Advertising: Shades of Gray

I looked at two websites that both ask whether advertising is good or bad. While neither one actually took a stand on either side of the issue, both authors made recommendations about what they thought should be done to ensure that advertising doesn’t slip from moral ambiguity to outright evil.

The first website features an article from Wired Magazine entitled “Online Advertising: So Good, Yet So Bad for Us." In it, the author makes the point that internet advertising, while necessary to maintain websites, can become too invasive and would not only rob internet users of their privacy, but expose them to unfair and manipulative advertising practices. The author’s arguments are mainly based on pathos. She appeals to people’s fears of losing their privacy, being discriminated against, and getting overcharged. The author attempts to show both sides of the argument, but, whether intentional or not (though I suspect the former), she immediately sets reader opinion against the side of the advertisers by describing their representative as “dressed in a much better suit than any other CFP [Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference] participant, and sporting a John Edwards-quality coif and a smooth manner.” The entire article is meant to make people afraid of internet advertising and appeal to their sense of right and wrong. The author also uses ethos by noting her influential position dealing with internet law. At the end of the article, she suggests that there should be more regulations placed on internet advertising. Overall, this message is suspect because the people who would benefit most from new regulations wouldn’t be the consumers, but rather lawyers who specialize in cyberlaw like herself.

The next site is a blog entitled “Is Advertising Evil?” from the site Take Back Your Brain. The author here is arguing that advertising is neither good nor evil; it just is. She uses logos by giving examples of morally neutral predators in nature and comparing them to advertisers (we are the prey), concluding that if one cannot be considered evil, then the other, logically, cannot be evil either. The problem, she claims, is not that advertising is bad, just that it is biased. She warns that there are so many messages aimed at getting people to do what the advertisers want them to do and none trying to convince people to do what’s right for them. This emotional appeal is a good example of pathos. The point of the article is to convince people that what is best for them is to start their own personalized advertising campaign promoting their hopes and dreams as a way to push back against the thousands of ads they are exposed to on a daily basis. The irony of this message is that it is itself an advertisement; after readers are encouraged to start their own ad campaign, the website offers to sell their personalized ads printed on t-shirts, coffee mugs, key chains, etc. This doesn’t completely invalidate the points made in the article, but it does make one wonder, just like regular advertising, how much of this is intended to benefit the reader and how much is said to benefit the website?

Orton Hall

One of my favorite buildings on the Ohio State campus is Orton Hall. It was built in 1893 and is the oldest building on campus. Its stone construction, high arches, and stunning bell tower give it the appearance of a cathedral dedicated to science. Orton Hall houses the main offices for the Earth Sciences department, but it does much more than that. Not just a boring office building, Orton Hall contains a library and a museum too. In fact, the entire building is practically a museum. The building was named in honor of Dr. Edward Orton, a professor of geology and first president of Ohio State, and references to geology are everywhere. The most obvious reference is the makeup of the building itself. Rather than being constructed out of brick, marble, or concrete like the rest of the buildings on campus, Orton Hall is made of stone blocks quarried throughout Ohio. This gives it a natural, timeless look; as if it was meant to be there and always will be. Everything about this building seems old-fashioned, but in a good way. It has a classic feel to it that shows modern technology isn’t necessary to learn as long as you have a devotion to the subject you’re studying. Orton Hall is wholly devoted to geology and has been since its beginning. The treasures collected within the museum and displayed throughout the interior, relics such as meteorites, geodes, dinosaur bones, and even a complete skeleton from a giant sloth, all serve to enrich Orton Hall and give it character most other buildings on campus lack. If you’ve never been here before, I encourage you to take some time and see it for yourself. You’re sure to leave with an appreciation for the beauty, history, and knowledge this place has to offer.

Tailgating is no fun without friends, food, or football tickets

Tonight the Buckeyes are playing Indiana University, a school with a mascot that may be even odder than our own. I mean, sure, a buckeye is a tree nut, but what the heck is a Hoosier? I checked and it’s apparently a term for an Indiana redneck. Nice mascot guys. Go Rednecks! Right now it’s the end of the first quarter and the Buckeyes have a ten point lead with… ten points. I had to look up the score online though because, sadly, I don’t have cable. Several weeks ago for the USC game I was pretty disappointed when I realized that it was going to be broadcast on ESPN; I had assumed “the big game” would be broadcast locally. Of course, this was after I bought myself a bunch of snacks and sat down ready to watch it. Oops. At least I didn’t embarrass myself by inviting a bunch of friends over to watch the game with me (easily avoided though since I don’t really have any friends). I think I wound up watching Cops or something that night.

Before I sat down to “watch the game,” I went for a walk. I’d never experienced tailgating before but I heard that the tailgating parties at Ohio State are legendary, so I had to check it out. I didn’t have tickets (first year scumbags like me don’t deserve them yet), but I wanted to get a feel for what game day was like. I live about a mile south of campus, so it was an easy walk; even easier considering all I had to do was follow the hoards of people, clad in scarlet and gray, all heading towards the stadium. By the way, these same people are the reason parking is at such a premium in my neighborhood every game day. I either have to stay home all day, or plan to be out all day. Anyways, when I finally got to the stadium, after nearly being run over by a taxi on the way, I got to see what it was all about. I’d actually never been to a football game before, and the atmosphere was definitely more festive than for a baseball game. Through the crowd I saw dozens, maybe even hundreds of tents set up.

I assumed that like most festivals I’d been to, some of these must be vendors. I could smell the food which reminded me I hadn’t had dinner yet, so I figured I’d go see what was available. I headed towards the tents and once I got to what I guess must have been the middle of it all, claustrophobia set in. There were Buckeyes fans all drinking beers, music ringing in my ears, fires burning everywhere, and beanbags flying through the air. Really, I don’t know what I was thinking. I don’t like crowds. So why would I plunge headlong into a mass of humanity ten thousand strong? I got myself out of there and then took another look at the tailgaters from a safe distance. I know this may seem like common sense to someone who grew up in a family of football fanatics, but I realized something just then. Tailgating isn’t one big party. It’s thousands of little parties, all in the same spot. Each one of these tents held an individual family or group of friends having a picnic out of the back of their car and it’s so crowded, they’ve only got enough room to stand in one spot.

Then I had another revelation: tailgating is no fun if you don’t have any friends, food, or football tickets.

I went home.

First Blog Post

This is my first blog post. Ever. Something I mentioned in my first day writing assignment was that I had never written a blog before. I had been tempted to write a blog. I had even been encouraged to write a blog. But I resisted. My personality is very introverted and I have a tendency to hold my cards close to my chest, so I didn't feel comfortable with putting some of my most intimate thoughts on full display for everyone to see. I still don't, really, but I do what I'm told. And I've been told to write a blog.

Now I need to decide where to go from here. Obviously I’ll have to follow the writing prompts as they come up, but I’d like to do more with the blog. Before, when I had an idea that was “blog-worthy,” I usually just dismissed it because it didn’t seem to be worth the trouble of starting a blog to make just one entry. I’ve read several blogs in the past that contained only two or three entries, all written within the first week of being started, with nothing new for months afterward. My mindset is that I want to finish everything I start, but that seems to have the unintended consequence of making me reluctant to start anything I’m not willing to commit to.

I didn’t want to have an embarrassing “empty blog,” so I never started one. Now that I’ve got one anyways, I need to force myself to fill it up. There’s probably not going to be any particular theme to my blog, or at least I’m not planning on anything just yet. Maybe it’ll develop over time. Or maybe not… Maybe I won’t be able to come up with anything, and I’ll wind up so starved of ideas that I spend hours at a time staring blankly at the computer monitor until I go insane. We’ll just have to wait and see.