Gunpla Ad Analysis + Internal Civil War

So, many of you guys have seen me geek out over one of my passions in this world: Gunpla. In case you didn’t know (which you probably don’t) Gunpla is short for “Gundam Plamo”. Gundam are giant fighting robots from the anime cartoon series “Mobile Suit Gundam”. Plamo is an abbreviation for “Plastic Model”, which of course Gunpla are. What makes them different from typical plastic models is that they are articulate and extremely complicated and fun to build. Even a small set can have 300-400 pieces of plastic.

(Hey! this is a critical thinking media blog post, stop talking about Gunpla and give them the ad analysis!)

(Oh, right, I got It. Wait, who are you?)

(I’m that voice inside your head telling you to get to work! Show the Ad!)

(Cool, I’ve got my own personal assistant. What else can you do?)

(I’ll fry your brain synapses with Dymethyltriptamine until it makes you hallucinate so badly you’ll think you’re a fish donkey chewing zebra tar on a carousel in perpetual motion!)

(Ummm…)

(The AD!!)

(Right, uh, Here it is.)

(Man I love Gundam Barbatos!! 1/144 scale, beautiful piston-operated frame, modular armor components, ----)

(Get to the explanation! You’re wasting Mr. Starace’s time!)

(But--)

(Don’t make me fire up the chemicals donkey boy)

(Fine…)

So it might be hard to find many advertising techniques at first, but, as my dad always says, nitpicking will get you anywhere. So, I’m nitpicking!

OBSERVATION NUMBER ONE: LIGHTING AND SCENERY

First thing that strikes you is the lighting of the AD. The advertisers use the technique of “Gestalt, Subliminal Persuasion” by using that dark, rugged lighting. The entire image is actually “ruggedized” from the surroundings, such as the sparking wires and the rusting terrace, and the explosion-like background during the posing. The appeal to the ruggedness is also appeal to the need to achieve. Ruggedness being associated with toughness gives the resilience to achieve.

OBSERVATION NUMBER TWO: SCALE?

Im not really sure that there is a technique name in this one. But, they do alter the scale of the robot a little bit. First of all, they make it look huge. First by panning the camera angle from the bottom up, making it look like you’re looking up at a giant. Another thing. (Nitpicking detail!)(Shut Up!)(Sorry) is that, you may not notice it, but the legs are massive in scale compared to a normal human body. It kind of creates the illusion of the Gundam being massive. Showing the hugeness of the Gunpla appeals to the need to dominate again, as you are manning this giant fighting robot. It also appeals to the need for prominence, as you would be respected and admired with a massive robot mech.

OBSERVATION NUMBER THREE: WEAPONRY

Not sure if there is a technique in this one either. But it just shows Barbatos posing with a wide range of weapons from katanas to a sniper cannon. That wide range of weapons mirrors Barbatos’ wide range of abilities in the anime. This could appeal to the need to dominate, because this Gundam has the ability to do anything, giving you the tools to do anything.

(Whew, that’s done, I think I’ll go sleep now)

(NO, wrap up the conversation first!)

(But I’m tirrred)

(Don’t make me spark your dendrites to make you hurt)

*BZZZT*

(OWW! OKAY! THAT REALLY STINGS)

(Heh, you like it, dontcha)

*BZZZT*

(OWW! FINE, YOU FINISH IT)

(Okay, if you say so. Well folks, that’s the end of………….DEEZ NU---)

*CRRK*

(NO! I do NOT show that side of me!)

(Hey, how did you--)

(ITS OVER ANAKIN, I HAVE THE HIGH GROUND!)

(What? My name isn’t even---)

*CRRKCRRK*

(Hah, brain freeze from a blueberry smoothie. Let’s see you talk frozen.)

            Whew, sorry about that. Well, to wrap this up. Main points, advertising in Gunpla included a lot of using a need to dominate or achieve. Even if it just is a plastic model, it still appeals as a medium of which you can achieve things. A lot of people have been hooked by this appeal to dominate, even me. Ive spent, what $600 now on these models because they were no longer models, they were how I achieved things.

(Stupid kid, you could use that money for college)

(Well you should go up your Axon Hillock)

(*Gasp* You did not)

*BZZZT*

(OW! Why you---)

*CRRK*

(OWW, Oh its on)

*BZZZT*

*CRRK*

*BZZZT*

*CRRK*

*BZZZT*

*CRRK*
*CRRK*

*BZZZT*

X-Men, Teenage Appeal

So I just watched a cool movie, it’s called “X-Men, Apocalypse”. Yes, this will be a post regarding superheroes, a rip-off of Ethan Lee’s posts (Shout out). In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the trailer so you get an idea.

            So you get the idea, all powerful god person wants to destroy the world, school kid learns he can shoot lasers out of his eyes, person gets their consciousness invaded by a bluish-green guy. It’s a typical day in the X-Men universe. Blah blah blah, same story. There! Move your eyes about 157 pixels to the left, and there’s our discussion. The same story.

            (By the way, if you haven’t noticed yet, I watch a lot of movies. Like you could fill the Titanic at the bottom of the sea with the movies I watch and it would sink straight through earth’s crust into the mantle where even magma couldn’t melt the Titanic because of the sheer mass of movies. Huh, weird analogy. Point is I watch a bunch of movies.)

            So if you haven’t noticed the equation of superhero movies, here it is. Take a beat-up forgotten actor, make him a superhero, pit him against an unbeatable opponent, have him learn some lesson about life, shoot an energy beam into the sky (preferably blue) and have him beat the unbeatable opponent, then kiss the lover and walk into the sunset. Most, if not all superhero movies utilize this formula. The question I ask is simple: why? Why is using a very predictable and repeatable formula effective in creating one of the most popular movie genres?

            First question I ask is: who is this kind of movie marketed to? Simple answer is teenagers like us.

(So ha Mr. Starace, I was able to connect X-Men to Merchants of Cool somehow)

            So (I do like to use “so” to start sentences) first piece of evidence to support the notion, first is using teen rebellion as a product to sell. Many superhero movies include a teenager or young adult of some form or shape, and that figure is often the one pitted against the unbeatable opponent, thus eventually beating the opponent. Teenagers then can transfer themselves into the position of the hero and feel like they can accomplish anything to defeat the unbeatable villain (aka the parents). Selling this idea of conquering the unconquerable appeals to the teenage population, and thus giving a reason to watch those movies.

            Another line of evidence is the use of the Mook and Midriff archetypes presented in Merchants of Cool. For example:

                                                                          

 Mook

   

Midriff

The man in the first picture, (Quicksilver) is a young man, yet still lives in his mother’s basement with videogames. He is also immature most of the time, and cracks a lot of jokes, typical mook. The woman in the second picture, (Psylocke) is a young woman, most likely straight out of the school for gifted children, yet she is shown dressed in scandalous clothes while dominating the battlefield with a really cool laser blade coming out of her arm. The appearance of these two archetypes show the attempt to appeal to the young population, in order to satisfy what the viewers want.

So here’s the reason why the formula for movies work so well. The producers use the same methods over and over again to appeal to the viewers completely unrelated to the story. Once they hit the perfect balance of violence, idiocy, and sexuality, the actual storyline no longer matters, as long as the views appeal to the viewer. So, in a form of laziness, the producers decide to use the same plot over and over again because they already hit what appeals to the viewers.

Adam Savage

Well today, I’m going to idolize about my role model. No-one Chinese, as much as I like Donnie Yen’s fighting style. No sports athlete, Hunther Mayhen has dropped from the ranks. Not even a movie star, even though I do love Harrison Ford with a passion. You may have heard of him, you may not have. It’s Adam Savage.

In case you don’t know him, here’s a picture.

Adam Savage is a famous industrial designer. He’s most well known for his show called “Mythbusters” which he co-hosted with Jamie Hyneman. He previously worked at Industrial Light and Magic, which produced various props and costumes for movies. One of savage’s best known works is the Thermal Detonator from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

Remember this?

Because He's Holding A Thermal Detonator!!

Adam Savage Product.

The reason he is my idol among many is that he is one of the pioneers of a new culture only recently developed: the Maker community. Makers are people who do not simply buy the stuff they need or want, they make it themselves. They have only developed recently because they rely on new technology and machinery to create things. Those things can range from a light-up dragon puppet to a steam punk R2-D2. Savage was a pioneer of the Maker ideology, making him a hero in the Maker community, of which is quickly spreading across the world. Every year, they hold a faire in San Francisco showcasing a lot of Maker productions. Savage always goes to this faire to answer questions while at the top of the world’s largest mousetrap (Rube Golberg Machine). Unfortunately, I couldn’t go this year because of this small thing called a term paper.

                Adam Savage is a celebrity, but not like most celebrities. Your average celebrity is used to market a lot of things, as we have recently learned in class to appeal to a need to achieve, to become like the celebrity by buying the product. However, marketers are unable to market using Savage because it is impossible. By marketing to the Maker community you are marketing to people who learn to make things themselves. The entire ideology is centered around using what you have to achieve, not buying something to achieve. Because of this, it is impossible to market a need to achieve to Makers using celebrities because it goes against the ideology. This is why Savage and other famous makers are not seen in fancy 3d printer commercials or the latest laser cutter.

                So, to sum things up, I look up to Adam Savage because he is the one of the pioneers of an entire culture, and he has not been touched or altered by marketing campaigns, making him a unique kind of celebrity retaining his own morales.

Prius Ad Analysis

Its 11:00, I’m tired, so let’s analyze this ad late-nighters!

(I scanned this using a printer, so it might look a bit funny.)So they use plenty of advertising techniques in this prius ad, and I’m just going to list a couple.

Advante Garde: This is the suggestion that the product puts the user ahead of the times. Of course, you can see this through the futuristic-looking scenery of buildings and hills, along with a road leading into the sun, or the “future.” Using this technique is an appeal to the need dominate, to move forward in the world. They also appeal to the need to escape, to go off into the distance.

Gestalt: Sublimal Persuasion: Here, I’ll talk about the way the lighting is used.  Obviously, it’s artificial, creating an almost dreamlike state with the sun peeking out from half the clouds. This appeals to the need to escape from the real world and into the dreamlike .

Facts and Figures: Here, they use facts to make the product seem more credible. Most people probably don’t understand the facts, they probably just sound good. Using this appeals to the need to satisfy curiosity, satisfying the consumer’s desire to know more.

My Parents Got My Name From A Movie

So I just got news that my aunt and uncle up in Seattle having another child. Congrats to them! I asked if they knew if it was a boy or girl, and they don’t know. I asked if they had a name yet, they asked me to help.  So, as of now, I have no information on my newest cousin.  The name part got me thinking. I always wondered how media could influence the name you gave your child. Then I realized that I, myself, was a sad (no literally, it’s sad) result of media affecting my name.

So here’s the story. My parents were watching a movie in a movie theater, knowing that I was about to get slapped into the world soon. The movie was the 1994 movie “Legend of the Fall”, a Brad Pitt movie about life in the west during WWI. Brad Pitt’s character was named…you guessed it. My parents liked the name Tristan, so they replaced their previously decided name, Ian, aside in favor of Tristan.( Tristan means sad, so that’s the sad part of the story. Other than that, it was pretty good.)

(What is it with me and R-rated movies? I like Gladiator, Deadpool, Swiss Army Man(look to other post). Well, blah blah blah, you have been warned)

 

               At first, I was a little annoyed that my parents were a bit lazy to name me after a cowboy played by Brad Pitt, but it turns out, they spent months upon months formulating a Chinese name for me, even enlisting my paternal grandpa, who studies Chinese calligraphy. They eventually came up with 林思謙. Of course, you probably can’t read that, so it says “Lin Xi Qian”. Lin being the word for forest, which is my last name, Lam. The words Xi Qian means “to think about respect and humility.” Those three characters pretty much symbolize what I am supposed to live for. My name is unique in Chinese especially because it is a concept, not a concrete object, which is more common. For example, 黄远山, which is “Wong Yuan San”, Wong meaning yellow as a last name, and Yuan San meaning “far mountain.”(Shout-out to Mr. Wong by the way.)
                There is a difference between English and Chinese names. English acts as an identification while Chinese acts as a representation of who you are. So there’s the reason my parents spent more time on Chinese than English.               

So why did they find my name from a movie of all places? I think it just shows the influence of movies in our lives. The media presented to us engraves itself into our minds, thus engraving it into your lives. Nowadays, almost no names are original unless you want this plastered on your chest during interview day.

Because there are no more unique original names, people look elsewhere for information. In my case, it was a movie. In other cases, it could pop up on social media, show up in a magazine. Maybe your parents support Donald Trump so much they name you Donald T. Johnson. The point is media engraves itself in our minds, then subsequently into our lives.

Swiss Army Man

So I just watched this trailer for a new Daniel Radcliff movie on Youtube called the Swiss Army Man.

Warning! The movie is R rated, so you may or may not want to see what’s here. But it does look like a good movie.

After watching this trailer, I want to watch this movie, and I’m not sure why. Why would anyone be interested in a movie about a guy who befriends a talking, flatulent corpse on a desert island? Then I realized that this shows a lot about how we think today. The media fed to me modified my mind to this, and that probably made me interested in this movie, while some might not be so interested.

                I got interested in this movie not for the talking corpse, but for the unusual friendship that was made. Back in the elementary school days, the teachers talked a lot about friendship, so that was where my interest in that came from. Another interest in this film was the kind of creative problem solving done. My parents let me watch various movies with the stranded-on-the-island plot, and I enjoyed the creativity in problem solving. Finally, i liked that I could relate to the corpse.  Not for that he was dead, but that he didn’t know anything about society. I was antisocial for the first decade of my life, so that makes me relatable.

                So its uncommon for someone to like the trailer the exact same ways as me. But it will vary person to person whether they like it or not. It will also vary why they like/dislike it. I am interested in varying reasons why you like or dislike the trailer. Anyways, thank you.

Plastic = Family?

(If you played with Legos, clap your hands!)

(*CLAP-CLAP*)

(Great! Now with the introduction out of the way, watch this video.)

(Awesome, were on track. Time for the analysis.)

So after watching this video, you see that Lego’s advertisements focus a lot on what Lego represents. It isn’t just plastic blocks that snap together so addictlingly satisfyingly. Lego is a medium in which friendship and connection is built. This is a common theme in advertising, where products represent more than they really are. This technique is called Lovemarks.

Lovemarks create loyalty to the product beyond reason. They pretty much draw you into what they try to represent, not actually the utilities of the product. Lego, for example, sells their product for the connections it creates in family, not the plastic blocks. No person would become dedicated to Legos purely because of the plastic, they become dedicated to it because of the ideas the plastic represents.

Now that we’re done with the first analysis, ill move on to the second one because I am not satisfied with the length of this post so far. So here’s another video about a more obscure plastic product.

(This is the product that drew me in. I’ve spent, what, $520, almost $550 on these plastic models.  Well, here’s “Return of the Analysis.”)

                Here, in the case of Gunpla, the advertisers sell the product for its lovemarks again. They sell the ideas of fun with others, or personal achievement. They aren’t a high quality plastic model company, they are a company that sells achievement. They make this clear through their ads as well as a competition they host, to see who can make the best Gunpla model. I was hooked onto this product the first time I built a Gunpla, which was with my dad. So I went for the fact that it built father-son connections, not the fun of building the models.

(Well, I still buy Gunla for the satisfaction they bring. Well, time for this log to come to a stop in 3!...2!...)

So a common technique used in advertising is Lovemarks, where the advertiser makes the consumer dedicated and loyal to the product beyond logical reason. This method is commonly used to exploit people’s desires or wishes to make them dedicated not to the product, but the idea. Because who would say that plastic blocks represent their life?

(Me! And………1!)

Waiting for the Worm to Turn

So here’s one of my favorite songs, and ill explain why I like it. Well, its partial bias because we all know its lead singer.

Waiting for the Worm to Turn

Bourgeoise Tagg

We're waiting for the worm to turn
We're waiting for everybody else to come around to our way of thinking
I think we've found the way that it could be

When you look at me that way, you're keeping me out of touch
With the world that I read about every day
You and I seem so faithless lying here on our backs
Naming every cloud that passes, naming them two by two

We're waiting for the worm to turn
We're waiting for everybody else to come around to our way of thinking
I think we've found the way that it could be

The wars are over, my dragon hunting days are over
They're all behind me for now, I just want to see, how it can be
Counting blessings instead of oughta-bes, counting them two by two

We're waiting for the worm to turn
We're waiting for everybody else to come around to our way of thinking
I think we've found the way that it could be
So while we're waiting for the worm to turn
While we're waiting for everybody else to come
Around to our way of thinking... I'm thinking if you could make love to me

They'll forget about us, the rats can run the race without us
While we disappear without a trace, we can find a hiding place
Well build a house in a tree
Then well pull the ladder up after me and multiply two by two

We're waiting for the worm to turn
We're waiting for everybody else to come around to our way of thinking
I think we've found the way that it could be
So while we're waiting for the worm to turn
While we're waiting for everybody else to come
Around to our way of thinking
I'm thinking if you could make love to me
We're waiting for the worm to turn
We're waiting for everybody else to come around to our way of thinking
I think we've found the way that it could be
So while we're waiting for the worm to turn
While we're waiting for everybody else to come
Around to our way of thinking... I'm thinking if you could make love to me
While we're waiting for the worm to turn
We're waiting for everybody else to come around to our way of thinking
I think we've found the way that it could be
So while we're waiting for the worm to turn
While we're waiting for everybody else to come around

So I love all the parts of this song, but unfortunately, its long, so I’m just going to focus on this section.

Were waiting for the worm to turn
Were waiting for everybody else to come around to our way of thinking
I think we’ve found the way that it could be
The wars are over, my dragon hunting days are over
They're all behind me for now, I just want to see, how it can be
Counting blessings instead of oughta-bes, counting them two by two

I like this phrase because it outlines the problems of today. For the first line, the word “worm” isn’t used as the ground-dwelling type; it’s used as the description of a despicable person. “Waiting for the worm to turn” tells that you wait for the person to turn away from their despicable ways. This leads into the second and third lines, where they want “Were waiting for everybody else to come around to our way of thinking, I think we’ve found the way that it could be.” This shows the description of their ideal world, one where everyone turns away from being a “worm” and joins their “way of thinking”.

For the fourth and fifth lines, they focus on the “wars” and “dragon hunting days.” Both of these phrases have negative connotations that may involve death. The point made is to see what happens when you turn away from the dangerous things, because those days are “behind me for now, I just want to see how it can be.”

Finally, in the final line, is the description of what people to do, which is to “(Count) blessings instead of oughta-bes.” The message given is that you should count the good things that come in life, not the things that you wish would happen.

If you do count the “oughta-bes”, then you would be becoming  the “worm”, going back to the “wars” and “dragon hunting days.”

Well, that’s the end of the analysis. Thank you for reading. To enjoy this song, please press here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HabVZ_3QVN8

Arguments on DJ Trump

Here is some information on Mexico’s least favorite man: Donald Trump. There are two sides to the people around Trump: those who support him, and those who hate his guts. Both of these groups are for a separate and different idea, and unsurprisingly, they create opposite arguments.

                An article by A.J. Degado outlines some of the justifications for going for Trump. On the pro-Trump side, they say that, “His ideas – e.g., a sound immigration policy, returning manufacturing jobs to America, negotiating better trade deals (etc.).” Here they use words with positive connotations to justify the actions of Trump. They use a “sound immigration policy” rather than saying the famous lines “build a wall to keep them out.” The use of doublespeak here changes the plan of building a wall to feel like it’s just a negotiation, not a giant project that ignores ethics. The use of this language blurs the argument, giving it a feeling of security, rather than a feeling of executive action.

            On the anti-Trump side, there is a news article written by Dailymail Reporters. They describe a protest image of Trump as “An effigy of Donald Trump holding a KKK mask was carried in one march.” Here, they use the word “effigy” to describe Trump’s image. Instead of the word “symbol”, the word “effigy is used”. Using effigy instead produces the feeling that instead of representing Trump, that image is actually Trump holding a KKK mask. This in turn creates a feeling of hatred with the use of the KKK instead of a “group of dedicated Caucasian Christians.” The feeling of hatred combined with the effigy of Trump attaches that hatred to Trump himself.

                So both groups, both anti and pro Trump, use these phrases to change the feeling of that argument. The feeling in turn alters the association between the argument and Trump himself. The association then turns into a definition for Trump. So whether you believe that Trump is an economic savior or a member of the Klan, both sides still use the same argument strategy.

            http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/10/22/20-reasons-donald-trump-2016/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3568553/May-Day-rallies-Los-Angeles-carry-strong-anti-Trump-theme.html