A team therefore, each student is responsible for preparing his/her assigned work, devote efforts and contribute to the group work and interact with other teammates in a productive way. Trust is the key determinant of a team performance. If one procrastinates, it affects the whole group and fall in to discredits. For instance, on a Monday, we had really tight schedule and had only an hour to meet in order to finalize the paper. One of our colleagues didn’t show up, as a result, instead of meeting the deadline by a week we actually finished our work couple hours before the submission deadline. Moreover, team allows one to build a strong relationship between the colleagues. By working hard and accomplish something together, we were able to trust each other; they became actually your close friends or good buddy.

About myself, I feel like even if I am devoting my time and efforts, my contribution to the group is yet insufficient due to the language barrier. I will try to interact more with other students and professors, therefore it will boost my confidence and I would be able to go beyond my current capacity.

During high school, my studies were more directed to science such as math, physics, chemistry and biology. Therefore, Marketing was something really new to me; I had no idea what marketing was exactly before taking comm. 296 with our professor, mademoiselle Tamar. Marketing is not only the action of promoting and selling products, services and ideas. There is bunch of things happening behind the scene. My definition of marketing is how well one can identify and satisfy the changing needs of customers by providing products & services.

When I saw the battle between the two big sports industry, Nike vs. Adidas on Katherine’s blog, it reminded me the Cola War between Pepsi and Coca Cola. The rivalry between the two soft drink companies is legendary and the brands have been fighting each other for more than a century.

As Nike stole people attention from Adidas with its “Write the future” campaign,  Pepsi “hijacked the World Cup” from Coca Cola sponsoring FIFA. The 2010 ad “Oh Africa” achieved millions of views in no more than 2 weeks after the release. The commercial shows great soccer player from all over the world such as Thierry Henry, Didier Drogba, Kaka, Fernando Torres, Lionel Messi, Michael Ballack, Frank Lampard competing against African Kids for Pepsi.

Coca Cola tried to regain people’s awareness like Adidas did, with a compelling online video in association with their campaigns but it was too late.

The association hinting the World Cup and the timing of the release was considerably important but I believe the “wow factor” was the key of Nike and Pepsi’s success. The two brands were able to impress us with creative stories, which make us wanting to share the video and spread it to people. Adidas and Coca Cola produced also interesting commercial but they lacked of “wow”.

Nike and Pepsi were really successful by applying a smart strategy called “ambush marketing” that completely hindered Adidas and Coca Cola awareness.

I found also an interesting Pepsi commercial. Obviously, The company created this ad to compete against Coca but we can see the indirect battle of the two sports industry: On one side, Manchester United wearing jersey sponsored by Nike and on the other side, Real Madrid sponsored by Adidas.

This blog post from Childrefuge is basically saying that the ideal beauty determined by the society is mostly based on thinness. Nowadays, it is apparent that women in various means of media are becoming skinnier. This is to say that thinness has become a crucial element of women’s attractiveness.These days we see woman in mostly all kinds of ads even if the item is not related with female needs or market. The use of beautiful, slim and attractive woman is necessary to highlight the image of the product being advertised For instance, in an Axe advertisement, many attractive women in bikinis compete to reach the man in the center of the commercial. The objectification of woman underlines products, which is an efficient strategy to boost the economy. However these tend to have negative effect on women especially teenagers who compare themselves to the ideal body and try to attain “the physical look and figure of the models they envy in the media”

This case is especially common in the Western Society where people are constantly bombarded with images of what the media considers as the ideal body. Nonetheless, people shouldn’t get attached too much to those image because they are irrelevant, as the media’s representation of beauty seems unrealistic and unattainable. The ideal body of models depicted in the media is much thinner than the average American woman In fact, there is a contradiction as the majority of American women are overweight. This difference can partly be explained from the use of specific technology. Digital manipulation transforms a socially ‘poor’ and unacceptable woman’s body to an ideal one, ready for marketing. Digital manipulation is playing a big role to support this idea of perfection. Images can be constantly edited and altered before they are used in a publication or advertisement. Photo manipulation is not only able to make a body slimmer, but also brighten teeth, enlarge eyes, remove freckles and so on.

The Dove campaign has launched “Evolution,” a controversial video that turns the Media’s concept of beauty upside down. It reveals to viewers how the media obscures our perception of beauty.

By exposing this artificial beauty, Dove tells viewers not to internalize the stereotypic body determined by the Media. Digital Manipulation is just one of the strategy that media use to promote products; therefore, women should not lose confidence even if they are exposed to those beauty full of artificiality.

External Blog: http://childrefuge.org/blog/entry/media-images-and-the-negative-significance-towards-young-girls.html

Dove “Evolution”: http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2006/dove-evolution/#.UUaAD5jGecM

Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U

David Beckham is an English football player who currently signed for Paris-Saint Germain. He had played in various great teams such as Manchester United, Real Madrid and La Galaxy. But his good looks made him also successful beyond the pitch. He is instantly recognizable and became known as fashion icon together with his wife Victoria.  Pepsi, Adidas, H&M and many others such as clothing designers, fashion magazines, perfume and cosmetics manufacturers, and hairstylist are using the “David Beckham Brand” to promote their product.

Beckham is one the few players to earn more from advertising than its sports contracts.

Therefore, The media and fans are all wondering whether Beckham, already 37 years old, is still able to be a difference maker in the French team or not. Some thinks that PSG have signed him only as a marketing tool and to boost the good and strong image of the club who just signed big players such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Ezequiel Lavezzi during the summer transfer. In fact, PSG would definitely make a profit from his signing because an incredible number of people are waiting to buy his football shirt.

I personnaly believe,that Beckham would contribute a lot to the club. He has played with great players like Zidane and coached by great managers like Sir Alex Ferguson therefore he has accumulated a lot of experience. I am sure that he can still provide beautiful cross and shoot beautiful free kicks. No matter what, I am supporting him!

Check out his skills

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Beckham#Outside_of_football

http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/85/england/2013/03/01/3789539/beckham-i-am-not-just-a-marketing-tool

 This commercial is made by Axe, the men’s grooming products. This ad presents the ideal deodorant produced by Axe that every single man dreams to possess.

Billions of attractive women in bikinis are running through the jungle, scrambling down a cliff and even traversing the ocean. They all have an aggressive and bestial look on their face. Their behaviors are almost similar to animals especially when they sniff the air as if they were looking for preys.

All of these countless beautiful women are racing to be the first to reach a point. We soon recognize that a man is standing at the point in the middle of the beach with a look of amazement; He is shirtless and spraying all over his body with the Axe spray. He is the goal that all these women are striving to reach.

This funny commercial is extremely exaggerative and the story is absurd but successful. This ad is obviously targeting men especially teenagers.

It has cognitive component because although it is unrealistic, men who see this ad would actually believe that women would appreciate the smell of the Axe spray.

It also contains a affective component. Men usually love sexy female and there are billions of them, rushing towards the guy. This is what every man dream to experience. Moreover, a very sexy voice says at the ending : “Spray More, Get More”. If I see this ad and hear this voice, I would definitely buy the product no matter what. !

Marithé François Girbaud is an clothing company based in France founded by the stylist couple Marithé and Francois.

What does this remind you of?

Yes, This ad for jeans represents twelve young women and a man in similar positions as The Last Supper painted by Leonardo Da Vinci depicting the last Supper of Jesus.

The Last Supper was both a Passover meal and the last meal Jesus had with His apostles before His arrest and subsequent crucifixion. It is one of the several major events that are recorded in the Bible.

The Last Supper is observed as a Memorial to our Lord Jesus Christ. Contemplating at the Lords Supper is serious business and should be done in a totally respectful manner only to honor Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is inappropriate to parody divine scene of the Bible by replacing Jesus and his apostles by female fashion models, and elevate commercial products at the same level as religious symbol. This could be seen as blasphemy and believer would think that they are being insulted.

This ad is in fact unethical because Marithé François Girbaud offend the Christians to achieve it desired goals.