HOMEWORK

Week 1 Discussion

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1) Paul Holguin

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Greetings!

Dove, a Unilever-owned multinational skincare brand, has been criticized over a Facebook advertisement depicting a black lady morphing into a white woman after using Dove body wash.

The three-second video depicts a young black lady smiling as she removes her dark brown top to expose a white woman wearing a sleeveless shirt (Chan, 2017). The advertisement, which was uploaded on Dove's U.S. page, has now been removed due to widespread racist criticism. Many social media users interpreted the advertisement to imply that the black lady was less clean than the white woman. Dove apologized over the weekend in two different comments, stating that the advertisement "failed to depict women of color carefully." The picture was supposed to emphasize that Dove body wash is for every woman and be a celebration of diversity, but it failed to do so and as a consequence insulted a large number of individuals.

However, this is not the first time the corporation has been criticized for insensitivity. In 2011, Dove faced criticism for another advertisement depicting three ladies of diverse races standing side by side. Each woman's skin tone becomes lighter as she moves from left to right. Behind them are two enormous posters: one reads "before" and depicts skin that is cracked and dry, while the other reads "after" and depicts skin that is healthy (Chan, 2017). The "before" poster is placed behind the black lady, while the "after" poster is positioned behind the white woman. Dove said at the time to Gawker that "all three ladies are meant to illustrate the 'after' product benefit." They do not tolerate any conduct or imagery that deliberately offends any audience.

And in May 2017, Dove sparked outrage again when it unveiled six body wash bottles in the United Kingdom designed to mirror women’s different body types (Chan, 2017). Each bottle evokes the shapes, sizes, curves and edges that combine to make every woman their very own limited edition. “They’re one of a kind — just like you.”  The promotion backfired after many women said they felt Dove was body shaming, categorizing their body types and reminding them of their figures.

Thank you!

Reference

Chan, M. (2017, October 9).  Dove's 'Racist' Ad Isn't the First Time the Company Was Criticized for Being Offensive. TIME.  https://time.com/4974452/dove-ad-facebook-racist/

Module 3 Week 2 Discussion

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2) Austin Richards

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Team, 

On the same note as the prompt, I reviewed a food company, Kentucky Fried Chicken(KFC). I managed to find a mega-compilation on YouTube of several American and International ads for the company, and the advertising approaches are not too different from each other. One of the American ads stands apart from the others, but for the most part, all of the ads across the various countries are similar in messaging and design. The qualities of the chicken, apparent good taste of the food, the amenities such as sauces and drinks, and the cost are all factors covered in most ads. A few of the ads present the chicken in creative formats- a Japanese ad presents the sequence backwards, a Singaporean ad presents the ad like a big-tech TED-talk like presentation, and a Russian market ad portrays the KFC brand ambassador playing a guitar made of fried chicken. The most notable ad is the American ad which begins the video- with a cast of burly, fit, partially nude men dancing provocatively, with a mothers-day message for the ad. This is a strange choice, and only one that I would have expected in the ultra-progressive American market. In some ways, I suspect the ad was not designed to get consumers wanting chicken as the display personally has ruined my appetite, but I will note the ad stands apart and I physically removed myself from my desk to show my wife, which demonstrates the ads purpose and utility. 

Best, 

Austin

References

桂TUBE. (2020, July 5).  不同国家的肯德基广告KFC advertisements in different countries [Video]. YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZap9IzthYY

3) Nicholas Parker poste

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Good morning class, 

when it comes to the quality of research and resources, I could do a better job at this. While I say this, this is not me saying I just wright down random stuff. I do tend to do a lot of research and find myself diving deep into different articles and findings on the subject that I am researching. My biggest problem is using scholarly sources "when searching for sources, different topics might require more scholarly sources or more popular sources (Purdue, n.d)". I tend to find news articles, blogs on people's opinions and other websites. After many of papers turned in and being marked up for not using scholarly sources and explain why I need to I feel that I am doing better, but the quantity of articles is not as great and a lot of the scholarly sources you need a subscription to fully access it. When it comes to students turning in work that isn't theirs and is someone else, I believe that is a sign of laziness and while they might pass and graduate it will come set them up for failure when they start a new job. If I was to know that someone was cheating, and I wouldn't go and inform the teacher and make a big deal about it.  What I would do is ask them questions that they should know about that assignment so that they could see I know that this isn't their work with the hopes of them learning from the situation. If the teacher was to know then he/she has the obligation to the class to fail that student on the assignment because it's not fair that everyone else did their own work. 

Reference: 

Purdue University, (n.d), Evaluation Sources: Where to Begin 

from:  Where to Begin - Purdue OWL® - Purdue University  

4) Angelique Brown Subscribe

  

Good Evening Everyone,

 Prior to enrolling in college, I was unaware on how to evaluate my sources.  I am a big fan of google but since being in college and writing papers I have discovered google cannot be trusted. I am aware that Wikipedia cannot be trusted, as that it allows individuals to add information, sites, and blogs that is not accurate. After reading the required material for this discussion, I have learned about questions I should ask myself before relying on my sources. Evaluating internet and scholarly sources across the disciplines (Calkins, S., & Kelley, M, R. 2007) was an excellent read and provided me with tools that I can use from now on when it comes to siting my sources.

I believe it is important that an individual take credit for their own work. When it comes to turning in unoriginal work, I do not condone it. It is easy to plagiarize but there are websites to ensure it doesn’t happen. I believe that reading someone else's work to help generate ideas is acceptable but copying and pasting is not. You can avoid plagiarism if you remember to give credit where credit is due. If a student turns in someone else's work, I feel they should be made aware, possibly given a warning, a chance to redo their work, and a zero on the project if it happens again. If this trend continues, I believe the student should face additional punishments.

Calkins, S., & Kelley, M. R. (2007). Evaluating internet and scholarly sources across the disciplines: Two case studies