Generation 'Like for a Like'

Dear Mr. Fisk and Board,

I would like to bring to your attention an exciting opportunity which I firmly believe that Starbucks should take advantage of. In my years of working for this company, I have observed significant growth, however I think here at Starbucks, we have unused capacity and haven’t reached our full potential in reaching out to our consumers and the people who should be our consumers but aren’t yet because we haven’t worked hard enough to persuade them to join us.

If you’ve kept up with the people drinking your coffee and buying your foods, you will observe that the age of Starbucks consumers is steadily decreasing, and I believe we need to adapt to suit our target audience. Coffee is for everyone, but the brilliance and variety found in our bistros appeals especially to teens and young adults, and there is one thing that connects these people and that is social networking.

I’m sure by this time you’ve heard of the ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’, ‘Rickrolling’ or GoPro’s renowned video of a skateboarding cat. These three phenomena seem strange or unorthodox, however this is the power that social media has in today’s society. With the right creativity, which I very well know our company has, we can pick up a storm on social media, thus improving our consumer base and ultimately increasing sales and success. 

Today’s world is centred around ‘likes’, ‘follows’, ‘retweets’ and ‘shares’: imaginary things that are as simple as a click of a button, but have the potential to provide unlimited amounts of data. 14-year-old Jade from Dubai loves the new ‘Pumpkin Spice Triple Mocha Extra Shot Cappumochaccino with Double Caramel Cream and Soy Milk’? Why not let her friends know by ‘tweeting’ about how it kicks off her day and ‘following’ the official Starbucks Facebook page to let us know?

Social media is like nothing we have ever seen before. Never have consumers been able to interact with us so easily, and interact with their friends to build the consumer base even further. These days, as a large corporation, if you aren’t heavily invested and involved in social media, you are missing out and will be left in the dust.

In this way, our consumers are part of our campaign. They don’t even have to enjoy Starbucks coffee, but if we can convince them to share our content – whether it is an ad, a competition, a collaboration, anything – we suddenly have an influx of people all around the world seeing our products and brand and associating them with success, creativity, humour etc. This is the kind of relationship that is vital for the success of our business, and is imperative for further development.

Put simply, the benefits of social media campaigning and interactivity outweighs all other methods of advertisement in today’s society, and investing in it today would not only improve our relations with consumers, renownedness and data collection, but also encourage further development and open new opportunities (e.g. fan ideas from competitions and consumer input), undoubtedly leading to success for years to come.

I hope you consider my preposition which seems to be a step forward for Starbucks.

Kind Regards,

Ben Thomson

Starbucks Marketing Associate

Responsibility Fragility and the Possibility of Susceptibility

When was the last time you went anywhere or did anything and didn’t see advertisements? It doesn’t matter what you do – go to the park, watch a movie, play a game, visit a website, go to a football match – you see advertisements. We are exposed to them even when we don’t know it from birth. There’s some strange belief constructed by corporations that the more you see their name or logo, the more likely you are to invest in them. And when the revenue of the U.S. advertising and related services industry in 2013 exceeded 100 billion dollars (Statista.com), you’d have to guess that advertising works.

There is, however, consistent controversy around the ethics behind some of the ads that end up everywhere, and for good reason. I’d like you to imagine something for me. Imagine you’re walking to school one day with your 6-year-old cousin, and look to your left to see a poster with a man lifting a car advertising protein powder, look to your right to see a billboard with women shopping advertising Gucci, and look forward to see televisions showing a grease-covered giant of a man fighting a shark advertising Bruce Willis cologne. You slowly turn around praying there are no outrageous displays. Of course your cousin follows suit, to see an ad for an adventure camp claiming only the manliest can handle it. Your little cousin turns to you and says “I’m going to be strong because I’m a boy!”

We may recognize advertisement exaggeration, but others may not, and the more they are exposed to it, the more something seems to be true. That’s why it’s crucial that advertisers consider who will see their ads and how it will affect them. These companies are gaining more and more power, but as the great line goes, “with great power comes great responsibility”.

Analysing Abounding Advertisements Adequately Antil Achieving An Accomplishment

Within ChildFund International’s advertisement for their Dream Bike Program, the predominant purpose is that of informing people of wealth or in first world countries of struggles faced elsewhere and persuading them to donate to the program, however a secondary intention may also be deduced, being that of highlighting gender inequality and the strive to eliminate it. Throughout the entire text, there is considerable emphasis on females and their struggles in today’s society, especially within countries such as India. From the first word of the text being “her” to the image of the girl, the author evidently targets activists for equal rights including education. This is effectively done by illustrating the subject of the text as weak, as seen when the author uses “she was a little girl” rather than “she was young” in the first line. This employment of tone is intended to evoke an image of a young girl to the reader, thus causing an association of weakness, innocence and ultimately, the desire for nurture as a result of the preconceived stereotypes instilled today. The sympathy and empathy evoked from such illustrations are reinforced by abstract language, a “journey” preponderating a “trip” or “ride”, thus amplifying the struggles faced and further encouraging donation and support.

The article also lays stress upon the idea that a successful future has direct correlation with the provision of bicycles. “Her future begins on two wheels” may suggest that unless an education is achieved, these girls have no future. Subsequently, “she’s riding – safely and quickly – toward her dream” demonstrates the ‘Simple Solution’ advertising technique, as ChildFund are implying that they are making the dreams of these many young women come true. This in itself exhibits the need for gender equality in such countries as India and all around the world, as the possession of a bike should not determine or limit one’s success or achievements.

I found this text quite difficult to analyse, mostly due to its good heartedness rather than that seen in the advertisements for most products. I did, however, enjoy the challenge and can’t wait to have an advertisement-analysing acumen. 

Firestorm - The Power To Be More (Reflection)

Today was the day that we would present our pitches for our advertisement. Throughout the entirety of the development of this task, I, along with many others, struggled to understand what we were expected to do and how to approach it, however by the end of it I think my group consisting of Lukas, Suho and myself completed the task at a decent quality.
In general, our presentation did very well. There were some things which I thought may go wrong but didn't, such as the communication and audience reaction to certain lines and visual aids. On the other hand, some aspects, such as some of the lines I had, were forgotten or dismantled. Overall, our presentation was successful and we achieved our goal of advertising the new energy drink.
Saying this, I don't believe our presentation was the best of the class. Some of the other groups did very well, namely the BP Oil group and conflict zone shelters among several others. I think these groups effectively demonstrated their approaches and other important aspects of an advertising company's duties.
In completing this task, I feel that my understanding of the uses of pathos, ethos and logos as well as the many appeals/techniques that must be considered in the process of advertising. We were able to find purposes for numerous of these techniques and even used some of them when it came to proposing our speech. We used techniques such as incorporating a celebrity (Ronaldo) as a form of exaggeration, as well as relating to our target audience which are young people who are into sport in the UAE, The most prominent technique we used was claiming that we had the solution to several problems, being academic and physical. Problem/solution techniques are effective as they use something which burdens a large group of people regularly. For us, this burden was lack of energy.
Our audience and conflict greatly impacted our presentation. Because it was based in UAE, we used a football reference (Ronaldo) considering it is the most popular sport in the country, as well as other references such as that to schooling and tests (because many people come to this country for education).
We also used physically attractive images because we figured that the company would have a high value on imagery, and tried to use some humour to appeal to the audience.

I enjoyed the creativity and individualism allowed in this task, and can't wait to do some more which provide similar learning experiences. I think that it will have a great influence when it comes to preparing and presenting my FOA.

AdverTAIsement Analysis - Tai Lopez

If you’ve been on YouTube in the last few months, you have to know it. It’s the one and only: “Here in My Garage” by Tai Lopez.

This video was designed to advertise Lopez’s website where he claims to have the secrets to being rich. At first glance, there is clear evidence of the use of pathos, ethos and logos.

Pathos – He makes referrals to previously living on a couch in a mobile home in order to attract sympathy, and possibly also connect with his audience who are assumably those who wish to make money but don’t already have enough. He gives the sense of “You can do it, but you need my help” to provoke desire for anything he sells. Lopez appeals to the audience by giving them self-belief, saying that you shouldn’t listen to others who tell you not to do something, but should listen to him because he has “KNAWLEDGE”. He tries to appeal to everyone no matter what they want or what stage they’re at, as to say that anyone can do this. He does this by telling everyone they are “destined to do” these extraordinary things as he tries to manipulate them into believing he will make this possible.

Ethos – He begins the video by showing himself in a large garage next to his Lamborghini, claiming he lives in the Hollywood Hills. As supercars and areas such as this are a sign of wealth, he is associating himself with this wealth and portraying himself as wealthy; he consistently references these possessions. Since the topic of the advertisement is becoming rich, he is building his credibility as someone who can teach you how to get rich. He also talks about his books which he assumably has read, indicating he must be knowledgeable. His neatness, including glasses, also indicate success and wealth. Tai makes claims that he was provided knowledge from multiple successful mentors, therefore making his information more credible as it comes from multiple reliable sources. His mention of get-rich-quick schemes is also designed to dismiss the idea that this is a scam.

Logos – He uses numbers such as the number of new books he has (2000) and how much money he used to have ($47), as well as referencing famous wealthy people. This reference is significant as if Warren Buffet makes a claim about wealth or knowledge, it is considered more likely to be true than someone who is unsuccessful or poor. He also gives urgency to his audience, saying it is logical to implement his product “today” for success. Since the information is free, he is portraying that it is logical to obtain it considering there is no loss, however this is intended so that the customers will eventually purchase products or information from him.

So here is a basic look at one of Tai Lopez’s ads. Look forward to more analytical work.

Tweaking Our Speaking - Technology and Language

In this blog post, I decided to take on a perspective other than my own. I thought that the mum of a student would be an interesting perspective opposing (in some cases) my opinion. Hope you enjoy!

Text speak destroying our kids’ reputations? You’re absolutely right! I don’t have to be some language professor who wasted her years away studying the evolution of the English language to know that technology and mobile phones are deteriorating everything that we were taught as kids and what I want my son to be taught!

Instead, his school has ME spending $800 on a screen and some wires which pretends to tell him what the school won’t teach him. I don’t know about everyone else, but if I was their kids’ parent, I would sure as heck want a proper education like we got when we were kids, where teachers teach us to spell rather than have us type on a screen which automatically corrects us beyond our care.

Our school system needs changes, I can tell you that much. In my time, we were sent home with a 3 page written essay and math worksheets due the next day. Now they are told to go home and play some stupid game and make a ‘Mine Art’ or whatever they call it. You know what my son said to me the other day? He said “WTF”. WTF?! Teachers can’t even control what our kids do on these little devices that they’re letting them use willy-nilly. The internet is a big world, and I’m not ready for my child to be exposed to the expanses of it.

We need more people like you, Ms Clark, to stand up for our children’s education before we are left with illiterates running our beautiful country and our world. Earth is going to go into a huge downhill spiral of deterioration if we don’t act now about our kids’ learning. I, like many other loving mothers, rely on my son’s school to provide the learning he needs to succeed on this harsh planet. Please continue with your enlightening articles on such an important topic.

Thanx,

Linda McNiven.

Singterview with Bliss n Eso

Foss: This is Oliver Foss of Vogue Magazine and I am here with the esteemed Jonathan ‘Bliss’ Notley and Max ‘Eso’ Mackinnon, but all of you must know them as the iconic Australian hip-hop band Bliss n Eso. Welcome guys.

Eso: Thanks for having us mate.

Bliss: Great to be here Oliver.

Foss: Well I know you lads have a lot going on at the moment, so let’s just get started. Would you guys mind starting by just introducing yourselves and how the amazing Bliss n Eso came to be?

Bliss: Well I’m Bliss.

Eso: And I’m Eso, and yo we’re just two guys who do what we love. We met in high school along with our man Tarik and we really just been chilling and making tunes ever since.

Foss: And Bliss, what would you say you achieve through your music?

Bliss: Yo man, where do I begin? We love to write our music on whatever bothers us. War, inequality, the importance of our origins, Australian culture and community, government, politics, religion, global warming. Anything really. But I think the predominant message that we try to send to our audience is that it doesn’t matter where you come from; it doesn’t matter where you grew up; it doesn’t matter what others try to tell you, you can make it. We air this because we want others to make it like us. Neither of us come from the best background, but we have both achieved success, and the reality is that anyone can make it in today’s world. We no longer live in a society where you follow the footsteps of others but you can make your own prints, and we want people to know that.

Foss: Anything to add on the matter, Eso?

Eso: Well as Jono said, it’s about opportunity. At the end of the day, “Everyday’s another chance to ignite” for those who have heard Addicted. There are always gonna be downfalls and struggles in your life, but you gotta bounce back, and that’s how you, or we succeed. Our music inspires music, or more generally, stepping out of the comfort zone. No one wants the next Tupac, the next Messi, the next Zuckerberg or the next Robin Williams to be stuck in dead-end jobs where their talents are wasted because others told them they couldn’t make it.

Foss: I couldn’t agree more. So you’d say that the prominent theme of your songs is not giving up and doing what makes you happy?

Bliss: Bloody oath. That’s the big picture. Ya know, “tryna’ reach new heights like a bird in a spaceship”. That kinda thing.

Eso: Haha, “Tryna’ see how far, on planet earth we can take this”.

Foss: Couldn’t say it better myself. And is there a certain kind of person that you wrote all these inspirational songs for?

Bliss: Man there ain’t a certain kind of person that doesn’t need to reach new heights. As hard as life gets, we want everyone to get the best they can. That’s what everything comes down to in our songs: the idea that we can all do it.

Eso: Exactly. I must say though, that I reckon hip hop is a ripper way of getting this message across, especially considering our use of language. Being popular with the younger generation who have their entire lives ahead of them, we want to provide inspiration and self-belief to those who need it both. We talk about some massive issues in our songs, and one of them is school. Rather than schools creating lab rats, they need to be creating individuals, you get me?

Foss: Mhmm.

Eso: Where schools point students to typical accounting and engineering jobs, we want them to know just because you aren’t the best in school, you can achieve whatever you’re willing to. Make sense?

Foss: Yeah, I understand. You said that your language is popular to a younger audience. Why would you say this is?

Eso: Well, you know. Kids are unexplainably attracted to swearing and slang. We don’t overcomplicate our vocab so that everyone, no matter their age or academics, can understand what we’re trying to tell them. The more people that can understand and easily relate to our songs, the more people can take in the meaning and be inspired.

Foss: Well that’ll just about ‘rap’ it up haha. It was great having both of you here and look forward to seeing you soon.

Bliss: Thanks for having us Oliver.

Eso: Great being here. Thanks mate.

Foss: This has been Oliver Foss of Vogue Magazine with the aussie hip hop band Bliss n Eso. Thanks for watching.

Bliss n Eso is one of my favourite musical groups/artists and I feel a deep connection with several of their songs. Here is my favourite of them: House of Dreams. Look forward to further creative posts.

Understanding 怎么样 den cerveau spricht двух idiomas - Understanding How the Brain Speaks Two Languages

I found parts of Jeffrey Kluger’s article about multilingualism quite questionable in that the majority of the information provided is, as the author described, “based primarily on his [Sean Lynch] own observations”. He believes that young children face difficulties with learning two languages simultaneously, but has long-term benefits including cognitive health, improved decision-making and problem solving.

I have never had the joy of realizing that what I perceive in one language is different to what I perceive in another. I cannot tell you how much I wish I could. The tests conducted within this article strongly support the fact that bilingualism or multilingualism is good for us; not only our health, but how we perform and think. This demonstrates a clear correspondence with what we have previously discussed.

I hope that one day I get the chance to learn the majority of another language. I would love to be bueno en español. Even without the cognitive advantages, the ability to effectively communicate with more people increases our purpose as social beings.

You Say Cup, I Say Mug

“There is nothing in human endeavor to which language is not connected.” This compelling article talked about the effect that language has on your thinking and perception of the world around us, and used fantastic examples in time, intent and space to do so.

We have talked about how our language influences the way in which we perceive poems or other literature, but this reading extended that to the belief that it actually affects the way in which we perceive everything. People of different languages describe activities and daily aspects differently, meaning that their perception of these activities also differs.

My favourite example was Justin Timberlake’s wardrobe incident, as how we describe the issue determines the extremity of Timberlake’s punishment despite everyone viewing the exact same incident, illustrating the influence that language has.

I found myself concerned with the scenario depicting Indonesian perception of time, as the author claimed that viewers of the photos saw "no difference between the photos." Although Indonesians have little description of time, surely they can recognise differences in these images. The information provided seems dubitable.

This article has furthered my knowledge on language, and I look forward to ameliorating this understanding.

Language is no Smart Chart

Our accents are a denotative feature of our identity, but never should any stereotypes be made, especially those regarding one’s intelligence, based on the accent that we possess.

This belief, which I strongly agree with, is one evoked within the article “Yorkshire named top twang as Brummie brogue comes bottom” written by David Batty. Talking about a study which displayed stereotypes towards those with the particular Birmingham accent compared to other English accents and even silence, as people believed models with this accent were less intelligent than those without.

This issue is one we have previously discussed in class, especially within Amy Tan’s story in which her mother was perceived as less intelligent due to inability to speak English to a high degree. Throughout this I think we all agreed that never should these assumptions be made based on completely unrelated aspects of someone’s identity, such as accent or second language communication, but rather on their ideas and thoughts.

This article enlightened me in that I never considered that assumptions including level of intelligence can be constructed based on something as miniscule as the pronunciation of certain words. I think it will assist my journey as I strive to understand the effect that language has on our identities and others’ perceptions of us.

Mother Tongue Unsung - StereoTYPICAL

Throughout the course of history, stereotypes have been as prevalent as fat people in the United States. Point proven. In all seriousness, stereotypes can be detrimental to society, often associated with racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination. Being Australian, I am the subject of a significant amount of stereotypes (all in the nature of banter of course), as many of us are in an international school, which I never ‘copped’ (an Aussie term meaning receive) back home. From this example among many, it is a fair conclusion that wherever there is diversity there will be stereotypes.

In Mother Tongue, Amy Tan writes about her experience with English as someone of Chinese origin, alluding to issues such as the importance of one’s native language, school career steering and most saliently (in my opinion), stereotypes of non-native speakers.

Amy’s mother, a second language English speaker, is a pivotal demonstration of these stereotypes in her struggle against native speakers. The fact that others “did not give her good service” due to her linguistic differences exposes one of the many stereotypical obstacles within society. It is their right that anyone, regardless of their English abilities, must be provided an equivalent amount of service. This is clearly lacking in this woman’s story.

In a situation as extreme as finding out the condition of her brain tumor, you can imagine the concern when the hospital refused to provide her diagnosis without justification, until, OF COURSE, the fluent English speaker turns up. We have spoken about relational activities, in which you change how you speak to different people or in different situations, however depriving someone of vital information because they don’t speak English is NOT one of these. It is discrimination. Despite the mum’s belief that she spoke “very good English”, she still was not treated with decency due to others’ stereotypes.

I find it insane that anyone views someone with broken English or difficulty in English to be any lesser than them. As a one-language speaker, I have the highest respect for anyone who can speak two, three or even more different languages, and swap between them at an instinct. I find it hard enough to get a 7 on a Phase 1 Arabic class let alone speak two languages in complexity. If you are one of those people, kudos my friend.

What makes it worse is that in this story, as a little girl, even Amy “believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say”. This reflects the illustration passed through society: English is the superior language due to the superpowers which primarily speak it; if you do not speak English, you are automatically inferior. The ignorance and arrogance within many English-speaking countries – such as that shown when we travel and expect foreigners to speak our language – has a serious effect on the rest of the world (especially foreigners living in these countries) and must be addressed.

This was a bit of a more serious blog than my others. I hope that it was still compelling and not as boring as Belgians (keep in mind I found this stereotype online #nohate). See you when you’re older.

Good English and a Bad Blog Post

So, here I am rapidly typing away in my physics lesson because I just looked at Managebac and discovered that I had to do a blog post in response to our reading last night and all I’ve done is a small paragraph answering half a question.

Good English and Bad was eyebrow-pluckingly boring, if that even is English. That being said, it was a little bit interesting knowing the roots of our language and how it really is a bunch of gibberish that a few people have made up and others have just followed.

The questions for us are: Given all the anomalies in the English Language, what is the author saying suggesting about standards of usage? How does his discussion make you feel about your own lapses in grammar?

Within this essay, the author is suggesting that our standards of usage of English are developed because those before us say that the language should be communicated a certain way and others follow, eventually creating rules. He also conveys his disagreement with the implementation of Latin grammar and influence.

Since I have grown up learning English and only English, these rules have never had a negative effect on me. As nice as it would be for verbs to be the same whether they are past, present, future or plural, I have never known anything else and as a result I have naturally adopted it. I make mistakes every now and then, but it has never really bothered me.

I don’t look forward to reading more essays like this, but I do look forward to the knowledge and understanding I attain from them. Time to get this post up before I get detention. 

The Name Game

Our names are interesting aspects of ourselves. They are the first thing you tell someone when you meet them, and often have more behind them than a string of vowels and consonants. I have never really felt the connection with my name, so I have posted the following short verse about it:

Last name Thomson, first name Ben,

Here’s another boring blog for you to read again.

Ben Benny Benji Bonji Boodge Boodgen Beno,

Benjamin James if you didn’t get the memo.

I ain’t about that traditional life,

“Son of my right hand”, hah, more like:

The type of guy you aspire to be,

Not labelled by my origins, nah, not me.

Thom-son, son of Thom,

Let me be my own cuz frankly I’m the bomb.

Why am I named to reference those preceding?

Fathers let me be the one leading.

It’s MY time to be the one to know,

Bit of Bing, bit of Bang, bit of Boom ‘ALLO!

To clear up any loose ends, my first name is of Hebrew origin translating to “Son of my right hand”. My last name means son of Thomas (whoever that is lol). “Cuz” means because and “Bing Bang Boom ‘ALLO (Hello)” is a young phrase with a meaning that few people understand, but it sounds great doesn’t it (little bit of credit to Owais for the line)?

I look forward to more creative posts.

Who is Ben the Blabbering Blogger?

I love the fact that every year, we all follow a cycle of looking back on what we did the previous year and realising how stupid we were, then thinking we’re much more mature or intelligent until we look back again the next year. I look forward to the day in which I look back on something I did as the logical thing to do, being proud of the decision I made. This is the kind of person I am. I am consistently on a quest to better myself. I try to apply this idea in everything I do as I need to improve to be satisfied with anything I do.

I am Ben Thomson, just another 16 year old writing a blog because his overenthusiastic English teacher told him to. I am an Australian living in the Mad Max esque city of Abu Dhabi, out in that country that no one knows until they’re parents tell them they’re moving there for that sweet sweet moolah.

I’ve always been a football addict. Whether I’m playing, coaching, refereeing or watching (I’ve done them all), football is one of the fundamentals behind the young man I am developing into today. I love the game more than any other sport, although I’m always looking for others to try because sport in general is brilliant.

When I’m not trying to improve all aspects of my football, I spend time going to the gym (for tha gainz of course), watching TV shows/movies and learning stuff. I love school cuz there’s no better feeling than knowing something someone else am I right? And I guess the understanding stuff is ok to…

I have an older brother living the college life in the beautiful Oz and a little sister attending Raha, both of whom I despise in a loving kind of way – that’s what siblings are for after all – and the best parents I could be blessed with. I said football had a big impact on my life, but my parents have been like ants to an anteater. It’s not nice to compare your parents to small six-legged critters that you squish in two fingers, but that’s not the point. They are the source of my success. They have helped me to get where I am, and continue to help me get where I’m going (even though I haven’t decided where that is yet).

Kind of like language I guess. Without language, we are 7 billion individuals doing nothing all at the same time. Ha, imagine that. It would look funny for half a minute, but I like having a purpose and expression, and I feel language is helped develop that. Whether it be learning to talk, being read bedtime stories, asking for help or tossing cheeky banter with the lads, language is the basis behind all my relationships. Even just seeing bae all slow and drowsy can be a form of language. It is a powerful tool and without, we have no communication and no connection. We have nothing.

At the beginning of this cringe-worthy blog post, I was dreading all the following inputs, but the words are just flowing in my head now like electrons in a circuit of 3 Amps (LOL, good one Benji). I look forward to my blog challenges in the future until I get out of this joint and into the next prison going by the name of “Adulthood”.