How I Met Your Mother & Family Guy

I love watching How I Met Your Mother. That show is super addicting, and the jokes on there all make sense. There's this one character, Barney Stinson, played by Neil Patrick Harris, whose an extreme womanizer. All his jokes are practically sexist and demeaning towards all women.

"Are you nuts? That would involve me speaking to a woman I've already had sex with… which frankly is a little bit like changing the oil in a rental car!" 

Ted: There was this girl Penelope..She knows how to make it rain..Are you still in touch with her?
Barney:Oh yes..Although we stopped having sex;we see eachother once in a month,hang out and OF COURSE I'M NOT IN TOUCH WİTH HER!!!

The jokes are meant to be funny but after watching a few episodes the jokes could get a bit hurtful. Most the jokes on How I Met Your Mother are all not suitable for children, they talk about tons of race stereotypes. In this one episode, Barney sees an Asian woman and instantly assumes she likes rice and orange chicken and asks her to make him a Bennihana... First off, Bennihana is Japanese, and secondly orange chicken is chinese.... Watching this sometimes makes me wonder if other Americans see Asian people as just one giant mixture. However nothing beats racist jokes references like family guy. That animated show just keeps on going about how Asians are cheap and Jews are just "bottom feeders and good for nothing" it's terrible but so addicting to watch. I have no idea why I even support these shows but I do...

(racist Jew joke)

Family Guy spends a lot of time talking about very obnoxious stereotypes like Asians not being able to drive or African People not being able to do anything, it's terrible. I don't think there's ever been an episode that hasn't been racist.

RACIST FAMILY GUY JOKES <-- there's just a ton of them.... 

"what kind of man would I be if I left?" 

" a black man" 

- Family Guy 

Stereotypes Everywhere...

It's becoming impossible to avoid experiencing some kind of stereotype... Somehow I happen to stumble upon some kind of stereotype, some offensive, some funny, but all just wrong. I guess some people may think it's understand to commit a stereotype because everyone would get the same picture but I don't think it's ethical at all. I think that when there is some sort of stereotyping, a lot of people hurt on the inside and stay quiet about it which can cause so many other problems. I think shampoo ads actually do a lot of subliminal stereotyping. Whenever I go to CVS or Safeway for hair products I always notice that black hair care products are separated from everything else. There's a giant isle for hair care, but in a small section of that isle apart from everything else there is black people hair care, and they make it very obvious. 

The picture shows some of the hair dye, but of course they don't display any African American Models. 

When it comes to hair care, Jim Crow laws definitely still apply "separate but equal" I don't think that's fair and I think that all hair care should actually just be placed together and that African people should actually be allowed to hair models for regular hair dyes. 

Googling Semiotics

To quickly refresh my mind... I'm googling what "semiotics" means....  study of signs and symbols! Wikipedia does me well!

Advertising is everywhere. It really is... When I'm driving to school, all I see are bumper stickers of some insurance companies and billboards. These billboards are usually covered in graffiti or look very promising. One of my favorite billboards that I've seen so far have to be the "BEWARE OF TIGER MISQUOTES". The billboard at first doesn't really come off as advertisement at first, then I look at it more carefully... I see a repellent spray next to the misquote and soon realize, this sneaky billboard was actually trying to sell me something through bringing fear into my mind. I had just thought the billboard was there just to warn friendly citizens of san jose, but in reality it was trying to sell me a product by enlarging a giant photo of a very ugly misquote.

I haven't seen that billboard in awhile, it was just replaced by this Geico advertisement. There a giant green geico is standing on 2 feet with it's giant eyes looking at me. The billboard has done well to get my attention. All I see is the geico's eyes just starring at me, feeling slightly uncomfortable, I completely forget what the advertisement was supposed to do. All it did was show a giant geico starring out into the blue... It was unnecessary and seem very pretentious. Maybe the geico was supposed to symbolize how "green" the insurance company was or get it's mascot more attention... Either way I hated the ad because it was disgusting to look at and made my drives to school uncomfortable. I like to look at ads that have a story or some kind of actual plot. Billboards that show something with an actual plot seem to actually linger in my mind whereas the ads that just show case the company's mascot make me think "really they couldn't think of something catchy?"

there he is looking at me... making me feel awkward. that smile on his face does not bring me any comfort. If I didn't know what geico actually was, this ad surely does not tell me anything about car/home insurance.... 

I watched a victoria secret commercial not to long ago and realized it was pretty clever. Everyone knows victoria secret and knows it offers "sexy, be a goddess" or something similar to that. Victoria Secret has built up this iconic message of selling sexy, if you buy this bra, you too will be sexy and feel like an angel. Over the years it's established a great name for itself and sold to millions. This commercial I saw really reminds everyone that you can give the gift of sexiness to a person. Rather than buying a bra you are actually able to buy the gift of looking good. It felt like the commercial was actually trying to give you sexy rather than the physical form of a bra, which is kind of weird... 

 

Me, Myself, and Brands

From the moment I wake up I'm already smacked in the face with some kind of advertisement. The rambling radio noise bundles me up with some kind of "sell you gold for cash" or "pick n pull", then I check facebook or instagram which is basically plastered with ads. I guess this could get annoying for some people, but for me, it's really not annoying at all. Unless I'm watching hulu and there's an ad in the middle of Grey's Anatomy, advertisements don't really bother me at all. I think I've learned to live with seeing bright lights and flashy signs while driving down stevens creek, for some reason I think ads make the world a lot brighter.

Over the years I've become pretty attached to brands because of all it's amazing advertising... I think I'm much more materialistic than most people, but I do it with no harm. I'm obsessed with luxury brands like Chanel and Louis Vuitton, I really can't help it. There's this amazing feeling I feel when I have the bag because the bag is not a common good, not everyone has it, and it really does make me feel high end. Maybe that might sound stuck up but whenever I think Chanel, I think classy, rich, and elegant, which is why I buy the brand. Then sometimes I have to deal with people who say "oh you over pay for the brand...." my response to that is that I'm actually fine with because these over priced brands actually are of higher quality and has more than what meets the eye. 

Other big brands that I can't really live without is Minute Maid and Coca Cola. I'm just so addicted to everything they make. It's far better than store brand stuff. Even though I occasionally buy store brand goods over some big branded items, nothing beats the taste of a Minute Maid or Coca Cola product. I will probably prefer any Coca Cola owned soda over any other brand just because of it's quality. I actually think that by paying more I'm actually getting better stuff. When I was younger, I remember getting lots of Coca Cola brand sodas and everyone else would too, over the years, I associate Coca Cola as the normal type of drink. So when anyone ask me to get them a drink and they don't specify I grab them a Coca Cola because I think EVERYONE loves it. I think this has a lot to do with all the ads I see, I'm pretty much brainwashed into thinking the only soda that exist is Coca Cola. 

I think the brands that are relevant to who I am (self identity) are 

- Chanel 

- Louis Vuitton 

- M.A.C

- Samsung 

- PC 

- Coca Cola 

- Minute Maid

- Jeep 

- Disney 

there are probably more but, I'm pretty much obsessed with these at the moment. I think the main reason I just love these brands is because of their story behind it's creation and how everyone else has a positive perspective about these brands.

Here's a picture of what I hope these brands makes me feel like  (a super weird looking alienly queen) 

Well that's all for now, thanks for reading and hopefully you don't think I'm this crazy label eating monster.