Response to Bud light commercials...

I realize this is supposed to go in the comments, but it would not let me "process my request" so I decided to put it here instead so I don't forget later.

I think that this is a great primary source to use for your paper. It seems as though every Bud Light commercial I’ve ever seen targets the middle class working man by making him feel like the only good things in his life are cooking out and watching sports on TV. In reality, many of these men they are targeting are probably content with their lives and do not aspire to be athletes, as this commercial would suggest. The world will always need the average working man. I find it sad that marketers feel that the best way to connect with their target audience is to make them feel as though they should be aspiring for something bigger and better.

(Post #3) Primary Source: Bud Light “Real Men of Genius” - Football Cord Carrier

Bud Light created an entire campaign of ads similar to this one, highlighting a lot of jobs that makes life really seem really awful. This particular one is about the poor guy that during football games had to follow the coach around the sideline making sure that where-ever he goes he stayed connected with the guys up stairs; however, today this isn’t too relevant because technology is going wireless now. But in the day and age of cords, everything was this guys fault even though he did not make 1/10 the money of anybody around them. This was meant to target the working class of America that thinks that their life sucks, but in fact there are people out there worse off than them. What is the solution to it all? Drink more Bud Light.

Getting paid to do the meager work for those who make the money most people wish they were making. Displaying the same skills and requirements, except since the guy carrying the cord is not 6 foot 2, weighing 250 pounds. He doesn’t qualify for that higher pay. Disappointing. He still works hard, because just like all those guys he has to compete for his job/spot. If he can’t solve their problems, the front office don’t have the time to worry about the little fish. They’ll just hire somebody who can do the job that they need done.

My Primary Source: Kimora Lee and the Rush Card

My source is a picture of Kimora Lee Simmons holding a Rush Visa Card, one her business endeavors. Her and her ex husband Russell Simmons created the prepaid debit cards for those that not generally financially stable and cannot obtain such from a financial institution. It was posted by a website called blacksnob.com on April 16, 2009. It was published by Kimora Lee Simmons on an unknown date to promote the card. The picture hoped to gain the attention of her fans and other people who aspire to obtain financial wealth. Though the picture is simply her holding the card, she is glamorized in it. Her wardrobe features a large canary yellow diamond ring and earrings the size of small pieces of hail. The message is implicit because there is not text or captions or dialogue accompanying the picture. However the picture still gets the point across that in order to be like Kimora Lee Simmons, you need a Rush Card. Fans of her and her ex husband cant help but to be intrigued to get a card in hopes to keep up with the Simmons'.People who have seen the couples multi-million dollar homes on cribs and follow her show, Life in the Fab Lane, probably aspire to live as lavishly as the Simmons or at least as closely to them within their own personal means as possible. So wearing clothes like them or just getting a Rush Card, as they claim to own themselves, make them feel like they are not so different from Kimora Lee.

post #3-Politically Uncorrect

Politically Uncorrect

The primary source I chose is the song “Politically Uncorrect” by Gretchen Wilson. The song was written by Gretchen Wilson and was on her CD titled “All Jacked Up”,which was released in 2005 by Epic Nashville. The song discusses the idea of the average working man, and how he gets no respect in America today. Gretchen says it is not politically correct to stand for these types of things, but that she stands for it anyway. The song also lists different jobs that are not seen as high class jobs.

The message contained in this song is an angry one to a certain extent. The song raises the idea that the working middle class is not valued in America as it should be, but that there are people out there who realize how truly important it is to keeping America functioning the way it is today.

The second source I am thinking about using is the novel Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte. The novel deals with the issues of class in the nineteenth century. The story is about two kids living during a time when social status was everything, and when it was almost impossible to be friends with someone outside of one’s class. It was frowned upon by everyone around them for the two main characters to become friends.

The novel is interesting because it shows how ridiculous class warfare can be. The only reason I am hesitant to use it is because it is not current and is a bit of a difficult read.

Living Middle Class, Dealing With High Society

In my everyday life back in my hometown, social class is a silent dictator. It determines where you live, where you shop, who you hang with, and the standards you are held to. So growing up, I always wondered why the wealthier were considered to be better than me. I wondered, why when I would tell certain people where I lived, they would automatically made assumptions about my level of intelligence?
I worked a fast food job during my senior year and customers would tell me things such as “keep the change; you can use it more than me.” I would quietly wonder that if that forty cents held no value to them, why would it be valuable to me, and furthermore what can you purchase with forty cents? Then I would continue thinking that what about me made them think I needed forty cents? Why would they assume that just because I was serving them part time, I needed those insignificant handouts?
So being faced with the judgments of those of higher social classes, it has always sparked my interest personally. But having dealt with this issue more than often in my personal life influenced my choice of studies. Where ideally I intended to become a political science major, the behavior of people of all nationalities and backgrounds interest me. I want to understand their mentalities and what influences their assumptions. So I have decided to change to international studies major. Hopefully after receiving my degree, I can apply it to changing societal views and opinions and make matters of class less relevant in the way people communicate with one another everywhere.

The middle class gets the short end of the stick

                The battles between social classes are evident in our everyday lives. As a college student coming from a middle class family, I deal with the effects of the classes on a day to day basis. Paying for college can be very stressful for middle class families, more so than for any other class. People in the lower class have more opportunities to receive grants and loans than those in any other classes. They almost have an easier time funding school than those in the middle class. People of the middle class are not poor enough to receive good grants and aid, but are not rich enough to afford to go to an expensive school such as Ohio State. Finding out a way to pay for school was especially difficult for me. Since I come from a middle class family, I did not receive enough aid to make paying for school easy. My parents have four kids to supply for, and paying over $18,000 a year for school is just not possible, but, because we did not come from the lower class, we didn’t have grants to differ some of those costs.

                I feel as if the middle class gets the short end of the stick when it comes to paying for a lot of things in life. Another example of this is paying for school lunches. At my old school, it was possible for lower class families to be on the free and reduced lunch program. What is not fair is that families that make just above the requirement for that program have to pay full price for lunch, which is a big chunk of money.

                Families in the middle class have a difficult time paying for things because they do not make enough to be able to pay for things easily, but do not receive money from the government, because they are not in the lower class.

Class Warfare, the struggle of the Low and the Lower

In a country that preaches the value of freedom and opportunity, it is quite ironic that opportunity is restricted for so many who are already living in the country. Each day thousands of immigrants that have come to the US work high paying jobs and others work the grunt jobs that get dirt pay, but still manage to make a living. Are homegrown Americans getting weeded out by selective choosing, or have we contented ourselves with just collecting unemployment checks. The phrase ‘Why do today, what you can do tomorrow’. Does the unreachable distance between classes now discourage those in between away from even attempting to improve their way of life?

If unemployment checks next week didn’t come and then the week after that, many people dependent on them, none showed up again. Tens of thousands of Americans would be stuck between a rock and a hard place with nowhere to go, and would proceed to blame those above them for this, but never themselves. For if they had jobs they would’ve never gotten into this dilemma. Many may try to get rich quick, but for each individual that makes it to the top that way hundreds of others suffer the consequences for the misdeeds. Like Obama’s Health Care bill, it helps millions that can’t afford it, but at the expense (for the most part) of the middle class. Which doesn’t change the system before the new system since at hospitals the unpaid bills were just passed on to those who could pay them, and I’m not talking about the high class people that hospitals don’t want to get on bad terms with.