Good Morning America

Good Morning America, or GMA, as it is commonly referred to, is one of my most watched television programs. I am really not much of a television watcher, probably mostly because we are a large family, and it just became too much work to fight over who gets the remote. I am not alone in this love for GMA, because it has been on the air for over thirty years and still has a strong following. Part of it’s popularity, at least for me, is the way that they have constructed the program to give you the news in a more relaxed fashion. While you still get the important world news stories, it is not as depressing as watching World News Tonight, or some other news program. This is because they have created it to be broken up by lighthearted or touching stories, or pieces with animals, or even concerts in the park throughout the summer. GMA, was the first of its kind, when it started, back in 1975. Before that time, I never watched the news, because I found it discouraging, but I have been watching GMA almost since its conception. While I feel it is important to know what is going on in the world around me, I don’t want it to make me feel completely discouraged, so by getting my news on GMA, I am able to get it in smaller pieces, and be entertained at the same time. GMA’s producers have been very good at including enough actors/actresses, and singers on their programs to encompass consumers from every age group and taste in music. They also keep up with the changing times, having their own website, blogs by some of the news personalities, and offering technological information on their program as well as on thier website. With their website, they make it easy for the consumer to keep up with the program, even if they are unable to watch the show. You can get all the same stories, recipes, and information that they make available on the program in a compact format, with the ability to skip the things you have no interest in and go straight to the information that you want. GMA has been so successful in it's construction of this news format, that today even the local news programs are to some degree, changing their format to a less formal format as well. To some degree, the whole ideology of the news is changing to a more entertaining format, rather than a matter of fact style. I am sure that this can be detrimental to the "real" news, as we as a society, do not take it as seriously as it needs to be, but in a world where everything seems bleek sometimes, I think that this is a natural progression and to some degree a self-preservation messure. Good or Bad, I think they have a program worth watching, and one that will last for years to come.

Who would have thought that a candle shop, which sells nothing but candles and candle accessories (for the most part) would do as well as the Yankee Candle Shop has done. Obviously the producer has done its job in reinventing the candle in such a way that the consumer would desire it. They have done this through a variety of methods, including, appealing to our sense of nostalgia, and our desire for a “clean” home as well as our sense of sight and smell. The symbol of the Yankee Candle Shop is that of an old fashioned man making candles appealing to our longing for what we think of as a “better” time. They also appeal to this need for nostalgia, through the accessories that they sell, especially around the holidays, with various candle toppers displaying scenes of a perfect Christmas, and scents such as evergreen, and candy cane, to tie in with the Christmas season. They appeal to our desire for a clean home and for others to believe that we have a clean home by creating fresh scents, such as clean cotton, or fresh linen, that make us “think” clean. The producers of the Yankee Candle Shop products have constructed their candles in such a way, that the candle has become reified from something that was initially a simple practical tool to see in the dark, and constructed it into a home decoration.

Hand Mixer No Longer Real?

My eleven year old loves to try to help me with the papers I do for college. So, I explained the theory of Baudrillard to her to the best of my ability (and own understanding J), and after a couple of tries, she came up with the idea that the mixer as we know it, is not the real mixer, but it is actually more real than the original. Not bad for an eleven year old, especially when I think of how I have wrestled with trying to understand this theory myself. I am sure that we all remember the original mixer. It was actually quite handy; because we had it with us at all times and didn’t have to worry about whether or not our friend had one when we went to bake at her house, because it was our own hand. Technically, we even had two each, although one was usually a much stronger mixer than the other. Eventually, some ingenious individual, created the “hand” mixer. This style of mixer was basically just two beaters attached to a gear, which was attached to a handle, which you turned. Shortly after this, however, the mixer was reified yet again. With the help of electricity, we were now able to mix our cake batters simply by holding an electric mixer, which was still the same concept as the hand mixer, but was able to turn much faster, making mixing that much easier. Today, of course, the mixer has been reified yet again, and today we don’t even have to hold the mixer. The Kitchen Aid is today’s idea of the perfect mixer. Not only can it blend dry ingredients, but it comes equipped with three different hooks and various powers, which can mix, knead, and whip, so that you can make everything from cake, to bread dough, to whipping crème. Obviously, the original “real” mixer, our hand, is still very real, however, to those of us who enjoy baking, it is nearly irrelevant as Kitchen Aid, who makes everything from mixers to ovens, has constructed their mixer as an “Aid” in the kitchen. They have convinced the consumer, that their product can do it all, and without it, we would be lost in the kitchen, even though bread, cake and whipping crème were all created along time before the mixer of today.

Giddy-up Baudrillard

Horsepower is one area in which Baudrillard’s theory applies very well. Initially, horsepower was exactly what the term implies. It was power obtained by the use of horses. Today, however, it still relates to the strength of horses but is obtained through mechanical motors built by producers who continually try to increase the horsepower that they produce because they know that the consumer is exhilarated by the cars with the most horsepower. While the real still exists in this case, very seldom, do you see “real” horsepower in action today because the simulated horsepower is better than the real. In this particular case, I have to admit, I am glad to be riding around in my car with air conditioning and heat and simulated horsepower instead of in a very hot or cold, depending on the season, (not to mention smelly) horse drawn carriage with “real” horsepower.

Fitness USA - Style

This is not just the name of a gym, but a sad reflection of what fitness has become, especially here in the USA. In days of old there were no such places as gyms, because physical labor kept our countries citizens physically fit. For women, our fitness regimen might consist of carrying water from the creek or the pump in more recent times, to the house to do dishes or wash the kids, we lifted cast iron skillets to make our dinner, we kneaded the bread dough with our hands, we walked to town to do errands, and we helped with the chores on the farm. The men’s fitness routine, may include getting up at the crack of dawn to throw bales of hay to feed the animals, carrying water to their water troughs, cranking the tractor to start it or in earlier times, following behind a horse drawn plow. Today, however, most of us work behind a desk, and then come home and watch television, play video games, or sit at a computer for hours. The biggest fitness activity that many of us get is to carry out the garbage once a week. For this reason a culture industry was created that told us we could get the same result by going to a gym with every imaginable machine available to work all of our muscle groups. These gyms have been constructed in such a way that draws us in, even if just for the appearance of health consciousness. They show tan, sculpted bodies on their commercials, and convince us that for a “small” price, we can look just like the models that they hire for this reason. Of course, most of us do not look like models, and as we have discussed before, (see The Cover of Baudrillard), even the models that they hire, probably did not start out looking anything like they do in their television and magazine advertisements. On top of this, some of the models, especially the male ones, have taken steroids, which is not only unhealthy, but also not something that most of us would do. However, they don’t advertise that they take steroids, so they construct the impression, that just by joining their gym and working out three times per week we can look just like them.

Baudrillard Beauties - Edition II

The latest fad in the make-up industry, is a make-up that is called Bare Escentuals. Until I wrote this blog, I had never noticed the spelling of "escentuals", but I find it an interesting twist on a word that makes us think that is is essential that we buy thier product, and then the spelling leads us to believe that we will be more scentual if we wear it. These products are constructed in a way that tells the consumer, that they will look radiant, without looking made-up. In fact, it tells the consumer,that they will look "natural". If we wanted to look natural, wouldn't we quit buying and wearing make-up at all? For years, women have been targeted by the make-up industry in a way that men never have. Why is it that women, must "put their face on" before they go anywhere, and men don't? I would suggest that it is because, especially until recently, men have been the ones who have ran every major industry, and because men are very visual creatures, thus creating this fallacy, that women must appear a certain way, (their way) in order to appeal to the opposite sex. Thus creating a gender bias. As far as women have come in the last century, I find it interesting that the modern woman of today, is still "expected" to construct themselves to fin the male expectation of what makes an attractive woman. The producers have even put their products on QVC, watched mostly by women, to entice us to buy their product right from our own homes.Giving them more opportunity, to sell on the premise of impulse buying.

Baudrillard Beauties

Very few of us are "natural" beauties anymore. Even those of us who do not buy into the plastic surgery aspect of creating ourselves, usually use make-up, hair-color and highlights, artificial nails, get facials, and in general, try to make ourselves better than the real self. By the time we get done receiving all of these treatments, our closest loved ones would barely recognize us if it weren't for the fact that we have been creating this artifical self for years. Initially, when women started visiting beauty salons, it was older women trying to cover their gray hair. Today, however, even young women are coloring their hair. In many cases, we may not even know the true color of our closest colleagues hair, because it is a different color every time they visit the salon. These salons sell us on the idea that we "deserve" to be pampered.

Builders for Baudrillard

In the construction industry, the Baudrillard theory is alive and well. In the spirit of keeping up with the Jones', you can get everything from artificial wood floors, to engineered stone countertops, and artificial brick, without "really" having to keep up with the Jones' at all. While the current trend is to have these expensive products in our homes, producers have graciously created these products for us, at a lower cost than their "real" counterparts, and then make it their goal to convince us that they are even better than the "real" thing. According to the producers of these products, not only do their products look "exactly" like the real thing, but they are less expensive and have lower maintenance than the real items, so no one has to know that we don't have the real thing, because the "new real" is even better than the "real" anyways.

Gas Station Attendants - A Thing of the Past

While there are still a few stations that will pump your gas, at an extra charge, probably very few of you even remember the day when gas stations were considered full service and not only pumped your gas but checked the air in your tires, the fluid levels in your car and washed your windows. Then they would take your money in and bring back your change, that was just part of the service. Today we have been overtaken by the computer age, which in many ways does make our life easier, but it has also reduced the one on one contact that we use to have, making it more difficult to create relationships with the people that we use to see every day. Today, we pull up to the pump, stick our debit or credit card into the pump, pump our gas, and never even see the person working there. I suppose in the busy world that we live in some would consider this new construction of a gas station attendant a positive change, because we don't have to take time to make small talk with the attendant while he pumps our gas and washes our windows. However, I for one, find it disturbing how little we now interact with those around us. I think that the one who really benefits here is the gas station owner, who helps us believe that this is better by making everything fast and efficient, while he or she no longer has to pay an extra employee or two to actually create a service for us, and yet we buy into this new culture industry and think that we are getting something great. The only time we even see a real person at a gas station is when the gas pump talks to us and convinces us that we need an eight-four ounce soft drink, and so far we must go into the station to make this purchase. I'm sure one day they will find a way to eliminate any human contact whatsoever.

The Cover of Baudrillard

Not only does the "normal" woman not look like this, but odds are that even these women do not look like this. Even if they have not had plastic surgeries of all kinds, they have probably been constructed by producers of the magazine with shadowing, airbrushing and numerous other techniques to look more beautiful than their natural beauty. What are we telling young girls today? This is obviously not a new question, but one that nothing has been done about. Today it has become more and more acceptable for not only adults but young women and even teenagers to have everything from nose jobs to boob jobs, liposuction to tummy tucks and every other imaginable body part worked on. Of course, the doctors evaluate each patient first to make sure that their goals aren't unrealistic and that they having these procedures done for the right reasons. However, since the doctors are the ones that make the money off of the procedures, perhaps we should take a look at who is making these decisions. Before it even gets to that point, perhaps we should take a look at an industry who puts unrealistic models on the covers of there magazines. Very few, if any of us can measure up to these pictures, it is another case of Beaudrillard, the fake, or perfected real is now more real to us than the real. Of course, who is it that buys the magazines? How will the cycle ever end?

Oh Christmas Tree! Oh Christmas Tree!

We have all heard the complaints about Christmas becoming too commercialized. But have you ever considered that even the Christmas Tree itself has become commodified and the desire for the perfect Christmas tree, (and I would argue the "easy" Christmas tree) is part of the problem? Many would take a look at this picture and think, how nice, a real Christmas tree. I would say, that there is no such thing as a "real" Christmas tree today. The trees you see here are manufactured constructions of a "real" Christmas tree. No longer is the search for the Christmas tree a family event where we go to the woods behind our home, cut it down with an ax and saw, load it on our horse or wagon and take it home together, where we have hot cocoa infront of the fireplace and then sing carols while we decorate the tree. Today, in fact, we are more than ever picking our tree up at Wal-Mart with the lights already on it and very little decorating required.

Creating "Desire" For Rice Krispie Treats

Whenever I hear the word "Pop" I think, Snap, Crackle and Pop. Thus the title of my blog. Obviously Kellog's has done it's job in creating a commodity that we all desire. Rice Krispies has been around for decades. Still, Kellog's manages to keep creating new ways to create desire for their product. Not only are Rice Krispie Treats delicious, they have websites which have constructed a desire for us to make them for every holiday and special occasion.