"Seinfeld" Product Placement

The sitcom that I watched to seek out product placement was “Seinfeld.” The particular episode of “Seinfeld” that I watched was “The Junior Mint,” which was episode twenty of season four which aired in 1993. During the course of the show, I found a few products in certain scenes that were very easy to point out and could have been used as a product placement technique of advertising. Also, there was one element of this particular episode that was a concrete example of product placement.

The episode starts out with Jerry telling George that he is having a girl come over to his apartment on a date but he does not remember her name from meeting her at the supermarket. Meanwhile, Elaine wants to see her ex-boyfriend in the hospital who is planned to have a serious surgery. Elaine, Jerry, and Kramer go to see her friend in the hospital and Kramer gets invited to watch the surgery take place from a viewing deck along with observing students. While the surgery was taking place, Kramer starts eating Junior Mints. Kramer then tried forcing Jerry to eat one, but Jerry smacked the candy out of his hand, causing the Junior Mint to land in the surgical wound of Elaine’s ex-boyfriend. Jerry and Kramer fear that he may die since the surgeons stitched the wound with the candy still in the body. Knowing the possibility of death, George spends $1,900 on Elaine’s boyfriend’s paintings, hoping they would go up in value once he dies. In the end, the boyfriend ended up being fine and Jerry gets dumped for not remembering his date’s name.

Throughout the episode, there were four different possibilities of product placement. When Jerry got back from the supermarket, he gave Kramer a pair of gloves that he had asked Jerry to pick up for him. Kramer then held the box up in the air while he thanked Jerry. Although the brand on the box, Bluettes, was visible, it was only present for one second. Another instance was when George wanted to watch a movie at Jerry’s apartment because he felt lonely watching it as his own place. The title of the movie George had rented, “Home Alone”, was spoken by George and Jerry two or three times in about twenty seconds. The next possibility of product placement occurred in the hospital room during the visiting of Elaine’s ex-boyfriend. Jerry, without any relevance to the scene, pulled out a yo-yo from his pocket and started to ‘yo-yo.’ The last possibility of product placement was the placing of an Apple Mac Computer in the back corner of Jerry’s apartment. Although it could be seen throughout the episode, it was placed off to the side and none of the characters made reference to it. All four of these could possibly be product placement, but there was no concrete evidence that the characters were promoting the product through the content of the episode.

On the other hand, there was one very obvious product placement in this episode- Junior Mints. To start, the episode is called,  “The Junior Mint.” That alone is enough for a case of product placement, but to further the evidence, it was the actual Junior Mint that caused the main trouble for Jerry and Kramer in the episode since they thought the candy would kill Elaine’s ex-boyfriend. Also, while Jerry and Kramer were debating on telling Elaine what had happened during the surgery, George asked Kramer why he would be eating Junior Mints during a surgery. Kramer then said “Who’s going to turn down a Junior Mint? It’s chocolate, it’s peppermint, it’s delicious. It’s very refreshing.” This line by Kramer was not only funny, but it also promoted Junior Mints.

In conclusion, I think that this particular “Seinfeld” episode had one very noticeable case of product placement. Naming the episode “The Junior Mint,” having an actual Junior Mint play a very important role in the episode, and having Kramer say his promoting line all proves product placement of Junior Mints.

"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart"

The episode of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" that I watched aired on April 10th, 2014. The show opened up with Jon Stewart congratulating Stephen Colbert for being named the next host of the Late Show on CBS as he will take over for David Letterman who recently announced that he will be retiring at the end of 2014. Next, the show gears towards the topic of college athletes unionizing.

 

It started by talking about the UCONN Men's and Women's basketball teams winning their respective Division 1 National Championship. After the Men's team had won, the star player for the Huskies, Shabazz Napier, stated in a locker room interview that there are nights where he and his teammates do not have enough money to eat food. Stewart then brings up the point that the NCAA, a nonprofit organization, just recently made a deal with CBS to have full coverage of march madness through the next 14 years. The deal earned the NCAA 10.8 Billion dollars which will be added to their already estimated 11 Billion dollars in annual revenues. Stewart makes this point to draw the irony that the NCAA makes tons of money, is a nonprofit organization, yet their student athletes that attend national champion schools do not have enough money to eat food.

 

Stewart then begins talking about how Northwestern Football players have been ruled employees of the university in court,  which means they can now unionize and earn a salary for playing football in college. He then makes the point that head coaches at university's are the nations highest paid state employees as they bring in an estimated average of 2 Million dollars per year. Stewart again makes this point to draw the irony that people are against college athletes being paid, but their coaches are making millions of dollars each year. Stewart closes out the topic of sports with a video montage of college coaches being abusive to their student athletes to further his point of irony.

 

The next part of this episode had to do with political attack ads that have been made by a couple of state congressmen as of late. All three congressmen each made separate political ads in which they shot a bill that they are opposed of with firearms. Stewart expressed his thoughts that these ads were literally showing congressmen 'murdering' laws. Once again Jon Stewart expressed the irony that the three guys running for governmental positions have made television commercials that include them murdering, which against the law, law documents. He then furthered his point with a comedic video montage of an interrogation of Obama Care which resulted in the killing of the document.

 

The final part of this episode included an interview with Jennifer Gardner. The interview started with a clip from her new movie, "Draft Day" and a brief explanation of the movie. Gardner then explained the relationship she has with Stephen Colbert and the experiences she had with the various actors while making "Draft Day."

 

In my opinion, comedic news such as "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," is very beneficial to society. It is after all a news show that gives news stories to its audiences. Having the show center itself around comedy and making jokes about the news stories they are reporting on obviously makes the audience laugh, but it still delivers the news. You can watch the show, get a good laugh out of it, and still learn things from the actual content they talk about. Having the show center itself around comedy can also help increase the number of people who watch it. This is true because some people may watch the show to only have a laugh, others may watch it to only  be informed of the news, but either way both categories of viewers are receiving the same news content.

 

Although Jon Stewart makes a lot of jokes through his ironic points, it still brings up good arguments. Take the NCAA case for example. Because of how today's media shows its content, most people who have been following this case don't see the 'other side' to it. I have been following along with the NCAA case and I did watch the interview with UCONN's Shabazz Napier. From just watching any news station such as ESPN, my initial reaction was "He can't eat because he spends all his money on his tattoos."  Now, after watching Jon Stewarts show, I can put in perspective the fact that the NCAA makes billions of dollars. I can now draw a different conclusion; "Maybe the NCAA should fund student athletes for meals."

 

In conclusion, I do think that "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and other shows alike is beneficial to society because it brings up valid points that sometimes can be overlooked, although it does so in a comedic type of way.

 

http://thedailyshow.cc.com/full-episodes/1qbg2z/april-10--2014---jennifer-garner

Comparing Three Newspapers

A significant story that I have found in recent newspapers is about the four Kutztown University Football players that were involved in an altercation at rival school Bloomsburg Univeristy with some of their students. The three newspapers that I have found this story in are The Keystone Newspaper, The Morning Call, and The Reading Eagle. Since this story can be found in one local (The Keystone) and two regional (The Morning Call and The Reading Eagle) newspapers, it can be said that this particular story is an important news story that affects this part of Eastern Pennsylvania.

To summarize all three stories into one, there was an altercation between four Kutztown Univeristy football players and a few Bloomsburg University students during the early morning hours of February twenty-third. The Kutztown Football players; Angel Cruz, Justin Wieder, Jake Wygant, and Eric Condron attempted to enter a closed frat party at an off-campus house in Bloomsburg, Pa. A fight began as the players were asked to leave and refused to do so. Various Bloomsburg students were initially injured and then more sustained injuries as the brawl moved into the street.

It was reported that Bloomsburg student Ryan Palko was knocked out by Weider while Christopher Messano and Donald Hoover were also injured. Messano, who suffered a ruptured eardrum and a fractured bone behind his ear later identified his attack as Cruz. Cruz allegedly attacked another student, Jackie Lithgow, as he attempted to break up the fight. Lithgow was punched in the head and hit a piece of concrete as he fell which caused him to fall unconscious. He has yet to regain consciousness and suffers from a fractured skull, bruised frontal lobe, and bleeding in his brain.

Witnesses of the fight say that all four of the Kutztown Football players fled the scene after attacking the Bloomsburg students. Since the brawl, all four players have been removed from the football team while Angel Cruz and Justin Wieder were arrested and are facing criminal charges. Their bail is set at one-hundred and fifty thousand dollars and one-hundred thousand dollars respectively.

After taking a look at all three articles from their respective newspapers, it is easy to tell that two of the articles give a very good description that happened the night of the brawl. The Keystone's article seems to give a strong overall depiction of what took place while the Morning Call's article seems to go into more of a detailed depiction as it explains where each of the Kutztown players are from, their age, and gives the position they play on the field for a couple of them. On the other hand, the Reading Eagle's article gives a brief description with not much information at all and only lists the Bloomsburg's student's names; not the injuries they sustained.

Again, only two of the articles use primary sources, in this case witness's. The Keystone's and Morning Call's articles explain what witness's saw occurring during the fight to give a detailed explanation of the night's events. The Reading Eagle's article does not talk about any sources or witness's experiences. Lastly, The Keystone's article gives some responses from Kutztown University Officials. Matt Santos, the director of Kutztown University Relations explains that the behavior of the football players from Kutztown does not in any way represent the student body at Kutztown University and Nick Imbesi, the President of the Kutztown Student Government Board, says he is advocating the removal of the players from campus. Having these two approaches from Kutztown University Officals in the Keystone's article gives it a more opinion effect and also shows how a part of the University is viewing the situation.

Overall, I think that the Keystone's article along with the Morning Call's were very good and easy to follow. Since the Keystone is the Kutztown University Newspaper, I think it was essential to have the thoughts of University Officials because most of it's readers are Kutztown Students. This allows them to hear what other people around campus are saying about the situation. The Morning Call's article is very informative and can allow readers outside of campus to get a full grasp of what took place that night at Bloomsburg. Finally, the Reading Eagle's article was, in my opinion, poorly formed as it contained virtually little information compared to the other two articles.




Keystone Newspaper:
http://thekeystonenews.com/2014/03/06/two-ku-football-players-arrested-and-four-suspended-in-bloomsburg-fight/

Morning Call:
http://articles.mcall.com/2014-03-01/news/mc-kutztown-football-players-suspended-bloomsburg--20140228_1_bloomsburg-police-bloomsburg-student-kutztown-university

Reading Eagle:
http://readingeagle.com/ap/article/4-kutztown-players-suspended-2-charged-in-fight

Newspaper Article #2

The Keystone Newspaper
Volume LXXXI Issue II
Thursday, February 13, 2014

A significant article in the Keystone can be found on page 2. It is about  Kutztown University's The Edge off-campus housing and how they are going to be expanding their property by adding new amenities such as a spa-style pool and a gym. The main point the article is trying to make is that The Edge is adding these amenities due to a possible decrease in enrollment for next year plus the addition of a new student housing opportunity, Advantage Point.

On the front cover of this issue of The Keystone Newspaper is an article about how the recent snowy weather is causing state school funding issues. The article explains that weather has effected the school schedule as well as sources of state government funding of salt and ice-melters to state schools like Kutztown.

I think that the editors put the article about the bad weather we have been receiving on the front page of this newspaper because there has been a lot of buzz going around by Kutztown Students about how campus is not safe to walk or drive. In my opinion, the article involving The Edge off campus housing should be on the front page of this paper. Students and faculty/staff of Kutztown have gotten numerous email's warning them about campus safety and how the facilities crew have been doing their best to keep campus safe. This article being on the front page just adds more fuel to the fire of some of the negative talk going around. Students being informed about brand new amentites at The Edge could be a lot more appealing, since this time of the school year is a pivotal time to search for housing for upcoming years.  

The bad weather related article is on the front page since it is what people have been talking about recently, but that does not mean it is the most important.

Article Response

The Keystone Newspaper
Volume LXXXI Issue I
Thursday, Janurary 30, 2014
Page 6

Brothel law infringes upon women's housing rights
By Samantha Kahres

This article is about an old discriminative law that is still in affect today. According to the Brothel Law, no more than six unrelated women can be living in the same household. This can have a huge affect on females at Kutztown University while looking for an off-campus place to live for the next school year. Not only does it make it impossible for a large group of female friends to live together, it can also affects costs and resume builders. Since larger homes or apartments that can house six or more people tend to be less expensive than that of housing say three or four people, the Brothel Law cuts the chance of females to pay less for housing. Instead of searching for a larger, less expensive house or apartment, relying on smaller, more expensive housing is what's happening. This makes females of Kutztown University have to pay more money for their off-campus living. Also, it is common for a female to want to join a sorority during their college careers. In a traditional setting, sorority sisters tend to live with one another. The Brothel Law once again is prohibiting females from living with one another, this time with sorority sisters who wish to live with one another in a large group.

This article puts this topic into perspective and really asks the question of "should this law be in affect in today's society?"  My response to that question would be no, that this law is not fair for women today. If men are allowed to live with six other males in the same house or aprtment, I feel that women shoudl too. Just as men and women have equal rights to vote, run for office, education, and employement. Its my opinion that this law should be abolished and forgotten for the future.

Shifts and Changes Response

I feel that the 'Shifts and Changes' blog can bring about a very intensive conversation or even argument. My views of how media can fluctuate or change today's world takes a more traditional standpoint. I do have a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. but I find myself not using them to post about my life, instead I use these as a news source. I think one big reason why I only use social/personal media to find out news is because of how some people carry themselves on the internet.
From what I have seen multiple times, people tend to be very open about themselves on social media sites. In my opinion, it does not look professional to expose certain things; especially for people who are in college and want to work in a professional setting once they graduate. I also think that a sense of privacy is sometimes forgotten while people use social media. Keeping in mind that it is ones choice to say what ever it is they like to say on their own page, I still feel that some people reveal too much information about their personal life.
I do think that the future of media and everything in life being linked with technology is here and will only continue to increase for years to come. I am all for this movement towards media and technology but I just think that people should use them the correct way.

Introduction

My name is Michael Sharpe and I am a Junior Leisure and Sports Studies Major here at Kutztown Univeristy. The spring 2014 semester will be my second semester here after transferring from Wilkes University after my sophomore year. I was a Management Major at Wilkes and also played on the basketball team for two years. I gave up basketball but still wanted to keep the sports part of my life in tact so i decided to switch my major to Sports and Leisure Studies upon coming to Kutztown. So far I love how my classes have been going and I am very hopeful for my dream of working for a professional sports team in the future.

Some words to describe me would be tall, athletic, hard working, and goal oriented. I usually view things from a business perspective because of being a business major during my first two years of college and continuous interest in business. I am a huge fan of Philadelphia sports teams except for baseball where I am a big-time Red Sox fan. My love for both sports and business sparked my goal of working for a sports team. Some hobbies that I enjoy include lifting and exercising, fishing, and cooking.

I am taking this class as a graduation requirement. When I hear of Mass Communications I usually think of the news on television or radio, social media, or urgent messages such as winter weather advisories or amber alerts and I am curious to see what this class has to offer.