Outline

The cover of the Wheaties Box affects who buys it

The Wheaties cereal box has been around since 1924. It has dazzled the eyes of children and served as an icon for the rest of the world. People don’t buy it just for the corn flakey cereal but partly because of all the famous athletes that are posted on its cover. They buy it because they see these amazingly fit and athletic people all showing up on the front of this little cereal box, so they figure something must be good about it. Consumers see these genetic specimens who represent greatness, so sub-consciously people probably see it as a cereal only for people that are in a higher class than everyone else.




This box has become a National icon in the United States today. Almost everyone American knows the name and they also are well aware of who goes on the cover of the actual box. Mostly professional athletes are the ones to grace its cover but some famous people and even some fictional people have found their way onto these boxes that stack the shelves of local food marts.
The actual cereal was created accidentally when a wheat bran mixture was spilt onto a hot oven by a Minnesota clinician who worked for a company that later became known as “General Mills”. The name for this new invention was put up to a contest at the companies factory, the winner was the export managers wife, Jane Bausman, giving it the name Wheaties (Ament p. 4).
Wheaties and Sports advertising

1) Entered the sporting arena in 1933

2) General Mills saw sports as another way to advertise on a larger scale

(a) First started with sponsoring baseball broadcasts then led to putting actual athletes on the cover of the box (General Mills p. 7)

(b) The first advertising billboard was put up in Nicollet Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota on the wall of a minor league baseball team (Ament p. 2)

(c) When put to the task of creating a slogan to put on the billboard, Knox Reeves of a local advertising company came up with “Wheaties – The Breakfast of Champions”
(Ament p. 3)

(d) Some of the most famous profession baseball players that were known to endorse Wheaties include “Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson, Bob Feller, Hank Greenberg, Stan Musial,Ted Williams,Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle and Johnny Bench” (General Mills p. 10)

3) Due to a shortage of money and the increasing costs of advertising, in the 1940s it was decided to move away from sports and more into commercials on television and radio.

(a) Commercials as well as the box itself were more focused on a target audience consisting of children

(b) This strategy led to a dramatic increase in amount of children eating Wheaties but in the end it turned out to be a horrible idea as the larger group of adult consumers did not want to buy a cereal with a child-like appeal (General Mills p. 15)

(c) This proves that whatever gets depicted on the cover of the box affects the actual sales of the box, not only who buys it

4) Wheaties finally returned to the sports after suffering a substantial decrease in sales.

(a) Had a strong return when they started to sponsor athletic events’ pre and post
game shows via television and radio (General Mills p. 18)

(b) Also focused on a health-based and athletic fitness campaign to promote good
habits (General Mills p. 18)

(c) Sales returned to their norm in relation to the adult consumers once they switched back to the more “grown up” box theme

5) The Many faces of the Wheaties box

(a) The first “real” person to ever appear on the Wheaties box was baseball’s Lou Gehrig, however the first person to appear on the “cover” of the box was Pole-vaulter, Bob Richards (World p. 4)

(b) Technically the first person to appear on the box was a fictional character named Jack Armstrong (World p. 2)
All of America could recognize the Wheaties box. However, depending on what is on the cover, will determine on whether or not they will buy it. The visuals of the box itself will make someone buy a cereal. The Wheaties box is definitely considered a text. It displays a message without words other then the Title on the box. This message can sub-consciously make someone buy the cereal or make them keep on walking through the grocery store. The perfect example of this occurred when General Mills decided to take a different approach on their advertising. Their sales to adults dropped drastically when they targeted children as their audience. The visual representation of the Wheaties box is what makes it a text.

Computers and Writing

Haas and Raschke have very valid points regarding the use of technology and how it applies to the world today. I completely agree with their view too. The society we live in today has become entirely dependent on technology. We see it everywhere on a day to day basis. Practically all jobs today use computers one way or another. At schools too, we can see how computers play a huge role. Term papers always have to be typed and printed out on computers, attendance is done electronically, research is mostly done through computers, and some classes are based solely online. Not to mention how students can interact instantly with the internet with things like Myspace and Facebook. These websites allow people to post anything they want about themselves instantly. Even online games like "Second Life" allow players to "defy reality." In the essay written by Hall, he states that "The longer one's time spent in Second Life, the more their virtual identities begin to reflect their inner desires." Meeting and interacting with new people at the click of a button, thats what has America hooked.
Now that im up here in college, I basically live on the computer. Between Blackboard, working on assignments, and writing papers, I would say that I'm on my computer a good 15 hours a week atleast. This doesn't include the Facebook/Myspace frenzy that 99.99% of all college students go through. The articles by Haas and Raschke make ten times more sense after almost a semester of college under my belt. I could not think of trying to redue this past semester without the use of a computer. It just does not seem logical.
The use of computers in this class has deffinately influenced the way I think. I literaly have the internet at my fingertips whenever I'm in class. I can instantly look up anything that I want to know that comes to me in the middle of class. It makes writing much easier because I can type faster than I can write, so whatever I think of I can write down instantly. For example, when we do free writes, I can just let my thoughts flow from my head straight into the computer. I feel like my ideas and thoughts are unbound because I can instantly record them, instead of laborously writing them out via pen and paper. Honestly, I'm glad we get to use computers just because of that fact. I would rather not write out free writes everyday with a pen, typing it out makes it so much easier.

Short Story

Langston Hughes was the only black man in his class at Harlem. He knew it and was sure everyone else did too. He never really brought it up in conversation and it bothered him but at the same time it gave him a sense of individuality. He felt like he was supposed to be there just because he was the only one with his skin color there. He had a feeling deep down that he was starting a movement that would bring more colored people to this school. If that didn't work, he felt he had something to accomplish while at this school. Something that only he could do and that he was destined to do. Whatever it was it would have to wait....because it was lunch time and he heard they had baked potatoes in the cafeteria.
As he made his way down the steps from his classes he looked around. "Yup, I belong here" he thought to himself "I am here for a purpose and I'm not leaving until i find out what it is." He had to hurry up and eat in order to make it on time to his next class, English B.





I used these three pictures because two of them are from a actual college in Harlem. The other picture of the stairs seemed important to me because the poem seemed to imply special influence on the college being on a hill and him walking down stairs.

portfolio

I tried to present my work to my readers in a simplified way. In a way that doesnt appear too complicated as to scare off anyone with a fear of complexity. I tried to stick with simplicity. Colors easy on the eyes, designs that dont distract or throw off the reader from the actual text.
Having the entire porfolio online is extremely helpful. I can edit all of my work and access it from anywhere that has internet.....ok and NVU but still. With all of them being online, you can change the fonts and formats to make the papers look more unique. It is good for the writer because it opens a whole new door for his/her creativness to run wild. While on the other end, readers can look at images and other forms of text to help them understand on a different level what the writer is trying to get across.

Basic Design Principles 101

The article "Basic Design Principles" talks about how to make your website ten times better than it would be or better then it already is. It tells the readers about ways to improve the look of the website and how it appeals to its readers. The four basic principles of design are alignment, proximity, repitition, and contrast.

Alignment improves the way your page looks because it looks "neater." It looks more professional when alot of effort goes into the way pictures, text, or graphs are aligned in the web page. Proximity deals with the closeness of multiple objects. This can make or break a web site. If your site is really "loose" as in a bunch of random spaces in between your contents of the page, then everything just looks thrown together. Repition refers to using and repeating certain elements that tie even the two most random/different things on your page together. Contrast is the overall look of your page. Colors, Images, and the way the text appeals to the eye are all examples of how contrast can be used. Web designers use contrast to "draw in" their readers by making the page a good site to look at. Like amazing graphics and colors that attract the eye are examples of this.

Changes that i need to make on my home page include making it look more "flashy", changing up some elements of the text, orgainizing the text more, and just trying to make it look more professional.

Journal 4

Knier's essay was directed to an audience of his age group of peers. Most likely classmates? He uses language that would not be used when addressing someone such as a teacher or proffessor in my opinion. His use of words such as "looooved" shows that he isnt concerned with grammar and that it is most likely not a piece that is supposed to be read by elder persons.

The work that Trask wrote was targeting an audience much larger that Knier's. Her piece was addressing the tourism in Hawaii and how it was having a negative influence. Her tone is much more serious instead of Knier's laidback approach. The seriousness in her work can be seen through her words such as "cultural prostitution."



The audience targeted in the first movie trailer of "Bride and Prejudice" had a target audience of those who were interested in a less dramatic, semi-love story more based upon comedy. They portray the family to have "wacky" customs by wearing elaborate colorful dresses and doing obsurd dances. This movie is most deffinately attracting the humorous/upbeat crowd to come and enjoy this as a family movie.

On the other hand, the audience being targeted in the movie "Pride and Prejudice" is more of a "love story" audience who is into dramtic scenes and a drawn out romance story between two characters. The colors are more darker, possibly hinting at a more serious subject in the film. The costumes are more plain such as the dressed they wear.

First Impressions

If the game halo 3 was a book, the freedom of choice given to the player would be taken away. Of course, the game follows a story line and pretty much everyone has to accomplish the same goals, but the only thing that would change if it was a book would be "how" the goals are accomplished.
If the narrative of the add with a scantily clad women with stilleto heels on had the narrative fully revealed to the audience would be less affective. I think that the imagination is how most advertisements get us "hooked." So, if they just "spelled" out for us what they're advertisement is trying to say, no one would pay that much attention to it. If we saw the women in the bedroom however, i think that most people would put two and two together and pay alittle more attention to it.