Questions for paper!

1. How effective is the use of subliminal messaging in advertising?

2. How do people react when finding they have been persuaded by the use of subliminal messaging?

Web Pages That Suck

Bad Website: http://www.videosoniclab.com/
This website deserves the title of a badly designed site because it is simply too overwhelming. There are way too many colors, all of which contrast sharply with one another. The page looks as if it came off of a middle school student's computer class slide show. There is no open space to rest one's eyes from the blaring colors and multitude of links.

Good Website: http://www.space.com/
This is one of my favorite websites and it certainly has a good design. The website is based around space, so it makes sense to have a mostly black theme. It contains easy to navigate links and exciting pictures to go along with the cover stories. The background depicts an interesting cosmological image but not to intriguing as to be distracting. There is great, non-disturbing contrast between the background and the writing and an overall intelligent feel to the website.

Magazine Article

Schefter, Jim. "Rocket's Red Glare." Popular Science Aug. 2000: 52-56. Web.

The article does exactly what its title and caption say it will do. A reporter takes reader inside a previously secret Russian rocket facility that was hidden from even American spy satellites during the cold war. It explains how they kept the facility so well hidden and kept the noise levels to a minimum. I found their methods of concealing it very intriguing as the building workings are explained; "The rocket's exhaust blasts into a cavernous containment, mixes with high-flow, high pressure water, then is routed through baffles and up the tower" (Schefter 55). I find this method amazing, but the cover picture shows a rocket blasting off seemingly space bound when the writing is about testing rockets out of public awareness. Another thing I found interesting was in the quote, "he's talking about transferring advanced technology from them to us. Role reversal, what a concept" (Schefter 56). The title on the cover seems to me to be a somewhat fearful phrase, but this quote makes it seem beneficial to us that the Russians have their rocket facility.

Research!

Book 1: HF5827.9.P78
This book is entitled The Psychology of Entertainment Media. It relates to the appeals used in advertisement which we have been studying and has information about the persuasive techniques used.

Book 2: BF633.S77
This book is entitled Brainwash. If my topic ends up relating to subliminal messaging, I believe this will be a good source with lots of pertinent information.

Freewrite

Normally, a free write would not be difficult for me. I would absolutely love being given free reign to mindlessly blabber my thoughts for others to see and hopefully chuckle at. This free write is aimed at finding a purpose/topic for my upcoming paper and I have been told that abortion is not a good idea. Being that my last paper was based on an advertisement for a car, which is pretty much the most boring topic one could possibly choose, I would like to choose something absolutely awesome for this paper. It needs to be something that I will enjoy researching and writing about to break free from the ball and chain of mundane paper assignments. Since I am not sure of what this paper will be aimed at doing, I must simply write down possible topics to explore based on the mystery objective. My interests in life lie in extreme sports, science and math, and anything bizarre or odd. From these categories I can concoct ideas ranging from Mount Ararat, to the benefit of quantum mechanics in society, to the lifestyles of Shaolin monks. I believe I am supposed to debate an issue in this paper since abortion was given as an example. Therefore, my next proposal will be the use of subliminal messaging in advertising. Since rhetoric has been the focus of this class since the beginning, I believe this to be an appropriate topic. There should be a lot of usable information on the subject and it is very interesting. This may not be the topic which I end up using for my paper, but for this five minute free write I find myself proud of coming up with such an intriguing idea. Not only is this idea exciting, but it relates to our focus on rhetoric in advertising and should provide a good avenue for research.

Mind Mapping

Does it suck?

• Republicans most certainly do not suck, for it is liberals which suck.
• Barack Obama does not suck, he is a great leader and speaker.
• Harry Potter does not suck, it is one of the greatest series known to mankind.
• Apple sucks, it caters to liberals and is nothing less than inferior to a PC.
• Star Wars does not suck, it is the undisputed greatest series of all time. I very highly doubt it will ever be surpassed in awesomeness.
• Facebook sucks, it wastes our time and makes people fat when they could be outside doing cool stuff.
• McDonald's sucks, their ice cream machines are always broken so I can never get a milk shake
• Clemson does not suck, it is a prestigious academic institution and tigers are very vicious and enjoy devouring chickens.
• Lady Gaga does not suck, she is outlandish and unique yet is attractive to all audiences.
• Justin Bieber sucks, he will eventually hit puberty and his music will all be faker than it already is.
• Sudoku's suck, I have always considered myself good at math and puzzles yet I never have the patience to finish one of these.
• Avatar does not suck, blue people with tails and flying mounts, need I say more?
• Xbox sucks, this is even better than Facebook at making people fat and keeping them from going outside and doing cool stuff.
• American Idol does not suck, although I am personally not a watcher I like the idea of allowing people to showcase their talents.
• Glee does not suck, the cast members have great voices and good songs are usually chosen.
• Cigarettes suck, they smell terrible, lead to lots of litter, and need I mention they kill people?
• Guns suck, a real way to fight is man-to-man combat with cool karate moves and pure strength.
• Abortion sucks, the choice to engage in acts which cause pregnancy leads to the necessary repercussions.
• Clothed dogs suck, I am not even sure how to defend this, it just makes me want to punch their owners.