Assignment #7 Final revision #1,2

Assignment #1 Summary 

Petracca, Michael, and Madeleine Sorapure. "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"Common Culture: Reading and Writing about American Popular Culture. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998. 336-45. Print.

In a society that is becoming more reliant on technology and spending more time searching Internet databases, our ability to process information from traditional sources is diminishing. According to the article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr, this is definitely the case at hand. The essay starts off by reenacting a conversation between an astronaut named Dave Bowman and his super computer, HAL. Carr relates to this conversation and the sense of "losing his mind". As the conversations goes on, Carr asserts that he used to be able to read long books and understand what the thesis was. However, since he has begun relying more heavily on the computer for information, it has become very hard for him to focus and comprehend while reading books. As Carr states “ My mind now expects to take in information as the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles” (Carr 338).  While he used to spend hours at the library getting his information, he now can retrieve that same information on the Internet in a matter of minutes.

Later in the story Carr talks about Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California commonly referred to as Googleplex. The two founders discuss how they would like to make a Google search engine that is connected to people’s brains, so people could search for information at any time of the day.

 Towards the end of the article Carr argues that the more we rely on computers and popular search engines such as Google for information the less we make out of ourselves. The answer is simple: technology overall is making people stupid and Google is trying to turn people into mindless robots.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Nicholas Carr argues that as society is becoming more reliant on technology and spending more time searching Internet databases, our ability to process information from traditional sources is diminishing. The essay starts off by reenacting a conversation between an astronaut named Dave Bowman and his super computer, HAL. Carr relates to this conversation and the sense of "losing his mind". As the conversation goes on, Carr asserts that he used to be able to read long books and understand what the thesis was. However, since he has begun relying more heavily on the computer for information, it has become very hard for him to focus and comprehend while reading books. As Carr states “ My mind now expects to take in information as the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles” (Carr 338).  While he used to spend hours at the library getting his information, he now can retrieve that same information on the Internet in a matter of minutes.

Later in the story Carr talks about Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California commonly referred to as Googleplex. The two founders discuss how they would like to make a Google search engine that is connected to people’s brains, so people could search for information at any time of the day.

 Towards the end of the article Carr argues that the more we rely on computers and popular search engines such as Google for information the less we make out of ourselves. The answer is simple: technology overall is making people stupid and Google is trying to turn people into mindless robots.

it will BLOW your mind 

Rhetorical Analysis: Blow Your Mind Away

Introduction: Food companies have tried to persuade their audience to buy their products through various ways over many decades. Most companies’ use a modern family enjoying each other’s company while eating the advertised product, but the advertisers of Burger King decided to steer clear of this common path. Burger King decided to step outside the boundaries and try to promote the “BK Super Seven Incher” in a promiscuous way. Does this method work? Does this advertisement speak to you? If so, in what way? In the research I have done I have found that this method does work. These points might make it a little clearer; Burger King used a blonde girl for the centerpiece of their promotion. This was key to the promiscuous ad because blondes are viewed as more sexual and more ditzy than brunette haired women. She also applied red lipstick to her mouth to give her more sex appeal. The actual sandwich that Burger King is promoting is somewhat out of the picture because the main focus of the picture is drawn towards the woman’s mouth and the tip of the sandwich. The woman is staring wide eyed at the BK super seven incher as if she has never seen anything so big.. The audience that Burger King wanted to sell this item to would love the idea of the women with her mouth open to a seven-inch sandwich. Further in the essay I will discuss how the ad was effective towards the selected audience. So further on into the analysis I will talk about more key points that I have found in this ad that makes it stand out from other ads around its time.

Context: The author that promoted this ad for the “BK Seven Incher” is Burger King. Burger King was founded in 1953 and has evolved into a 5.5 billion dollar company. Throughout many years they have tried different advertisements. One that stood out was for the Jr. Whopper and it hosted Edward tiny hands.("BK's Tiny Hands Commercial 3." YouTube. YouTube, 18 Aug. 2009. Web. 10 July 2013.) The time the ad was made was in 2009 where sex, drugs, and violence were being exposed to teenagers at a fast rate. So Burger King decided to join the party. “This was successful in Singapore but it was banned shortly after because of the harsh government.”( "Adpressive.com." Adpressivecom. Adpressive, 29 Dec. 2009. Web. 10 July 2013.) Now Burger King wants to try a new idea by selling their product in a sexual way. This attracts all ages of men. This is evident because as a fellow male myself we somewhat think about sex thoroughly throughout our lives. So having the ad come across sexually could trigger a memory in a male’s head and get them to buy the sandwich.

Organization: The organization is key to the entire ad. The first area that the human eye will gaze to would be the attractive blonde hair woman. She draws attention with her red lipstick that stands out because of her fair skin tone. The vignette edges pulls the attention away from the sandwich and draws the audiences attention towards the women because of the bright light that gleams on her face and also her skin is the whitest figure in the ad which stands out. The second image the attended audience will look at is the actual sandwich because it is the actual product that Burger King is promoting. The sandwich is pointing horizontally towards the women mouth, which also brings the attention back to the women. As if the picture itself was not enough, Burger King added the words, “It’ll blow your mind away.” When I dissected the font, the advertisers made sure to make the words “it’ll blow” in a bigger font than the rest of the sentence. This is significant to the whole ad because it plays with the sexual images of the woman and the sandwich.

Style: Burger King used photography for their “It’ll Blow Your Mind” ad. The color scheme of the ad mixes well together. The background is a light brown which compliments the beef in the sandwich and also the darkened part of the woman hair. The lightest part of the ad is near the women’s mouth and the tip of the sandwich. This draws the audience attention to the center of the ad. Instead of making the women into a drawing Burger King decided to use a photo of an actually women to make the ad seem more realistic. The words It’ll Blow Your Mind Away is actually bigger than sandwich its self. I feel it was made this way to draw the audience attention to the words to give the picture a more sexual feel.

Conclusion: Women in today’s society are perceived as being fragile, small, and less powerful than men. With femininity being consistently linked to sexual objectification and sex appeal, the research that I have done I believe that this ad was effective towards the intended audience. I feel this way because the ad is filled with sexual innuendos that would attract the attention of males of all ages. Through Burger King’s advertisement the targeted audience is easily noted. The portrayal of this advertisement may offend women of all ages. Burger King has used the growing promiscuity of our culture and every day society in a bold and effective manner. I feel that just about every product available is sold using sexuality. For example, males being portrayed with their shirts off, pants sagging and women being portrayed with their mouths open, wide eyed, and their faces doused in products such as milk for a GotMilk ad, ketchup for a Burger King ad, or women pouring whiskey down her body for a Hennessy ad. With this being said, the more products are used and displayed daily on the television, through billboards, or through apps on your cell phones, the more frequent the consumers will see the ad and feel the temptation of tasting the tasty meal. The advertisers of Burger King have made an impact on my thoughts of their product and now more than ever have sold me into buying a BK seven incher!