REFLECTION

This semester, I am taking a great effort in researching and writing the paper titled "How Does Visual Communication Influences Your Children--The Secret of Advertising". I have found some writing rules and interesting tactics in writing process. These new discovery helped me to keep thinking and keep typing, the same with the Blog Name "Doris Keeps Typing". It is really an approach to improve writing skills and increasing the mood in writing.

To tell the truth, I don't like research paper. I guess most students at my age have the same feeling. I always thought that research papers are written by very experienced and advanced scholars who study some particular subjects. Furthermore, it takes a lot of time in researching and formatting my APA. Seems to be wasting time in the format. This continued in my 500-word drafting.

Things changed a lot at the middle of the semester. When I was preparing for the podcast, I got a lot of information and found it not that boring to search for academic journals and scholars. The reason is I became interested in what I was doing. Interest is the best teacher, I guess. Because it comes with me all the time I eager to know more about my topic. Finally, I found that researching is not only for completing the paper, but also for improving oneself.

At the beginning, I research for what I need to use in my paper. Now I research for what is related with my paper, and read it through, reference is from its idea, not just the information. If I don't think about it, I cannot get the idea, nor to use it in my paper.

I think the most inefficient way to write a research paper is that read, read, read, and read as much as I can before referencing. There is a story: one can give another a cup of water only when he or she has dousin cans of water. To read more is a process of collecting water.

For my 1000-word draft, I decided my topic on visual communication for children—advertising and food have a great influence on children’s life. Because I found a lot of information about how people choose food and what advertisements tell the audience. I realized that food advertising has a big problem, which misleads children’s attitude on food. The 1000-word draft is a turning point for my project. I improved the idea.

For my podcast, I specifically analyzed the influence of food advertising. With examples and cases, I identified the influence and gave some tips to parents. For my slideshow, I showed some very creative pictures with an idea of defining food other than food. Food can become anything, it depends on us. From the searching, I found more journal articles to support my idea. The slideshow is my favorite part of the project because it comes with text, audio, and visual elements. All of them come together is efficient for communication.


Harvest season for this semester is coming. I hope to collect enough "water" before the final week. There is still a lot to work to do.
Thank you, my teacher and my TA.
I appreciate your help!

About My Paper--Final Week is Comming

This semester, I am taking a great effort in researching and writing the paper titled "How Does Visual Communication Influences Your Children--The Secret of Advertising". I have found some writing rules and interesting tactics in writing process. These new discovery helped me to keep thinking and keep typing, the same with the Blog Name "Doris Keeps Typing". It is really a approach to improve writing skills and increasing the mood in writing.

To tell the truth, I don't like research paper. I guess most students at my age have the same feeling. I always thought that research papers are written by very experienced and advanced scholors who study some particular subjects. Further more, it takes a lot of time in researching and formatting my APA. Seems to be wasting time in the format.

Things changed a lot at the middle of the semester. When I was preparing for the podcast, I got a lot of information and found it not that boring to search for academic journals and scholars. The reason is I became interested in what I was doing. Interest is the best teacher, I guess. Because it comes with me all the time I eager to know more about my topic. Finally, I found that researching is not only for completing the paper, but also for improving oneself.

At the beginning, I research for what I need to use in my paper. Now I research for what is related with my paper, and read it through, reference is from its idea, not just the information. If I don't think about it, I cannot get the idea, nor to use it in my paper.

I think the most inficient way to write a research paper is that read, read, read, and read as much as I can before referencing. There is a story: one can give another a cup of water only when he or she has a dousin cans of water. To read more is a process of collecting water.

Harvest season for this semester is coming. I hope to collect enough "water" before the final week. There is still a lot ot work to do.
Thank you, my teacher and my TA.
I appreciate your help!

2 more sources Apr. 13

Gantz,W Ph.D., Indiana University
Schwartz,N Ph.D., Indiana University
Angelini,J.R M.A., Indiana University
Rideout,V M.A., Kaiser Family Foundation

Food For Thought--Television Advertising For Children in the United States. (2007).
http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/7618.pdf

This is a great source for my project. I should find it earlier before I started the paper. I still need a lot of time reading it. I found it useful and reliable.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jenkins, Henry. (2009).
Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture.
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=T1i_nQrg-vkC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=advertising+21st+century&ots=idnJY6wfdy&sig=tfsdIGN5Vyq1a36pQ1vbDNMllxA#v=onepage&q&f=false


This one is focused on digital learning, also visual communication used in helping children to learn. I don't know if this is a good part to add at the end of my text. It seems too far away from what I wrote about before. but it is related to the topic.

May

http://www.davidairey.com/advertising-to-children-right-or-wrong/
http://pzrservices.typepad.com/advertisingisgoodforyou/

Pictures for Slideshow :*-)

The first picture is a sushi laptop. I believe the creative design must lure you want to eat it up. So visual function wins. Sushi is made of rice, laver, vegetables, and
beans, so it is very good for health. It doesn't matter how much you eat before getting full. The life expectancy of Japanese is one of the longest in the world, there is a reason can't be ignored that is to eat low Cholesterol foods.

Food is no longer food when it is reshaped or reorganized in certain way. For example, when you eat an apple, you may not think of a beautiful butterfly. But if you see an advertisement for a special species of apple that is butterfly shaped, you must develop imagination. “Why is that?” Then the commercial tells you that “our apples are planted in deep forest where butterflies live. Green fruit, no pollution…” That’s it. You begin to drool at the apples.

According to Science of Psychology, associative learning occurs when a connection , or an association, is made between two events. In this case, broccoli is connected with a lovely cartoon figure. Since kids like cartoon figures, they turn to love broccoli as well.

On the other hand, associate something really awful to junk food and show them on TV will immediately change children's attitude of what they liked.

Parents are children's first teachers. What parents do will influence their children, no doubt. Despite visual communication, informational social influence plays an important role, too. Children follow parents' behavior and copy their attitude because they want to do good be right. Therefor, parents should enjoy eating vegetables and fruits in front of children even though they don't like it.

6 Pictures for Slideshow--------

Accidentally I published this blog in another BLOG of mine this morning...


http://634094776.blogspot.com/2010/04/6-pictures-describe-them.html

SlideShow Draft

For my slide show, I will show you some creative food advertisements that catch your eyes and leave you deep impression. Those excellent advertisements may have great influence in advertisement industry in the future because they will break the way people simply think and lead us to look at food in another sight.
Food is no longer food when it is reshaped or reorganized in certain way. For example, when you eat an apple, you may not think of a beautiful butterfly. But if you see an advertisement for a special species of apple that is butterfly shaped, you must develop imagination. “Why is that?” Then the commercial tells you that “our apples are planted in deep forest where butterflies live. Green fruit, no pollution…” That’s it. You begin to drool at the apples.
What I talked about is a simple example of creative advertisement that gives people a guide. If you open your mind, you will find that visual communication is not only applied on advertising. Kids who love junk food love junk food advertisements, too. Is there a way to turn them back from the misleading of junk food advertising? Of course! Use your creative images to teach them what is fresh and good for health, what isn’t.
Then I will show some excellent creative fruit and vegetable images. Those images will give kids deep impression and they will love the healthy food. On the other hand, if we connect junk food pictures with something kids don’t like, they will rapidly change their attitude on junk food.




Amazing Creative Food Art.
Image from http://designbeep.com/2010/04/05/52-amazingly-creative-food-art/
Before-After.
Image from http://www.dailyhaha.com/_pics/american_kids.jpg

Draft of Podcast Script

Over view

My name is Doris. For my podcast I will be presenting the influence of food advertising, and I will explain the relation of obesity and advertising. You will find it important to know about commercial strategies in food advertisements, because you would not like to be caught by pitfalls. We live in a world covered by advertising, so everyone has better look at it in a closer sight.

Content

McDonald`s is one of world`s most successful food company and it has numerous advertisements playing around the world. Whenever you hear “I’m lovin’ it. Ba-La-Bababa”, you must think of McDonald’s. Yeah, the unique rhythm that reminds you of McDonald’s. For many years, this slogan is around our ears. We don’t have to but immediately remember it as long term memory.

I have analyzed this popular slogan, and found the commercial strategies from two aspects: one is easy to remember; the other is leading you to think that you love it. This is a common way to attract customs to purchase their products; it is also a funky way to campaign. I would like to apply this phenomenon broadly, food companies communicate by excellent slogans. The slogans make ideal atmosphere—connect really good background emotion to really look good food. Children may be in that mood before learning to tie shoes. The commercial strategy catches their mind, like a fishing hook. The fishing rod is the food company while the fish are children and adults who are easily “in that mood”.

According to National Bureau of Economic Research, eliminating fast food ads will decline rate of obesity by ten percent. But we cannot completely cancel all the junk food advertisings (Chou, Rashad, and Grossman). I think the most efficient way is to build knowledge and self control. The CFAC (Coalition on Food Advertising to Children) gives you a suggestion:

· Teach kids what is marketing and what isn’t

· Reduce the amount of time kids spend watching TV

· Consume more fruit and vegetables, encourage to eat healthy food

Closing

To finish up my podcast, I would say that advertising is sometimes a psychology game. If you are sober and have enough self control, you will not be badly influenced by food advertising, or other types of advertising. Pitfalls are ready for people who lack of will power. Next time you watch food ads may still be drooling. What would you do? Switch the channel and refresh your mind!

For more information, please visit the National Bureau of Economic Research at www.nber.org. I also recommend wholekids.com.au, which makes a difference for health.

Thank you for listening to my podcast and I hope the tips will help you know better about advertising and avoid obesity in everyday .life!

References

1. Chou, S., Rashad I., and Grossman, M. (2005). Fast-Food Restaurant Advertising on Television and Its Influence on Childhood Obesity. NBER Working Paper No. 11879. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w11879

2. I’m Lovin’ It. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI-xHMM8wXE&feature=related

3. Coalition of Food Advertising to Children. http://www.cfac.net