Sunday, January 24, 2010
Cited Works
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/apr/01/tobacco-industry-marketing
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1904624,00.html
http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/marlboroman/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAExoSozc2c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHy7RXJ7W8Y&feature=related
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1904624,00.html
http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/marlboroman/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAExoSozc2c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHy7RXJ7W8Y&feature=related
Final Draft
Cigarettes have traditionally been a driving force in shaping someone’s image. People who want to create an image of the laid back sophisticated urban intellectual; or at least that’s what it once represented. Today it takes on the role of the badass, cutting school and living the party life, but still a form of cool. So what is it that makes smoking so unique that it can represent the socially acceptable intellectual and the delinquent underage badass? Maybe both of those categories can fit under one umbrella category. Above the pack and distinguished; a cigarette says that I have a firm clear identity and I am living up to it. So therefore cigarettes fill a void of emptiness by solidifying an identity and proving independence.
Much of the cool image that cigarettes hold can be traced back to the glamorous 1950’s movie era. Actors such as Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne and James Dean showed smoking as a symbol of masculinity while actresses such as Audrey Hepburn gave smoking a sensual and attractive. People love role models and those are some of the most influential people of their generation and cigarette smoking was a big part of their image and personality. People viewed these role models as people to shape their own personalities. People allow celebrities to shape them with misguided deadly devises because for many it’s a better option than having to come to terms with their own personality and their own faults.
Another thing to think about when talking about smoking is how it’s been able to keep its social acceptability. Even in the age where the link between smoking and serious health problems is beyond a doubt. For example our current President Barack Obama is a smoker even though in most states it’s illegal to smoke in a bar. Also its been widely shown that the health risks of marijuana are much less then cigarette smoke but using cannabis is still viewed as taboo by much of society. Truly something to be in awe of, a product that kills half its users gets taxed to death but can still hook one of the most well educated Presidents in the history of the United States. Now if that’s not cool then I challenge anyone to find a better example, because our sense of cool completely overrides our bodily needs which tell us that we should not throw something like that into our body twenty times a day. So in short cool versus health? Cool takes the prize every time.
So if we’ve already established that we’ve been sucked into this pointless exercise the real question is how did we get there and what were the tobacco companies able to do to get us into smoking? Cigarettes were first marketed as a product for the rich urban elite and were very expensive and were viewed as very white collar and sophisticated, but when world war two came around everything began to change. Troops were given cigarettes for free, starting a whole new generation out to look for the best smoke. The real driving force however has been the relentless and brilliant advertising done by the tobacco industry. The most famous and successful of ads was Philip Morris’s Marlboro man advertising with the catch phrase “Come to where the flavor is come, to Marlboro country.” Marlboro was conceived as a cigarette marketed towards woman because it was one of the first brands to have a filter on it, so after seeing sales continuously drop a change was done. Marlboro began to reshape itself as a symbol of masculinity. The cowboys ride into the distance as they light up a cigarette or the ladies watch in awe as a “Marlboro man” lights up a smoke.
So now that we’ve established the masculinity part to smoking what about people’s health? People may do stupid things to look cool but not in the same numbers as smoking. It would seem the remedy has been generational smoking and arrogance. The cigarette companies rely on people to do their advertising for them these days. A parent lights up a cigarette in front of her kid who then picks up the habit and starts smoking in front of a friend and so on and so forth. Everybody who starts smoking goes in with the mentality that “I’ll be fine, I’m going to quit really soon.” Well the reality is that it’s quite the roll of the dice, there are no guarantees, and the only guarantee out there is the likely hood of your survival drops every day.
Now the reason that I have been able to talk so much smack about smokers and the reason that they pick up the habit and how their suckers is because I am among the crowd myself. Now maybe it’s because I’m a big fan of old movies and such but it seems to go a little bit farther than that. I think that I smoke for the same reason everyone else does, it fits my role. Cigarette smoking has become a tool that I can use to project my image without ever having to say anything or even look at anybody. In a lot of ways the cigarette speaks for itself. If mixed with the proper attire and/or other physical traits you can tell someone more about yourself then you probably could in a simple introductory conversation.
One final thing that comes to mind with smoking is the actual physical act of smoking. I think simply that people don’t want to appear as though they have nothing to do. Smoking can appear as a buffer to loneliness. If someone’s outside by themselves smoking then the smoker is probably thinking that as long as I’m out here with a cigarette it appears as though I have something to do and I’m important. Also I think that the look of cigarette smoke has been planted in our brain as cool and even if you’re against smoking you can appreciate the mysterious look of billowing cigarette smoke.
To try and wrap this all up I think that we as a people have been not only feeding into this deadly habit but fueling it with our desires to reach the unreachable dream of euphoric cool-ness. Smoking went from Native Americans to the intelligencia through a transformation to something that crosses racial, economic and social boundaries. The only thing that John Wayne and Jerry Garcia had in common? A relentless smoking habit.
Much of the cool image that cigarettes hold can be traced back to the glamorous 1950’s movie era. Actors such as Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne and James Dean showed smoking as a symbol of masculinity while actresses such as Audrey Hepburn gave smoking a sensual and attractive. People love role models and those are some of the most influential people of their generation and cigarette smoking was a big part of their image and personality. People viewed these role models as people to shape their own personalities. People allow celebrities to shape them with misguided deadly devises because for many it’s a better option than having to come to terms with their own personality and their own faults.
Another thing to think about when talking about smoking is how it’s been able to keep its social acceptability. Even in the age where the link between smoking and serious health problems is beyond a doubt. For example our current President Barack Obama is a smoker even though in most states it’s illegal to smoke in a bar. Also its been widely shown that the health risks of marijuana are much less then cigarette smoke but using cannabis is still viewed as taboo by much of society. Truly something to be in awe of, a product that kills half its users gets taxed to death but can still hook one of the most well educated Presidents in the history of the United States. Now if that’s not cool then I challenge anyone to find a better example, because our sense of cool completely overrides our bodily needs which tell us that we should not throw something like that into our body twenty times a day. So in short cool versus health? Cool takes the prize every time.
So if we’ve already established that we’ve been sucked into this pointless exercise the real question is how did we get there and what were the tobacco companies able to do to get us into smoking? Cigarettes were first marketed as a product for the rich urban elite and were very expensive and were viewed as very white collar and sophisticated, but when world war two came around everything began to change. Troops were given cigarettes for free, starting a whole new generation out to look for the best smoke. The real driving force however has been the relentless and brilliant advertising done by the tobacco industry. The most famous and successful of ads was Philip Morris’s Marlboro man advertising with the catch phrase “Come to where the flavor is come, to Marlboro country.” Marlboro was conceived as a cigarette marketed towards woman because it was one of the first brands to have a filter on it, so after seeing sales continuously drop a change was done. Marlboro began to reshape itself as a symbol of masculinity. The cowboys ride into the distance as they light up a cigarette or the ladies watch in awe as a “Marlboro man” lights up a smoke.
So now that we’ve established the masculinity part to smoking what about people’s health? People may do stupid things to look cool but not in the same numbers as smoking. It would seem the remedy has been generational smoking and arrogance. The cigarette companies rely on people to do their advertising for them these days. A parent lights up a cigarette in front of her kid who then picks up the habit and starts smoking in front of a friend and so on and so forth. Everybody who starts smoking goes in with the mentality that “I’ll be fine, I’m going to quit really soon.” Well the reality is that it’s quite the roll of the dice, there are no guarantees, and the only guarantee out there is the likely hood of your survival drops every day.
Now the reason that I have been able to talk so much smack about smokers and the reason that they pick up the habit and how their suckers is because I am among the crowd myself. Now maybe it’s because I’m a big fan of old movies and such but it seems to go a little bit farther than that. I think that I smoke for the same reason everyone else does, it fits my role. Cigarette smoking has become a tool that I can use to project my image without ever having to say anything or even look at anybody. In a lot of ways the cigarette speaks for itself. If mixed with the proper attire and/or other physical traits you can tell someone more about yourself then you probably could in a simple introductory conversation.
One final thing that comes to mind with smoking is the actual physical act of smoking. I think simply that people don’t want to appear as though they have nothing to do. Smoking can appear as a buffer to loneliness. If someone’s outside by themselves smoking then the smoker is probably thinking that as long as I’m out here with a cigarette it appears as though I have something to do and I’m important. Also I think that the look of cigarette smoke has been planted in our brain as cool and even if you’re against smoking you can appreciate the mysterious look of billowing cigarette smoke.
To try and wrap this all up I think that we as a people have been not only feeding into this deadly habit but fueling it with our desires to reach the unreachable dream of euphoric cool-ness. Smoking went from Native Americans to the intelligencia through a transformation to something that crosses racial, economic and social boundaries. The only thing that John Wayne and Jerry Garcia had in common? A relentless smoking habit.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
HW 36
Quinn,
THESIS: We use cool as a way to sheild our own personal beliefs and create a barrier between ourselves and the outside world.
Main Idea: Cool is a de-facto anti-depressent and a to protect ourselves from getting hurt.
Big Insight: The personal angle. Showing how you have incorporated these theories in your own life and the affect it's had.
Everybody knows the story about the big physical bully. He likes to make a punk out of all the younger kids who can't defend themselves but when finally chalenged by someone who is of equal strength the bully himself ends u a punk, and so it goes. I think that story ties in directly to what your trying to say. The bully uses his cool role (the tough bully) to sheild his own insecurities and feelings. A question that comes to mind; are those "true" feelings actually true or just a deaper complexity of the role of the bully?
1. A more direct and repeated thesis.
2. Some more questions.
3. Quotes and some more non-personal examples.
Great job
Will
THESIS: We use cool as a way to sheild our own personal beliefs and create a barrier between ourselves and the outside world.
Main Idea: Cool is a de-facto anti-depressent and a to protect ourselves from getting hurt.
Big Insight: The personal angle. Showing how you have incorporated these theories in your own life and the affect it's had.
Everybody knows the story about the big physical bully. He likes to make a punk out of all the younger kids who can't defend themselves but when finally chalenged by someone who is of equal strength the bully himself ends u a punk, and so it goes. I think that story ties in directly to what your trying to say. The bully uses his cool role (the tough bully) to sheild his own insecurities and feelings. A question that comes to mind; are those "true" feelings actually true or just a deaper complexity of the role of the bully?
1. A more direct and repeated thesis.
2. Some more questions.
3. Quotes and some more non-personal examples.
Great job
Will
HW 36
Sam,
THESIS: Through studying the history and motives of cool we can live a fuller and more meaningfull life.
Main Idea: We are all built off of somebody else and we can only improve by accepting that.
Big Insight: Your main idea is proven by looking through a historical lense and analyzing how cool has been applied in previous generations. (the Shakespere reference)
The scarry part of knowing that we are all built off of somebody else is that most people might believe it. If people are suddenly hit with the realization that they poses no originality then they might actually try to change our world. The kind of change that brings about no true results and lots of Jesus freaks. For instance lets take your average run of the mill Williamsburg artist. Their liveley-hood is based off the idea that they are original, the geniuine article. We all rest on a fine line between mental stability and reality. If we have our vision of reality destorted at such an advanced age then where does that leave everybody? It remindes me of The Matrix when Morphious says "we never free a mind after so long" (paraphrase). After something is rooted in there it's a one way train.
1. More connections to your own life
2. Quotes from authors, scholars, media ect..
3. What is the origin of cool and where did this "collage" begin?
THESIS: Through studying the history and motives of cool we can live a fuller and more meaningfull life.
Main Idea: We are all built off of somebody else and we can only improve by accepting that.
Big Insight: Your main idea is proven by looking through a historical lense and analyzing how cool has been applied in previous generations. (the Shakespere reference)
The scarry part of knowing that we are all built off of somebody else is that most people might believe it. If people are suddenly hit with the realization that they poses no originality then they might actually try to change our world. The kind of change that brings about no true results and lots of Jesus freaks. For instance lets take your average run of the mill Williamsburg artist. Their liveley-hood is based off the idea that they are original, the geniuine article. We all rest on a fine line between mental stability and reality. If we have our vision of reality destorted at such an advanced age then where does that leave everybody? It remindes me of The Matrix when Morphious says "we never free a mind after so long" (paraphrase). After something is rooted in there it's a one way train.
1. More connections to your own life
2. Quotes from authors, scholars, media ect..
3. What is the origin of cool and where did this "collage" begin?
Very Rough Draft
Humphrey Bogart stands out in the rain and lights a cigarette as he delivers one of the most iconic lines in cinema history, "we'll always have Paris". John Wayne and his men battle through Iwo Jima and raise the flag before turning to his men and saying "how about a cigarette". Whether your saying goodbye to your "sweetheart" in Morocco or winning a heroic battle in world war two cigarettes are always there as an instrument of cool. Cigarette companies have been able to accomplish something incredible; make cigarettes rebellious while at the same time not taboo. Think of one thing that John Wayne and Barack Obama have in common? Cigarette smoking. Cigarettes may be the only thing that's truly bipartisan. Smoking is not only percieved as something that looks cool it's smoething that's excepted by general society. So my point is smoking is a way for people to be rebellious and be conformists at the same time.
Everybody knows that smoking is bad for you. Anybody who started smoking after the 1950's knew that there was a great potential for death. But knowing that why do people continue to smoke? It's also well established that we are a sucker for good advertising but smoking goes beyond good advertising. Tabacco advertising has been banned from television and radio since 1972. Advertising on billboards has been banned since 1999, but people continue to pick up the habbit everyday. If there ever was an example of how desperate people are to be cool it's smoking. Flipping through the gossip pages your bound to find a picture of Leonardo Dicaprio or Keither Sutherland having a smoke, but that still leaves much to be desired. Your average fourteen year old smoker probably wouldn't even know who the marlboro man is. So it must be a combination of things, the masculinity that comes with smoking, the image, and finally our own emptiness. Cigarettes can appear as a buffer for someones depression and anger towards the world. A true symbol of "f#%* it".
When talking to a smoker seldom do they examine their own reasoning for smoking. Most people give a response like "Well I started when I was a dumb kid and now I'm addicted". These people give these responses because their scared to face the fact that they were suckered in by philip morris and television and now they can't get out. It's quite dpersing to think that your sub-conscious is willing to do engage in a deadly foul smelling activity that's detremental to your health for apearences sake. But that's the world we live in. Even in a world where death is the scarriest thing on are minds, cool still takes precedent. What has been carved into our minds is that looking sharp for a corporation after your money is worth dying for. But hey come to where the flavor is.
In conclusion I knowledge that the rate of smoking has gone down accross the western world. But I'm not convinced it's because of our health. I think it's a combination of less exposure to cigarette advertising and rising cigarette prices. Which I think backs up my claim. We were not smart enough to take the health risks into account and make a desicion for ourselves. It took the government sheilding us and teling us to use something else that will kill us for people to back up. Cool is most certainly the priority of our lives, and we live accordingly. No matter who it is there will always be someone out there to guide us into the next trend, and we will always be there to give our lives for that trend.
Everybody knows that smoking is bad for you. Anybody who started smoking after the 1950's knew that there was a great potential for death. But knowing that why do people continue to smoke? It's also well established that we are a sucker for good advertising but smoking goes beyond good advertising. Tabacco advertising has been banned from television and radio since 1972. Advertising on billboards has been banned since 1999, but people continue to pick up the habbit everyday. If there ever was an example of how desperate people are to be cool it's smoking. Flipping through the gossip pages your bound to find a picture of Leonardo Dicaprio or Keither Sutherland having a smoke, but that still leaves much to be desired. Your average fourteen year old smoker probably wouldn't even know who the marlboro man is. So it must be a combination of things, the masculinity that comes with smoking, the image, and finally our own emptiness. Cigarettes can appear as a buffer for someones depression and anger towards the world. A true symbol of "f#%* it".
When talking to a smoker seldom do they examine their own reasoning for smoking. Most people give a response like "Well I started when I was a dumb kid and now I'm addicted". These people give these responses because their scared to face the fact that they were suckered in by philip morris and television and now they can't get out. It's quite dpersing to think that your sub-conscious is willing to do engage in a deadly foul smelling activity that's detremental to your health for apearences sake. But that's the world we live in. Even in a world where death is the scarriest thing on are minds, cool still takes precedent. What has been carved into our minds is that looking sharp for a corporation after your money is worth dying for. But hey come to where the flavor is.
In conclusion I knowledge that the rate of smoking has gone down accross the western world. But I'm not convinced it's because of our health. I think it's a combination of less exposure to cigarette advertising and rising cigarette prices. Which I think backs up my claim. We were not smart enough to take the health risks into account and make a desicion for ourselves. It took the government sheilding us and teling us to use something else that will kill us for people to back up. Cool is most certainly the priority of our lives, and we live accordingly. No matter who it is there will always be someone out there to guide us into the next trend, and we will always be there to give our lives for that trend.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
NOT FOR HOMEWORK
Sarah, I think that you have a really good topic to be writing about and you seem to have a grasp on the material. You gave great examples about facebook and 9th grade and you were able to use yourself well throughout the paper. My main problem was that your paper was very broad at parts and Im not sure what it is your trying to prove. From conversations that we've had about your paper I know what your getting at but I just think that you should try to articulate that a little more clearly. I also liked how you talked about tattos and talked about Miley Cyrus and gaver your oppinion on her tatto choice.
One thing that you did that I thought was particularly interesting was comparing our distractions with jenga and the common ups and downs that go on, I likened it somewhat to a donkey with a carrot in front of him. Basically to wrap this all up I think that you have something really great to write about and my only suggestion would be to try and piece together all of your examples with something out of your own life. I think that would really make your paper engaging.
Good Luck
One thing that you did that I thought was particularly interesting was comparing our distractions with jenga and the common ups and downs that go on, I likened it somewhat to a donkey with a carrot in front of him. Basically to wrap this all up I think that you have something really great to write about and my only suggestion would be to try and piece together all of your examples with something out of your own life. I think that would really make your paper engaging.
Good Luck
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