Charged images

For this weeks blog I chose the use of “In God We Trust” printed on all American currency as being politically, socially, and emotionally charged. The image, idea, and who or what God is varies greatly, and always has. My bringing this subject to surface is not that of ungodliness, atheism, or any anti-religious opinion, I believe it is something we have all grown accustom to seeing without giving it a second thought. All people certainly have the right to relate God in any way they choose, and it is exactly for that reason our government’s actions should not put one belief before another. The separation of church and state refers to the limits our very own Constitution places on the power of the government (both federal and state) to legislate about religion. The First Amendment explicitly prohibits the government from establishing or controlling religion, yet “In God We Trust” was put on all PAPER currency by an act of Congress in 1957. The mid to late 1950’s was a time of terrible racism, religious discrimination, and political oppression in the United States. Following World War Two the fear of communism grew. Adding “In God We Trust” to American currency was thought to be an act of religious and political propaganda to counter the threat of “godless communism”. Aside from all this political hypocrisy what does God have to do with money anyways? I would imagine God would be against it, for what good or purpose does it bring? I am sure we have all heard the saying “money is the root of all evil”, who could argue that? The actual saying appeared in the New Testament; “For the love of money is the root of all evil”, Timothy 6:10. Given this direct opposition from the bible we go ahead and put God on money anyways. It seems mixing God and money could emotionally confuse our younger generation, it is just an advertisement like any other… God is good, he is the creator of all things, and he is on money, so let’s go spend it! (That must be good too). It is the American way, what could possibly be better? J

For this week’s blog I chose the game “Farm Town”, it can be found through Face Book. Farm Town gives people communicating on Face Book an opportunity to play in this virtual institution/world, where you are in a sense yourself but playing through this sort of cartoon Avatar. What is interesting about Farm Town is that anyone on your “Friends list” can come join you on your own virtual farm. I have not played the game myself, but almost everyone at my work plays atleast once a day and even on lunch breaks. It has gotten so bizarre I can not tell when they are talking about reality or this video game. When they talk about any new additions made to their farm they have this creepy twinkle in their eye, it is real stuff to them. The game setting is a flat Isometric perspective, very similar to the original Zelda game most of us are familiar with. When you start the game you will have the opportunity to plow, plant, rake, water, harvest and even clean up tornado wreckage on other player’s farms in order to earn points and advance to the next levels where you can purchase different seeds and flowers to plant and sell. You can customize your farm with ponds, livestock, fences, houses, and waterfalls, the possibilities are endless! What makes this game so addicting is that you have a huge list of things you could purchase with enough points. For example, if you wanted to upgrade to a mansion, you would have to exceed a certain level to qualify, and earn enough points to purchase it. This game depicts the ultimate virtual reality, where you can live through your “avatar” and accomplish this never ending sense of wealth that is not possible in reality.

The "other" blog

I found this to be a good example of advertisement in which the Banana is obviously the dominant image, even highlighted, yet the real message does not only belong to what first meets the eye. This image really brings out the “otherness” factor with the implication this Banana is some sort of suicide tool, while at the same time it is actually the opposite. The Banana is used in this manner with the hopes it will catch viewer’s attention and persuade them into reading the ad. This worked in my case, at first I thought it was just some advertisement for fruit, which I suppose it is, yet there was a twist.

This image has America written all over it. The dominant image here is this very attractive, happy couple, with a huge house, and even palm trees in their yard. Yet there is something missing, hmm what could it be? Yes! That is it, we need this brand new car. With this image my eyes initially checked out the couple, but I especially noticed the beautiful home they were standing in front of, lastly upon giving attention to the dotted lines I realized this was a car advertisement, just like a sheep.

I am sure for many of us this is a familiar advertisement for the Carl’s JR “bikini burger”. I recall this being a very uncomfortable commercial to watch with my boyfriend since I am always watching what I eat and don’t have near that much to show for it. Although Carl’s JR has stooped pretty low, it is nothing new that sex sells which makes this a perfect “others” example. Of course the big breasted woman in the bikini is the dominate image, and this seemingly seductive burger is the “other” in this ad.