This Coke ad brings Santa Claus in as an added emphasis on the Holiday sense of this ad, but it is the topography that really leaves its viewers with an outstanding message. The use of display type, meaning larger than fourteen point font, rings the message loud and clear, that Coke is a necessity to ring in the holidays. As the text is completely dominating almost the entire attention of the advertisement, it intentionally and boldly speaks for itself, that Coke adds life to the holidays, as Santa is proudly supporting, or possibly being the one to state this fact . In this ad, Coke goes with the most attention grabbing color scheme in its text, the black, on white back ground, other than the color of the product's name Coke, which coordinates with Santa's suit, all draws attention to the words and their meaning. Due to the white background, each word is important to the eye capturing it, and the touch of color with the vibrant red and light green between Santa and word of the product fully radiate the holiday theme of the ad and what is setting out to hit those taking it in. The various types of font, one being cursive, adds variety as well as a source of creativity in the add, almost looking as "fun" and "light" as the words it is conveying to the viewer. If the font being used in this specific add were say, Times New Roman, the joy and fun that is supposed to be the over all theme of this add would be lost, and hard to comprehend. The strategic placement of the phrase "Holiday Fun" being in the complete center of the ad, leaves those seeing the ad with the connection of Coke and holiday fun, conveying the message to remember.  While this ad is very simple, using a simple short phrase, and Santa Claus off to the side, it leaves what words it does have, with a powerful and easily remembered. Because of typography, this ad contains a fun display as it was designed to, while also being an effective source of advertising to the public with an easily remembered message, which makes it a successful and effective advertisement. Typography to some may seem to be a minor, insignificant detail of an ad campaign, painting, flyer, etc, however the strategic placement, design, and even which words are chosen all form the image into one to be remembered. Society is full of words, ideas, opinions, and what better way to describe them than words themselves? But typography, ties up the package of assuring the words themselves not only sound good, but LOOK good, in a way that makes them remembered, cemented, and passed on to the next set of eyes to behold and comprehend them, in the most effective way possible.

new media and society blog 3

            What a lot of people do not know about me is that I'm not really here. My body may physically be in the United States of America, but where I really want to be is back in Uganda Africa, where my heart is. In 2008, when I was eleven years old I embarked on a mission's trip for three whole weeks. It was during the dry season of the year, so it was incredibly hot. I worked at an organization that took in children that needed health care and a place to go while their parents were trying to somehow make a living at a school the foundation had set up to teach them a type of trade that would allow them to make some kind of living, no matter how small it was.
            While some parts of the trip put me in a place completely out of my comfort zone, it was an experience I will never cease to miss. I miss the little lizards instead of the typical daddy-long-legged spiders we find on our ceiling in America, and I miss the simplicity of a life where everyone works together to take care of each other. In America we live in a lifestyle where we want everything immediately, at the snap of our fingers. In Uganda, everyone is grateful just for what they have. Everyone smiles, no matter what their circumstances and no matter who you ask, "How are you?" the response will always be, "I'm fine." even if they are not. It was the most selfless place I've ever experienced.
             Even though the people I was there to help had absolutely nothing, they gave me something. They gave me a feeling of happiness and joy that no matter what the circumstance or place in life you're in, you can never let the situation take you over, and choose to be happy anyways. Dancing with these people, laughing, running in the street like a crazy person, or "Mazungu" which means crazy white person, gave me the most happiness I'd ever felt. I was happy to help them, and help them with their hygiene, and just loving them because they were so genuine. I heard crazy stories of survival, and stories from witch doctors that changed their life around to reach a brighter area of life.
     I miss the weather, the content lifestyle that these people share even though they have nothing, verses in America where everyone simply strives to attain more of the most expensive brands of clothes, cars, the largest houses, etc. Africa taught me a lot and there is not a day that goes by that I don't wish that I could drop everything and move there. The happiness I felt of being around a happy group of people, brought me more than I could ever describe. I want to go back someday, maybe permanently, it's a dream of mine, but regardless of what happens, Uganda will always have a huge piece of my heart.

Blog 3

                  
      People form stereotypes based on various reasons, some of them being events containing specific circumstances or coincidences, outright prejudice, and sometimes without any reason whatsoever. Many of these stereotypes become adopted by society and in turn are integrated in media and portrayed as common knowledge and that thinking and acting based on these stereotypes is normal. However, stereotypes are not factual and the people that are targeted by them are affected more than you would think. This image, pictures a man being seen of as having relations or being apart of Al Qaeda, a terrorist Saddam Husane, terrorism, 9/11, as well as being a suspect just because he is Muslim. This picture is a perfect reflection of a typical stereotype that has been adopted as well as adopted by the media against Muslims, simply because certain terrorists that had involvement in 9/11 were Muslim. Due to the fact that Al Qaeda was formed with a group of Muslims, doesn't mean that all Muslims around the world are in fact affiliated with Al Qaeda or terrorist acts.
  Directly after the events of 9/11, the United States Government placed restrictions on flying and increased security in airports. Even though searches weren't executed on every single passenger, those of Muslim appearance or any sign of the Middle Eastern culture were immediately searched. Going beyond the routine search of being patted down, several of the Middle Eastern passengers were interrogated by federal government security officers based on appearance. In an article by forbes.com, author Scheneier describes a story "an elderly couple being given the twice-over by the TSA, pointed out how these two were obviously not a threat, and recommended that the TSA focus on the actual threat: “Muslims, or anyone who looks like he or she could conceivably be Muslim.”
  Not only did this stereotype affect the passengers being questioned, but it raised more concern and fear among the passengers having to ride with these people, once they were cleared to fly. I experienced this stereotype first hand when I flew to Africa in 2008, even seven years after 9/11 occurred. As a family of Middle Eastern people with two small children were approaching the boarding terminal, they were patted down and detained about five minutes later than my family an d I. When we saw them on the plane, finally they looked upset and one of the children with the family was crying. Just because they were of Middle Eastern culture meant that they had to be treated differently than everyone else at the airport that wasn't of their race? This broke my heart. If we are truly a country of freedom and equality, than even under certain events and conditions everyone, should be treated differently, stereotyped or not.
      If feelings of prejudice are being carried out and passed off as accepted by society in places such as airports, these feelings will not only continue, but possibly increase. If searches are to be being performed at airports, the passengers selected should either be random, or if they are chosen, they should be given a reason. In this way, prejudice at airports can hopefully be lessened and Muslim passengers can feel equal respect as any other passengers traveling.