30 min of news

Over the weekend I watched 30 min of CNN during the afternoon on Saturday. Each news segment consisted of about 3 min of news time the first one was Remembering journalist Andy Rooney which aired for maybe 5 minutes, however the rest which included segments of the case about Michael Jackson's doctor, a family court judge accused of beating his daughter caught on video, Justin Bieber accused of supposedly impregnating a girl, all of which received about the same amount of news time. The commercials in between these news segments were longer than the actual news time however, which lasted about 5-6 minutes each. During this thirty minutes I did not see any news on sports or politics (which I assumed would get the most news time), but the segments I watched, I was surprised to find aired for the same 3-3 and half minutes of time.

Advertisements effects

After watching the film on Thursdays class I really felt I could relate to this idea of marketing which takes advantage of teens, by trying to get as much money as they can through the mass consumption of products by teens and young adults by advertising "cool". I remember being in high school, and feeling like the most important thing is what labels you're wearing and if they're considered to be "cool". Back then it was abercrombie, express, hollister, etc and maybe it wasn't until recently that I learned that these labels are just that -- labels. I developed some sort of shopping addiction as if I got a "high" for shopping or just spending money on not only clothes but products in general. This mass advertising targeted at teenagers has a real affect, because I still find myself using "shop-therapy" as the solution to everything. I completely agree with the film that advertisements are aimed at teens because this is definitely the group willing to fork up the cash for merchandise. When you're a teenager you don't have to worry so much about bills, and responsibilities, therefore all your money goes out to entertainment and spending money on "the new cool" item. All of this led me to oversee my high school senior brothers shopping charges at the mall this past weekend. He was surprised to find out he actually got a ton of compliments on the clothes I helped him find opposed to a $75 plane t-shirt that has an abercrombie tag.