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Author Archives: natalia.tatishvili
Posts: 5 (archived below)
Comments: 0
Gay Commercial:Pepsi
After watching this commercial on YouTube I realized how much marketers are taking advantage of niche audience in order to sell their products. Even Pepsi, which is one of the biggest companies in the world, implemented marketing efforts in order to appeal to this particular target audience, “the gay community”. I believe, marketers are following the sociological changes in the society and are targeting segments that have the need for the product and are able to purchase it. The commercial starts with the scene that one would think is targeting the straight people but at the end after the guy drinks Pepsi max in the bar he approaches the guy. The point of this commercial is to say, if you drink Pepsi max you can overcome your fears and approach the guy in the bar. I found this commercial funny and affective from marketing perspective. They are killing two rabbits at one shot, basically if you watch only the first part of the commercial, it portrays the courage that Pepsi max gives you in order to approach someone you are interested in, woman or man. Therefore, they are targeting both audiences straight and gay, and only if you watch the commercial till the end you will find out that it was targeted specifically to gay community. In the end, marketers are trying to figure it out how to appeal to various target markets and they don’t really care about your sexual orientation, as long as you are in the target market and they can catch your attention, they will find the way to do it.
Minorities in the US becoming the majority
As I watched YouTube video about the latest census reports, I was surprised how tables are turning and minorities becoming the new majority of the US. According to the video, Children 2 years old in the United States are from minority families that make up the majority of the youngest US population”. This is a notable change in the American society. The movie mentions that these children are creating America that will look nothing like a nuclear family looked in the 1950’s when most of the population was white. It will be interesting to study these families and see how they will change American society and in what way? According to the latest census report, “12states have already more minority citizens under the age of five than whites” and another “7 more states are expecting the same change in the decade to come”. These are astonishing numbers I was really surprised to learn that today’s minority of the US population is taking over and rapidly becoming the majority.
I believe, lots of things will be changing in the next couple of decades in the US families and especially how whites will react to this change and what will be the effect of this change. For us, as New Yorker’s, diverse society is a common place. People have learned how to live in one and NY State won’t be as affected by this demographical change as other states will. In my opinion, this would be an important change that sociologists should pay attention to and study changes accordingly.
Posted in Assignment 4
Tagged census 2011, children under 2, majority not white, minorities, us population
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children and consumption
From the beginning of the 1900’s marketers realized the potential to sell their products and services to children. The Children’s market became a very lucrative market for corporations in a very short period of time. The effect of this phenomenon is enormous. It has affected not only the children but changed society and with it changed the way family functions within.
From the moment the child is born, it is bombarded with commercials on a daily basis. Therefore, the child grows up consumed by it. As it is stated in the YouTube video, “we are creating super consumers”. Children grow up being consumed by brands and products that are reaching them anywhere and possible at any point of the day using multiple different channels. Big corporations spend a lot of time and resources in order to research and analyze children’s psychology. For example, children’s behavior that interactions with others, what they like to eat or what they want to wear and etc. This research helps them to target children and influence their consumption habits more precisely. Marketers that reach children from the infancy stage are trying to create brand loyalty for life and attach children emotionally to their brands.
In my opinion, this phenomenon is problematic for the children as well as society as a whole. US has no regulations for children’s commercials, therefore companies take advantage of the deregulation to their fullest extent. I believe parents should be involved in creating values and ideologies in their children’s lives and not corporations, by constantly pushing their brands on children. From my personal observations, the lack of time spent with the children and the guilt parents have due to time scarcity, influences the constants consumption of products and services that children demand from the parents. I believe by doing so and allowing children to have everything that they ask for, parents feel less guilty for not spending enough time with their children; therefore parents are as accountable as marketers in children’s consumerism. I believe, buying products and services doesn’t replace the lost time with the parents and children grow up feeling empty and lonely and the only way they know how to deal with it is, to consume more material things.
Kitchens of the Future
I found on YouTube a 1956 GM promotional film “Design for dreaming” aimed for the upper-middle class as well as upper class. This film shows us how manufacturers were targeting and selling to only that specific target market. This promotional film is amazing, almost futuristic with specific goal to sell “dream life” to females that can afford it. I was surprised how technologically advanced the “dream kitchen” was in the film. The movie starts with a white female all dolled up singing around about how she wants to get a break like all men do as she enters this “dream kitchen” and she is about to bake cake. She begins to sing about how she has never seen a kitchen like this one and gets into the details by showing how easy is to press different buttons and everything gets done for you. After she finished putting ingredients in the different futuristic appliances she leaves the kitchen and sings “Tic Tock Tic Tock, free to have fun around the clock”. This shows us how manufacturers were focused onto not only selling appliances but the benefits that came with this kitchen such as: free time for leisure activities.
The lady leaves the kitchen and changes her clothes a few times in outfits for tennis, golf and swimming. The point is to show that, while her cake is baking she has time to do all these activities, after she comes back home her cake is magically ready. I found this film unrealistic even for our times, although maybe it is real in upper classes but I doubt that. In conclusion, this film proves that in 1950’s manufacturers were mainly concerned with female consumers that had enough disposable income, specifically white upper-middle class. I believe, this film is a perfect example of everything we have read in the class about the consumers of the postwar era and the target market before the influence of newly emerged “middle-class” that changed the way manufacturers segmented target audience.
Posted in Assignment 2
Tagged 1950s, consumerism, promotional film, television, upper-middle class, women
4 Comments
Finding half-siblings
After reading an article from the New York Times called, “Hello, I’m Your Sister. Our Father Is Donor 150”, I have learned that there is a new demand from children conceived through donor insemination, to find each other and to create relationships with their half-siblings. At first, I was shocked by this new phenomenon, but as I read stories in the article, I started to understand why it was so important for these kids to find each other. According to the article, “Donor-conceived siblings, who sometimes describe themselves as “lopsided” or “half-adopted,” can provide clues to make each other feel more whole, even if only in the form of physical details.” This statement shows us how important it is for children to be able to know their origins of birth and to relate to other kids that have the same experience or physical detail; it makes them feel more at peace, and in a sense, helps them to create their unique identity. For example, it was mentioned in the article that, “For children who often feel severed from half of their biological identity, finding a sibling – or in some cases, a dozen – can feel like coming home.”
On the other hand, these half-siblings are bonded only through the same donor and although these relationships show us how nature overcomes nurture, there is still a psychological process involved in these bonds. These kids could grow up and never find out about other half-siblings, therefore no bond is created. But once they find each other, they claim to have “Sense of familiarity”, which could be attributed to their same donor genetics or it could be placebo effect. I believe that more research is needed it in this area to really understand if it is natural bond or psychological one that makes these kids feel better about their identity or maybe even more confused depending on individual experience.
Posted in Assignment 1
Tagged birth, half-siblings, New York Times, surrogacy
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