was also the way it was delivered. Neil Degrasse Tyson was very inspirational in his presentation. Even at 30 years old, he made me want to run out and pursue a degree in astrophysics. It wasn’t until today that I discovered he actually made another follow up to it as well in 2020. I will certainly be checking that out!!!

Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: Possible Worlds trailer

I couldn’t come up with a documentary about an inventor, artist, or leader that I had seen off the top of my head, but I did watch one recently about multiple different world leaders. It was a documentary about how the Russians interfered in the 2016 election. I found it very informative and it inspired me to stay more up to date on politics and current affairs. I’d also be lying if I said it didn’t inspire me to want to join the CIA, but let’s be realistic here.

HBO’s Agents of Chaos trailer

The Name’s Jesse!

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Allow me to introduce myself! Jesse Seward is the name and content creation is the game. I do have a motto that I live by. It may be somewhat cliché, but it’s the best words that anyone could ever live by if you ask me. If everyone lived by these words, the world would be a much better & safer place. “Do unto others as you would have done unto you”. This may be a verse from the bible, but I am far from religious. In fact, I’m a full-fledged atheist. However, that doesn’t mean that the bible doesn’t have a few good lessons to learn from it here and there.

I sat here brainstorming for a few minutes, trying to think of who my heroes in real life were. Then it dawned on me. I shouldn’t be trying to think of political, historical, or war-time figures. I should be looking closer to home. My biggest hero is my girlfriend. She is the best mom I know, not only to her own son, but to my daughter as well. She has done far more for me than anyone else ever has and I couldn’t even imagine what life would be like without her in it. She is beautiful, strong, intelligent, driven, dedicated, and just a good person. As good as they come. I love her very much!

I’ll share something a bit personal here. I feel like I have made many great achievements in my life. One of them being my position at the company I work for. However, I think I must say without a doubt that the greatest one I have ever achieved was getting clean. I was heavily addicted to methamphetamine when I was younger. I was a very smart kid in school before I started hanging out with the wrong crowd and veered down a bad path for a good portion of my early adulthood. It took getting in trouble with the law, becoming a father, and a lot of rude awakenings to finally whip me out of that lifestyle, but I did it. Not many who went that route can say the same. It was probably the hardest thing I ever did, and I lived to tell about it. Today my life is completely different. You wouldn’t even guess that about me if I didn’t mention it.

As far as things I most value in friends, I must say honesty, integrity, and loyalty.

What type of documentary would be about me, you ask? Why, expository I’d say!

Live from South Park!

Posted on by jesse

Coming at you live from South Park! I sat down to make a cartoon version of myself today. An avatar. What better tool to do that with than the one provided on the official website for the show, “South Park”? This is by far one of my favorite shows. It definitely has a lot of adult humor, but it’s right up my alley. I was thrilled when I learned that I could do this. Not only to be able to recreate myself in a cartoonish fashion, but to be able to do it in the image of one of the iconic shows from my childhood. I haven’t watched South Park in a long time. Therefore, doing this really brought back some good memories from my childhood. Some nostalgia, if you will. I can remember countless weekend nights when I was a kid, having friends over, eating a bunch of junk food, playing video games, and playing the South Park tapes we rented from the Blockbuster store. Oh man. Those were the days.

I have to say that when I first started taking these classes, I wasn’t too keen on the whole VR and avatar thing. I think I’m getting more into it now though. At first, I was reluctant to try Second Life, but I will be following through on it this time around.

Media 111 – Module 10 – Weekly Essay

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My Final Thoughts on H2G2

Before I took this course, I had only ever briefly heard of the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. I had never experienced the story. I’ll admit, when I first started reading the book, it seemed confusing, and not my type of read. However, as I progressed through it, it started to grow on me. It wasn’t after finishing the book, watching the film, and reading up on the influence and impact it has had over the years, that I really began to realize how special this story truly was. The story parodies our natural, endless, undying pursuit of knowledge. Our thirst for information is ingrained in our very nature. We don’t like not knowing the answers to our questions.

The H2G2 device that Ford Prefect is updating throughout his galactic travels also bears great resemblance with something that we use in real life to this day. It’s all around us. We all use it almost every day. The internet. The worldwide web is basically humanity’s version of the H2G2 and we are all constantly contributing to it in our own way. Scientific research, customer experiences, many different forms of art, statistics, and data are just a handful of examples of things that are contributed to our version of the H2G2 on a daily basis.

Douglas Adams’ story has touched many people and has what you could call a cult-following. The story has been reproduced in many different mediums including radio, television, and film. I would highly recommend this book to others! To this day, whenever I am in a stressful situation, I calmly tell myself, “Just don’t panic, Jesse.”

Media 111 – Module 9 – Weekly Essay

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My Responsibility as a Citizen

As a dignified citizen of the Milky Way galaxy, I feel like it is my responsibility to not only respect and embrace others from where I live in the United States on Earth, but to also respect and embrace others who live in different countries, on different planets, or in different galaxies! It’s important to be proud of where we live and what kind of culture or traditions we have, however, we should always remain open-minded and know that these norms and traditions can differ greatly in other areas. That’s a good thing, though! Diversity is awesome! Imagine how boring we would be if the entire galaxy was populated by American humans?? It would probably be destroyed by now. I feel like it also vital that we be open to change and willing to adapt to policies that allow our home to become a place where people of all walks of life have the opportunity to grow, flourish, and comfortably enjoy their lives.

One of the places I have discovered along my galactic travels, is Finland, another country on my home planet of Earth. Finland is a beautiful country! It is known for being the happiest country on the planet, according to an insider.com article by Theresa Christine.1 The article states that Finland has held first place in the World Happiness Report for the last four years! I highly recommend reading the article. It goes on to state that Finland is known for it’s universal healthcare, highly literate population, well-mannered citizens, and one of the best education systems in the world!

If the time ever comes where I feel the desire to move out of the United States, I know exactly where I am moving to now!

Helsinki, Finland. Panoramic View Of Pier, Embankment On Kanavaranta Street, Uspenski Cathedral And Pohjoisranta Street In Evening Illuminations. Photo by Grigory Bruev. Sourced from Adobe Stock.

References:

1.) Christine, Theresa. What it’s Like to Live in Finland, the Happiest Country in the World, 31 Mar. 2021,

https://www.insider.com/life-in-finland-happiest-country-2019-6

Also check out:

https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2022/happiness-benevolence-and-trust-during-covid-19-and-beyond/#ranking-of-happiness-2019-2021