More on JBS

Here are some pictures to follow up on the JBS Underwear campaign. These are some of the print executions, reminding us that "men don't want to look at naked men." So instead they show beautiful women acting like men...brilliant!

JBS Underwear

This is an international ad I found on Ads of the World. It is probably the funniest ad I have seen in a very long time! The woman featured in the ad plays the part so well, it makes us women wonder why we even like the pigs at all. Walking around naked, adding beer to cereal, burping, farting and watching racing on TV, yup that's a man alright. The only difference is she looks a lot better than a man does. The concept is brilliant; the ad grabs your attentions immediately and holds it. Unlike a lot of ads like this one (entertaining ads based on humor or shock), at the end you actually know what the product is. The use of repetition i.e. scratching her butt twice, keeps the product in view and focus on the underwear. The tagline at the end reinforces the product and gives the message of the ad. It's true, men don't want to see other men walking around almost naked. Although they probably don't want to see a beautiful woman farting and burping either; but the point is well taken. She is just like a man...but boy, is she easier on the eyes (well at least to men)

Everything in advertising is intentional right? I mean look at her place, filled with empty liquor and beer bottles, a pizza box on the table with a lone slice left, the empty fridge; what is all this stuff saying? In the infamous words or Austin Powers, “She’s a man baby!!!”

As a side note, I think the use of racing at the end is interesting. If this ad were an American ad, (HaHa, I know it would never make it on American television) but if it were, she would be watching football. You would hear the stereotypical announcer in the background or the referee making a call. But being an international ad, probably based out of Europe they use racing. I know racing in other countries is huge; and they don't do any of that silly NASCAR crap where it is considered a skill to make left turns a.k.a. driving in a circle. Take what you want from this, it is just a note of interest on culture and advertising to different countries.

The End...well at least for grading purposes

So as this semester draws to a close, Lilly asked us to reexamine one of the first questions she ever asked us. What kind of a media consumer are you? Has this class changed your perceptions at all? Do you still think of media the same way? Lilly, at the beginning of the semester, gave us a survey that asked us about which types of media we interface with regularly, how long we spend interacting with these things, and which ones were our favorites. We wrote on our blogs about it, you can check out the original post here. In fact, you should, because I am not going to retake this survey. I don't think my answers to the questions have changed. Do I still wish I had more time to read up on science, yes. Are my favorite movies still Dirty Dancing and Moulin Rouge, yes. The change doesn't include what I consume, it is how I consume it, and I don't think the survey's questions address that concept. Now, if you want to know how I have changed, I can tell you that without a questionnaire. I tend to look at things more critically. I don't take them at face value anymore; the media I interface with used to just skim the surface of my perception. Now I intentionally take more notice of it. I never realized how much media I interacted with on a daily basis because most of it went in one ear and out the other. Once I made the effort to become more aware of the media around me I really noticed how much there is, and the media I do notice I try to think about. It is no longer just stuff in the background, I try to come up with an opinion, even if it is simple as I like it or I don't like it. At least by making it a point to come up with an opinion, I am sure to continue to take notice of my media surroundings. I have been trying to find my niche in school for the past 3 years, and I think I finally found it. I love advertising; it stimulates my intellect (being a previous chemistry major) as well as my creative side (being raised with a father who's an artist). I find the marketing, idea process, and psychological concepts behind advertising so interesting. I want to thank Lilly for always trying to make an effort for the students. Having her for two classes lets you get the full scope of her dedication to the students. She teaches by example and not by broad concepts and terms, and is always trying new teaching projects, like this blog. I especially appreciate her keeping the students informed when it comes to internships, trips, contests, scholarships and anything else that might further our education in a non-conventional way.

Ads Here, Ads There, Ads Everywhere

I recently went to the Cheesecake Factory for my boyfriend's birthday and despite previously working there for over a year, when I went in, something struck me that never had before. There are ads in the menu, and although I realized there existence, I had never thought about the relevance of these ads. As an advertising major, it made me question the success of these ads. Are they really getting through to the target audience? I know finding outlets for unconventional advertising can lead to very successful campaigns, but in a menu? I mean even as an ad major I almost breezed right by them. They barely passed my perceptual screens! Think about it, when you sit down for dinner at a restaurant what do you do? You are focused on what is going to get you the food, and that is all. If you're hungry you quickly scan through the menu to find what you want so you can order your food and get it out to you as fast as possible. You're hungry, you want instant gratification, or the closest thing to it. The way the menu is set up, all the ads are on the left side and the menu items on the right side, so as you are looking through the menu, you can easily choose to just ignore the left pages of the menu. It is easy to filter the ads out; perhaps if they switched up the pages, so when you are looking for food on the right side, there is an ad there instead, it might be more successful. If you have ever been to Cheesecake Factory, you know they have an extensive menu (over 200 items) and just trying to figure out what to pick is a chore in and of itself. You are really not looking at the ads, you are trying to figure out which of these things am I going to get; the patrons are too focused on the overwhelming amount of choices. I will say that the ads do speak to the typical customer of cheesecake. The ads are a little more upscale, but not so overdone it doesn't apply to the average person e.g. designer jewelry and cruises. The question isn't do the ads fit the target audience but will they even notice them.

Are You Red?

Every year 3 million people die from AIDS. Friday, December 1st was World AIDS Day. There is a huge inspi(red) campaign right now created by Bono and Bobby Shriver trying to support awareness and raise money for better treatment of AIDS in Africa. I had heard about it some, (you may have seen some of the commercials) but I really started looking into it on Friday when Google had a small red ribbon on it's website. When you clicked on it, you were redirected to the website for campaign red. You find out how far the campaign stretches and all the connections they made so far. The idea behind the campaign is to purchase red products because they are desi(red). When you buy a red product at no additional cost to the consumer, the red company will then donate some of its profits to buy and distribute antiviral medicine for the victims in Africa. The hope is that when consumers need a product, and it is offered in red, they will choose the red product over another for the sake of doing something good, especially since it comes at no extra cost to them. Then soon other companies will follow suit. They will become red, because it makes good business sense to compete with current red companies. Some of the products currently available are credit cards, watches, and phones. Apple recently introduced their newest edition to the i-Pod family. Apple has gone red; they are offering the 4GB and 8GB Nano in Red. Check out all the products that support red here. Myspace and AIM are also supporting Red; the media is an important link to awareness. By donating space on their websites they raise visibility and interest in the campaign. The magazine Dazed and Confused, which I recently wrote a post about, is also sponsoring Red by encouraging readers to add photos and videos that show their red support. Not all products actually have to physically be the color red to support the cause, but many are offered that way. The campaign doesn't want it to be about buying a watch to purposely support red. The idea is that if you need a watch and you will hopefully buy the red watch. They even assume many people will buy a red product without even realizing or knowing what red is. With the profits from the first six weeks of the campaign, they can provide 40,000 people with ARV treatments for a year. You can follow up on this even more by going to their blog. They have been writing about the progress and companies who are starting support the cause. You to the power of red, that's the big idea. Check it out!

It's a bird, it's a plane. No it's.....

I recently found this ad from Cole Vision Corporation out of Quebec for Sears Optical. I originally found it on the adforum website. It shows a lady on a park bench looking up in the sky. She slowly reaches for her umbrella, opens it and places it over head. Shortly after, bird poop falls from the sky and lands on her umbrella. She closes it and puts it away. It is a great ad; it uses humor while clearly getting its point across. Anyone can understand the message being conveyed; the scene resonates with the audience. The idea of getting shit on is nasty and creates a strong emotion of disgust and discomfort with the viewers. The fact that her vision is so good that she could see the poop coming and prevent the whole ugly scene is very smart and creative. You should check it out. It is a short ad that readily and easily defines its message through the execution. I know adforum closes off access to videos after a week, so I will also link to another site that is currently playing the ad. Enjoy

By the way...sorry this is a little late, it has been a crazy week of projects and living at the library.

This read is easy to digest!

Recently, I discovered that Readers Digest doesn't just do magazines. In fact they do a lot of stuff, but my new favorite thing is their select editions. It is a series of four condensed stories in one book. You can sample four books in the time it may take you to read one. It allows for you try out new authors you have never heard of, but at the same time authors that have been selected for their adept story telling. These books also feature well known authors such as Marry Higgins Clark and Nicholas Sparks. The authors are often surprised at how well the story stays true to form despite the amount of information that was removed. Nicholas Sparks comments, "The editors of Reader's Digest Select Editions continue to work their magic. Their treatment of my novels couldn't be better." For instance, I just read the book Whiteout by Ken Follett. If you read the book in its entirety it would be 396 pages long, while the story I read was only 165 pages. At first I was skeptical, if I want to read a story, I want read all of it, find out all of the character idiosyncrasies, and the get to experience all the details of the story. But as I read it, the story moved quickly; it was suspenseful and interesting. I didn't feel like anything was missing. When I read reviews of Whiteout, people said it was a mediocre story that moved too slowly. I was surprised to hear the review, but it makes you realize that Readers Digest took out all the extra information that can drag down a book. But we've all been there; where a good story can drag on and on because extra details and information impede the flow of the story. There are just so many great books out there, and never enough time to experience them all. These books offer such a great solution! The books are short in pages to begin with, but the way they are edited makes them fast paced and quickly/easily read. I would recommend these books to anyone who feels like I do..."too many books, not enough time."

What's your footprint?

What's your ecological footprint? I found this interesting quiz that measures your consumption of the earth's resources. It asks questions about how you live day to day and determines how much land and water is needed to support your lifestyle. The biological capacity with 6.2 billion people allows for 4.5 acres per person. According to the quiz my consumption is 18 acres, and if everyone lived like me, we would need 4.2 earths to support my type of lifestyle. Even more surprisingly was that I was below average. The quiz gives you a comparison of how you rate to other people in your country. The average person in this area needs 24 acres to support their way of life. This number is crazy! Especially when we are allotted 4.5 acres. Once you take the quiz, and realize how much energy and resources you consume, they encourage you to follow up on it. Learn about how to improve your lifestyle and live lightly; they want you to join in the effort to make people around you aware.
They have a great website that lets you learn more about the cause and quiz. It answers questions about how the quiz rates you. It lets you see how your food choices, where you live, and the population of your city affects your footprint. It offers suggestions and ideas on how to change your lifestyle. The whole idea is interesting and gives you a measurable number to represent your demand on the environment.

Zunes Tunes

Microsoft launched their new media player, Zune, on November 14. It is definitely some competition for the well established iPod. It features a 3 inch 320x240 pixel display which is larger than the 2.5 inch screen on the iPod. Zune comes in black, white and brown and at 5.6 ounces it is heavier than the 4.8 ounce competition. Overall Zune is a larger product than the iPod. Zune is only available in 30GB where as the iPod offers a variety of sizes up to 80 GB. Zune features the ability to share music between people with the same media player, and they have made sure they didn't miss the opportunity to make this well know. You can send or receive information over a 802.11 b/g connection when you are within 30 feet of each other. The detail that they aren't making as well known is that it is only good for three days. You can share your music, but if they want to keep the song, they have to go out and get it for themselves. The Zune is not yet compatible with Vista, and somewhere deeply embedded in their website they have disclosed this information, but it is another glitch that is not well known. Both players are equally priced, but I think if Microsoft wanted to strongly compete, they should have made the price lower than the iPod, given Apple's strong market share. Microsoft has historically not done too well with hardware, so it will be interesting to see how this venture fairs. May the best media player win!

Christmas in October?

Isn't it a little ridiculous to see holiday decorations before Halloween? Not according to Lowe's who launched their seasonal set up a full week before October 31st. They claim consumers are starting their shopping sooner and need to accommodate the demand. Holiday decorations and shopping used to commence the day after Thanksgiving right? Doesn't anyone remember "Black Friday?" AdAge blames Wal-Mart, who in 2005 started their holiday campaign November 1st, a full three weeks ahead of black Friday. This year the strategy has been repeated, but with many companies following suit. Even Best Buy had print ads in October issues of magazines. $457 billion is expected in holiday shopping this year (Adage) so it is no wonder companies are trying to tap into that as soon as possible. As a consumer there some issues with this: how often do you promise yourself you are going to get done early, and you do. But then sometime between being done and the actual holiday you find more things that you know your family or friends would love so you get those things too. This is why starting early never works, you just end up buying more gifts!!! And of course this is great for the companies. Who doesn't want to end up selling more than intended? But there is also a fear that a company could offend their consumer. The ads and holiday excitement quickly grow tired. People get sick of seeing the holiday crap, while others get irritated that the company is pushing the hype on them so early. Home Depots Chief Marketing Officer is well aware and said "We want each holiday to have it's time. We thought going before Halloween could backfire on us. We want to maintain the integrity of each holiday. If you go too early you can violate the sensibilities of the public and people can sometimes resent that." There is something to be said for this. Aren't companies losing some of their profits by skipping holidays? And he's right, I don't want to start thinking about Christmas before the Holiday season actually starts. Although, I know on some level it must be working because I actually saw a Christmas Tree in someones window the other day. How sad...

Dazed and Confused

Dazed and Confused is a magazine in the UK published for young adults. It is a strong, successful independent magazine that has been running for 12 years. The creators were working for another magazine in the early 90's and realized that the company was oblivious to the talent and creativity that was emerging all around them. They branched off and created this magazine that went beyond the sacred trinity of fashion, music and film. They broadened their scope to include art and literature as well as social and political issues in the community and worldwide. Their stories include underground youth movements, young up and coming talents, new trends, interviews and inspiring stories with journalistic quality. They review new technologies and cover campaigns and overall try to educate and inspire youth. Dazed has an artistic edge; they are always featuring bold new designers, captivating photography, and new trends in music and fashion. The magazine often holds contests and presents awards to their readers, which often kick starts careers for these young people.

During a time when many magazines are struggling, Dazed and Confused has had five years of continuous growth. It is one of the most successful independent publications today. It's a great magazine focusing on art, culture, upcoming talent, and poignant issues.

Kirstie Alley a Bikini Model?

Today on Oprah, Kirstie Alley was brave enough to show herself in a bikini; she paraded herself on stage in a maroon robe and bathing suit. Now we all know the power that Oprah has, and her loyal following, but I know a lot of people tuned in specifically to see the "fat actress" show her stuff. I guess the question is who really cares? I didn't tune in personally, but the chatter before and after the show demonstrated the fanatical interest in seeing a Kirstie's transformation.

Since last October we have seen a different television ad every month showing Kirstie Alley stating her progress and promoting Jenny Craig. Of course it is a big accomplishment to lose 75 pounds; I can see Jenny Craig using her as their spokesperson, but as for the bikini, there was a lot of hype for Kirstie's 10 second flash. First of all, she isn't exactly what I call bikini ready. She had to wear "stripper hose" in order to hold herself in...that's a bit much. Here's another thing, she said she started off at 220 pounds and lost 75, which would make her 145 pounds. I'm sorry but a 5'8" woman does not look like that when she is 145 pounds. I am 5'2" and I once weighed 145 and I was half the size she is; I'm sorry, but there is just no way she is 145 pounds. So either she hasn't lost 75 pounds or she was heavier than 220 to start with...a much more likely option. If you look at her at her heaviest she was a BIG woman, and with her height, 220 is a bit low.

I think she deserves a big congratulations for how far she has come, but I also think she needs to come a lot further to get the kind of media attention she received. I just don't believe it was that important to see a still obviously overweight woman feel uncomfortable and awkward on stage. If you do care, Kirstie has a blog that you can read to follow her weight loss journey.

Bob Barker Come on Down

On October 31st, Bob Barker announced he will actually be retiring in June 2007 after 35 years of being host of The Price is Right. He said he's "decided to retire while I'm still young" and at 82, he's just a spring chicken. He felt it was an appropriate time to retire because he will have reached two important anniversaries, 35 years on The Price is Right, but also 50 years in television overall. He says he will miss it a great deal, and hasn't retired any sooner because it has been so much fun. The Price is Right is the longest running daytime game show in history. Barker started his game show career with a show called Truth or Consequences, followed by the short lived The Family Game only to be replaced by the infamous The Price is Right. Barker has won 17 Emmy Awards as well as being inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 2004. They have already been looking for Bob Barker's replacement for two or three years, knowing this day would inevitably come. There is no way he will ever truly be replaced; he is one of the most well known and loved personalities on television.

So what will Bob be doing with all this extra time on his hands? He wants to sit down for a couple of weeks to find out what being bored feels like, then who knows. He knows he wants to continue working for animal rights, especially his own DJ&T Foundation. He will also consider movies, but he wants it well known that he "refuses to do nude scenes. These Hollywood producers want to capitalize on my obvious sexuality, but I don't want to be just another beautiful body," he says jokingly. Well at least he still has his morals.

We will miss our silver haired sweet talker come June, but just remember "help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered."

Nicky Wins!!!

Go USA! If any of you follow motorcycle racing (which most of you probably don't) you are sure to know that Nicky beat Rossi this weekend in the final race in Valencia. It has been an exciting season! It came down to Nicky Hayden and the best motorcycle racer in the world, Valentino Rossi, from Italy, who has won every year since 2001. Nicky had the points lead coming out of the U.S. Grand Prix, but it seemed week after week his lead slipped as Valentino Rossi gradually moved up the points pole, and week after week, Nicky kept making mistakes. It was close last week in Portugal when it all went wrong! Nicky had been doing great all weekend during practice and qualifying and felt strong and ready for the race. He was sure he could get some points back so he would be more ready for the final race in Valencia, when it went all bad. His teammate Danny Pedrosa crashed and took Nicky out with him! Check out this footage. You can see the crash and how upset Nicky gets, who by the way is usually very mild tempered. The infuriating thing is instead of running over to help Nicky pick up his bike, Danny just throws his arms in the air and walks away, which leaves Nicky no chance to get back in the race. A DNF (did not finish) costs a lot points, especially when Nicky had so few to spare.

Then came the final race of the season, Valencia. Nicky was starting in the second row ..not good for our American, especially with Rossi in the first line. The start was quick and Nicky was fast, he quickly got into second while Rossi got stuck in seventh. It was so exciting, it looked like Nicky had a chance after all, but Rossi is an amazing rider, and had the whole race to catch up. Then in his attempt to get closer to Nicky, Rossi fell!!! No one could believe it! ROSSI FELL!! He quickly got up but couldn't make it past 13th place. All Nicky had to do was ride a safe but steady pace and the championship was his. And that is precisely what he did. He dropped down to third but maintained a steady speed and ended up winning the Championship 5 points ahead of Rossi. Check out the video below in the post titled Valencia Race! It is great, you get to see cut throat racing, Rossi falling, and the end is the best!! Nicky is so overwhelmed with emotion he can barely ride his motorcycle. Then to show what a classy guy Rossi is, he comes up to Nicky, pats him on the back and shakes his hand. To give you some reference while watching the video Nicky is number 69 on the Repsol Honda and Rossi "The Doctor" is number 46 on the Camel Yamaha.

Valencia Race

Here is the video of the Valencia Race Nicky - number 69 on the Repsol Honda vs. The Doctor (Valentino Rossi) - number 46 on the Camel Yamaha.

Congrats SJSU!!

Wow! San Jose State came in top five out of 820 different student entries from 230 schools. Check out the news story here. (This was filmed during a press conference in our class when the announcement was made. It was an interesting and exciting experience, and a great way to see first hand what it is all about.) The top five student entires came from University of Wisconsin, Elon University in North Carolina, Washington University in St. Louis, and Savannah College of Art and Design...which I am also a former student of. Yay SCAD! But of course, not as much as Yay SJSU!!! What an accomplishment for our three students, not too shabby for a resume either. To get an ad aired during the superbowl costs about $2.6 million for 30 seconds. This is Huge for a college student! They have an incredibly hectic schedule to follow, but I am sure they are having fun while doing it. We don't know what the storyboards or the ideas are yet, very hush hush, but it will be great when we can finally hear the concepts and even more exciting to know that we won...notice I didn't say if. We have the best students, faculty and ideas in the country!! Duh! GO SJSU!! If you want to follow the story more closely you can check out the Chevy Ad Challenge blog, or the faculty advisor's blog.

Deja Vu?

On October 18th an 81-year-old Florida man made national news when he was stung in the heart by a spotted eagle stingray. James Bertakis was fishing with his grandchildren on an Intercoastal Waterway when the stingray flopped into the boat. Bertakis was apparently trying to get the stingray out of the boat when it stung him. It is an odd coincidence so shortly after Steve Irwin's untimely run in with a stingray. The Crocodile Hunter died at 44 early last month while filming an underwater documentary in the Great Barrier Reef when he was stung in the heart by a stingray. Fortunately, James did not pull out the foot-long stinger, as did Irwin (or maybe even because of the knowledge from his death) and was rushed to the hospital. He had a collapsed lung and pierced left ventricle; doctors were able to remove the barb and close up the wound in his heart during surgery on Wednesday and Thursday. He is expected to make a full recovery, but due to his age, the healing process will be slow and monitored closely. Most reports are calling this an attack, but it is pretty hard to envision a fish out of water thrashing about an attack. I would be more comfortable calling it a crazy coincidence/freak accident. At most the stingray felt threatened and acted in defense. Either way, it is an interesting twist of fate so soon after the world mourned Steve Irwin in such a similar accident.

Bill Gates House

It's funny how things seem to come full circle. Just to give you a little background info, I am an administrative assistant at a very exclusive country club in Menlo Park (top 100 in the nation); and our chef is one of the top chef's in the world. Anyway, we took our boss out to lunch today to celebrate Boss' Day, and we got on the conversation of Bill Gates. So I mentioned what we discussed in class yesterday about the technology in Bill Gates' house.


Then Chef begins talking about the locator that you have to wear, the art on the walls and temperature preferences. It turns out he was with the Gates' for a week interviewing to be their personal chef. See full circle. He was explaining about the technology in his house, and the ridiculous size of the house. He explained that the locator was mainly for security, and that you had to have high status with Bill to have anything change in the house. Not to mention Bill always gets priority. So if you're strolling through one of his over sized rooms with him, don't expect to see your favorite artist on the wall. So how does the story end? Well they really liked Chef, but they wanted another chef to go up against him for a comparison. They looked for three months for someone that could compare to chef. Then it turns out a friend of Bill's old chef was looking for a job, so they hired him because it was a friend of a friend sort of thing. So what does Chef do? Becomes the personal chef of Steve Jobs of course...go figure!

Green Machine

The green machine, developed by Nicholas Negroponte, is an upcoming laptop for under $100 made for poor countries. One Laptop per Child, OLPC, is sponsoring Nicholas in his endeavor. The computer needs to be a durable, so it will be wrapped in a rubber skin. The battery will be charged by the wind up crank; one minute of turning the crank should provide 40 minutes of energy for the computer. The screen will have an LED display which uses 1/10 the power of the average computer screen today. It will run on a free software such as Linux and have a 500 megahertz processor. It will be able to do much of what a regular computer can do except store large amounts of data. There will just be one gigabyte of memory but will have four different USB ports to allow for external devices. They have also removed any extras within the computer. They claim that in the average computer, 2/3 of the software is used to manage the other third. They are just going to put in what the computer needs to run. They do plan to have access to the Internet through a mesh network, P2P, developed by MIT. The computers will be distributed directly to ministries of education by the millions to keep down costs. The ministries can then distribute the computers to schools and the children. They want the kids to be able to work with the computers in the classroom as well as at home. Computers are a way to access information around the world as well as a tool to help them learn. Both of these can be crucial for the development of these countries; their youth can become more educated and more aware of the world around them. Brazil, Thailand, Nigeria and Libya are planning to pilot the product. It will then be passed through Central America and parts of Africa. Many other countries in Asia and Africa have expressed interest but are still not on board yet. They are still looking at different designs for the product.
The product is still in the development stage. Just recently the test boards became available for the computer. They hope to have the product out by the end of this year or the beginning of 2007. Once 5-10 million have been ordered and paid for manufacturing will begin.

Must See TV Top Three

With as many stations as there are on television, you would think there is bound to be something good to watch. And yet, despite infinite channel surfing, you can rarely find something of interest. This makes it even more difficult to say which three TV shows were the most influential or important. I would have to say that The Simpsons, the original Star Trek, and Survivor are three shows that have had a definite impact on culture or evolution of television programming.

Survivor pretty much kicked off the reality show phenomenon as we know it. It began as a major hit television show in Sweden called Expedition Robinson in 1997. In 2000 it made its way to the U.S. and was a huge success. The Situation Comedy was soon replaced by the Reality Show. Soon to follow was The Bachelor, Joe Millionaire, America's Next Top Model, The Biggest Loser, The Apprentice and Big Brother. You name it, there is a show about it! It could be argued that MTV's Real World was the origin of Reality TV, but it was really survivor that changed the format and began the craze that we have today. The Real World was the first to throw strangers together and give them a confessional, but Survivor made it a competition. Reality TV today is almost always based around that competition - voting someone off, and awarding a prize to the last person standing. This is a very different concept from the original Real World which is why after vacillating over which program was more influential on Reality Television I opted for Survivor.

The Simpsons is the longest running American sitcom and animated series. It is also the the first animated series to be aired in prime time other than the Flintstones. The show deals with political, religious, and other controversial issues through humor. The Simpsons have permeated pop culture and are part of people's general knowledge. Who hasn't said "D'oh" on one occasion or another (which by the way is an actual word in the Oxford English Dictionary) or told someone to eat your shorts! People love The Simpsons; there is merchandise to collect, fan clubs to join, and don't forget to try to solve the mystery of their true location.
Here is an ad that uses Marge Simpson to demonstrate how well the product works, but also demonstrates how identifiable the Simpsons have become. The consumer can immediately interpret this ad because Marge has become part of people's basic understanding. The success of The Simpsons also led to the creation of other animated series such as Family Guy and South Park.

The original Star Trek aired in 1966. This television show generated five related series, ten movies, as well as a legion of fans affectionately known as Trekkies. Gene Roddenberry wanted to address existing challenges on Earth, but its setting in space provided a non-confrontational situation for its viewers. Star Trek dealt with heavy issues such as warfare and discrimination. Lieutenant Uhura was an African-American woman with a respected title and role. Star Trek even had the first interracial kiss between Kirk and Uhura. They didn't stop there; there was also a Japanese American, a Scotsman, and a Vulcan. This ability to live in harmony despite obvious differences was a major statement within the show. Star Trek also played into the populations interest in space travel as the race for space with Russia coincided with the show.