After seeing Memento numerous times, the little details still fascinate me. I feel like it is a movie wherein you see more every time you watch it. Those little details are clues, much like we saw in previous texts. They play on memory, much like the majority of this film does. In the movie Leonard says, “I always thought the joy of reading a book is not knowing what happens next,” which is interesting to place in this movie because after each viewing you understand more and more about it and see the subtle details which may not be overly obvious the first time you view it. This movie is also ust as thrilling each time you see it because there are so many things that are needed and cannot be forgotten; and if they are the events will not add up and then the story lacks the believability.
This movie’s timeline is very similar to The Things They Carried because thing bounce back and forth and they are repeated numerous times to show their importance. For example, the scene often flashed to Leonard’s “remember Sammy Jankins” tattoo. The story is important which is why it comes up so often (I will not go into further details, at least not until my next blog post after everyone finishes the movie). Ideas in the movie come up again and again and everything makes sense by the end of the film, if only you take a moment to think back and relive the quotes and visual ques, much like we had to do with Aura. It will not be completely clear, and it will involve trust, and it will most definitely beg the question “who can we trust and what is real?”
As we go on with the movie, I urge everyone, if they have seen it or not, to pay special attention to…everything. If it is in the movie, it has a meaning to something else; everything in this movie is related to something else and to understand this movie you have to think and make those connections.
After nearly a full semester of this class, I have learned how to critically evaluative work as it pertains to truth, lies, and perception. Although I have seen Memento in the past, re-watching the film with my "Truth, Lies & Literature" lenses has shed light on some issues that I otherwise would have passed over. Although this film has not so far encountered any grave truth/lies perplexities, it directly correlates to what we have studied in class (and purposefully); Memento and "Truth, Lies & Literature" have shared frameworks and overall themes.
Leonard Shelby, Guy Pierce's character and the protagonist of the story, has an interesting take on memory given his anterograde amnesia: "Memory can change the shape of a room; it can change the color of a car. And memories can be distorted. They're just an interpretation, they're not a record, and they're irrelevant if you have the facts."
(Yes, it's the same quote that mostly everyone on this blog has commented on, but bear with me I have a different analysis!)
Leonard goes on to talk about how the Police use their notes to solve cases and not just what they see to justifying his method of functioning. This point is something that at first I never thought nothing of and accepted as truth, but now I am obliged to comment on: Leonard is wrong because "records" and "facts" can be distorted as well.
To prove my point, look at Leonard's system. Leonard experiences something over a short period of time and "records" the event with a couple of words. The problem arises in the way that humans read--we all interpret and perceptive text in different ways, just as we do with memory. There is no one way to read a book or one overall meaning of a text. The same exact sentence for can produce a different meaning for two separate people. Our classroom discussions over the books we read this semester proves this point. The "records" and "facts" that Leonard counts on are just as unreliable as memories.
Leonard's system is broken. Say Leonard writes down a sentences to portray a certain sentiment towards a person he meets; when Leonard forgets, his system fails if the few words that he documents does not bring to light the exact same feelings in the past. It's unlikely that these sentences achieve its goal because of the difficulty of evoking these same feelings. Leonard is at fault for interpreting his own writing differently than he had originally intended.
Leonard has false pride in his system, but after being in "Truth, Lies & Literature," I am convinced that he could do no better. The only fact that we know for sure is that there are no facts--a seeming paradox. However, whether its memory, text, videotaping, or audio recording, we based our decisions of off things that are subject to change through perception and interpretation.
In an effort to avoid giving away spoilers, I’d like to focus solely on the scene between Lenny and his wife while she reads an old book.Based on all of our readings and discussions throughout the semester, I think we can find interesting ties between their conversation and our class.Lenny asks his wife how she can re-read a book so many times.He doesn’t seem to understand the endless enjoyment she finds in reading the book; he believes that enjoyment is found in the story’s unpredictability.This disagreement begs the question: why do we read?There are probably hundreds of answers to this question, but based on our class, I think a few specific ones come to mind.
We often read because we are expected to.In the past few weeks of class, we have been asked to take note of how outside forces influence our daily decisions.As students, we’re at college to learn and further our education.Most likely, we all want to succeed, and in order to do so, we conform to expectations of the College’s education system.Professors assign readings, and we complete them so that we can participate in class discussions, or better understand the material for upcoming tests.Perhaps doctors are expected to read articles about new treatments or medicines to remain successful in their practice, or teachers must read assignments they give students in order to have a successful lesson.We therefore see that although there exist a wide variety of personal identities, everyone at some point recognizes the effect of outside expectations and reads because they have to in order to be successful.
Like Lenny’s wife, we often read for pure pleasure.Reading for pleasure and to fulfill expectations can intersect, which I have happily found is true for our class readings.Lenny’s wife has read her book as Lenny says, “a thousand times.”She becomes frustrated when he doesn’t understand that she can enjoy the book just as much reading it a fifth time as she did the first time.Although the scene doesn’t reveal what a good story means to her, for Lenny’s wife, reading for pleasure seems to just be about reading a good story.On the other hand, Lenny reveals that for him, reading for pleasure has to do with the excitement of the unknown, the mystery of the story.Based on his character in the film so far, this makes sense.Throughout the film, he reveals that he used to investigate cases, such as the case of Sammy Jenkiss’ memory loss.This career choice, and his own investigations throughout the film are revelatory about his character.He seems to be a man that enjoys mystery, or solving cases.Therefore, his interpretation of reading for pleasure is understandably focused on the excitement of an unknown story. Lenny and his wife’s two different positions, allow us to understand that reading for pleasure is dependent on one’s identity, and the meaning of reading for pleasure can vary quite widely.
The texts we have read in class reveal other reasons we may have for reading.O’Brien’s The Things They Carried distinguishes between an “emotionally true” story, and a “factually true” story.Depending on a reader’s mood or situation, they make seek a specific story.A story may carry an emotional truth of happiness, love, anger or jealousy, or it could carry a story absent of such emotions, such as an almanac purely stating facts.We may wish to read a happy, funny story to improve our mood, or we may read an encyclopedia to glean information.Reading therefore often serves as an escape, as it is for Bokononists; reading The Books of Bokonon to escape the Christian world that they are supposed to live in.But reading also always provides us with information, as Julianna learns about the true nature of her world after reading The Grasshopper Lies Heavy.By reading, we can learn about physical entities: current events, what food to buy, the latest fashions.But we can also learn in more abstract ways: about emotions, relationships, or perceptions of reality.The way we interpret what we learn, we discover more and more about ourselves.Again we see what we have talked about all semester: everything comes down to interpretation.So although we may read for different reasons, and interpret stories differently, their commonality is that it is these differences that teach us the same thing; the type of person we are.
"Doesn't make a difference whether I know about it. Just because there are things I don't remember doesn't make my actions meaningless. The world doesn't just disappear when you close your eyes, does it?" -- Lenny (Memento)
What is a good objective indicator of the truth of something? The scientific method says observation. Can you hear, feel, touch, taste...? Can you repeat it? Can you make the same thing happen again?
(Can we trust our senses? Can we trust ourselves to interpret them right?
Are you familiar with the black swan metaphor? It's an extremely unlikely event that takes place that only in retrospect, upon reworking our understanding of how the circumstances work, becomes not so unlikely.
We are trapped within the limitations of human thought. We use the knowledge of the world around us to come to new conclusions without necessarily questioning if that knowledge is in fact true, because it's too much to look at at once.)
In George Orwell's 1984, characters try to create new objective truths by manipulating memory. Records of people who used to exist are erased, and no one speaks of them. Did those people even exist at all? How can you tell?
In Memento, Lenny seems to want to believe that his actions are changing something. His inability to create memories, though, will leave him in such a state that he'll feel the same about the events afterwards as beforehand. Lenny says that memories are "irrelevant if you have the facts," but what creates the facts?
Disconcertingly, this inability to get a feel for the objective existence of actions, lives, and universal laws, does not only apply to Lenny. Even though most people do not have a disability that prevents them from getting new memories, memories can still not act as the objective truth by which it is possible to measure our actions.
"Memory can change the shape of a room; it can change the color of a car. And memories can be distorted."
One of the most striking parts of Memento is the way Leonard’s body is covered in tattoos. All of them are “facts” about his wife’s murder. In his quest to find the man who raped and murdered his wife, Leonard is constantly trying to separate truth from lies. His tattoos represent how, with the loss of his memory, Leonard’s sense of reality has collapsed onto himself. Leonard uses his body as the “absolute truth.” He trusts in everything that is written on his body and everything that is written in his own handwriting or he carries on his person. Leonard ultimately demonstrates this certainty when he kills Teddy simply because his handwriting on Teddy’s picture tells him that Teddy is “the one” and to “kill him.”
It makes sense that Leonard would choose to believe in the “facts” that he himself wrote. Who can you trust better than yourself? However, as we have been discussing these last few weeks, people can be manipulated. We are being manipulated all the time, by our family and friends, by the media, by our entire environment and culture. Leonard is no different. In fact, he is even more vulnerable since he cannot remember anything. While he is successful in preventing Teddy from using his memory loss to try and manipulate Leonard’s car away from him, we see that Leonard is not successful in preventing Burt from manipulating him into renting two motel rooms. Though I do not know how this movie ends, I suspect that Leonard has been manipulated into writing something false on himself or one of his mementos. This would mean that Leonard’s system failed, and that he has no way of knowing the “absolute truth.”
To a certain extent, Leonard is like a student in this class. Just as we are trying to pull the truth from Memento and the novels we have read, Leonard is trying to pull the truth out of his situation. The difference is that Leonard has lost the ability to learn from his mistakes, while we still can. Memento warns us yet again to be wary of outside manipulations.
It is commonly said that we should live in the present and leave the past in the past. However, Memento illuminated the extent to which we base our present experiences and choices on the past. The present and the past are actually very interconnected. By constructing Leonard to be constantly questioning events and people in his life due to his short term memory inabilities, Memento illustrated how often we define ourselves with our pasts. After the “mediated artifact” class, I began to notice the different factors that shape our lives. I noticed advertisements, TV shows and familial influences, but I failed to appreciate the huge effect our past has on us. The past affects who we associate with, where we live and how we make decisions, among other things. As much as we like to think we are making decisions for ourselves, our past actually dictates our future actions.
So is it really us making the choices or have the events in the past influenced us to make certain decisions? I think we are probably led to certain decisions because of our past experiences. Memento demonstrates how completely lost we would be in our identity, if we did not have the past to base it upon. Leonard’s choices would have been meaningless if he had not written notes for himself from before.
As Leonard demonstrates to us, we need people and events to shape our personality and influence our decisions, because without the rest of the world to interact with, we would not have a personality of our own. This class focuses a great deal on the negative influences in our lives, but I think it is important to recognize that our personality is mostly shaped by external influences: our family, our society and our past. It is impossible to go through life without being influenced by everything we experience. It would be a sad and lonely life to not be affected by anything, similar to Leonard.
I never thought I would find a Lady Gaga video that would relate to this class, but I guess miracles do happen. I just wanted to share this with you all. Lady Gaga's opening sentences in this video reminded me a lot of our class and the themes we discuss about what is truth and what is lie and, now especially with Memento, what is memory.
"When I look back on my life, it’s not that I don’t want to see things exactly as they happened, it’s just that I prefer to remember them in an artistic way. And truthfully, the lie of it all is much more honest because I invented it. Clinical psychology tells us arguably that trauma is the ultimate killer. Memories are not recycled like atoms and particles in quantum physics; they can be lost forever. It’s sort of like my past is an unfinished painting and as the artist of that painting, I must fill in all the ugly holes and make it beautiful again. It’s not that I’ve been dishonest, it’s just that I loathe reality."
One of my favorite lines in Memento, which so happens to fit with the course, comes when Leonard and Teddy are talking in the diner about memory and facts. Leonard says, “Memory can change the shape of a room; it can change the color of a car. And memories can be distorted. They're just an interpretation, they're not a record, and they're irrelevant if you have the facts.” The quote brings up two important ideas.
Memory is subject to interpretation. Time can change a memory and your role in an event drastically influences how you view it. Over time, our memories fade and we are only left to remember vague aspects of events that are important to us. In doing so, we often tend to distort the past and emphasize and exaggerate what we deem as the important aspects. For example, when I remember a funeral I attended, my mind zeros in on the solemn aspects and the fact that it was raining. I tend to forget the pleasant conversations I had with my family and the hopeful speeches that were given. Thus my memory of it today is extremely different from what is was a few hours afterwards. A similar thing occurs when we recount stories. When I try to recount a funny story, I focus on and exaggerate the details that will enhance the punch line. Usually when I finish telling a story, my friends joke, “Ok, so what actually happened?” As for roles, my wisdom teeth post said it all. I will remember that surgery forever, whereas the doctor who performed it has probably already forgotten my name.
As we have seen in the course, almost everything in our lives has been manipulated and mediated. It makes sense that even our own memory does the same thing. Society has taught us how to digest information and typify situations and in doing so we formulate manipulated memories.
Facts are true...false! Throughout the movie, Leonard holds onto the single idea that facts are always true. However, we see that even the “facts” that he collects are manipulated. For example, the guy who works at the Discount Inn tells him that he is staying in room 304, but Leonard learns that he is actually occupying two rooms. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but this appears in many situations, which will be clear after next class.
The texts of the class explore a similar theme. In Cat’s Cradle, the narrator changes his name, even though I have considered names to be facts. In The Man in the High Castle, Dick changes history and envisions a world where the Allies lost. In doing so, the texts take away certain comforts that I have grown to take for granted, such as reliable narrators, which makes me question everything I am presented with. I find myself constantly asking, where does the truth lie? Because I know it does.
Throughout the year we have been introduced to text after text. From first and third person accounts in fiction, fictional non-fiction (how I like to categorize The Things They Carried), science fiction and historical fiction, to the second person accounts in magical realism and "adventure". This progression of novels has opened our eyes to the manipulation and the lack of choice found in the every author's message. Now we have been introduced to a whole different kind of situation with the movie Memento. While this has introduced a new medium in which we will discuss, it has also introduced a new situation unlike anything we have seen thus far.
In the movie, Leonard has to deal with a severe case of short-term memory loss that inhibits him from remember in people places and events that happened hours to minutes ago. Despite this type disability, Leonard still attempts to track down his wife's murderer in order to get his revenge. The biggest point that makes this story unique to the other stories read this year is the that we, as the audience, have the intellectual high point on Leonard. Because of his disability we are able to realize and remember the things that he can not. This allow us to have an intellectual advantage on the character at whatever point in the movie. We are able to see the manipulation that Leonard is subject to through all the characters that he comes into contact with, but doesn't remember. This makes us believe that we are in control of the manipulation, that we can see and recognize it because we are not the "weakest" person who is thus being targeted. This is where we fail to truly see the real manipulation. We are so caught up in the character that we forget the larger force that really holds the power of manipulation over Leonard and the audience. The director, writer, editor and others are the true manipulators in this situation. Being able to show us what they want to from Leonard's past, in the way that they do it, allows them to put us (the audience) in a situation somewhat similar to Leonard's. We are at their control, at their manipulation.
So even through a text that seems to promise power to the audience over the character, we are still misguided, in that we don't at first see the manipulation that is occurring all around us.
Don’t you just love those Proactive commercials?They are everywhere.I remember when the first Proactive commercials aired back in the day with Jessica Simpson.Proactive made an effort to have decent spokespersons who actually had their pizza face moments.Even when Lindsay Lohan had her commercial, that was some real zit improvement.But these days it seems to me that Proactive is just putting everybody and anybody on these commercials that now practically air every five minutes.Katy Perry, Avril Lavigne…Well, I will let that last one slide because when Avril first hit it big she had a grungier style that probably came with a few nasty oily zits.But when on earth did Justin Bieber have acne?That must be fake because that boy has had milky white creamy skin since the womb.I doubt that prepubescent child has a single flaw on his skin.To top it off, they always feature unrealistic and airbrushed before and after shots that look nothing alike while playing overly dramatic music that sounds like it was ripped from the soundtrack for The Young and the Restless.
What’s more is these Proactive commercials are always trying to manipulate you into buying more than just the zit cream.You get Proactive, the cleanser, and then the ridiculous refining mask that really just dries up your skin into an ashy mess.“Renew, revitalize, repair!”It is actually sad that I have seen these commercials so much that I can even remember that.And then if all this still has not convinced you to buy Proactive the commercial even says “If you call in the next 25 minutes you can get this and the refining mask absolutely free!”You are given the illusion that you are saving so much money and only paying $19.95 when shipping and handling is somewhere around a zillion dollars.
Even more laughable is the fact that on the Proactive brochure it is stated in absurdly small print that the product does not work for people who have “cystic” or “severe” acne despite their entire campaign about how Proactive is “the answer” because it works for everybody regardless of age, skin type or severity of acne.From what I can tell, it looks like Proactive just makes tons of money because of its shady marketing.
Today in my Critical Thinking class, we discussed scientific reasoning and my professor ended class by saying, "Science does not guarantee truth. There is always a gap between the hypothesis and evidence. Instead, what science does is that it aims for adequacy and providing explanations, which are judgements." -Professor Doran
Makes me think of our Cat's Cradle days and the discourse we had about science as a truth.
If you know absolutely nothing about a product you are looking to buy, but you know that you need that kind of product, then the guideline is usually the price.The idea is that the more expensive the product we buy, the better quality are the results we get.Sometimes that idea is exactly true, but not if you are buying shampoo.
If you look closely at the labels on these shampoo bottles, you will notice that the first ingredient in shampoo is water.It may be purified water or just plain tap, but the point is that it is water.Ingredients on beauty products are always listed in descending order of weight and, for the most part, these ingredients are all the same no matter what brand shampoo you are buying.Regardless of the price, somewhere between 90 and 95 per cent of the ingredients on these labels are going to be identical.Perfume and color are what often distinguish one shampoo from another, not miracle additives.And if you are thinking what about all those lovely natural extracts you also see listed—sunflower oil, mint, citrus extracts and so on? Such additives will probably only be present as less than 1 per cent of the overall amount. In other words, that is like adding a drop of whisky to water and calling it a cocktail.So then why do we feel pressured to buy the fancier, more expensive shampoo bottles over the cheaper, store brand shampoo?
You can pay $22 for a luxury shampoo like Bumble & Bumble (oh yeah that is not an exaggerated price, people) or you can pay $5 for a plainer brand.While you may think the pricier the shampoo, the shinier the locks, you are really just buying the same shampoo only from a different manufacturer in a different kind of bottle, maybe one with more sparkles on it.Either way, I am pretty sure that the original purpose for shampoo was to wash your hair, not to smell like a cupcake.
We are viewing Momento tomorrow, which stars Carrie-Anne Moss (TRINITY) and Joe Pantoliano (CYPHER).
Need I say more? It's time for another Matrix themed post (revisiting the pill scene Emma mentioned in one of her earlier blog posts).
Much like Kindred, being a work of science-fiction allows for The Matrix to push norms. It is chock-full of philosophical references that challenge the viewer's perception of reality, freedom, and choice (just to name a few). If you haven't seen it yet, I strongly recommend it. For those who haven't, here's some quick info about the movie (from IMDb because I couldn't summarize the film. Stuff in parenthesis from myself): A computer hacker (Neo) learns from mysterious rebels (Morpheus & Co.) about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its controllers (man vs machine!).
The first clip is from the first movie. Morpheus offers Neo a choice. The blue pill allows him to continue on his merry way living under an illusion, under the "reality" that has been accepted. The red pill allows him to follow Morpheus' path and gain consciousness of the confines of the Matrix, which is a stimulation of the world as we know it. In another scene, another character, Cypher regrets choosing the red pill and would have rather lived in ignorance.
I was probably around ten when I saw the Matrix for the first time, and though I didn't understand most of it, the pill scene stuck with me. I wondered: what would I do if I were given the choice? Would I take the risk of having my life change, unknowingly for better or worse, and become aware of a truth that cannot be forgotten or would I rather return to my daily life despite knowing that everything is a lie. The characters we've encountered in our readings didn't have Neo's right to choice. For example, in Kindred, Dana couldn't control the force that threw her back in time and in the rest of the texts, fate seems to dictate the characters' actions. Just as many of us wrote of not having choice in our blogs, the chance to make a real choice for ourselves is a weighty rarity. As I mentioned in my blog on Cat's Cradle, I would rather pull the wool over my eyes than see a blinding sight. Some would say that my choice is "cowardly," but I ask, do you really want to know if our reality isn't what we believe it is? Do you really want to doubt the meaning of your existence? Do you really want to know the Truth?
I question reality. Life sometimes doesn't feel "real," as if things are sometimes too smooth, too familiar. Some days unfold as if written out, and other days feel like repeats. I would like to believe that I'm the protagonist of my own story that the world, if it isn't an organic matter, is something that is created around my existence. It sounds cocky, I know. BUT, I mean it more in the sense that if everything is an illusion, I rather be at the core, to be part of the reason and not just a dispensable filler. I just want to live in a reality that allows me to feel significant, and even if we are unaware of a greater Truth, then I rather NOT know what it is if it detracts from my sense of self. I fear knowing too much of the unknown. I don't mind challenging what feels constrictive, but there is always that shadow of doubt and fear that I have that there exists unthinkable, life-changing knowledge so immense that you cannot disbelieve it. Then, there wouldn't be a choice to forget and live on merrily as Morpheus claims the blue pill allows. In a way, Neo never even had a real choice since both options follow the path of discovering a greater consciousness.
This is idea of a no-choice-choice is strengthened in the second clip, which is from the Matrix Reloaded. The Merovingian uses causality to prove that contrary to what Morpheus says, choice is an illusion. Every action is an effect of a cause, whether or not you can trace the direct correlations. With this approach, choice is a lie. There is no choice. The choice you think you made on accord of your "free will" and "independence" is just a ripple in the water.
Lately, it seems that many of the class discussions and blog posts have concentrated on a false sense of advertising by the media. As the semester is winding down, I have thought about the path our class has taken, and our own interests truly have determined the syllabus. So much material has been covered in such little time. It is important not to forget the different “worlds” we have been introduced to.
I am beginning to get my final paper together, and as abstract as it sounds, I will be using Area 51. This is a military property outside of Las Vegas, which has been top secret for decades. The purpose of this military base has been questioned for as long as it has been there. It is famous for both the rumored research of alien folklore and testing new military technology that the world is yet to see. Nobody knew for sure until lately when the government had released results of tests and experiments on military equipment, mostly aircraft.
False advertising has been around for as long as production has started. In the early developments of this country, people were still deciding which materials were best to use in their ships, what food to eat, etc. All of these were still run by companies advertising that one was better than the rest.
Area 51 was falsely advertised by the media. One man claimed to see something in the air, and assumed it was a UFO, the next thing we know the site is claimed to be researching extraterrestrial life. Not only is it interesting to see how the media blows up a simple mistaken identification, but also how people are so easily fooled by it. It is fair to say that there are still many out there who believe the Area 51 site was used to research life beyond our planet. Thanks to the media, the hope is still alive for those who think there is such thing as life beyond our planet.
Fashion magazines and advertisements are manipulative as a whole within our society. I brought the Vogue magazine into class as a prime example of these manipulations mostly because of my knowledge of the fashion industry. In the riveting documentary The September Issue, the viewer follows Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour as she prepares for the highly desired and anticipated September issue of the magazine. What we learn from this documentary is that Wintour has the entire fashion industry in the palm of her hand—her choices for what is fashionable are displayed in the magazines and are what models, designers, girls, women, and a large chunk of society aim for. The fashion industry is also famous for its advertisements that are full of lanky, tall, beautiful, “perfect” women who readers are supposed to strive to become. In reality, it is something like 2% of women who are this size, and if one watches the Dove evolution video, they can see how fabricated the entire industry is. We can say however, that the advertisement editors do have some impressive photoshop skills.
The other video I attached is on the same page and it shows how women put on make up- it shows the viewer how much is used over the course of the year for a “natural look.”
Have you ever noticed how in a lot of recent movies, all of the characters have iPhones and use MacBooks? And scenes are shot at specific angles to make the apple insignia obvious? This, in my opinion, is an especially sneaky way of advertising. Nothing is directly telling you 'here are the reasons why you should buy our excellent product!' but just showing the images could send subliminal messages to the audience.
I confess that I saw Breaking Dawn, the new Twilight movie, over Thanksgiving break. Out of all the ridiculous moments in that movie, one that really bothered me was that Edward Cullen had an iPhone. I mean, why would a vampire need an iPhone? Is he really going to sit around using all those fancy apps, playing Angry Birds in his spare time while Bella is sleeping, beating his vampire siblings in Words with Friends, and updating his Facebook status? Can't he just use any old cell phone, if all he ever does with it is call people? Nevertheless, Apple paid a lot of money to have their products shown in the movie, because if Edward Cullen has an iPhone, then millions of preteen girls might subconsciously conclude that they should have one, too.
I've noticed Apple products making their way into many recent movies, but this was the most obvious and silly example I could think of. Sure, it makes sense for a fairly well-to-do character in a movie to have a MacBook. I can accept that, although it still annoys me that they blatantly show the apple insignia. But a vampire using an iPhone? I'm pretty sure there's no app for bloodsucking.
So I neglected to post my mediated artifact discussion before break. Yet, the week of break proved enlightening in respect to my topic, the organic industrial complex that I displayed in class with a bottle of kombucha raw tea. In class, I showed how kombucha is marketed as a miracle drink, an elixir filled with things that sound alluring like “organic acids and aminos,” “electrolytes,” and “probiotics and detoxifiers.” My purpose was to show that organic brands can be just as misleading and overwhelming in their advertising as the traditional food giants like Nabisco, General Mills, etc.
Organic brands usually sell a lifestyle. They tend to associate themselves with active, toxic free living, whatever that means. Another common theme is a sort of American dream rags to riches story and a dream of bringing the gift of quality food to the masses. The kombucha bottle I brought in has one of these stories. “G.T. Dave began bottling kombucha in 1995 from his mother’s kitchen. He had no business plan, just a desire to share his gift with anybody who could benefit from it.” Organic brands also like to frequently point out that they are the little guys, even if this is not the case. The kombucha bottle illustrates this perfectly. “Although G.T.’s kombucha has grown from its humble beginnings, he remains committed to expanding the company gradually and organically, never sacrificing quality for the sake of profits.” This seems very nice and all and I don’t think it’s unfair for the company to advertise this way. However, upon closer inspection, the kombucha that I purchased is made by Millennium Products, INC in Beverly Hills, CA of all places. That doesn’t sound like G.T Dave to me. At best, this is misleading. The company behind the massively successful CLIF bars shares a similar story of pursuing the dream of a perfect granola bar that would provide energy for road biking adventures, doing so by crafting granola bars in mother’s kitchen. I find these stories very amusing actually. It’s amazing how consistent all these brands are.
I think I should note that why I am critical of their advertising, I thoroughly enjoy these products and often select them. I am in no way immune to their advertising either. I believe I am better informed than most but still not immune. I remember this when I fork out twice or thrice as much for a clif bar vs a nature valley bar. My wallet certainly doesn’t appreciate it but I definititely experience a certain placebo effect when I choose a product like a CLiF bar or a Naked juice instead of a candy bar or a soda. They make me feel better, more energetic, even if the actual results may be significantly less.
So I said that an extra week gave me insight towards the topic. Why, you may ask? Well, for the most part its because I arrived home to find that my mom has become a trader joe addict. Everywhere I looked, I was bombarded by another Trader Joe replacement to a product my family used to buy at Hannafords. Peanut butter, bread, meat, the freezer especially. My personal favorite, however, is the French artisan handsoap in the bathroom. That stuff smells really good. As you can tell, I enjoyed the change on the whole. Most of the Trader Joes products are delicious in my experience. However, Trader Joes is perhaps the pinnacle or mecca of the sort of little guy success stories I spoke of above. Quite frankly, a visit to Trader Joes can get a bit overwhelming. I went to Trader Joes with my mother over break and found it to be just that, overwhelming. There were just too many products that I wanted to buy. I could have spent the whole morning shopping. Why? Because their advertising is unrivaled. For the niche of shoppers they attract, their cute packaging and incessant use of the words “organic” and “natural” are deadly. No wonder they keep growing nationally.
The other enlightening thing I learned over bread has little to do with organic. However, it does involve food and a company that has been growing like weeds. I’m speaking, of course, of Five Guys. We have one in my hometown now. Its awesome.
