The Little Navy Blue Polka Dot Dress

Sadly, I am still broke from paying the bills, however, I am very excited to say that I will be shopping at the outlets on Tuesday! :) But in the meantime, I am going to do a blast from the past blogging.

Last year, I had to go to a wedding and I had no dress. I was looking all over and then bam, one day, I was going through a magazine, I believe it was Glamour or Marie Claire, one of those magazines. I saw this exact dress on the left from Banana Republic in the magazine and it was so beautiful. It was a little expensive for my taste (168 dollars) and I wasn't going to pay that price! But you know what pushed me over the edge? The magazine quoted along the line of, "It is perfect for someone who is of small frame and petite." Well, it is not everyday you see that in a magazines where all of the models are like 6'1 and super skinny! When I saw that, I knew I had to have that dress! I waited one week and they had a huge sale and I got the dress for 80 dollars! I was so proud of myself for saving so much.

The funny thing was, I would have never have tried it on (I have seen the dress several times at Banana but was thinking, who woudl wear that?) But after I saw it in the magazine and how it was advertised toward to small, petite woman and they even had a small petite woman (above) modeling for the dress, I knew I had to get the dress. I did end up rocking that dress! As you can see it below!

White Castle

First thing first: I haven't bought anything this week because I had to pay outrageous amount of money for fixing my car and I haven't watched TV or a movie (with the exception of the Control Room) at all thanks to heavy load of homework this week.
So, I am going to do one past product placement.
2004 was a banner year for product placement. Product placement became a media buzz word, getting mentioned in the Western press over 500 times in January 2005 alone. I found this incredible website. http://www.brandchannel.com/

One of my favorite movies is "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle" (2004). I am ashamed to say after watching this movie, I had to go out and get this: A White Castle hamburger meal.

This movie is hilarious. (Just to warn you, if you get offended very easily, do not watch it!!!) Harold Lee (Cho) and Kumar Patel (Penn) are two stoners who end up getting the munchies. What they crave the most after seeing a TV advertisement, is a trip to White Castle. So from here, follows a journey for the burgers they require. On their way they will encounter many obstacles including a raccoon, an officer (Jobin-Bevans), and Neil Patrick Harris.

After watching the movie with friends, I had to find out what is so great about White Castle hamburger. (Mind you, that was before I read Fast Food Nation.) So, I devised a plan to get my hands on the White Castle hamburger. I often go down to CT to visit my sister. She works in NYC so I made her pick up the meal on her way back to CT so I can try it. After trying it, I was so disappointed! It was too greasy for my taste!
I realized that if one has the munchies, they will eat anything and it will good no matter what it is!

But regardless of what I thought of the meal, the point is, the movie did a great job convincing me that I HAD to try White Castle. I was thinking about the hamburger during my 3 1/2 hours drive to CT.

The movie Harold and Kumar, won an award for product placement:
The "The Coca-Cola Kid" Award for Achievement in Title:
"Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle" The ultimate brand name plug, 1985's "The Coca-Cola Kid" is a film about a guy trying to establish a Cola-Cola franchise. In 2004, "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle" best represents the legacy of not only placing a brand name in the title of the movie, but also making the movie about the brand. We salute White Castle's courage in cooperating with a film about two stoned yet loveable buddies on a road trip.

Commericals no more or so I thought..

Funny, before I was taking the Media Literacy Class at UMass Boston, I used to think that I am not persuaded to buy anything that I saw on TV. I took pride in the fact I rarely ever watch traditional commercials.

Television advertisements appear between shows, but also interrupt the shows at intervals. This method of screening advertisements is intended to capture or grab the attention of the audience, keeping the viewers focused on the television show so that they will not want to change the channel; instead, they will (hopefully) watch the advertisements while waiting for the next segment of the show. This is a technique of adding suspense, especially if the break occurs at a cliffhanger moment in the show.

I used to channel surf for 2 minutes before returning to my current show or just read a book or a magazine. I was all full of myself before, thinking oh, I am so good at this. I don't buy anything that I see on TV especially with traditional commercials.

Well, that may be true, but little did I realize that I do buy a lot that I see from TV. It may not be in a traditional format but rather Product placement. A variant of product placement is advertisement placement. In this case an advertisement for the product (rather than the product itself) is seen in the movie or television series.

As consumers turn away from traditional advertising, tech marketers are picking up the slack by weaving lots of gadgets into the fabric of TV shows and movies. The net, video games and ad-skipping DVRs are forcing marketers to focus more attention on "branded entertainment."

Funny enough, I was watching Wayne's World (I'm a sucker for corny movies) the other week and I couldn't believe that I never got that part before. (Better late than never!)



http://youtube.com/watch?v=v7thSdlRhuM

I was so oblivious about how advertisements really find their ways to you. So, I am going to eat a humble pie and say that I am a sucker for advertisements as you will see in my future blogs on how product placements is the way to get me to say, "I want it, I need it, and I'm going to buy it!"