I thought it would be a good idea to look back in time at Christmas Advertisements that were bad before and around the time that I was born! Christmas commercials today are all in high definition and try to tell a very complicated story in a very short period of time that is easier to understand. As I watched these commercials, they felt more genuine and closer to home. I love seeing some ideas in these 80s and early 90s commercials that are still being used today, such as the Cookie Crisp ad. The commercial is very similar to the advertisements that Cookie Crisp are releasing today as well as the ads that I watched in my younger years while being tuned in to Nickelodeon. I feel as though the majority of these commercials were aiming at the sentimental and the perfect home idea such as Folgers and Coca-Cola. It was a different time back then, so these advertisements probably seemed normal or nothing extraordinary to the people in that time, but now that I am looking at them about 25 years later it makes them seem very goofy and awkward.
The holiday season seems to go by in slow motion; snow lazily plummets
to the earth, lights twinkle softly in the evening, and the aroma of
holiday treats languidly drift along the chilly breezes. It's a great
feeling to kick back and relax during the holidays,
but more preparation goes into the cozy season than people tend to
realize. Advertising companies work very hard to make the perfect
Christmas commercial; the sought after commercial that will make you
jump out of your seat to buy that last minute Christmas
gift. The sales and advertising companies behind Christmas commercials
are part of an ever evolving industry; gift ideas change year to year,
and it is advertising companies responsibility to keep up with the
changes. This years Christmas commercials were
interesting to watch because they utilized very separate advertising
strategies.
Coca Cola is a classic company that is very recognizable. One of their
commercials this year was a bit of a collaboration of ideas; they
incorporated an old school string puppet Santa with modern day
background music. They tried to give a classic Christmas
feel a modern twist, and I'm not sure that I liked the result. The
giant puppet Santa was a neat idea, it reminded me a lot of the 1950's
Rudolph the Reindeer movies from ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas. I
did not like, however, how the giant Santa trodded
around passing out tiny cokes. The vintage looking puppet, who is a
giant, didn't mesh well with the modern day city surroundings; which
resulted in a creepy commercial. Compared to their classic polar bear
commercials, I think Coca Cola's new puppet commercial
wasn't up to far with the normal standards. Their combination of old
& new wasn't executed very well.
L.L. Bean had a commercial this year that was very refreshing to see.
The "waiting up for Santa" theme that they chose was very cute, and the
product they advertised was oddly appropriate. Headlamps aren't much of a
hot commodity these days, but the children
wearing the headlamps to spot Santa in the chimney was a fun idea! It
is a mild commercial that had a low key advertisement, they didn't push
their products too hard. L.L. Bean has a very classy was of making their
reliable items demonstrate their usefulness
and look very appealing. Their advertisement was relateble, therefore
it was effective.
My favorite commercial of 2012 is in fact a commercial that is not just
from this year. Every year, Hershey's Kisses have the same Christmas
bell commercial. People love it because it marks the beginning of the
holiday season every year. This is a risk on Hershey's
part, as many advertisements are innovative, flashy, and new. New
commercials can be eye catching and sell a lot of products. By using the
same commercial every year, Hershey's risks being out done by
competition. That being said, I feel that they are respected
for going with a tradition. By sticking with the old, Hershey's has a
widely recognizable commercial that people look forward to seeing.
As everyone knows it’s
December. With December here it brings the joyful holidays. With this a
lot of companies start to advertise their great deals that they will
have. As I was watching TV the other day, I noticed
how Walmart started to show off their cheap deals. We all know that
Walmart is known for their cheap deals. They know a lot of people are
struggling in this economy right now. They show off their big TV’s that
can sell for a cheap price. One way they do this
is by saying they will beat other companies deals. I saw one commercial
that Walmart created a challenge. The challenge was that you could get
cheaper deals at Walmart. The person went to one store and bought
certain items. After they did this they went to
Walmart and did the same thing. At Walmart they got the same things for
cheaper. Walmart is really good at targeting certain audiences.
One audience that Walmart
tries to get is men. Who wouldn’t want to watch your favorite football
team on a big HD TV? I definitely would. Walmart is really good at
showing off these big TVs. With this they are targeting
men by talking about sports with the big TVs. In one of the commercials
it shows a big man trying to buy a TV. The man says the family loves to
watch the TV during the holiday seasons. He then says that it has to be
big so everyone can see it. The man that’s
working at Walmart then points out a TV that would be big enough, and
in a price range that is affordable. Walmart targets these men that can
afford this for a great price. They make you want to buy a big TV that
the whole family can enjoy. The ad seems to
be very effective for this. I think a lot of men will go and buy a big
cheap TV. They will want to enjoy some great football and basketball
games on it.
Another target that they
want to hit are women. In one of the commercials they show a women that
just got back from shopping from Walmart. The women had gotten
groceries. After she puts down the groceries, she starts
to dance. The camera later reveals that her husband and child are
watching her. The kid then says “mom must have gone to Walmart.” This
shows that the woman was very happy with her purchases at Walmart. It
doesn’t clearly show if she got the items for cheap
or not, however it does show that she was happy. I think a lot of women
that go shopping for groceries want the cheapest, and good quality
groceries they can find. In the ad you can clearly see that the women is
happy with her purchases there. I find that
the ad was pretty good. It doesn’t clearly show why she is happy, but I
think we can assume it has to do with the price. She bought a lot of
items, so I would assume the prices were pretty cheap.
I’ve seen so many Walmart
commercials that show families getting cellphones together. Walmart
claims that you can get cheaper phones there. There is a commercial of a
husband and wife buying cell phones for their
family. They are so happy by getting the phones for cheap and they are
nice phones! They also get a deal that they 100 dollars for every phone
they buy. The phones that they buy now can help keep the family
connected. The commercial is pretty effective for
many reasons. First off you are getting a hundred dollars every time
you buy a cell phone. That will help out a lot for buying more items.
The other reason is they include your family being connected. You want
your family to be as connected as much as possible.
By buying these phones you get them for cheap and your family stays
connected.
Overall Walmart does a
good job with their commercial ads. They can target certain types of
people for their products. They show they can sell products for cheap
and they can still be good products. Everyone wants
his or her products to be cheap but still good. This is what Walmart
tries to do with their products. Their ads definitely play a big part
during the holiday season!
The following are Christmas commercials that stood out the most to me because of their uniqueness. Some of them are from other countries while others are a lot closer to home:
This commercial aired in Ireland this year and is a day in the life of the host of the family Christmas or holiday get together! I think they did a fantastic job of showing how much work and preparation that goes into a family Christmas meal. I watched a couple Irish Christmas commercials and two things are very prominent in all of them: a very large Christmas chicken/turkey and party hats made into a crown-type shape out of what looks like construction paper.
I believe this advertisement is very relate-able for mothers and grandmothers who prepare a huge dinner and all of the decorations and arrangements that goes into the family Christmas gathering. It is a lot of fuss and effort, but once the day finally comes, all of the hassle and work is worth it because of the love of your family and the magical day that is Christmas. I believe that Morrison's did a great job of capturing the tough and demanding parts of the holiday season as well as the joys and celebration of the day itself.
Finally, the Coca-Cola annual Christmas commercials are here, and they are as full of festivity and happiness as always expected. Coca-Cola wanted to bring back that high budget Christmas advertising fund that they have every year, and they did that by creating a commercial that is meant to bring everyone to believe that Santa is real and he's coming to "any city in the world" on December 25th. Santa sends a very large puppet of himself that requires many people to operate, and the believers march the puppet around town in an attempt to make people believe that Santa is on his way. They involve people of all races, ages, shapes and sizes trying to target everyone in the world with this commercial.
Coca-Cola did a great job with this advertisement because, yes, their brand name was noticeable the whole time, but it was not overboard and in the viewer's face, so I believe that helped the effectiveness of the advertisement. The only time of the year that I drink Coca-Cola's products is Christmas time, and I strongly believe that the holiday commercials and cans make it somewhat of a past time for Americans. Their commercials have become so memorable and are looked forward to every year. Although this is not the infamous polar pear ads that they do, this one will be remembered for the its cool puppetry and the ideas of family and believing in Santa are all present and heart-warming.
John Lewis is and Irish company that has created a fantastic commercial that I have officially deemed my favorite of all time. The creativity and film-like qualities in this commercial all add up to a great story with a heart warming plot. The cinematography in this commercial are remarkable and the idea is even better. I love the fact that the snowman is shown standing still while the environment of his journey moves all around him while the only thing that the viewer see's that moves on the snowman is his facial expressions and arms. Although the viewer does not specifically see the snowman moving, the angle and bottom of the snowman were shaped, so that the snowman looks like he is on the move. I had never heard the background song, but the epicness and drama of the song fit perfectly with what is going on in the story.
The children at the beginning built the snowmen, which already makes people feel like they are special. When the little girl looks out the window the next morning and the snowman is gone without his snowoman, it makes the girl sad and confused. The whole idea of doing anything for the person you love is wonderful and displayed in a different and creative way. I love the uniqueness as well as the fact that it is different from many other Christmas commercials that have become repetitive, boring and annoying. When the commercial started, I wanted to know what was happening. I started asking myself questions like "Why is the snowman missing?" and "Where is he going?" This is a great way to market your store by giving people something that they will remember when they see your store logo. It was brilliant that they didn't show any affiliation of what company it was until the end where you feel satisfied, and the good feelings that came with seeing the snow-people in love were had while their name comes up on the screen.
In the following paragraphs I will be reviewing as well as critiquing the advertisements/commercials that Target has made for this holiday season:
Target's first Christmas television advertisement was released October 11, 2012. They decided to go all in and as soon as they could by releasing this commercial as early as what many would consider the beginning of October and early even for the likes of Halloween commercials, which was a mere few weeks ahead.
Target Audience: Everyone. I didn't see anything in the commercial that would point me to believe that a certain demographic was in aim with this ad, but some could argue that pet or dog lovers were in sight.
Main Objective:Target came out with this ad very early pushing the idea that holiday shopping at their store was going to be "big", which is why there is a giant dog who has a bag full of giant presents. They wanted to get everyone in the mindset of shopping for their loved ones for the holiday season, and by being early they were hoping to be the first department store to advertise for Christmas, so that Target would be the first thing the consumer thinks of when they think of Christmas shopping.
Effectiveness:I believe this advertisement was released much too early to the point where the customer would become annoyed. Much like political ads, Christmas advertisements can become very annoying and repetitive. I understand that Target wanted to be the first of their kind to be on television promoting Christmas shopping, and their efforts to be first were successful, but I believe their success with being first also had a slightly higher downside. (A good article about this subject)
One thing is for sure: Target officially started the panicked state that comes every Christmas season a little early for my grandmother this year.
Target has become well known for their over-enthusiastic Christmas people in their holiday commercials over the year. This is one of their Black Friday advertisements that came near Thanksgiving, but how well did it work?
Target Audience: Young Adults, Teenagers, Parents and Grandparents. Target focused on all of the people who go nuts on Black Friday, which I can say that I am guilty as charged. A lot of teenagers and young adults make and event out of Black Friday that involves socializing as well as shopping. It was also aimed towards adults and parents who need to buy gifts for their friends and family. The young adult girl who is circling everything and going crazy about
all the "fantastic" deals appeals to young women as well as young men.
Main Objective: The main idea of this commercial is stated many, many times: they want everyone to come to Target and buy things for all the people you know and love as well as treating yourself to a self given gift... or 5. The idea that you can buy someone in your family a present that can also benefit yourself such as a TV or and Xbox all while getting a great price. The point is that you can buy all your gifts for your friends and family as well as yourself. Target wanted to push this idea so that people would feel okay to buy something that they wanted for themselves and not feel bad about it.
Effectiveness: I believe that the Christmas-crazy duet is much too over the top in this commercial. I do not disagree with buying yourself something on Black Friday, but the commercial comes off as corny and over-the-top. I actually saw this commercial on Thanksgiving, and I was in no way encouraged to go to Target to shop, but I had plans to go Black Friday shopping that night, so I can vouch for the fact that my demographic was not successfully effected by this ad. I think this commercial was successful, however, with the obsessive compulsive Christmas buying crazy machines that go nuts when the holiday shopping time comes around every year.
Target switches it up on this advertisement and focuses on the idea of buying all of your Christmas party needs at their stores steering away from solely shopping for Christmas gifts.
Target Audience: Mothers, Women and Home-owners. This ad focuses on reeling in business from people who are having Christmas parties this holiday season. The main character in focus is a good-looking young woman who mothers of all ages can associate with because they have all been that age or currently are of that age.
Main Objective: The goal of this commercial was to make the host of a Christmas party think that if they go to Target and purchase all of their party needs that their party would be successful and everyone would love it. All the women in this ad are of various ages (and are of course attractive and appear wealthy) and look as if they are having the time of their lives at this woman's Christmas party. Target can make your Christmas party magical and everyone will love it, well that's what they want you to believe!
Effectiveness: I think that everyone who sees this advertisement knows better than to think that their Christmas party will be completely perfect and that everyone will have the time of their lives just because they bought their party supplies at Target. I think it is a very good way to get people in the Christmas spirit, but it is also very unrealistic rendition of a common person's Christmas party.
It looks like Santa isn't the only one who has little helpers when Christmas time comes rolling around into this family's home. They get a little surprise from the nutcrackers that they bought at Target.
Target Audience: Children, parents and grandparents. Almost everyone loves kids, and this is a perfect example of using children in advertising to target parents and well as grandparents who frantically try to get their children the toy they desired.
Main Objective: Children are a great way to tug at the heart strings of people, but especially that of parents and grandparents who buy presents for the children in their families. I think that was what Target was going for with this advertisement, and I believe they did a good job. This commercial brings together the spirit of children's happiness, Christmas decorations and all leads to the point that Target has all of your holiday need.
Effectiveness: I think that this commercial is a classic Christmas commercial that would be heartwarming especially if the target logo wasn't so prominent. It is good because it doesn't seem like a commercial, but more like a short story revolved around the common young family household. This is a very sentimental and close to home feeling commercial.
A commercial with a comedic side of parents trying to get their kids the perfect gift and the joy that comes with success.
Target Audience: Parents, but specifically fathers. Targeting the dad (or mom/grandparent) who wants to get their child the perfect Christmas gift.
Main Objective:The main objective is to appeal to all of the parents and grandparents who buy the gifts for their children/grandchildren and hope that it is the perfect gift. When it is the perfect gift, the kids freak out and it gives the parent and unexplainable feeling that they had been hoping for when they bought the gift. Target is also trying very hard to push their customers to use their Target branded credit card offering 5% back and free shipping online. They try to push it in all of their holiday commercials, but this is one where it stood out the most.
Effectiveness: I believe this commercial does a fantastic job of bring a comedic side to buying Christmas gifts all while they associate the happiness of their children because the dad uses a Target REDCard. I think that this connection is a little far fetched, but it is so entertaining that it does not stick out to someone who is not analyzing the commercial. The hugging and the over-the-topness works very well for this commercial, and is definitely a good laugh.
How much do political ads really matter? This year
campaigns will spend a good $3 billion on broadcast television ads. Yes,
that is 3 billion dollars. A positive light shed on negative ads is
that when the ad is negative, people
tend to pay more attention to it. There was a study in 2005 in the
American Journal of Political Science where colleagues found that
campaign ads that make people feel fear caused people to go out and get
more information and research politics.
Ads that had upbeat music or happy
children that generated good feelings of enthusiasm reduced viewer’s
interest and they didn’t go out to research the different candidates of
elections. It seems to go that when a candidate
is ahead in the election, they would use positive ads and save the
negative ads for when they’re behind.
Campaigners need to shake things up and
make people anxious about different candidates when they’re behind.
Sometimes they would be wary about using negative ads because of a
backlash, however campaign workers see signs that
negative ads can break through party affiliations and can also sway
independent voters.
There were many people who kept commenting on the
body language in the first debate. Many were claiming Obama wasn’t
giving Romney the attention or respect he deserved and he kept looking
down at his notes. Some people argued
that he was directing his attention at the audience and ‘America’.
After so many comments from the nation about body language, I took a
moment and decided to pay closer attention to president Barack Obama and
Mitt Romney.
Firstly, body language is a non-verbal
communication we make both consciously and unconsciously. Body language
is important (especially in an election during debates) because it’s how
we judge one another. Some studies suggest
over 50% of our judgments are visual.
The third debate was a close tie on who
had the better body language. Both candidates were behind a desk, which
gave the audience more of a clear vision of their facial expressions.
Personally on this debate I think Obama looked
more comfortable and sure of himself. His smile looks genuine, which is
a big likeability quality. Romney also did well, definitely more
centered (not much swaying). However, Romney looked more stressed. He
stammered more than Obama did and didn’t seem to
have that confidence he did on other debates. All-in-all both
candidates did well in presenting themselves.
The other day I was watching TV and then it went to
commercials. The following commercials that I saw were completely ads
for campaigns. It was unbelievable! The first two were about Obama. Then
there was a short ad for the
governors, which I do not remember who they are. The final two that
came on were Mitt Romney. There were no other commercials that went on.
To me it was kind of funny. At this point it’s just annoying how many
ads they are putting up on TV. However, I can
see how it could change some people’s minds.
The content of these commercials were a
little bit different. The first one that Obama had go out was putting
Mitt Romney down. It showed how his economic plan will not work. The
second one that showed was showing how he has
helped so much. The second commercial was trying to make him look as
good as possible. Mitt Romney’s first ad was quite similar because he put down
Obama for not getting us out of this economic situation. The second ad
showed how he would fix the economy if he was
voted president. Both the ads were set up to tear down their opponent,
and then make themselves look great. I thought the tactics they used
were actually pretty affective.
So you’re probably wondering why Ohio
has all these ads. Ohio plays a huge roll in the election. It is
probably the biggest swing state. That would be a great reason for all
of these ads. To me it gets kind of annoying but it
has to be done. Obama has spent 852.9 million on advertising. Romney
has spent 752.3 million. Obama seems like he will have more TV
commercials going out as we get closer to Election Day.
However you look at it Ohio is a big
state for Election Day. As long as this state stays a swing state there
will always be a lot of ads. We will definitely have to get used to all
of them!
During the Presidential debates, it is hard to imagine the pressure that the two candidates for the presidency feel, but sometimes the pressure may affect their facts or what they say. They said that Obama's plan was to be on attack, which he was while Romney was trying to make sure everyone knew that he was not a huge advocate of war. Mitt Romney's laid back approach was probably due to the fact of the momentum and increasing support of his campaign over the past couple weeks.
President Obama was said to have won the debate by a large majority, but polls have shown that Mitt Romney's first huge victory in the first presidential debate made him the overall winner of the three. Many facts and accusations were thrown out during the debate, and I think that the article and video (that are linked below) really help to decide what was fact and what was the truth.
FACT: In the ABC News video, it shows that Romney did say that Detroit needed to go through a managed bankruptcy stating, "The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk." President Obama insisted that Romney was not telling the truth about this, but he was incorrect.
FACT: Governor Romney also stated that, "I'm saying in terms of a geopolitical opponent, the nation that lines up with the world's worst actors. Of course, the greatest threat that the world faces is a nuclear Iran." The Governor was talking about Russia being the biggest geopolitical foe and competition in the UN rather than in nuclear or warfare of any kind.
FACT: Massachusetts led in areas of Math and English scores of the National Assessment of Educational Progress while Romney was governor, and the results continued to increase over the course of his tenure.
FACT: When President Obama said that happened 10 years earlier, he was referring to the 1993 state law that led to the creation of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System. The law influenced the increase of money being invested into education and resulted in improved test scores over time. Obama was correct about the law being passed before Romney was elected as Governor, but the test scores are results from that plan and prospered through Romney's cuts of that program.
FICTION: Mitt Romney stated that President Obama was silent during the students protests, but that is not correct. The President spoke twice saying that he was "deeply troubled" by what he was seeing on 6/15/09 and was quoted eleven days later saying, "Despite the (Iranian) government's efforts to keep the world from bearing witness to that violence, we see it and we condemn it." He was later quoted in December that saying that The United States was joining with the international community to condemn the violence and suppression of the innocent." Governor Romney was wrong about the President being silent.
MOSTLY FICTION: President Obama stated that Governor Romney agreed with his plan of sending troops into Libya and that Romney wanted to take the troops out before Qaddafi was taken out of power or defeated. Romney previously stated that he support President Obama's "specific, limited mission", which he said the President had defined "as humanitarian: We would enforce a no-fly zone to prevent Libyan forces from bombing civilians. I support that." Romney also stated that "to succeed, Qaddafi must go and go for good", and attacked the President, saying, "it is apparent that our military is engaged in much more than enforcing a no-fly zone." President Obama was not correct when criticizing what Romney said previously on Lybia and Qaddafi.
MOSTLY FICTION: In President Obama's first trips after being elected, he did in various speeches and interviews acknowledge mistakes made by the United States. An example is found when he was in Cairo, "Nine-eleven was an enormous trauma to our country. The fear and anger that it provided was understandable, but in some cases, it led us to act contrary to our traditions and our ideals. We are taking concrete actions to change course." Many are saying that this is far from an apology tour. President Obama never technically apologized for the actions of the United States.
MOSTLY FICTION: President Obama stated the Governor Romney, a few weeks ago, said that he thought there needed to be more troops in Iraq right now. Mitt Romney has never said such a comment, but did state back in March that we should have negotiated an agreement with the Iraqis that would have allowed a follow-on force of about 20,000 troops after the withdrawal of combat forces. The President's Administration actually attempted to negotiate such an agreement but the talks failed.
An ABC News video that reviews the fact and fiction of the debate.
An article doing a fact check of the Third Presidential Debate.
As a presidential candidate, stakes are pretty high; to win
people over with your words and ideas, is to receive a vote that you
didn’t have before. I understand how the candidates feel that
exaggerations or ideals can
win extra voters, but the fact that they have been utilizing ‘loose
truths’ has caused me to lose respect for each of them.
The Daily Beast was able to specifically address Romney’s consistent claim of Obama going on an “apology tour”.
If you’re going to make a solid claim, and address it in each
debate, I really hope to God that it is a factual statement.
Unfortunately for Romney, “Fact-checkers at Politifact, the Washington
Post, and FactCheck.org have gone over those speeches Romney
refers to and have concluded, time and again, that President Obama made
no apologies for the United States.” The article goes on to explain
that Obama has acknowledged that our country has made mistakes in the
past, but “not once did he apologize”.
Obtaining the role of the American President requires a sense
of maturity that, quite honestly, I’m not sure that Mitt Romney has.
When Barack Obama acknowledged the past mistakes the US made, it was his
way of showing
the world that he is aware, and that he intends to make the future
better than the past. This was a risky move, but for Mitt Romney to call
it an “apology tour”, shows disrespect and lack of understanding.
My point here is not to favor one candidate over the other. I
chose this article merely because it highlighted the subject that caught
my attention; Mitt Romney pounded the "apology tour" and he was
inconsistent with his
reasoning. This landed him no where in my book, demonstrating that
clinging to a 'loose truth' leaves you with egg on your face at the end
of the day; lying to the general public in a leadership position gets
you no where.
Over the course of the presidential debate, I have noticed people being incredibly rude about their political beliefs. I believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but I do not agree with verbally abusing someone's beliefs whether on Twitter or to their face. In the video above, Anna mentions that there are places and times to talk about it and not to talk about it. If two people are having a peaceful and calm discussion (rather than argument) where they state their beliefs and are willing to listen to the other person, that is a fantastic thing. Many people feel as if they have to defend their beliefs and hate the other side/beliefs. I believe that the hatred of the other side completely unnecessary, and that a person should respect other people as well as their opinions.
We are an opinionated people and are entitled to speak upon our opinions, but with the mask/shield of social media in the common era, people feel much more comfortable sending out that tweet about how "Mitt Romney is a rich white sleaze bag" or "Barack Obama is ignorant and isn't a citizen of the United States." A great rule of thumb is not to use "name-calling" while speaking your opinion. Respect others whether they are in agreement with your beliefs or not.
Always use the complete truth or facts when you are discussing politics because it is very hard to respond to someone when they are saying something that isn't true. It will be very beneficial to both sides of the discussion if you will refrain from insulting the person themselves or their lifestyle. If you get sucked into an argument or a discussion turns into a heated and/or disrespectful argument, the best exit strategy is to say nothing at all or refrain from saying something rude or disrespectful. It can be extremely difficult to hold your tongue, but it is very necessary. There is no reason why friends, family or acquaintances should hate/dislike one another because of a heated argument about politics.
Politics does bring out very strong and/or passionate feelings because it greatly involves the person's life in many ways such as the following: money, religion, family or their futures. That being said, many people feel as though they need to defend their beliefs with a dagger in hand or the inner monster is unleashed. It does take a lot of effort to respect people's opinions, but always resort to etiquette including respect, consideration and honesty.
As I sat watching the debate on Monday I wondered
what was going to happen. The past two debates have had President Obama
and Mr. Romney at each other’s necks. The last debate however seemed to
be a bit more relaxed. However,
as I sat watching I thought that they seemed to get a bit off topic.
The debate on Monday was supposed to be about foreigh affairs, and the two did talk about these issues, but it seemed as though Mr. Romney agreed with President Obama. I would say about a half hour in is when things started to get a bit off topic. They began to talk about education and the teachers and class size, which seemed to be a hot topic since they both had different opinions on the matter. I am not saying that this is not an important issue, but we were here to talk about foreign affairs. They've both already had enough time to talk about these issues. For them to bring it up during this topic showed that foreign policies aren't that important to either of them. When they would talk about foreign policies, it seemed as though they both had the same ideas. Maybe they should have picked a different topic to cover for the final debate.
Getting off topic again, the President and Governor Romney moved on to the economy and jobs. Now this is a very big topic for them. A lot of people want to know what will be different if President Obama is reelected or Governor Romney is elected as the President. The thing that bothered me the most about this was they (once again) already had time for this. The debate became very boring because they would bring up ideas and issues that we've already heard them discuss in other debates. What I wanted to know is their viewpoints on foreign affairs. I did learn some good things from both candidates, but it seemed as if they both stood for the same things.
A bad lip reading of the Third Presidential Debate:
This following tweets were selected from the #debates section of Twitter during the final Presidential Debate that took place on 10/22/12 at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. The timeline is formatted so that the beginning of the debate is at the top, and the end of the debate is at the bottom.
Rotten Tomatoes, a website dedicated to giving ratings on movies, has many interesting ways of analyzing whether the movie is worth watching. They use a system of grading movies by using the phrases "fresh" (means the movie was very good) or rotten (meaning the movie was terrible). They have a collection of movie analysts and participants who give their opinions about specific movies.
Zombieland was a great success of a movie according to Rotten Tomatoes. It recieved a 90% (192 Fresh and 22 Rotten) on the tomatometer, which is that total percentage of Tomatometer Critics that enjoyed the movie or approved it as "fresh". They described the movie as the following: "Wickedly funny and featuring plenty of gore, Zombieland is proof that the zombie subgenre is far from dead." The percentage of audience members that enjoyed it was 87%, which is considerably high for a movie compared to others on the website.
Some of those who approved of the movie said things such as the following:
"Now this isn't the most violent film I've ever seen, but it is
certainly one of the only films in which the infliction of violence
(gut-churning violence) brings people together. And to that I say ...
finally!"
-Simon Miraudo, Quickflix
"Scattershot but sharp, this postapocalyptic road comedy gives Shaun of the Dead a run for its money."
-Cliff Doerksen, Chicago Reader
"This is proof that horror movies can really be funny. It wasn't just the
violent humor, but the little sidetrips for twinkies and Bill Murray's
zombie makeup that sent this film into zombie heaven."
-Paul Chambers, CNN
Those who disapproved of Zombie said the following:
"Yes, it's got zombies. Yes, it's got jokes. But it's soulless - dead behind the eyes."
-Robbie Collin, News of the World
"Has a few flashes of genre-bending inspiration ... but the rest
is a little too low-key and obvious to really set this zombie comedy
apart."
-Mark Dujsik, Mark Reviews Movies
"Watching a 12-year-old Abigail Breslin killing zombies with
semi-automatic weapons doesn't do much for me, but I'm sure there are
many audiences that will remark, "cool." Gratuitous violence never
seemed so cheap."
-Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
Because of such a high approval rating, I would say that those who did not like Zombieland are not fans of the "zombie killing good time" aspect. Maybe they are saying that only the audience is supposed to have fun watching the zombies get killed, rather than the people in the actual movie having a good time killing the zombies. I totally agreed with most of the positive reviews of this film. I believe the idea of the movie and for having a first time director, they did a great job making the movie appeal to horror movie fans as well as those who like comedy all in one movie experience. Overall, Zombieland was a definite success in my book and many others.
Zombieland
and The Walking Dead have some similarities and some differences. To start with
they both are both about zombies. They have people that try to survive the
zombie apocalypse. We find that both have people that want to survive. The
people join together to create a family/team to survive. This is always crucial
in zombie movies. There are also some major differences with these two.
One
Zombieland is a movie. They do not have as many characters in the movie as The
Walking Dead does. Since The Walking Dead is a show they can have a lot more
characters. They can make their show last a lot longer. The Walking Dead can
add and take away as many characters as they want. Zombieland can do this,
however they are limited since there are only four main characters.
In
a zombie movie the zombies are a huge factor. You can see that the zombies are
kind of different in the two. In The Walking Dead the zombies are a little bit
slower. They walk instead of running. This to me does not build up as much
suspense. In Zombieland the zombies are fast and will run after you. This can
make scenes a little intense. You never really know if the person is fast
enough to get away. However, in The Walking Dead the zombies seem a bit
smarter. They are able to pick up on human’s scents. They can also pick up on
lights and movement very easily. In Zombieland the zombies cannot tell the
difference between human scents and zombies. So in a way both can build up
suspense by using different factors.
Another
huge difference to me is character development. In shows you can see character
development come on slowly. However, for movies they need to move a bit faster.
You can see in The Walking Dead characters wont change until a little later in
some of the episodes. In Zombieland the characters will change pretty rapidly.
About an hour in you can see a certain character to change his attitude. I
think this is why some people like shows better than movies. You can fit more
things in for a show.
Within the first few minutes you
find a very thin line between humor and classical gore in Zombieland. The movie
sets up this post-apocalyptical time and a quick gruesome
zombie-flesh-eatingscene quickly masked
by a layer of comedic satire. The reason that this worked well together was
because director Ruben Fleischer focused not mainly on the undead, but the
living.
I also believe the choice of actors
and actresses had a huge role in making a film like this work. Harreleson and
Eisenberg are an unbeatable team when it comes to wit and humor, they owned the
movie. Harreleson proves to be a typical badass, while Eisenberg has this emo,
anti-social personality and with them combined you’re in for a few laughs.
Stone and Breslin (sisters) have a
different agenda of their own. You soon find out they steal Harreleson and
Eisenberg’s car and guns (but eventually meet back up). Emma Stone has the
sexy-sass that makes an audience wish they could either be her, or be with her.
And Abigail Breslin has the younger but tough outer shell down pat and
authentic.
I believe that without the cast,
the film would have been a flop. The humor, gore and sometimes too clichéd
storylines made Zombieland exactly what it was supposed to be. A violent but
humorous zombie-killing good time.
Above is a comparison between the zombies of Zombieland (top photo) and
that of The Walking Dead (bottom photo) television show on AMC, which is currently
about to begin its' third season. I believe that the make-up artistry in
The Walking Dead is a little more advanced and detailed because it is a horror/drama television show rather than a
comedy/horror film. I am very impressed by the makeup done in
Zombieland, but it was not as high quality as the television show that
came out just a year later.
Above is a comparison between the zombies of Zombieland (top photo) and
Dawn of the Dead (bottom photo). The zombies in Zombieland were much
higher quality then that of the 2004 film Dawn of the Dead. I believe
the reason for this is that the advancement in the quality and
experience of makeup artists between 2004 and when Zombieland came out
in 2009. As I mentioned above, Zombieland was a comedy/horror film while
Dawn of the Dead is solely a horror film, which makes Zombieland's makeup
very impressive.
After
watching the Zombieland, I was very impressed. The movie has a very good
beginningby starting with the main
character reading off his rules for survival. This shows that the main
character, “Columbus”, is smart about surviving. The movie throughout is very interesting though. As a zombie
movie I thought that it would be a kind of scary movie. However, you find out
very fast that it will be funny. Jessie Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson are the
main characters. This right away can show that it will be a comedy. Not to
mention that they putt Bill Murray in the mix later in the film!
Jesse Eisenberg’s character’s
name is Columbus. He goes by this because he wants to get to Ohio to see if his
parents are still alive. As he is traveling down the highway, he meets up with
a character by the name of “Tallahassee”, who is played by Woody Harrelson.
Tallahassee is very interesting because he is the total opposite of Columbus.
He likes to kill zombies and really does not have rules. As they travel
together, they get to know each other and eventually come to a grocery store.
They do this because Tallahassee wants to get one of his beloved Twinkies. When
they are in the grocery store, they kill zombies and find two girls. The girl’s
names are Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). At first the
girls seem harmless, but then steal Columbus and Tallahassee’s car and weapons.
After this great setback,
Tallahassee and Columbus get another car and head down the highway. Tallahassee
and Columbus eventually meet up with Wichita and Little Rock again. However, this
time they ride together. Wichita and Little Rock tell them where they want to
go. They tell them about a place in Los Angeles, which is a theme park that is
supposedly zombie free. As they head to LA, they stop in a mansion. In this
mansion they find another person. This person that they find is no other than
Bill Murray. After spending some time there Wichita leaves and Columbus goes
after her. Tallahassee feels obligated to go with him. As they chase after them
they eventually get to the theme park. At this theme park there are zombies
that are chasing Wichita and Little Rock. At the end of the movie the four of
them feel like they have all become great friends. They all join each other and
drive away with each other.
The movie to me was very good.
It gave a different approach on zombies. It made running from zombies seem not
as scary. As in other shows and movies zombies seem a little smarter. However,
in this movie they only seemed faster. The whole movie keeps you entertained
with laughter. To me I really liked this since it was something new to me. I
would definitely recommend this to people who want to have a good laugh. This
is not your ordinary zombie movie, and it proves that comedy can be in a zombie
movie!
Zombieland was an attempt to make a laughable and comedic
representation of a zombie apocalypse. The four main characters (really the
only characters in the movie besides Bill Murray as himself) are Columbus
(Jesse Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Wichita (Emma Stone) and
Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). As the story goes on, the viewer may seem to
find a connection to the four characters because they are the only four human
beings who really are a focal point of the movie. The main goal of the four humans
was to make it to “Pacific Playland” outside of Los Angeles so that the 12
year-old Little Rock could have a little piece of her childhood because it was
close to impossible to have an enjoyable childhood in a nation covered with
zombies.
The beginning of the movie was a perfect satire of a zombie
apocalypse while showing some gruesome scenes of zombies eating flesh and
chasing human survivors all while making a game out of surviving the hoard of
zombies that were trying to kill and eat everyone. It used every day situations
such as a marriage and a little girls birthday party where the bride and the
little girls dressed up as princesses were mutated into zombies and were
attacking those around them who were still human. I believe that they did a great
job of setting the tone for the movie.
Columbus is the “main” character so to speak because the
movie starts of with his character and he plays the role of the narrator for
the remainder of the movie. He is a very awkward anti-social guy who likes to lock
himself in his room and play World of Warcraft and drink Code Red Mountain Dew
for the majority of his days. He is in Texas where he was going to college and
starts his journey by trying to make his way to Columbus, Ohio where his
parents live. Columbus, by narration, tells us that the zombie apocalypse
started when a person ate a “contaminated burger” and a Gas-N-Gulp, which is a
very silly reason compared to other zombie movies such as a terrible disease accidentally created by scientists or some sort of sickness transferred from
infected animals.
Columbus runs into the second character that we meet who
goes by the name of Tallahassee. If you couldn’t tell before, they all go by
the names of where they are from or where they are headed, so that they do not
become too close in case someone were to die or be turned into a zombie.
Tallahassee is the “bad-ass” character in the movie who was “in the business of
kicking ass even before zombies.” He tells us that the only thing he really
loved was his “puppy” named Buck who he lost to the zombies, but we later come
to find out that Buck was his little boy who was taken by the zombies.Tallahassee only has one weakness, his love
for Twinkies, which is displayed throughout the movie.
Columbus and Tallahassee run into Little Rock and Wichita at
an abandoned grocery store when the girls trick them into giving them all of
their guns and their car. After being scammed and robbed, they have a better
stroke of luck and find a Hummer full of automatic guns as well as shotguns and
pistols in the backseat, but are later tricked by Little Rock and Wichita again
except this time they all decide to stick together. Wichita (played by Emma
Stone) is the older sister of Little Rock who can only be described as the
confident and sexy girl who will do whatever it takes to survive and keep her
sister alive. She was the popular girl, much unlike Columbus, so it was easy to
see that they would fall in love eventually.
On their journey they end up at Bill Murray's house in
Hollywood where Columbus shoots Bill Murray after mistaking him for a zombie.
While at the house, you can begin to see how they all start to bond and become
more friendly and like a family. The next morning, not to Columbus and
Tallahassee’s surprise, the girls are off to find Pacific Playland. Once they
arrive, they turn on all the lights and rides, which generates a lot of visual
and audible stimuli to the zombies who immediately are attracted to the
amusement park. Little Rock and Wichita find themselves in trouble when the
hoard of zombies is too much for them to take. Tallahassee and Columbus come to
the rescue and save the girls from the zombies. Columbus gets the girl and
Tallahassee gets his beloved Twinkie and it is a happily ever after ending.
Now that I have given the layout of the story, I want to
talk about some things that make the movie what it is. The story was written
very well to make something that most people would consider very scary and
gross into a laughable and funny situation while keeping the same sense of
danger of being killed and eaten. The small cast was a good idea because the
story is too short to have more than 4 or 5 main characters because it would
not give the audience enough time to bond with those characters and make them
feel more real. Columbus’ rules were a fantastic addition to the story because
they were very true. Rules such as “Cardio” and “Double Tap” were essential to
surviving in the “United States of Zombieland” as he calls it.
The four characters and their differences make the group of
people very relate-able because there is every type of person. Tallahassee is a
southerner and a father from Texas, Columbus was a nerd and anti-social boy
from Ohio, Wichita was the popular and beautiful girl, and Little Rock was the
young girl who was innocent, but at the same time portrayed qualities of a
tom-boy so to speak. I believed that the whole idea of “Pacific Playland” was a
good sign of hope because it gave them something to look forward to and
something to survive for. The writers did a brilliant job of making Tallahassee
rock-hard on the outside, but still have the soft side of a father as well as
his weakness for Twinkies. The movie brings up a lot of good points about
living in a world filled with zombies such as “enjoying the little things” and
letting off steam by breaking things, so that you wouldn’t go mad in a crazy
world.
I have a little bit of a bias because Jesse Eisenberg is not
one of my favorite actors because of his awkward boy role that he plays in
every single one of his movies, so it was hard to see him just as Columbus and
not as Mark Zuckerberg from The Social
Network or the pizza delivery guy in 30
Minutes or Less. Despite his style of acting, he did a good job in this
movie portraying the nerdy, anti-social type. As for the camerawork, I believe
everything was on par. There was not anything that stuck out to me in the
special effects or editing of the movie, so that was very nice. Everything was
smooth and flowed nicely with the story. The casting in the movie was
fantastic. I believe that Emma Stone is a great actress who, unlike Eisenberg,
can play many different roles and characters in movies without the overflow of
characters from different movies. She is beautiful and played the part very
nicely. Tallahassee, played by Woody Harrelson, was my favorite character and
did a perfect job of matching the personality that was needed for his
character. Little Rock was played by the young actress Abigail Breslin, who was
a good casting job for her part because of the tom-boy yet innocent character
that was needed.
Overall I would give this movie a 9 out of 10, only because
the story at some points of the movie feels a little empty, but that seen very
little in this horror/comedy film. It did a great job compared to Shaun of the
Dead, which is the classic horror/comedy movie. It shied away from Shaun of the
Dead and had a completely new story of its own, which was a relief. This movie
is great for zombie, violence and comedy lovers looking for some laugh out loud
moments as well as those gruesome scenes of zombies tearing up the dead and
eating them. I would definitely recommend this movie.
