Midterm Assignment: Part Two

This is my ad of the Brain Fingerprinting system used in action on a criminal by Dr. Lawerence Farwell, the inventor of this futuristic product. I chose to advertise the Brain Fingerprinting system being used and the slogan "Criminals Must Tell The Truth" because I wanted to emphasize the importance of this product and how criminals may think they can get away with murder, but the Brain Fingerprinting system can say otherwise.

Midterm Assignment: Part One

There are many futuristic products today that are being made and used that advertisers could sell to help out the world we live in. The Brain Fingerprinting system is one of many futuristic products from Pop Science’s “Future of” that could be a futuristic product or service used by marketers to manufacture desire, appeal to our emotions, and create a branded “culture”. The Brain Fingerprinting system is a system that is used like a visual lie detector to suck the evidence out of the murderers’ minds by scanning and searching his/her memory without resorting to looking for clues or forcing out confessions. Invented by Dr. Lawrence Farwell, criminals may choose to remain silent, but their brains have no choice, but to confess what they know. It has already been used in a high profile case, where J.B. Grinder, confessed to a murder and was sentenced to prison for life. Advertisers could use three possible techniques with the Brain Fingerprinting system to market this service to us. The three techniques used could be product placement across media, narrowcasting, or emotional branding.


The first technique that could be used by advertisers to market the Brain Fingerprinting system is through product placement across media, such as movies, television shows, etc. Movies and television are very popular among viewers as stated in the video, “The Merchants of Cool” by Douglas Rushkoff, “about 75% of teenagers have a television in their homes” (Frontline, Merchants of Cool). Across the spectrum, movies and television are both a successful business and what better way to promote the Brain Fingerprinting system than to incorporate it and have it used on a television show or movie where the viewers get to see it in action. As stated in another Douglas Rushkoff video, “The Persuaders”, “What if the group of people on the show, Friends, didn’t meet in a New York coffee shop, but instead met in a coffee shop, like Starbucks, it would be a successful product and people would want to come to buy this product” (Frontline, The Persuaders). The same would apply to the Brain Fingerprinting system if shown or used on television or at the movies, people would want to buy this product as well. Some television shows that might incorporate the Brain Fingerprinting system into their storylines or episodes could be shows like Law and Order, CSI, NCIS, 24, Criminal Minds, and any other crime or detective related show. There might be an episode where Jack Bauer won’t need to torture or coerce a terrorist to get information. The CSI team or Law and Order, lawyers and cops might be able to take a break from getting confessions out of people and have the Brain Fingerprinting system to help them solve the case. The Brain Fingerprinting system could also be incorporated into any film, crime-related or science fiction, like the new film, Surrogates with Bruce Willis or the upcoming science fiction film from Christopher Nolan, Inception, coming out in summer 2010.


The second technique that could be used by advertisers to market the Brain Fingerprinting system is through narrowcasting, the distribution of information, usually radio or television to a narrow audience, not the general public, such as a podcast or video blog. If Dr. Lawrence Farwell and company decided that they didn’t want the Brain Fingerprinting system to sell like flies or be used by the public as a toy, they could send it to a small audience like government organizations. The FBI, CIA, Secret Service, Homeland Security, and any other government agency could keep it away from the public as a government project, “For Your Eyes Only”, and maybe give or use the Brain Fingerprinting system in the most dire circumstances. Those circumstances could be a murder case, kidnapping, robbery, or terrorist plot.


The third and final technique that could be used by advertisers to market the Brain Fingerprinting system is through emotional branding, which is branding to convey emotions, how you want the consumer to perceive your product or your brand. Emotional branding could be conveyed by having someone from legislation approving this product to be used for crimes. One way this product can convey emotion to viewers is having a person whose family was murdered and that person who has lost everything never knew who was involved because there was not enough evidence. With the Brain Fingerprinting system, it can be used to find the evidence and convict the possible suspect involved making the person feel better inside knowing his family’s murderer is behind bars. The family who lost someone from the murderer, J.B. Grinder for which this product was used for are probably feeling better as well to know that he is prison. Others ways advertisers could convey emotion with the product is convincing people why they should think about the product, why is the product beneficial, what are the benefits of the product, and to know the consequences of what they’re doing?


Overall, these three techniques and tactics of product placement across media, narrowcasting, and emotional branding are three possibilities that advertisers could use to market this product to us. A futuristic product or service that could be used by advertisers to manufacture desire, appeal to our emotions, and create a branded “culture” is the Brain Fingerprinting system. Maybe in the near future, there will come a time where we won’t need to force out confessions, look for clues or evidence, will have the Brain Fingerprinting system to help us out.

The Persuaders Assignment

1. In Douglas Rushkoff's documentary film, "The Persuaders" I was suprised by two things while watching the film. The first one, that suprised me was that people had feelings when they thought about specific products, like bread or coffee. In the film, a person was interviewed by a specialist who asked him if he felt any of these words when eating bread. Such examples were do you feel lonely, depressed, accepting, trusting, or uncertain. The person said no to most of the words, except uncertain which he stated that he did feel a little uncertain when eating bread. Coffee was another example, in the film a question was posed to viewers, Does the brewing(smell) of coffee remind you of your mother? When I have coffee in the morning and smell the freshness of my lovely cup, it doesn't remind of my mother, but maybe it does for some. The second one, that suprised me was that people will buy or agree on certain products if the speaker presents it in a language or word that sends a message.


One thing I learned about advertising from watching the film is when corporations don't make money from their ads because of such examples like Tivo, they try to incorpate their products by putting them in movies and television. For example, in films, like I Am Sam and Cast Away, Starbucks and FedEx were the products used. In television, examples were Sex in the City and Survivor, and their products were a drink called the Absolute Hunk, and Sierra Mist.


One new thing I learned about myself from watching the film is to watch closely when I see a commerical, billboard, or read from a magazine if the product is using a message or telling me something it is, but actually isn't. Advertising is very persuasive and tries to make you buy their product through words and language, I know now that whenever I see an advertisment for a product, that looks good and worth buying, I will ignore it.


2. I would say because I don't live in New York City and live right here in Poughkeepsie, I see an average to a very little amount of advertising. I'm not much of a T.V. person, when I do watch television, I watch Lost and House which both I'm a big fan of. When I go online and watch videos on Youtube or other sites, they always have ads for different products.


In my view, it doesn't make much of a difference to know that people today see much more advertising in their daily lives than people 20 or 30 years ago. Technology has expanded and become more modern and standardized than in the past, 20 or 30 years ago. There are much more newer technology and options to promote advertising and more people are willing to buy a given product, which creates a successful business.

Myth of Photographic Truth Photoshop Assignment

Cropped Image: It seems like a normal pretty woman posing and having her picture taken.

Original Image: Except, it is actually a picture of a woman suffering from Anorexia Nervosa, an eating disorder.

The awful truth about photographs is they can be altered, changed in any form, making the viewer believe its real when it actually isn't. According to Practices of Looking, "Photographs are objective renderings of the real world that provide unbiased truth" (Sturken 17). What that means is you can't always trust the pictures, ads, billboards you see to be truthful. Photos can be altered or distorted with color, brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, and many others. For example, O.J. Simpson when he was convicted of murder the magazines contrasted and darken his color skin to emphasize evil and guilt. Photos can be cropped as well, the cropped image on top seems to be a normal picture of a woman, but when you look at the original image you see the woman has Anorexia Nervosa, an eating disorder, that is why you can't always trust what you see.

Final Edited Collage

The Ipod is a medium that provides the listener with many options and "content". The "content" of an Ipod are many from videos of music, television, movies, to storing and viewing photos and appliances. It allows you to look at upcoming movies on the web, locations, record audio, text, and podcast. To the right of the red Ipod is the new Ipod touch, which allows you to do these options and is the newest form of innovation in technology.

The "message" in accordance to Marshall Mchulan of an Ipod is its access to information from videos, songs, to photos, and other different appliances. The "message" of an Ipod can be positive and negative to its buyers. Positive in the way that it is a stress reducer and alters you from reality. Negative in the way that it can cause people to go deaf, have seizures, and not focus on academics.

Content and Message of Photoshop

Photoshop is a useful medium that provides the user with many options and "content". The "content" of Photoshop are a variety of selection tools and techiques, such as the move tool, magic wand tool, lasso tool, crop tool, eraser tool, and much more. It provides layers for different images, resolutions, color, width, height, and zooming in and out. There is a help tool in case of difficulty and an undo/redo tool for editing.

The "message" of photoshop in accordance to Marshall Mchulan is its ability to alter images, by editing and changing sizes. The "message" of photoshop can be positively and negatively user friendly. Positive in the way that it is quite useful for working on projects and collages of photos. Negative in the aspect of keeping originality of the photo as photoshop has the ability to alter the image.

The Message of an Ipod

The Message of an Ipod in accordance to Marshall Mchulan is its access to information, from songs, videos, movies, storing photos and other appliances. The message of an Ipod can be positive and negative. Positive in the way that it is a stress reducer and alters you from reality. Negative in the way that it can cause you to go deaf, brain seizures are involved, and it lessen your focus on academics.