Standing Ovation: Jesus is a brand of Jesus

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Jesus is a brand of Jesus

“Jesus is a brand of Jeans,” written by Jean Kilbourne who talks about the world of Advertising. “Ads have long promised us a better relationship via a product: buy this and you will be loved. But more recently they have gone beyond that proposition to promise us a relationship with the product itself: buy this and it will love you. The product is not so much the means to an end, as the end itself.” This quote had really grabbed my attention because it states the true meaning of Advertising. Ads used to be there for us for a support after we buy the product but now it’s all about the “product.” People in today’s society seem to pay attention more to advertising than anything else. This article also talks about the way people have better relationships with products rather than an actual person. A product won’t call people names, won’t tell them everything they are doing wrong. A product is simply a product. “In the world of advertising, lovers grow cold, spouses grow old, children grow up and away – but possessions stay with us and never change.” Everything eventually disappears from us in the real world, but the stuff we own are there with us as long as we want them to be and they don’t ever change.
I agree with the quote, “Ads have long promised us a better relationship via a product: buy this and you will be loved. But more recently they have gone beyond that proposition to promise us a relationship with the product itself: buy this and it will love you. The product is not so much the means to an end, as the end itself,” because I have experienced this in my life as well as every person in the world today has. Advertising is one of those things that are constantly with us and around us no matter where we are. We might not notice that it has an affect on us until we are at the store or somewhere else with products. For instance, a couple weeks ago I went shopping for a pair of white jeans. I went to Wal-Mart, K-Mart, TJ Max, etc., and couldn’t find any pair that I liked or were “in style.” Then once I went to the mall I had ended up buying $50 pair of jeans. Why?? I could have gotten a pair of pants that look about the same for a lot cheaper. Is it because I really liked them or is it because of the brand? I think that advertising plays a big role in our lives when we don’t even realize it.

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Welcome

Welcome to our Eng 100 Blog “Standing Ovation”! The title of this blog refers to the audience of active readers we are creating by sharing our academic writing for Eng 100 with a larger group of students, instructors, academics, and just about anybody who chooses to follow our blog! When you write and post your reader responses here (and, later, as you write your essays for the course), I encourage you to use this audience to conceptualize who you are writing for and, most important, how to communicate your ideas so that this group of academic readers and writers can easily follow your line of thinking. Think about it this way: What do you need to explain and articulate in order for the other bloggers to understand your response to the essays we’ve read in class? What does your audience need to know about those essays and the authors who wrote them? And how can you show your readers, in writing, which ideas you add to these “conversations” that take place in the texts we study?
As students of Eng 100, you will use this blog to begin conversations with other academic writers on campus (students and instructors alike). We become active readers of each other’s writing when we comment on posts here. And, best of all, we are using this space to share ideas! I encourage you to use this blog to further think through the topics and writing strategies you will be introduced to this quarter. As always, be sure to give credit to those people whose ideas you borrow for your own thinking and writing (you should do this in the blog by commenting on their post, but you will also be required to cite what you borrow from your peers/instructors if and when it winds up in your essays. More details on that later).
Finally, keep in mind that writing to and for this audience is a good way to prepare for the panel of readers (faculty at WCC) who will be reading and assessing your writing portfolio at the end of the quarter. I hope that as a large group of active readers, we can better prepare each other for this experience. But, in the meantime, let’s have fun with it!