DO YOU WANT A MILLION DOLLARS?!?!?

Okay, okay, so you're not going to get a million dollars, but you can read my blog post!!!

This is along the lines of an earlier post by max, entitled I am the Father of Sarah Palin's Baby...

Have you ever wondered how things grab your attention? Well, it's an art....

while on spring break, I was resting in the hotel room by watching a bit of TV. A commercial came on and a man yelled, "do YOU want a million dollars!?!?!!?!?!?!?" I was alarmed, so I looked at the television and started watching this ridiculous commercial! It wasn't advertising at all how to get a million dollars. In fact, it was a commercial for a nearby clothing store called Sufta. I rolled my eyes at the commercial that I thought was stupid, and then started thinking, well it did get my attention, and I remembered the name of the store, so I guess the commercial was successful in advertising their name... the whole point of a commercial is to make a product known, and even though it may have been ridiculous to try and catch attention by screaming, "do YOU want a million dollars?!?

Advertising is an interesting field... they use many concepts to get your attention and at least get you to remember the name...

this one we talked about: 7 7 3 - 2 0 2 - beep beep beep beep LUNA

or along those lines...

five eight eight, two three hundred EMPIRE

or

WALTER E. SMITH you dream it we build it....

if you heard one of these jingles walking down the street, even if there were no words, you would know what it is for.... Because of that, I believe that advertising agency deserves a high five.

Another concept for a commercial would be the "heartstrings" approach...

bring out the sensitive side in your audience such as this one:

honestly, you have to be heartless to say that you don't want to help these dogs... so what would you do??? BUY PEDIGREE.

It pulled at your heartstrings.

Advertisement agencies are clever in their work. Like I said, it is an art.

don't judge a book by it's cover

This weekend I was shopping at Old Orchard with my mom and my sister.  As we were shopping, I saw a couple of younger girls I used to babysit sitting on a bench nearby in the store.  I walked up to them, asked them how they were and what they were up to.  One responded by saying "Just people watching, waiting for my mom to come pick us up."  These girls sat there holding their coach purses, wearing uggs, and designer jeans (they are in sixth grade).  As I was talking to one of the girls about where she was going for spring break, another one of the girls whispered, "Look at that girl, that's totally a fake chanel purse and those are fake uggs!"  Then the girls shot her a dirty look, rolled their eyes and continued talking.  My jaw dropped open!  I disgusted by the way the girls that used to be so cute an innocent, were so rude!  I asked if they knew the girl that they had just made fun of, and they said they didn't.  I was shocked at how incredibly judgmental they were.  They had no idea who she was, and never had a conversation with her in their lives, yet they were passing judgments already based on what she was wearing.  I said goodbye and told the girls to have a nice spring break although I wanted to wash their mouths out with soap...

This really made me think about how people are perceived in the world.  Even though we like to think not, are people truly judged based off of what they look like and what they wear?

Then I started thinking about when my friend got the initials of his father (who passed away) tattooed on his arm.  His mother threw a fit and said that he would never get a job with that on his body.  I wondered, can people look past physical appearance to who the person really is?  If two men interviewed for a job and one was better qualified than the other, but had a tattoo on his arm or didn't dress as nice as the other one, who would get the job? 

Is judging people by their appearance inevitable?

what I found in the halls of NT...

So as I was walking through the halls, I looked up and noticed that there was a flat screen television attached to the wall in the front rotunda, then as I walked to the athletic locker rooms, I saw another near the gyms.  Finally, I walked up to my class on the second floor, and noticed one there too... 

I had to stop and see what these televisions are displaying.  I thought it must be something important because there must be a significant thing New Trier has to advertise in order to buy TVs to do so.  I walked up and looked at the screen, and it had posted the weather.  I was dumbfounded... Weather? Our school spends however much money to buy flat screen televisions in the hallways to advertise things like weather.  Then I saw one on the third floor that was displaying a video of a bunch of New Trier students walking around.  Honestly??  This is where the money goes? We could use it for such better purposes, such as finding ways to commit our minds to inquiry, our hearts to compassion, and our lives to the service of humanity...