Peter "Gurn" Gernetzke recently posted a blog, Celebrity Endorsement. In this blog post, he analyzed the effectiveness and validity of the endorsement of Geico by Little Richard, the singer. In the commercial, Little Richard is paired with a pastor to talk about the coverage given to his church. After the pastor says a phrase, Little Richard would respond with excitement and shout a phrase, but his phrase didn't quite seem to match up with what the pastor was saying. I did a little bit of research and found that the video that Peter had linked to his blog post was not a real commercial for Geico. Instead it was a "green screened" advertisement, the church had made to promote their moving. That the church picked little richard surprised me, but I found out he does have a very active faith, being a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. However, when Little Richard released his first big hit "Tutti Frutti," many pastors condemned the origin version of the song due to it's vulgar language. I did think the church made a fairly funny video, using the Geico commercial format.
In the actual commercial with Little Richard working for Geico, he is seen with a women, who is describing her thanksgiving accident. She had hit a deer and talked about the service on Thanksgiving she got from Geico. Little Richard did a great job of "jazzing" up the commercial and giving it some energy. I doubt Little Richard, even uses Geico, but he improved the commercial tremendously.
Peter in his blog did bring up a good point about the risk of using celebrity endorsements. Companies must watch to make sure their celebrity is setting a good example in their life. Negative decisions made by the celebrity, if exposed by the media, could have negative consequences for the company.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Global Warming: Fact or Fiction?
One of the most controversial and important topics in the world today is the idea of global warming. Climate Change is playing a huge role in politics, foreign relations, and arguments among the scientific communities. Although a majority of scientist believe there is proof of global warming, there are also those who oppose global warming and think it is false.
The internet is filled with articles on global warming, and I have founded two of them, one in support of global warming and one believing it is false. The article in support I found was "Global Warming" by Holli Riebeek in Earth Observatory. By clicking here, the article can be found and you can see the basis of why Global Warming exists. According to the article, Global Warming is happening now, and the evidence can be seen in a .54 degree rise in the world temperature in the past 100 years, the rising of sea levels, and the shrinking of the polar ice caps. The cause for global warming, according to this article was due to CO2 carbon emissions from human use of fossil fuels in cars and natural resources for power plants and factories. Side-effects of global warming will include frequent heat waves and drought, low-lying countries experiencing flooding, and the melting of ice caps and glaciers, which some believe can already be seen.
The opposing article, entitled "Global Warming Proved False" examines the truth about the claims some of the scientist have about global warming and can be found by clicking here. One opinion it looks at involves the Earth's change in temperature being altered by the solar activity of the sun, and a little ice age is soon to come. It also analyzes that the polar ice caps are actually growing, especially, the one in the south, which has grown one million square kilometers in the past three years. Motives of why politicians, scientists, and the media might be in favor of spreading the fear of global warming can be seen in the article and also this video.
My belief is that global warming is false and the Earth goes through natural temperature cycles. My opinion did not change much after reading these articles, but the article in support of global warming did make me rethink that CO2 emissions might be real and could potential be a cause of global warming. Either way, politicians are making decisions on a belief, which may be false.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
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