Media Log #2: Words, Words, And More Words

I found the name of this company on a commercial. When I was searching for the commercial, i came across this picture, which I think is even better. First of all, the name of the company is Economy Heating And Air Conditioning. and it says in the middle, "Don't pay more in this economy for for heating and air conditioning repairs!" (And no, that wasn't a mistake, it really says "for" twice.) This is a great slogan, especially when we are in a recession. However, when we eventually get out of this recession, will they still have a great slogan? YES! Everybody always wants to save money, but now is the perfect time for them to jump out and make us aware of their presence because no matter how hard the times are, it seems people will always watch TV, after all, that is how I noticed them. All of the words they use assure us that they are really saving us money, not making us pay more. The words "economy", "service special", and "don't pay more" tell us they care about saving us money, which is ironic considering they need money to keep their business going. Not to mention, they have a picture of a stethoscope on a highway sign. We associate a stethoscope with a doctor which keeps us healthy. So they are trying to tell us that they can help with our heating and air problems. And we like highway signs because they help us get where we need to go. This overall image is telling us that they can help us with our problems. So it's a good thing they put their number on there three times that way I know what number to call for help... with my heating and air conditioning. The connotation with words like "service" and "special" and "don't pay more" is that they are good people who just want to help us with our heating and air for as little as they can, when in reality, they just want to make money. This company uses Reification by having the word "economy" as their title to attract people who want to save money because that word is way more powerful than we sometimes realize.

This company is doing its best trying to advertise, and to the untrained eye, it works. However by breaking down the technique of advertisers we see that this company is no different from the companies they claim to be different from.

Media Log #1: The More Adjectives, The Better.

I saw this face wash in my bathroom one day, and at first I was super excited because I love getting new things. Then, I took a closer look at the product and I noticed some strange words that normally aren't used with face wash products. The title of it, "Petal fresh Botanicals," sounds amazing and it makes me want to use it, but when i thought about it, none of those words are really about washing your face. Luckily, before I thought about it too much, I saw in bold black letters "Facial Daily Wash." But when I said that out loud,  it just sounds weird. Normally, it's "Daily Facial Wash." Another word that is out of place is "Whitening." What in the world does whitening have to do with washing my face? But I guess if it looks good on my teeth, it can look good on my face too. And at the very bottom it says, "With Fairness Technology." This is totally vague. I have no idea what fairness technology means, and I'm pretty positive that the makers of this product don't either. So I guess it is also a good thing that it says for "All Skin Types," just to be clear. All these words are more like Gobbledygook than Jargon because about half of them have nothing to do with the kind of product they are trying to sell, they are just space fillers and adjectives to sway the audience. There is also some Reification in here because the words "Fairness Technology" influence us to think this product is high-tech, which is always great, when in reality, this probably is just more meaningless words. The connotation of words like, "Fresh", "Whitening", and "Purifying" is that our face will look better after using this product. However, by analyzing this product and these words, I have found that you really cannot trust what they are saying.

 

All of these words sound great when you look at this product as a whole. But when you look at all the words individually, it makes no sense and it just becomes comical. A lot of these words have nothing to do with face wash, but I guess it works because my mom bought it.