Ethnography Reflection
For this ethnography of advertising, I chose to conduct my observations during a regular school day. Even without going out of my way to search for ads, I still encountered an abundance of advertising. These ads ranged from online ads on social media platforms, such as Instagram and Twitter, to advertisements in public spaces such as the UC Berkeley campus and public transportation systems such as BART. Prior to conducting this ethnography, I was unprepared for the number of ads I would encounter on this very normal day. At certain points of the day, the influx of ads became so overwhelming to process. By showcasing a few examples of the type of ads I confronted during this day, I will describe how the role and
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Prior to this assignment, I had an inkling that my phone, and its access to social media platforms, would account for a large portion of my daily advertisements. Algorithmically, Instagram places one in-feed ad approximately between every ten new posts you scroll through. Throughout my entire day, I scrolled through at least 7 in-feed Instagram ads. In this, no two ads were alike. Ads ranged from showing Clorox’s Purex product to an Equitone ad promoting new apartment complexes in Belgium. In retrospect, Instagram successfully places their ads in such a fashion that is unobtrusive to the user. Due to this seamless user experience, brands who lean into the popularized Instagram aesthetics have the potential to foster more engagement/impressions with consumers. This is because most frequent users are passively familiar with the style of posts similar to the ones shown in the ads. To explain this concept further, take for example one of the ads I encountered: the Thomas Breakfast Bagel ad. The bagel ad promoting the upcoming “National Bagel Day” stylistically makes use of the patterned food photography techniques that are common on Instagram, especially among Instagram food communities. The first time I scrolled past the ad, I had to scroll back up to check to see if it was indeed an ad. This double-take was because, like many of the other food Instagram accounts I follow, Thomas Breakfast Bagels mimic the same content I would normally see on the social media platform. As I became hyper-aware of my actions online, I realized that I was becoming far too passive to the ads shown in my feed. At times, I would actually catch myself accidentally ‘liking’ advertising content on Instagram because I had become so trained to automatically ‘like’ pictures that are were familiar to
Shane the Lone Ethnographer is an introduction guide to ethnography for beginners. This book is displayed in an innovative way of cartoons very similar to a comic style book. The main character Shane, demonstrates how ethnographers work through the process of completing an ethnography. The author used a cartoon like format to provide a new and interesting approach to understanding the art of ethnography. This book walks you through how Shane embarks on her very first research project and we also get to see the theories, methods, and skills used by ethnographic researchers.
The average American is exposed to 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements a day (Marshall). This can include emails, commercials, billboards, and many others. Advertising is a means of informing choice to its viewers, and it is vital to the success of any business. Although advertising is necessary, over the past fifteen years, advertising has had a negative effect on culture by encouraging conformity and having harmful effects on self-esteem as well as financial status.
Ethnomedicine has been historically defined as any healthcare system not present in the West; now, ethnomedicine is defined as the any cultural beliefs which surround healing in a community. The Hmong—an ethnic group located within present day Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand—have a particular system of ethnomedicine which is described as personalistic. Within a personalistic system, an active agent is the underlying cause of a disease—or etiology. Humans can be the cause of the disease as well as a number of non-human and supernatural agents. When Lia Lee began seizing at three months of age, her parents understood that the active agent which caused her epilepsy was a door slamming which caused her soul to fly from her body, an illness called quag
In Advertisements R Us by Melissa Rubin, she analyzes how advertisements appeal to its audience and how it reflects our society. Rubin describes a specific Coca-Cola ad from the 1950’s that contains a “Sprite Boy”, a large -Cola Coca vending machine, a variety of men, ranging from the working class to members of the army, and the occasional female. She states that this advertisement was very stereotypical of society during that decade and targeted the same demographic: white, working-class males- the same demographic that the Coca-Cola factories employed.
Annotated Bibliography Introduction: Examine different kinds of advertisements and the problem at hand with how they perpetuate stereotypes, such as; gender, race, and religion. Thesis: The problem in society today is in the industry of social media. In efforts to attract the eye of the general population, advertising companies create billboards, commercials, flyers and other ads with stereotypes that are accepted in today’s society. Because of the nations’ cultural expectation for all different types of people, advertisement businesses follow and portray exactly what and how each specific gender, race, or religion should be.
Advertisements: Exposed When viewing advertisements, commercials, and marketing techniques in the sense of a rhetorical perspective, rhetorical strategies such as logos, pathos, and ethos heavily influence the way society decides what products they want to purchase. By using these strategies, the advertisement portrayal based on statistics, factual evidence, and emotional involvement give a sense of need and want for that product. Advertisements also make use of social norms to display various expectations among gender roles along with providing differentiation among tasks that are deemed with femininity or masculinity. Therefore, it is of the advertisers and marketing team of that product that initially have the ideas that influence
As reflected in the readings of Reading Popular Culture: An Anthology for Writers 3rd Edition, present-day advertisements expand far beyond the endorsement of a product. While the initial intent for various corporations surround the operation of selling and marketing products, many companies also find success in promoting masked messages. According to Jean Kilbourne in her article pertaining to the study of advertisement, she reveals the underlying tactics of commercialized business. As stated in the article “’In Your Face…All Over the Place’:
In "Hype", written by Kalle Lasn argues about advertisements nowadays are unconsciously part of our daily life. Everyday we see different types of ad such as display ads, radio commercials, and TV commercials. According to the author 's, so many commercials are mental polluting. There is no place to hide from advertisements are found everywhere such as buses, billboards, stadium, gas station, countryside, etc. I agree with the author point of view.
Case summary Sharon is a 48-year-old Caucasian women. She has good overall physical health although, suffers from back and knee pain relating to obesity. She identifies as a lesbian and is married to her wife Lynn ”. The couple rent a two-bedroom apartment which they share with 12 cats. Sharon is a highly educated woman who has earned her Masters of Social Work.
It is almost like this ad is screaming these words at you, which helps to pound these words into your head and influence your decision on what you will eat. This is true whether we admit we are influenced by the ad or not because, as Kilbourne says in his essay, “In spite of the fact that we are surrounded by more advertising than ever before. Most of us still ridicule the idea that we might be personally influenced by it.”
The presence of advertisements in society influence people into buying, supporting, and inclusively stir them to take action towards a certain object or cause. Among many advertisements that exists, the use of logos, ethos, and pathos exists in order to achieve their purpose. In the advertisement that I chose to analyze the use of logos by the creator creates an amazing impact. Facts such as “one out of every three girls will be sexually assaulted” and “1 out of 7 children are abused” obtains the audience’s attention since such facts cause a shock value among majority of the people. With such surprising sentences the designer is seeking for people to take action and this is mostly seen when the last line of the advertisement is “you can’t afford to ignore it.”
Down my neighborhood, you can’t go two blocks without seeing some type of ad. I chose to look into the lack of healthy eating lifestyles. It seems to me that every other ad is on a fast food chain restaurant. These ads are all over the city, but I feel that they have a huge impact in my community. The ads are even translated in Spanish to make sure the Spanish speaking community knows exactly what they are advertising.
Advertising is a form of propaganda that plays a huge role in society and is readily apparent to anyone who watches television, listens to the radio, reads newspapers, uses the internet, or looks at a billboard on the streets and buses. The effects of advertising begin the moment a child asks for a new toy seen on TV or a middle aged man decides he needs that new car. It is negatively impacting our society. To begin, the companies which make advertisements know who to aim their ads at and how to emotionally connect their product with a viewer. For example, “Studies conducted for Seventeen magazine have shown that 29 percent of adult women still buy the brand of coffee they preferred as a teenager, and 41 percent buy the same brand of mascara”
ANTH150 Mini Essay 2: Fieldwork Observation Word Count: 734 I conducted my ethnographic observations over the course of a few days. During my fieldwork observation, I recorded observations of customer behaviour, the general layout of the restaurant, culture significance, and décor. Siam Corner is located in Rouse Hill on Resolution Place. While entering, you can immediately feel the intimate environment of the restaurant and sense the sudden shift from the streets of Sydney to a Thai restaurant. It is viewed as an upscale restaurant with excellent service.
Ethnography is the study of social interactions, behaviours, and perceptions that occur within groups, teams, organisations, and communities. The central aim of ethnography is to provide rich, holistic insights into people’s views and actions. (Reeves et al, 2017). The term ethnography has come to be equated with virtually any qualitative research project where the intent is to provide a detailed, in-depth description of everyday life and practice. Qualitative research can be described as social science research in comparison to quantitative research is statistically orientated research (Hoey, 2017).