CSM English

            The concept of “Self” is a very broad topic that many people failed at explaining. But throughout history, two philosophers, Rene Descartes and David Hume, were able to successfully describe the concept of “Self”. Descartes thought an individual exists because we think, while Hume, who has the more accurate concept of “Self”, thought we temporarily exist since we are always changing. Through examining their different concepts of “Self”, I realized that Hume has a more accurate concept because we always change.  Read More »

 
 Today, American culture revolves around living a lavish lifestyle and is seen strongly through media; entailing sex [appeal], beauty, economic success, and having “fun” (partying, drinking, spending money and being promiscuous).  Advertisements have flooded our daily life, from the moment we turn on the television in the morning, to the drive to work, to the elevators and so on. Advertisements are everywhere trying to compete with other similar products and companies. Marketers use specific images also known as signifiers and those images have hidden meanings, known as signifieds.   The images portrayed by marketers are everywhere and day-by-day, it damages the self-confidence and image many girls have of themselves.  Young women strive to be socially “beautiful” has sadly lead them to taking unsafe measures to obtain that look. Advertisements and marketers today tend to primarily reflect the new American dream, portraying sex, money, and a fun lifestyle. 
 
In an advertisement for Sean John, Sean Puffy Combs’ company; they target primarily younger to mid adult men mainly from the hip-hop genre (due to Puffy’s career).  In this four-page ad, Puffy is sitting on a bed and looks exhausted, there are two naked women covered merely by sheets in his bed with him.  Puffy, despite being naked, is wearing an enormous ring on his hand that is perched lazily on his face. The photo is taken in rustic black and white creating a smooth, calm feeling.  Text on the other page is quoted from Sean Combs reading “Life without passion is unforgivable” Here, the ad implies that if you wear the cologne, you may participate in an act of passion, considered “unforgivable”.  This ad was found in Cosmopolitan, a women’s magazine with articles primarily aimed at sex, fashion and relationship advice.  The reason marketers put this ad in Cosmo is to target women to purchase this cologne for their male friends.  The men who read the magazine for sex advice are also prime targets for the ad because they want to act in a night of passion and to be unforgivable.  This ad glorifies the act of passion and sex. Because puffy didn’t choose to put a model in his ad, he chose to model himself, an icon of economic and social success, wearing a 7+ karat diamond, he shows the life of luxury and an easy-going life.
 
The American Dream over the years has been morphed into living a lavish lifestyle and the marketers for this ad show and attractive couple drinking a high class drink, portraying that they have obtained this dream.  In an ad for Skyy vodka, also found in the Cosmopolitan magazine, you find a slim, sexy, young woman wearing a scandalous black dress with cut outs all over it and an extremely high slit; signifying her sex appeal. She holds a martini shaker in her hand.  There is a man inside a chair dressed in a suit, with his face hidden; he has a martini in his hand for her. They are in a high-rise pent house over looking the metropolitan city with lights shining in the view, looking at it, you feel as though you are on top of the world.  There, on the table you find a glistening bottle of Skyy vodka and a martini, staring at you. The intention of the ad is to create the feeling that when you drink Skyy vodka, you are a part of this lifestyle; in the pent-house, with the sexy man or woman about to let loose.   The technique marketers’ use is showing the viewers an ideal image of a lifestyle many people yearn to live and be a part of.
 
The last advertisement I analyzed was for Paris Hilton’s fragrance, Paris Hilton. Paris is an “it girl” who is seen in every magazine, at every club and on every TV show.  She is the icon of a party girl and is known for her extreme wealth and crazy lifestyle. The ad shows Paris wearing a flowing pastel blue, deep-plunged dress that flows open with the slit in the middle.  The dress looks very soft, but hugs tights to her skeletal, extremely thin body. Paris gazes into the camera as if she owns it, her power glowing through the camera lens; her power is what women want to possess when they wear her perfume.  The colors are very calm, mainly pastel blue, white and cream. When looking at this ad, you ultimately feel the need to look as model-perfect as Paris does.  The ad tries to make the viewer feel that if they purchase and wear Paris Hilton, the fragrance, they too can live the lifestyle Paris lives, and have her status and obtain her beauty. 
 
Advertisement is a tactic used by marketers in order to attract future clients to purchase their companies products.  Marketers pool some of the best marketing students in search of a fresh mind and creative new tactics.  I observed a few marketing course outlines from universities such as the University of Toronto, and Cardiff University, the course description includes area studies such as customer, competitive and company analysis, to allow maximum efficiency and production, strategic and tactical marketing issues are covered as well. When the students who major in marketing, they analyze many factors the average person easily surpasses; their goal is to be able to come up with the most creative and insightful ideas that relate the consumer to their product to wheel in the most customers.  Because there is so much competition in the economic market today, marketers must come up with the most creative ideas so when a consumer goes to purchase an item, the one they choose out of the large selection of same purpose products, they choose their brand. And why do they choose that particular item? Because they remember it from seeing it somewhere, or thinking it is the best for them because of how they saw it, where they saw it and how they felt when seeing it.  The way a product is advertised, links the consumer with a particular lifestyle they can relate to, image and feeling that they choose to be a part of with the variety when they purchase an item. 
 
Today, the pressure to be thin, glamorous, sexy, rich and live the most recent American dream, has surpassed any time in history. The extreme consumerism in the United States and young women feeling the need to look like the models they see in magazines, or on TV has many negative effects on the population.  The average woman fails to notice that the average model is 5’11 weighing 117 lbs, weighing near this model expectation is not normal or healthy, healthy is 105 lbs per 5 ft, adding 5lbs per inch; the 5’11 model should weigh 160 lbs[1].  Many young women turn to unhealthy measures to reach their goal of looking like the billboard model, often turning to drugs, alcohol, eating disorders, and worst of all, suicide. “Suicide is the third-leading cause of death for 15- to 24-year-olds, girls think about and attempt suicide about twice as often as boys”, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).” According to ANRED.com, a site on eating disorders, research suggests:“ that about four percent (4%), or four out of one hundred, college-aged women have bulimia.”  Bulimia is a disorder that the victim regurgitates the food they have eaten after eating it in order to not gain weight.  If the advertisement industry is affects girls to take means so extreme and them taking unsafe measures to look that particular way, a re-evaluation of the advertisement industry is necessary.  Advertisements we are so consumed with seeing on a daily basis, such as the Skyy vodka ad, have lead to early drinking ages, according to Focus Adolescent Services: “The average age when youth first try alcohol is 11 years for boys and 13 years for girls.  The average age at which Americans begin drinking regularly is 15.9 years old.”[2] Drinking at such a young age is not only bad for the liver and body, but leads to unsafe decisions, especially having sex at a young age.  Drinking alcohol, and being mentally consumed with advertisements that revolve around sex leads to half of teens beginning to have sex when they’re 15, according to the Guttmacher Institute.[3]
Americans are so flooded with advertisements everyday that we consume so many products that are made solely to make our lives easier and to connect us to a particular feeling. This leads to the self-destruction of young adults in our country, and to the extreme materialism the mass majority of us participate in.   Everyday marketers brainwash the population to dress a certain way, act a certain way and follow a cliché of what is currently “in”.  Sooner or later, no one will be expressing their true feelings and styles and we all will succumb to the marketing world. 
 

[1] http://www.annecollins.com/weight-loss/healthy-weight.htm  Read More »

Many people may believe that the greatest human freedom is to live, and die, according to our own desires and beliefs. Thus, dying with some measure of dignity has become the most common desire among people with terminal illnesses. This give raise to the idea of assisted suicide – the practice of assisting people who are terminally ill and feel that their life is worthless due to loss of dignity to end their lives, once they request for help in committing suicide. In addition to these circumstances, the patient should be in a conscious state and have a sound mind instead of suffering from depression when making such a request. Although assisted suicide may sound merciful, I strongly oppose to the legislation of this idea.  Read More »

Marijuana Legalization 

         Cannabis or marijuana has been illegal but many people continue to use it anyways. There are a lot of teenagers trying marijuana; it’s almost looked at as a normal thing for them to try. If so many people already use it, why shouldn’t we make it legal and institute harsh laws such as the ones on alcohol and cigarettes. Making marijuana legal would be beneficial to California because it would increase state revenue, there would be less crime due to drugs, and there would be more jobs created.    Read More »

I visited  legion of honor one day ....

“Paradise Now”

For many years none of the Palestinian movies ever got nominated to be one of the Oscar movies foreign countries nominations. The reason for that is that Palestine for the world (but not for Palestinian people) never considered as a country. The Palestinian directors always want their movies to consider as a Palestinian authority that stopped their movies to get nominated for Oscar. This year everything is different, the Palestinian movie ‘Paradise Now’ even though it is considered as a Palestinian authority, it got nominated.      Read More »

Free Diving - A New World

By Dan Silveira

Have you ever thought about how big our ocean is? Or have you ever thought about stepping foot in it? The life that breeds and the waves that pound cover seventy five percent of our earth’s crust. There is so much water and so little time to explore. Slipping beneath the ocean’s surface, I always seem to encounter a new world. Hindered to a single breath hold, I had to learn what it takes to succeed in this sport.  This is a skill that is learned by practice and time.  Diving in California’s frigid cold waters is not only beautiful and calming, but also requires ability.

Before my first dive I have images of beauty that flood my mind. To most people these cold waters don’t seem like the kind of place a person would want to be. Gulping my last breath of air from the world as we know it, I descend into one of California’s giant kelp beds. Below the ocean’s bottom beckons me. I glide down long slender stocks of golden kelp. Kicking through large schools of blue rock fish, they are suspended in mid water as if they were puppets on a string. The fish welcome me into their cathedral of flickering light. In perfect formation the fish split as I kick through. Nearing the bottom a young harbor seal greets me. Curious by nature the puppy like animal waves his little fin as if to say hello. Taking a non threatening position at the bottom, I allow the seal to touch and investigate my fins. Swimming back to the surface the seal mimicked my fins, as the blades bent back and forth propelling me to the surface.  Read More »