First airing in October of 2014, the show Jane the Virgin stars new upcoming actors of this time such as Gina Rodriguez, Andrea Navedo, and Justin Baldoni in this ironic romcom tv show. Each episode was directed by a different person (for the most part) with directors such as Brad Silberling, Uta Briesewitz, and Debbie Allen. With an audience of american speaking hispanic women and female teens, the show is centered around a 23 year old woman/college student named Jane who is in a serious relationship with a detective named Michael. Jane, as convinced by her grandmother, is a virgin saving herself for marriage due to the fact that she does not want her life to turn into her mother’s. After arriving at her doctor’s appointment one day though, her perfect planned life takes a turn for the worst when a pap smear accidentally turns into her being artificially inseminated. Basically the doctor mistakenly took her for the wrong patient and inserted a mans thawed out semen that was supposed to go into a different woman. The show revolves around her after she decides to keep the baby and immediately give it to the father and wife after birth. The plot in itself is very complicated and hard to explain through text, but is clear and easy to understand when you watch it.

Jane lives with her mother and abuela in the same home has a deep personal relationship with both of them. She does not know her father for the first few episodes, but the show introduces him to her in the fourth episode when he turns out to be a telenovela star. Jane and her mother both speak english, but her abuela speaks only spanish and can understand english. Taking place mostly at Jane’s house and where she works (the hotel of her baby daddy), Jane is portrayed as a very pure, honest, and good person who is striving to live her life how she planned it. The show centers around how many different obstacles are trying to push her down, but she keeps on pushing. Her mother who is a singer/performer is portrayed as a raunchy, “screw-up”, but in the end only wants the best for her daughter. Promoting perseverance, the show also promotes sex and scandal as the female doctor who artificially inseminated Jane has an affair with her stepmother/ex-lover and the hotel manager’s wife has an affair with a man who was her husband’s “good” friend (It’s so complicated, don’t even ask just watch it). The good thing though is same-sex relationships are encouraged, which is good to see when a show helps normalize this topic. As far as the culture, Jane’s abuela is an avid telenovela watcher and speaks spanish for the entire show. She is also very religious and believes in the plan that God has for her. This shows the culture they are portraying to the audience.

With stereotypes, I feel the show portrayed Jane’s abuela as the typical godly, strict, and loving character as seen in many people’s minds. Jane’s mom is also kind of “stereotyped” when she is a teen-mom, a singer/performer showing off everything and being very loud and proud. As far as racial and ethnic issues discussed, there are not many due to the fact that the entire show is just a series of unfortunate events in Jane’s life that eventually works out. When compared to a “white counterpart”, the diversity shown as far as spanish speaking and a hispanic home would not be present usually and also certain character traits would be different. The mom character may be older due to societies generalization of when to have a child and Jane’s mom is a lot younger in that aspect. The fact that Jane doesn’t know her father is also a stereotype and would most likely not be present in a white counterpart. There are many different aspects that distinguish this show from others, making it unique and creative.

In all, the show delivers valuable messages to the audience and really makes you think. It shows how to deal with a bad hand that may have been dealt and how to work through it, even if the show’s plot is crazily out of this world. Going into this show, I expected it to be good since a lot of my friends have watched it before and recommended it to me (mostly female teenagers). After getting into the first four episodes, I can’t stop watching it and continue to watch it because the plot never ceases to leave me hanging and want more of what they left me with. As crazy as the plot may be, it is filled with many twists, surprises, and comedy that makes the show very interesting. If someone asked me if they should watch it, I definitely would tell them to give it a shot and don’t judge it by the cover. It’s not just interesting to a feminine audience, it’s interesting to everybody. Leaving this assignment I will continue to watch this nail-biter of a show and continue to be encapsulated by this wacky plot.

On July 3rd, 2019, American rapper and hip-hop artist A$AP ROCKY was arrested after fighting and beating a man who was following them for 4 blocks and was threatening to him and his crew. Upon being arrested, he was placed in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day and is supposedly being held in unjust conditions. According to Billboard, the Congressional Black Caucus has stated that this whole situation is “outrageous and needs to be addressed”. They also stated that the public can expect forceful interactivity from them in this case. The U.S. Department of State said they hope that Sweden is dealing with A$AP fairly and respectfully and will see him back on tour with his colleagues very soon. Overall the U.S. is not very happy about news coming out of Sweden towards A$AP ROCKY.

As far as the public and his large following, over 600,000 people have signed a petition to free and release him from incarceration. Celebrities like Nicki Minaj, Post Malone, and Justin Beiber have called out to the public for their help in obtaining this result. Personally, I feel that Sweden is a civilized and ethical country. I would only hope that his captivity is only due to him breaking the law and that he is rightfully being held for just reasons. I also feel that the U.S. may be bending the news slightly and not giving the entire situation light to those interested. It is his own fault for beating someone up and breaking the law no matter what his intentions were. Imagine if a Swedish artist came to America, broke the law, and was then arrested for it. I have personally never been in one, but I feel that the prisons of America have very, very unjust and inhumane living quarters and I would definitely say that Sweden can agree. If I lived a lavish lifestyle for many years and all of a sudden it was stripped away and I was thrown in a jail cell, I would consider it inhumane too as far as the exponentially different conditions. In all, I do hope that A$AP ROCKY is released in the near future and that what he has gone through over the past two weeks is not very detrimental to his life and career.

For 82 years, Frito Lay’s has been providing the public with delectable potato chips. For their 75^th anniversary, this multi-billion dollar company launched a U.S. national campaign in 2012 basing it off a previous international campaign that was successful in many different countries. This “Do Us a Flavor” Campaign consists of consumers sending in possible potato chip flavors such as previous winners like “Southern Biscuits and Gravy”, “Kettle Cooked Greertown Gyro”, “New York Rueben”, and “West Coast Truffle Fries”. Due to stagnant revenue, this was a startup in hopes to increase sales by 3%. While also attempting in exponentially increase their target audience, they used social media to advertise and create a fanbase and obtain results. Starting off as a pop-up store in Times Square, Lay’s presented all twenty-two potato chip flavors available in the United States and also flavors from around the world. With a grand prize of one million dollars, a visual of what this shear amount looks like in person was also presented to the public in Times Square. Out of 3.8 million online submissions, the flavor “Cheesy Garlic Bread” submitted by librarian Karen Weber-Mendham won it all and had her flavor as the next circulating Frito-Lay’s potato chip.

Hoping to increase sales revenue by three percent, the “Do Us a Flavor” campaign skyrocketed sales revenue by twelve percent, totally outdoing themselves by nine percent. In England, there were 1.2 million submissions sent in from the public. In comparison to the States, this was a minor figure due to the staggering number that was received in 2012 of 3.8 million submissions. Sheerly due to social media, the PTAT (which is measured by the population of consumers discussing Lay’s) increased by 4700% from previous years. Lay’s was able to accumulate 1.26 billion personal relations impressions over the first year that it was released in 2012. Anindita Mukherjee, chief marketing officer for Frito-Lay North America at the time, stated “The first time we did it [in the U.S.], we estimated we would get a million votes; we got four million. [In 2015] we did it for the second time and got over fourteen million votes.” This clearly exemplifies the power of social media and how everything is shared quickly and efficiently.

With all of this campaign in mind, it is clearly a staple to the advertising business and is a prime example of a company relating directly to the consumer. Having a personal relationship is proven by this campaign to clearly increase personal relations impressions if executed properly. By teaming up with Facebook, a social media giant, Frito-Lay’s easily reached the targeted demographic of millennials 18-34 and astronomically reached their revenue margin by tenfold. The ratio between the amount of power that was given to the consumer and the amount of power kept by the company was a clear success.

Link To Actual Case Study

“Do Us A Flavor” Presentation

College forces us out of our comfort zones, making us interact with new people each day. Over the past weekend, I interacted with the most people I have ever in a span of 4 days. One interaction in particular really stated and drove in the “Power of Communication”. Last minute, one of my friends decided to come up for Arts Fest and stay with my roommate and I. He came up with his car and parked in a parking garage thinking that it would not be that expensive for the weekend. After realizing how much it would be to park there for two days, he decided to move it and try to find a free parking spot on the street somewhere. Looking for probably 45 minutes, he finally decided to flag down a local who was out mowing his lawn. “Excuse me sir, do you know anywhere around here where I could park for free?” my friend Anthony said to the older gentleman on his riding mower. “For how long?” the man replied. “About 2 hours,” Anthony said back. “If you want, you can park right below my house in that church parking lot. I’m the monitor of it and I won’t say anything.” The man yelled over his mower. We thanked him profusely and went and parked. After parking, we walked up and started talking to him. He was a very nice man, about 80 years old or so. Giving us his life story, we learned that he’s lived in State College most of his life, fought in Vietnam, got arrested one year when he was our age, and was a heavy machine operator up in Alaska for a while. Before talking to him, the man seemed a little firm and grouchy but after letting him open up to us, he was loose, energetic, laughing, and his face was lit up. When my friend and I decided to say our goodbyes to us, he thanked us for listening to him and was in a totally different mood than when we first met. We ended the conversation with him saying that we could stay parked for the weekend and that if anyone gives us problems, tell them that Lawrence said it’s alright and deal with him. With everyone laughing, my friend and I thanked him and went on our way to go have fun in the Arts Festivities. In conclusion, this interaction drove in the fact that by just talking, you can totally flip the mood of somebody. From now on, I will show friendliness to all who I interact with and simply let people talk.

The art of jewelry exhibits interest to all.

Strolling through the streets of vendors, people of all types strolled as well viewing all sights to see on the avenue’s. A large quantity of these vendors sold jewelry of all kinds.

A paradise for the kids.

This weekend for the arts was an absolute scorcher. To combat this, fun free games and water attractions were provided to help everyone get through this heat, especially the children. Not only is this festival for adults to enjoy, but it is for people of all ages.

A Mother’s Love.

Day’s like these can often be filled with excitement. Sometimes though, this excitement can get a little out of hand. Moments before this picture was taken, the daughter in this picture slipped and fell, hurting her knee. Right there for her, mom came and comforted her, reassuring everything was alright.

The Afternoon in Happy Valley.

State College brings people from everywhere together, especially for this weekend. Between the food and the music, everyone is bound to have a good time in this relaxing, creative event.

Josiah Minotto

Comm 100s: Mass Media & Society

The Pennsylvania State University – Professor Nichols

Critical Reading: “Essence Magazine”

Summer Session – July 11, 2019

When choosing a magazine to buy, the reader bases their decision off interest and whether it is worth it to view. Those interested in sports may pick Sports Illustrated and those interested in fashion may pick Vogue. Magazine editors present imagery and visual aesthetics for the reader to choose their piece over another, which brings me to mainstream magazines vs. ethnically oriented magazines. Ethnically centered magazines such as Essence, which I chose to review, include visuals of “tribal” clothing originating from African culture and a beautiful African American woman on the very front cover. Mainstream magazines such as Cosmopolitan, another beauty-oriented magazine, feature bright pinks, reds, and sensual article titles as well as yet another beautiful Caucasian woman on the front cover. These aspects pronounce who the magazine is trying to entice. Essence with a mission to “Serve black women deeply.” as displayed on their media kit points towards African American women and Cosmopolitan with a mission of “The voice of GenNow, connecting with 75 million readers all day. Every day.” points towards women as a whole.

With Essence, this beauty magazine takes an approach that leans towards the lifestyle and unstoppable advancing steps of African American women, while also showing the magazine’s image of beauty and “how to be beautiful” with many beauty products throughout. The magazine is very real and raw and clearly wants to convey that to the audience. When compared to a mainstream publication like Cosmopolitan, it is easy to draw the conclusion that Essence creates a much more sophisticated read for their audience where Cosmopolitan is much shallower and unimportant as far as content. This ethnically diverse magazine conveys what women like Iman (the most famous model of Africa), Teyana, and Ciara have gone through to get where they are showing regality, realness, and resilience. Not how to deal with summer struggles like getting sand in your phone charging port and not getting enough sun due to work, which is what Cosmopolitan conveys. This is a prime example of audience fragmentation and styles that each publisher uses to lure in their projected audience. Although each magazine is reaching different audiences, Essence provides a much more thought-provoking read.

As far as advertisements included with each magazine, the chosen ethnic subject contains a slightly larger number of ads as compared to Cosmo; 38 – 33. Ads in Cosmopolitan consist mostly of beauty, feminine, and hair products. In comparison, ads pictured in Essence consist of the same type of ads except different palettes. For example, the back cover of Essence has shampoo and conditioner with the name “My Black is Beautiful”. Within the magazine, on pages 134-136 are ads for “detangling”, “curl popping” products that appeal to the intended audience. With Cosmopolitan, there are many makeup and hair ads as well, but there are a lot more feminine sex products and birth control ads. As seen, each company clearly has similar priorities, but minorly adapted to each audience. The shear amount of audience members that the mainstream magazine reaches is insanely higher than a magazine like Essence as shown in their media kits. One reason for this is the much more concise target with Essence being African American women as compared to Cosmopolitan, which has the entire population of women as their audience. As clearly displayed, this leads to ads in Essence being cheaper than magazines such as Cosmopolitan where advertisers pay top dollar to be in next month’s issue.

Just like how these two pieces of literature differ, there are also many aspects that correlate. For example, the main focus of this month’s Essence issue is “Our Tribe” with women like Ciara, Iman, Teyana Taylor, and even a word from Michelle Obama at the end. More specifically, the editorial on Ciara focuses on her come up and the footprint which she has in the music industry on page 148. In Cosmopolitan, the main editorial compares greatly to the focus in Essence. The center of the magazine is actress Aubrey Plaza and how they are similar is that it displays where, when and how Aubrey got her start. From being this funny “sadistic” comedian to being on top of the outgoing scene, she showed how she knew right from the start that she had potential. Almost exactly how the editorial on Ciara went. Another similarity comes from the vivacious colors displayed in both. Although the writing styles may be somewhat different, each article presents lively eye-catching colors for the reader to feast upon. This is done for many reasons including how the editors of each piece realize the media literacy of their audience and how to channel this enjoyment towards the company’s magazine. Even though the comparisons between both magazines are sparse, there are still many prime examples of where they are similar.

When comparing these two magazines (Essence and Cosmopolitan) there are many things to consider. The audience, topics, advertisements, colors, and articles all have elements in common, yet also have many elements that are different. Essence on one hand focuses on bringing light to the beauty and advancements in the Black population and how each person reached where they are. Cosmopolitan has a very different focus on women living sexy, beautiful lives and providing “resources” in gaining this way of life. After reading both publications, the content of each was very surprising. The content of each was not expected simply due to the fact that I have never read a beauty magazine before, while the shallow, unimportant information provided in Cosmopolitan was also unexpected. What was expected of Cosmopolitan consisted of possibly something more organic than provided, it is all so fake. After reading this though, I understand where they are coming from because I feel that readers find this as a getaway from reality. Reading this is a nice change of pace for the audience. As far as Essence, it is more news-filled due to upcoming African American women artist editorials. In conclusion, both magazines provide a wide variety of media for the audience to consume, making each publication divergent yet similar to each other.

Works Cited

Pels, Jessica. Cosmopolitan. New York, NY. Hearst. July 2019. Print.

Luu, Moana. Essence. New York, NY. Essence Communications. July/August 2019. Print. Cosmopolitan Media Kit,

www.cosmomediakit.com/r5/home.asp. Web.

Essence Media Kit. www.directactionmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/ESSENCE-MEDIA-KIT-2019_9.20.18.pdf. Web.

My first impressions prior to arriving at the learning center to review my first assignment, Critical Reading:Compare/Contrast Mainstream Magazine, consisted of being nervous because I did not know what to expect. Was my tutor going to be friendly and constructive? Or a total schmuck who wanted only to negatively criticize my paper/ not even help me. Upon walking in, I was greeted by many friendly faces and colors that welcomed a learning environment. There was a dense amount of people, but everyone was helped very quickly and I had no problem receiving aid within 15 minutes of waiting. In all, the waiting room was actually enjoyable with comfy chairs and friendly people.

When actually reviewing my paper with a tutor, there were many mistakes that I overlooked and would not have caught without his help. Carlton, my tutor, made me read the paper aloud and skimmed along with me as we prowled through my assignment for errors. Just reading it aloud pointed out mistakes to me even without his help, but he assisted grammatically and organizationally in fixing the flaws. With all of this in mind, I feel confident in saying that I came away from the learning center with a very well-made paper.

This past weekend for me was a fun and nostalgic time due to two of my friends from home visiting and spending the night here. My roommate’s girlfriend and one of my best friends from soccer drove up from our hometown, making Saturday and Sunday splendid. Not because we haven’t seen each other in a while, but because it sparked good old times from our high school days. We went to Chipotle, Webster’s Bookstore Cafe, the dining commons, and even got caught in the rain on our way back (friendly tip: always bring an umbrella when the forecast calls for rain). Although our time was fun, it was very short lasted since they had to leave so quickly. Upon their departure, feelings of sadness and homesickness flooded my mind. This was the first time since coming here that I felt this way. So instead of moping around for the rest of the day and feeling sad, I combated it with a simple remedy.

At home, whenever I felt sad about something that happened whether it be a bad grade, a recent fight with one of my parents, or a sports team loss; I replaced these thoughts with staying busy. I would clean my room, work out, catch up on schoolwork, etc. This shoved whatever thoughts I had of sadness out the window and replaced it with productiveness. So, what did I do here at college after I was reminiscing about good times? Exactly the same! I cleaned my room, worked on schoolwork, went to the gym and even did my laundry. This productiveness provided a euphoric feeling of self-worth that totally replaced the feelings of sadness I had when my friends left. In conclusion, if you ever need to get your mind off things, DO something, don’t just sit and wallow in despair.

Two years ago, Netflix released a groundbreaking show called Stranger Things that absolutely blew up immediately. This 80’s based thriller tv series was different for its time and is a prime example of a binge-worthy show. The show surrounds a group of 4 friends at the beginning with new characters emerging throughout. It takes place in the rural town of Hawkins, Indiana where weird events start occurring with no explanation. With all of the plot aside, the show features many depictions of cigarette smoking and that’s where anti-smoking groups like Truth Initiative are not happy. Moving forward, Netflix stated, “all new shows it commissions with ratings of TV-14 or below (and all films rated PG-13 or below) will exclude smoking and e-cigarette use, except for “reasons of historical or factual accuracy.” Condoning cigarette smoking is the opposite of what I want to do, but I do think that this was a time when many people smoked and it takes away from the setting by not having this in the plot. Although this does take away from the plot in my opinion, there are many negatives by keeping tobacco smoking in the show.

As far as negatives, having these “cool” characters in the show smoking cigarettes does paint a bad picture for the younger population watching. The audience links being cool with smoking cigarettes, which is not a thought that today’s society should have. It also is “glamorizing and re-normalizing a deadly addiction and putting young people squarely in the crosshairs of the tobacco industry,” according to CEO/President of Truth Initiative. This is a fact, which in this case outweighs my opinion on how getting rid of smoking will take away from the plot. 12 out of 13 of the most popular shows related to the age group of 15-24 shows a prominent amount of smoking. After reading this article, I believe that it is a necessity in moving forward in the entertainment business to remove tobacco products from viewing in order to reduce this epidemic of addiction.

Spangler, T. (2019, July 04). Netflix Pledges to Cut Back Smoking Depictions in Original Productions After Group Blasts ‘Stranger Things’. Retrieved from https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/stranger-things-netflix-smoking-reduce-depictions-1203258913/

We all know that Nike has a history of starting controversial campaign’s and there is nothing wrong with that. Back in September of 2018, they launched a campaign with Colin Kaepernick as the spokesperson with the slogan “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.” I believe that the backlash that came from the public towards this was blown way out of proportion, but I did respect the boldness from Nike to have this recently outcasted NFL quarterback be the main image for this campaign. Not only was this a risk towards the image of the company, but it truly voiced Nike’s opinion on everything that was occurring.

Fast forward 10 months to now when Nike is about to release a new line of Air Max’s with a title of “Quick Strike Fourth of July.” The shoes feature patriotic colors with a small Betsy Ross styled flag on the heel of the shoe (as featured above). Unleashing a wave of negative comments, this Betsy Ross flag design was “criticized as evocative of an era when slavery was still predominant in the U.S.” Quickly pulling the shoe line out of circulation, they clearly thought that the release of this line would instantly lead to a drop in business. Personally, I feel that this is totally going against their slogan “Just Do It”, but that might just be me. Yes, slavery is an atrocious and inhumane act which exists in our history, but I do not feel that this flag with 13 stars is a symbol of slavery itself. I believe that it stands for our independence as a nation and the strides that occurred in forming the country we have today. Saying that this style of flag stands for slavery is like saying that the entire 4th of July is a symbol of slavery and I just cannot stand behind that. Independence Day is a holiday for unity as American’s and to cherish what this melting pot is all about. Circling back to Nike, this “power move” to save their image really did not save their image at all, it just created a larger divide between the USA and much more controversy for the company to deal with.

Bloomsberg News. Nike pulls ‘Betsy Ross Flag’ sneakers after Kaepernick complains. (2019, July 02). Retrieved from https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/nike-pulls-betsy-ross-flag-sneakers-after-kaepernick-complains/2181141