Cereal Box Marketing

“Apparently, Trix really are for kids after all, but not in the way you might have thought.” This quote comes from one of the opening paragraphs of an article on cereal box marketing. This article is titled, “Cereal Characters Lure Kiddies With Eye Gaze: Study”. Interesting, am I right?
Have you ever thought about what your cereal box looked like before? A lot of the cereals that are sugary and extra yummy are decided to target children. When you are walking down the cereal aisle in the grocery store have you ever noticed that they all have a character on them? If you’ve noticed that have you ever noticed where that character is looking?

 Cornell University did a study on this and they found out some pretty interesting results.

 This article can be found here:

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/cereal-characters-lure-kiddies-eye-gaze-study-n70826
The Character on that sugary cereal box has it’s eyes pointed downward to insure that kids running through the grocery store with mom or dad, will lock eyes with that “Lucky Charm’s leprechaun” and instantly beg their parents to buy it.
It is great marketing if you ask me!

According to the article, “The researchers provided two key takeaways from their findings. One, parents should think about not taking their children down the cereal aisle. Two, manufacturers of healthier cereals could consider adding a character looking downwards to the box to make their cereal more appealing to younger consumers.”

This is very true in my opinion. This could help healthier cereals draw in more children. This would be very beneficial to the health of my generation and generations after mine, as well.

This cereal box character’s gaze directly into the eyes of your children and draw them in, with a little help from your child’s imagination. So why not trick your child into being drawn in by a healthy cereal choice?

I think this could benefit parents and children by making children more excited about eating healthy cereal.

I found this article very interesting because it is like a psychological game that these marketing companies are playing on children and even some adults. I would like to look more into this and figure out what other kinds of marketing games are played on the innocent. Especially those like this that we would have never noticed before reading this article. It’s a strange world when your mind plays tricks on you!

 

 

 

It's baseball season!

This week, it officially became the best time of year. Baseball season started. Opening Day in the MLB officially started. The green grass, the ballpark ‘dogs, and the crack of the bat have all started up. Those are just some of the wonderful things that baseball brings to the world. Baseball is America’s past time. To me you aren’t American if you don’t love at least one aspect of the game!

 Do you have a favorite MLB team? Mine happens to be one of the worst teams in the league. You guessed it, the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs haven’t won the World Series in over one hundred years. That’s heartbreaking yet not surprising considering how we have played the last few seasons. The Chicago Cubs started off the season with a losing record already. This is a great way to start the season off, NOT. At this rate we might as well make it 200 years since we’ve won the World Series.

The exciting thing this year for the Chicago Cubs is that this is the 100^th birthday of the Cubs field, Wrigley field. If you’ve never been to Wrigley, I highly suggest you check it out! It is by far one of my favorite places ever. The atmosphere is just amazing. It may not be the fanciest ball park but it is by far my favorite of those that I’ve been to because of the love that Chicago Cubs fans have for their team. It’s unbelievable. Even with all the loses Chicago Cubs fans are still the most loyal fans on the planet.

The Chicago Cubs are calling this year, “The Party of the Century” according to http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com and having many great festivities and celebrations all through out this one hundredth season at Wrigley.

If you’re a baseball fan be sure to check out their website for more details and join in on the celebrations!

Happy Opening Week and Happy Baseball Season!

Girl world

It's hard to survive in girl world.

Being a girl in high school is hard sometimes, you have those mean girls after your every move, you’re friends who freak out on you for what you feel is no reason, and then you have boy troubles, or you have to worry about making the dance team, or acne, or your homecoming dress, so many extra things that teenage girls have to deal with on top of school.

Life is hard being a girl, but being a girl in high school. Now that is ten times harder. Why does it have to be so hard? I don’t know it just is. Being a girl, I would say I am pretty low maintenance, and don’t let much get to me. But still it can be very stressful sometimes. You worry about fitting in work, and practices, and your friends and family. It’s hard.

 

And the worst part is, you are always expected to be happy. Like why do I always have to have a smile on my face? Why can’t my mom just leave me alone sometimes? Why do guys have to be immature and make jokes that make you feel self-conscious sometimes?

 

The biggest question is,

 

WHY do we OVERTHINK EVERYTHING?!?!

 

I try my hardest to not do this but I just can’t help it. I have no idea why but being a teenage girl means that every little thing sets you off your game and makes you question everything. It sucks.

 

The hard life of a teenage girl is portrayed in a lot of movies. It’s always a story line about a girl being bullied by other girls, however it usually doesn’t happen this way in real life.

Usually, it’s your own friends that are tearing you down. I am happy to say I have separated myself from these sources of drama in my life and honestly I am a lot happier now because of it.

 

It’s not that your friends want to tear you down, but when one of your friends gets mad at you, even for something little it can turn into a big fight if you’re a teenage girl.

 

There is an article that sparked my rant about the life of a teenage girl.

 

This article talks about how movies depict teenage girls.

This article can be found here:

http://movies.msn.com/movie-guide-fall/i-dont-enjoy-being-a-girl/photo-gallery/feature/

This article features 10 movies that discuss the dramas of a teenage girl. These movies we find them entertaining, and laugh at them and love them. But we really need to think about how teenage girls in our own lives are really suffering and not in a funny way because being a teenage girl is tough.

"Five Four"

Back to another trimester of blogging, another three months to blog three times each week and try to find something to write around 400 or more words about. As I am sitting here in my class thinking about what I can blog about, I remembered that this week my brother told me about a clothing line that some NBA players endorse. This isn’t an ordinary clothing line though. Since this was recent and my blog is classified as a blog about analyzing current events I thought this would fit nice.

This clothing line is called “Five Four”. The reason it is unique is because it is for men only and each man must sign up for a membership to this clothing line. When signing up for this membership each male pays a monthly fee and fills out a survey on what they like and what  they like to wear, as well as what size they wear. These men then receive an outfit each month based on what the company “Five Four” thinks this customer would like.

“For $60 per month you will be receiving a package worth $120 or more, guaranteeing a savings of at least 50% every month. Shipping is included. All active club members receive an additional 25% off on our online store.” Is stated on the “Five Four” website.

This website can be found here:

http://www.fivefourclothing.com/club/new/

Who wouldn’t want a personal stylist each month for half the price? I think this sounds like a great idea. But why isn’t there one of these for women? I would love to have this!

I think this company has many benefits for men who unfortunately are the only people who can use this service. But come on for $60 a month wouldn’t you love getting set an outfit each month that was in style? You wouldn’t have to go through the hassle of shopping or anything! You just pay and tell them what you like and the boom $120 or more outfits show up at your house each month. That my friends is what I call a good idea.

The only problem I have with this is that I WANT IT! Which is only a problem because they don’t have one for women!

If there a version of “Five Four” for women I would sign up in a heartbeat.

So if you’re a male and you are reading this I highly suggest you sign up for this.

Coca-Cola Part 2

The other side of the argument says that Coca-Cola was defacing a patriotic song.  This side could also display a valuable argument. As Americans, we generally sing patriotic songs in English. However, as an American you have freedom of speech as one of your first amendment rights. As an American you should be able to sing a patriotic song in whichever language you prefer. American’s have this freedom we should not question it. Another problem people had with this commercial was that it showed a gay couple, a man and a man together with their adopted daughter. All I have to say to that is this is the 20^th century, it’s time we except this as normal. People have a right to love who they love, or speak their own language. This is the freedom of America.

Although this commercial stirred up controversy, the reality is that America is a country made up of different cultures and beliefs and with these different cultures comes different languages, and that’s what America is, we need to remember where we came from. Our nation is one nation; no matter what language we speak or who we love. That is our right as Americans. I applaud Coca-Cola for taking our nation, back to its roots whether people acknowledge this or not Coke did a good deed by airing this commercial. America is Beautiful and this beauty comes from the cultures and beliefs of our nation.

 Work Cited

1. Shin, Hyon B., and Robert A. Kominski. "Language Use in the United States: 2007." U.S. Department of CommerceEconomics and Statistics Administration., Apr. 2010. Web. 9 Feb. 204. <http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/data/acs/ACS-12.pdf>.
2. “US Population by Year." US Population by Year. Web. 9 Feb. 2014. http://www.multpl.com/united-states-population/table.

I want to know what you think.. comment below to let me know your true feelings on the Coca-Cola 2014 Super Bowl commercial.

Do you think it crossed the line?

Coca-Cola Commercial Controversy

Many people in America every year look forward to watching the Super Bowl for the big game, the half time show and of course the commercials. That is what the Super Bowl is all about. However, sometimes the Super Bowl commercials, like any commercials have relayed the wrong message. This year Coca-Cola’s commercial features people of all cultures across America, singing, “America the Beautiful” in different languages, this stirred up a nation wide controversy. The reality is that America is a country made up of different cultures and with these different cultures comes different languages, and that’s what America is, we need to remember where we came from.

The Coca-Cola Super Bowl commercial was made to remind us of who we are as Americans. America is a country that brought freedom to so many immigrants from all over the world. America means freedom to all. Many people who are caucasian or white, were very bothered by the song “America the Beautiful” being sung in different languages. In America, we are a nation made up of different cultures. Our country’s main language may be English but many American’s speak other languages as well.  According to the 2007 US census, 80 percent of American’s speak English as their primary language at home(Shin). But these still leaves 20 percent of our population that was speaking a language other than English at this time. At this time the population consisted of 301.23 million (US Population By Year) that would mean that 60.246 million people in the United States in 2007 did not speak English. This proves that this commercial is accurate. What some of these Caucasian people said about the commercial was very derogatory towards other races and cultures. The thing that outraged me the most, was after this commercial aired there was a hash tag or trending topic on the social media site of twitter, that read “#speakamerican”. First of all, we speak English; this shows the ignorance of my generation. Second of all, this is America! We need to embrace our cultural differences.

More to Come...

Stress

Currently at school, registration for classes is just around the corner. Being in high school is stressful at times. You are always trying to figure out what to do next in life, for example, where you want to go to college, where you want to live, what you want to be, what job you want, what you want in your family, it’s pretty stressful to get to that next step in your life.
Right now being a junior in high school is quite stressful trying to figure out what things and classes I want to be a part of next year as my last year in high school. So many thoughts about what will prepare me for what I want to be and where I want to go for college. It gets pretty stressful.

With all this preparation and stress, how are you supposed to enjoy the “best four years of your life”? This is the question I want answers to. I want answers now. I wish life was just planned out for me so I would know if it was smart for me to pick to do this certain career path. It’s hard.

I know some people, including myself at times, that don’t know how to handle stress. So how are kids supposed to enjoy this time of high school and new beginnings with all this stress? What do kids do that don’t know how to deal with it?

I wish you could have a crystal ball and look into your future and see if that is the best fit for you.

All of this takes so much hard work and I think that’s why sometimes kids just don’t try in high school and give up on trying to be the best they can be in life.

There has to be an easier way for these people to carry on getting good grades, enjoying their activities and hanging out with friends. How come it is so hard to balance it all? Is this the part that prepares us for life?

I want answers. I want to know what’s the best for me. I want to know what’s the best college for me, the best career path, the best people to be around, the best way to study. Why aren’t these answers that just come to you?

Why do they have to be so hard to figure out?

I’m just ready for that next step once I get all these answers and I imagine many other students are with me on this one.