Blog Post 7- Celebrity Endorsement

With commercials today commonly going to famous figures for endorsements, it is hard to watch television without spotting one of these stunts. Ever since the Pittsburg Steelers Super Bowl XL win verses the Seattle Seahawks, many of their players have been granted the opportunity to endorse products of certain companies. From Ben Roethlisberger rocking his Nike Cleats in a Dick’s Sporting Goods commercial, to Troy Polamalu giving praise to Head & Shoulders for his great head of hair. But one of my favorite commercials that a celebrity is endorsing a product is Coca-Cola’s “Mean Troy”.

The modern day spinoff to Coca-Cola’s “Mean Joe Greene”, Troy Polamalu is hobbling towards the locker room after a football game when a little boy offers him a Coke Zero. The quiet football star kindly declines the boy’s offer of his Coke Zero, but once Troy accepts the soda, “Coke brand managers” take away the drink from Polamalu’s hands. Claiming that Coke Zero is stealing their commercial, the managers begin running away from Troy with the soda, until he chases them down and tackles one of them. At the end of the commercial, Troy Polamalu is happily enjoying his Coke Zero and gives the young boy the “brand manager’s” shirt as a souvenir.

In my opinion, the Coca-Cola brand made a very good choice in whom to have advertise their new product. With Troy Polamalu being a household name to modern day football fans, the product becomes more appealing to younger audiences. All the while this commercial is still appealing to older audiences because of the spinoff to the popular 1979 commercial with Mean Joe Greene, giving a happy feedback from older viewers. This advertisement was one of the more popular Super Bowl XL commercials and I believe got very pleased, if not better, reviews than the Mean Joe Greene commercial did.

Review of Class Blog- Mr. Spartz' The Mess Hall

In the previous post The Mess Hall - School Lunches and Privatization by Mr. Spartz, he showed how in a previous article in the Washington Post the issue of school lunches was brought up. The author of the article discussed that while children are getting food in school, the content of the food is not nearly nutritious enough as it should be. The only thing that would possibly change this problem though is money, but how much would it cost schools and where would they find the money?

With the economy being is as much debt as it is today, it would only take that much more money to restructure the nation’s schools’ cafeteria. This means rebuilding the kitchens, training the cafeteria workers and even buying fresher foods. In a blog post by Tom Philpott, he goes on to explain how schools in New York “the kitchen staff ‘isn’t trained to do much more than steam frozen vegetables, dig ravioli out of a six-pound can or heat frozen chicken patties in a convection oven.’”

It is a sad sight to see some of the meals that kids a receiving today in the cafeterias across America. I think that one thing everyone can agree on is that the U.S. is putting on weight, and not in good ways. A big reason is due to the lack of exercise in schools today, and also the junk for food that children are consuming. With the huge issue of obesity among today’s society, is it worth our while (and dollar) to make the menus in schools better, or is it too late?

Debunking Health Claims: General Mills' Cheerios

With so many foods claiming to be healthy and that they will do this or that, it is hard to tell which foods are posers and which actually are healthy for the consumer. One of the early morning foods that make the biggest ads for a claim is General Mills’ Cheerios. Declaring, “you can Lower Your Cholesterol 4% in 6 weeks", the cereal got into trouble with the Food and Drug Administration. Even though the FDA allowed General Mills to claim reducing the risk of heart disease because of eating the whole grains from the cereal, it did not allow them to claim a specific rate of the risk reduction.

The issue with making such a specific claim is that everyone is different. While the claim could be factual, lowering cholesterol isn’t this simple because there is much more that goes into the process. One cannot just eat Cheerios every morning for 6 weeks and miraculously his or her cholesterol is lowered; he or she must also have a healthy life style. While eating whole grain oats are good for cholesterol, a person must also eat healthy through out the rest of the day and even exercise habitually.

If someone was trying to lower his or her cholesterol, changing their breakfast to Cheerios could help in the process. The whole grains from the oats, the cereal, are known for lowering the risk of heart disease by putting healthier nutrients into the consumer’s body. I would use this product if I was trying to lower my cholesterol, but I would also be aware that I would have to be motivated to sustain a healthy life style as well.

While Cheerio’s claim of lowering cholesterol could be at the center of some controversy, it could not be debunked for actually doing its claim.

How To Tie a Tie Speech.... Self Evaluation

Overall, I believe that for my Demonstration speech I did an “okay” job. The introduction was relevant to the topic, even though I could have taken a more serious approach to why everyone should know how to tie a tie. The order of the steps were told in order but the speech may have been better if I had better visual aides such as pictures for each step. The area I believe needed the most work on was my conclusion. There really wasn’t much of one since my speech ended with Pat’s attempt to tie a tie. To make it better I could have given a quick review on how to tie a tie again, or even showed a video of someone tying a tie.

I think one of my strong points in my speech was the delivery. While at times I strayed away and became comical about the topic, my enthusiasm, volume, eye contact, and body language all seemed poised and kept the audience drawn in.

The effectiveness of the speech went well. After class a few of the females in the class, and even a guy, told me they now knew how to tie a tie. Showing the common mistake of having the thin side of the tie longer than the thick end I think showed the class that it is not one of the easiest things to do, but with practice it becomes second nature. One of the areas that hurt me the most was the length of my speech. With my video being only three minutes long, it would have been a good idea to demonstrate how properly tie more than one type of knot.

From the feedback I received from my classmates, I think that my topic was very relevant to the class and gave a few of the students a better idea how to tie a tie.