Product Placement

Product placement is becoming a popular form of advertisement in movies, television shows, music videos, video games etc. whereby a product or service is featured within a programme. A study has shown that 90% of the people skip advertisements on television and less than 30% of them recall the brand being advertised. However, with product placement, the recall rate is 57.5% and around 50% of the people would buy the product being advertised.

The music video - Poker Face by Lady Gaga advertises Beats headphones and bwin.com, an online betting site. This is an example of successful product placement. One of the actors appears wearing the Beats headphones in this music video. Bwin.com is seen on the cards being used to play poker in the music video. This form of product placement is appropriate because it does not make it obvious that a product is being advertised but leaves a huge impact on the audience. The placement of bwin.com on the cards was relevant because it referenced the nature of the website and yet did not disclose its actual meaning, compelling the audience to search for it. Had this website been advertised in a 30 second advertisement as an online betting site, it would probably have attracted fewer customers.

However, product placement can go terribly wrong if it is not disguised well. For example, an episode of the drama television series, The Secret Life of the American Teenager uses product placement the wrong way. In this episode, a mother explains the benefits of a skin product to her daughter and asks her to use it twice a day. This form of advertisement proves detrimental to the popularity of the product instead of increasing it. The audience feels like it is being forced to appreciate a product while watching a programme and it also acts as a distraction from the entertainment the programme is attempting to provide.

Thus, the proper way of product placement is to present it in front of the audience, not verbally explaining its use or benefits, but letting the audience comprehend it by analysing the context and environment in which it is displayed. This makes product placement more impactful than traditional advertising as it minimizes the chances of it getting skipped by the audience. The fact that Iron Man 2 had 64 branded products proves how powerful the idea of product placement is in today’s world.

Project 4 - Advertisement

I am planning to talk to organizations like ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) or USB (CS Undergraduate Student Board) regarding my project. These organizations are related to Computer Science and hold a number of events throughout the year. USB has held events like coding camps and CS game nights. ACM organizes events like coding competitions and tech talks. I would ask these groups about their upcoming events and would request their permission to make an advertisement for any one of them. I would also have to obtain the details about the members, events and the history of the group so that I may include them in my advertisement.

My target audience would be the students at Purdue University. I would examine the former  advertisements of the group I choose and try to adhere to the theme of those advertisements so that my audience is able to recognize the group through mine. I would prefer to make a print advertisement as it  can be easily distributed around the campus. My competition would be the other groups and organizations at Purdue University. These organizations primarily advertise their events through posters, brochures and pamphlets. Hence, I would try to make an advertisement which is adequate for this form of presentation. Making an advertisement for such an organization would help me to assess it by getting feedback and improve it by making changes accordingly. It would also help me to hone my designing skills by working with an actual customer. This would also help the organization as it would provide them with a wonderful advertisement for their upcoming event.

Design Plan - Contribution to Wiki Page

I have picked the Wiki page - Pair Programming for editing. I picked this page because I have an interest in computer programming and the techniques which make it better and easier. Pair programming is a technique in which two programmers work together. One programmer writes the code and the other reviews each line of code. They both switch roles frequently.

Some of the reasons why this page needs significant editing are that the neutrality of the article is disputed, it relies largely on a single source and does not meet Wikipedia’s quality standards due to lack of citations, biased wording, incomplete sections etc.

Thus, I want to examine the issues pointed out on the talk page of the article and work on them to it establish neutrality in it. I would also like to format this article according to the Wikipedia Manual of Style so that it meets all the quality standards. I also want to contribute to this page both by writing about the benefits and drawbacks of pair programming, by analyzing the various studies that have been done on this topic, and examining its variants like remote pair programming.

I plan on finding my sources in books, published articles and research papers through google scholar. I would also interview my Computer Science Professor Antony Hosking to get more information about the concept of pair programming.

I anticipate that I might experience difficulties in finding reliable sources on this topic and in citing any information from the interview. I also envision difficulties in meeting Wikipedia’s quality standards as it has quite a detailed Manual of Style. One of the benefits of choosing this topic is that it would help me learn more of about my major - Computer Science.

How to fall in love with Math - Response

In his recent opinion editorial, “How to fall in love with Math”, Manil Suri makes a plea to his audience to understand Mathematics from a different perspective and states various examples on how to do so. Though the idea of falling in love with Math seems exciting, I find that some of his arguments are lacking in substance.

The author mentions that Mathematics should be appreciated in the same way as one can appreciate art without acquiring the ability to paint, or enjoy a symphony without being able to read music. What he does not note is that we are able to appreciate paintings and symphonies because they please our senses of sight and hearing respectively. However, the complex mathematical equations do not please any of our senses until we develop advanced mathematical skills. Thus it is quite difficult to appreciate profound mathematical ideas if we cannot perceive their meaning. For instance, it has been stated that Math can be better understood through enjoying the eye candy of fractal images - those black, amoeba like splotches, surrounded by bands of psychedelic colors. My question to the author is that how can anyone, except a mathematician, relate a mathematical rule to such images when he or she does not even know what these images look like.

Secondly, the author claims that human beings are wired for mathematics and that at some level, perhaps we all crave it. I don't think the author provides any substantial evidence to back this statement up. I have seen many college students struggling with Mathematics courses. If we had been wired for it, perhaps all of us would have eventually excelled at it, which is sadly not the case. From my experience, I believe that some people have innate mathematical skills similar to the domain of music and painting. I would have liked my beliefs to be challenged by the authors’ viewpoints, but convincing evidence hasn’t been provided.

The author also says that in schools, the opportunity to immerse students in interesting mathematical ideas is usually jettisoned to make more time for testing and arithmetic drills. Fortunately, in the institutions where I have received my education, only two to three examinations are held throughout the course of the year. The rest of the curriculum was solely based upon developing a strong understanding of the mathematical concepts and theorems in the students. However, even that approach did not lead to a large proportion of the student body ‘loving’ mathematics.

By virtue of being a mathematics professor, the author has based his arguments in such a way that they are meant for audience that is already in love with mathematics thus having an understanding of the concepts and images being referred to. This defeats the purpose of attracting scholars from other fields of life towards Mathematics.

Meme fun

This meme relates to the life of a college student who is burdened with the tests and assignments he has to complete on a daily basis. The fact that the meme personifies a nonliving thing makes it humorous. It gives us an insight into the frustrations and stress a college student has to deal with. Also, it is funny because it it gives us a peep into the mind of a student who tries to postpone work to as late as possible, as reflected by ‘20 days’ rather than a few. It closely relates to my experience in school when I had to complete lengthy assignments daily and it was affecting my participation in other activities like cricket and music.

This meme relates to a person who is tired and exhausted with his work and is desperately waiting for the weekend to come so that he may relax. What makes it interesting is that it also personifies a nonliving thing and informs us about the need for relaxation and leisure in one’s life. It is humorous in the sense that it illustrates the importance of a Friday night in the life of a student. No matter how unburdened the week has been, a college student always looks forward to a Friday night.

This meme is about brian’s bad luck and carelessness. It tells us how hard work and labor can go waste if attention is not paid to the basics. The picture of a geeky boy gives this meme a humorous implication. He seems like a boy who would be most affected by grades and tests, and makes a stupid mistake to undo all his hard work. It relates to an experience of mine in fifth grade when I had studied hard for a test but realised the next day that the test was on chapter 5 and not on chapter 4.

This meme tells us that being too careful is also detrimental. It makes us laugh about the fact that how bad luck can ruin our most careful actions or moves. The fact that the boy is laughing at his own rotten luck makes this meme work. This kind of a situation has taken place several times with my mother who tends to keep her stuff very carefully. The fact that the boy is smiling away instead of looking for his lost item is also quite interesting and it creates a kind of agitation in the mind of the viewer.

Comedy can only reach its full potential when you're allowed to joke about any subject, no matter how offensive - Change my View

The opinion that I agreed with was - Comedy can only reach its full potential when you’re allowed to joke about any subject, no matter how offensive. I agreed that finding humor in topics like rape, terrorism, racism etc. would allow a form of relief from the stress and negativity that comes from these topics. Also, I felt that the audience should participate in the act of comedy with an open mind and try to acknowledge the humor presented, since something that might be offensive to one might be humorous to others, and vice versa.  

My opinion was shifted considerably by the argument that a comedian's job is to make people laugh. A comedian may definitely joke about any subject but if no one finds his jokes funny because they are offended by them then he is failing at his job miserably. Stand up is a field with instant feedback. It allows the audience to respond instantly to the material. Thus, comedy reaches its full potential when a comedian delivers his material in accordance with the type of audience he is dealing with.

My opinion was also shifted by the argument that people tend to be heavily influenced by comedians and tend to adopt the views of the comedians into their worldview. There are studies that have shown that when people make jokes about subjects like rape, they influence others to have a decreased desire to punish rapists and decreased view of rape as a problem. Thus, if offensive comedy causes people to feel better about such subjects then its net effect is rather detrimental. In that case, I realize that comedians should not joke about anything offensive to their audience, no matter how hilarious it might be. Comedy is a form of entertainment, and should not be designated the power of having unwanted enduring effects on the lives of the audience.

I was forced to reevaluate my viewpoint by the argument that comedians do have a social responsibility towards the audience they are dealing with, and should try to avoid the usage of dark humor which they feel would bring out the full potential in their act. They may be highly mistaken. Comedy may reach its full potential through wit, imagination, slice of life observation, free form improvisation, satire etc.  A remark that makes people more unhappy than they were before they heard it, is not comedy. That would just affect the mood of the audience in a way undesired by both the presenter and the audience itself.

To conclude I would like to mention that “people should just have a good humor about their bad situation” is a very easy thing to say when you have never experienced it.

My favorite website

The software that I am familiar with is:

Microsoft Office

My favorite website is quora.com. It serves as an online portal whereby users can post questions and receive answers from experts and other knowledgeable users in the relevant domain. It allows them to choose from various topics like food, education, health, science, sports etc and browse through questions and answers posted by others alongside producing original content. It serves as an immense pool of knowledge from which users can choose and pick elements that interest them.

I like quora because of the vast range of topics that are covered and the quality of answers that comes as a product of the rich community that has developed around the content. On one hand people discuss numerous social, economical as well as political problems whereas on the other hand, people also share memes and jokes on relevant questions. Thus, this website provides us with a combination of humor and knowledge. Quora’s distribution channel makes sure that you view the most relevant content in your feed, which is also highly valuable.

What makes quora unique is that it encourages experts in various domains to impart their knowledge by demonstrating a need in the social community like nowhere else on the web. Readers’ feedback via votes furthers this objective to bring together a valuable social network that thrives on information.

I have contributed to quora by answering questions related to domains I am familiar with, to the best of my ability. Specifically, I have contributed to sports channels like cricket and tennis and others related to computer programming and mathematics. I believe I contribute to the website even by reading/upvoting answers and being an active part of the rich community. This provides encouragement to the answerer and completes circle of engagement Quora thrives on.

The kind of discourse on quora varies from being humorous to being educational. It solely depends on the subject matter and thus it is as variegated as the subjects are on quora.