Jersey Shore V.S Italian Americans

          The program I chose to watch for this assignment was Jersey Shore.  It shows re runs of episodes almost every day on MTV.  The particular episode I chose to focus on I watched on Thursday July 28^th.  The genre of this show is reality T.V and it shows it very well.  This show is about eight Italian house mates that spend their summers together at the Jersey Shore doing the unthinkable.  The cast mates spend their summers working, partying, and fighting with each other every day.  Since the start of the show there has been lots of controversy over how the cast mates use the word “Guido” and how they portray Italian Americans today.  CBS news talks about the Guido outrage in this clip.  

Some products that are advertised during the commercials of this show would be proactive skin care, dietary supplements, Trident gum, clear eyes, new movies, hp touchpad, and previews of new artist’s music.  The attitude of this show is very cocky and focuses on appearance and material things.  This show may relate to a lot of younger people (college students especially) that are concerned about looking the best, partying the hardest, and being the funniest.  The characters dress very fashionable by wearing expensive clothes, jewelry, and other accessories.  They are obsessed with how they look and won't leave the house without looking "fresh" or remembering "T-shirt time" which can be seen here.   They also have their own slang and made up words they use that are even being used by other people today. 

Jersey shore is filmed on location and they have camera men that follow them around all day every day, even out to the clubs they go to.  Jersey shore is very similar to the real world and the road rules which are also reality T.V shows that air on MTV.   It’s different from those shows because they chose a whole cast of Italian Americans which I don’t think has ever been done before.  This show is filled with negative stereotypes of the “Guido” or Italian American culture.  It makes sense that some Italian American’s feel disrespected by the way the Jersey Shore cast members act.  All they want to do is tan, drink, fight, and hookup.  Here is a clip that shows what the Jersey Shore is all about in a matter of minutes, "Jersey Shore In a Nutshell".  In my opinion the commercials definitely target younger adults and people who want to live life like the Jersey Shore cast. 

If I was a visitor to the United States and I saw this show it would have a negative impact on how I perceive the country and the people in it.  The only things this show portrays are fights, hook ups, drinking, and tanning which aren’t the most important things in life.  Every episode is drama filled which definitely strengthens the show.  People like to watch other people’s problems because they don’t have to deal with them and it’s entertaining to see other people fight and no it will affect you in no way. I think one of the weaknesses of this show is how they portray Italian Americans.  If I was Italian American I would hope that people wouldn’t judge me based how the people on this show act.

 

Even though most college students do party Jersey Shore takes it to a whole new level and I don’t think it accurately reflects “real life”.   I do enjoy watching this show because how they act and talk is very humorous to me.  I don’t really like how important they make partying and hooking up look.  ABC news also talks about how the Jersey Shore cast members are giving Italian Americans a bad name.  “For Italian-American groups and New Jersey tourism officials, the show is awash with inaccuracies, many of which they fear give the Italian community and the vacation destination a bad rap.” (http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/mtv-show-jersey-shore-angers-italian-american-groups/story?id=9292815).

  I do not watch the Jersey Shore on a regular basis but I have a lot of friends who do. I am not a fan of their Facebook either but once again I have many friends who are and even some that follow them on twitter.  I learned that even though this show is MTV’s most viewed series telecast ever that it is still making a lot of people mad and there is a lot of controversy over it.  What was surprising to me was just how serious some Italian Americans are taking the stereotyping and what a big deal it really is to them.  

"I'm On A Horse"

        For my ad I chose the "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" Old Spice commercial.  This ad uses mostly humor to promote their product and they proved to be very successful in doing so.  The character in this ad acts very serious but his humor and randomness makes him very likable.  The ad is around 33 seconds and I have seen it a few different times on T.V including the Super bowl halftime commercials.   
            
        In my opinion the persuasive technique that is being deployed in this ad is the snob appeal approach.  It attempts to persuade consumers that their product will raise their social status.  They portray the message that if you quit using lady scented body wash and use old spice; females will be more attracted to you.  This ad uses the association principle because they incorporate humor in the ad to promote their product.  Technology does not have much to do with this commercial they use other means for advertising.  This commercial is part of a larger campaign and many similar commercials have been made.  
         
       Since the product I'm talking about is a deodorant and body wash it appeals to a very large target audience, males of any age mostly.  I don't find any stereotyping in this ad; everyone is able to use this deodorant if they choose to.  I think this commercial is memorable and fun to watch, I've seen it hundreds of time and still get a kick out of it.  They chose a route you don't see many people taking in advertising these days.  The randomness and humor are what made this commercial memorable and stand out to me.  
          
       This ad really didn't make me want to leave me house and go buy some old spice, but it did have me thinking about the commercial, and about buying it, when I was at the store.  In my opinion this ad did meet the needs of interesting their target audience.  Overall I think these series of old spice commercial are hilarious and very effective at the same time.  I've used both Old Spice body wash and deodorant and would recommend it.  It definitely won't change your social status in a day by having girls flock to you but it will leave you feeling refreshed and smelling nice.  Old Spice has been around a long time and they have managed to make a good name for themselves.  
        
        One major thing they have going for them is their product applies to all age groups really, any male from 15-70 might use old spice.  I learned quite a bit from analyzing this commercial and laughed a lot at the same time.  There are many different techniques people use to advertise a product and this one was definitely a different and successful approach.  They took a risk and decided to use this random dry humor that I don't think has been used much in the past.  It worked very well for them, this series of commercials is now extremely popular and they have done a number of different commercials with the same guy. 
      
        What is also interesting to me about this commercial is it took three days to shoot and there are no special effects.  I watched the behind the scenes on how the commercial was made and it’s actually pretty amazing how it was done, here’s a link to it Old Spice behind the scenes.  I'll also attach a couple of my other favorite old spice commercials.  Old Spice Random, Backwards Horse.