THE PANDA STRIKES AGAIN

After watching James’ presentation about Panda Cheese, I had to go and look for other Panda Commercials. I watched the Never Say No to Panda in the Supermarket. Once again, the commercial starts out with a dull and inactive setting. Then you see the father and son shopping for groceries together and you can notice that the father has a dull, grey shirt whereas the son has a bright yellow shirt. This in itself shows the difference of personalities between the father and the son. The son then picks up the Panda Cheese and suggests buying it, but his father quickly scolds him and I am assuming that he is telling him that they have enough food already in the cart. As soon as the father finishes saying that the Panda appears, again, giving the father a cute smile with a couple of blinks. The Panda walks up and knocks the cart over and kicks the groceries multiple times.

This commercial clearly shows that Panda Cheese brings joy and liveliness into the lives of people who enjoy this product. The people who do not want this seem to hate life or just not happy at all. In addition, rejecting this product means that you will be receiving the wrath of the Panda and after watching the multiple series of Panda Cheese videos, you do not want to mess with the Panda.

As I watched the numerous Panda videos, I think the advertisers did a very good job in attempting to sell their product because I really want some Panda Cheese. I WILL find Panda Cheese and when I do, I will bring it to class sometime in the future.

A Kia...

Even as a South Korean person, I could never really support buying Korean cars because the cars lacked in performance and were always out of style. Of all the Korean car companies, Kia is probably the company that bothers me the most and I constantly wonder why they cannot incorporate more modern designs to their cars. 

Interestingly, however, for the past year they have been producing more cars with better and innovative designs and the one that really caught my eye recently was the Kia Soul, where the famous hamsters are in the car either listening to music or outside the car break dancing. As I look back on this car ad, I cannot help but be fascinated to see how the rhetoric of this ad really changed my perception of Kia cars. The ethos in this ad is very powerful and clear cut in the sense that there is a more “hip” feeling to Kia compared to the older designs. In addition, in comparison to the older commercials of Kia, there is definitely a different ethos that is portrayed. Previously, it was a more “conservative” and “calm” kind of car and now it feels more “modern” and “cool”.

I never thought I would catch myself considering buying a Kia until I was exposed to these commercials.  

Kia did a great good job of portraying their ethos to a younger audience with their sleek and modern designs and the affordability of this car company seals the deal for people to consider Kia as an option when they are going to purchase another car.  

Love Hurts

After searching far and wide, I decided to blog about one of the Super Bowl ads I saw this past Super Bowl. It was a PepsiMax commercial entitled “Love Hurts”. The entire ad was about how a woman in a relationship prevented her fiancé or husband from eating high calorie foods. There are multiple scenes where she takes away food, destroys the food, and etc. At the end the husband figure is drinking a PepsiMax and sees his wife drinking only to realize that PepsiMax has no calories.

As funny as this commercial may be, it has a message and was created in a purposeful way which I will share with you through this blog. The Pepsi Company first starts with a Pathos appeal and it shown through the “pain” of the man who cannot eat “tasty” foods. As men, unable to eat the food we want and having to diet with our partners in relationships or even dieting by ourselves can be a challenge. No matter how we try to hide it, someone will catch us in the act and will either make us feel guilty or make us eat healthy.

In the midst of this pain, Pepsi says that we can find relaxation and relieve our diet stresses with a PepsiMax. This is clearly shown when the husband figure is drinking PepsiMax, thinking it was a regular soda, until he saw his wife drink it which made him realize that it had zero calories. In addition to Pathos, the Ethos is shown through the name PepsiMax and having the Max instead of diet really changes some peoples’ perception of zero calorie drinks and takes away the “bad taste” mentality towards diet drinks.

Let me know what you guys noticed too.

Kairos

President Obama came to Penn State today to speak about Energy Innovation and how important students are to this cause. He explained vaguely about plans for the future to make our homes and businesses more efficient. He also talked about how Penn State will lead one of the government sponsored Energy Innovation Hubs in Philadelphia.

As important as energy innovation and needs for efficiency are, I do not think that today was a kairotic situation for President Obama to talk about it. I understand that the President is a VERY busy person and that changing his schedule to fit the right kairos is very difficult. However, topics such as energy renewal and innovation are constantly replaced by more pressing issues such as the crisis in Egypt and because of this incident; energy renewal will be pushed back to the end of the agenda for the government. I find this situation to be fascinating because the President failed to find the kairos for this cause and in effect energy renewal and efficiency will, at first, be considered but when more “urgent” issues, like I mentioned before, like the political instability in Egypt, arise this speech will be long forgotten along with the facts and points from the speech.

It would have been more effective if the President had talked about Egypt and it political instability and somehow linked it to our dependence on foreign resources for oil. In this way, the message would have felt more urgent and it would have been a very appropriate time for something like this to be mentioned.

This I Believe Podcast Link

http://www.zshare.net/audio/860527417740eebd/