Friday, March 26, 2010

Peer Response 2 to Austin Spohn's Tiger's Gatorade Endorsement

I read Austin’s blog post Tiger’s Gatorade Endorsement. It talked about the product Tiger endorsed, which was a sports drink. It was for hard working athletes that needed to focus also. Tiger had the credentials to promote this product and it went well for him monetarily speaking. Gatorade dropped Tiger recently due to his recent fiasco. The article that Austin put with this was about the details of the deal for the sports drink endorsement. This is a nice blog post, because it’s current in times and has to do with a lot of talk in the past couple months surrounding Tiger Woods. The opinions are clear, but there’s not many and there doesn’t have to be. This is more of an informative blog post than a persuasive or opinionated blog post. I guess I agree with Austin when he says it was a unsuccessful campaign for both of them, Gatorade and Tiger.

Post 3: "Real" food vs. "fake" food

In Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food, he says that we can improve our health by just eating “real” foods, such as fruits, vegetables, meats, and whole grains. I wish it were that easy to get a hold of fresh fruits and meat from a butcher every day. I really enjoy hamburgers and that is a food that can be “real” and “fake”. The “fake” burger is usually smaller, not juicy, bland looking, tastes like newspaper and card board, and smells like cat food. The “real” burger is usually juicy, tender, tastes great, smells great, and is more expensive. The “fake” food doesn’t provide any addition vitamins/nutrients, but is usually the same as the “real”. I have “fake” burgers usually at MacDonald’s or a fast-food restaurant. I still have the “real” burger, but that’s usually at home when we grill or a nicer restaurant that actually cooks its burgers. I will return to eating the “real” burger when I go home for the summer, but will still have the “fake” sometimes, because of the convenience of fast-food.

SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: SLAUGHTER POUNDER

Enjoy your barbecue this weekend? Our expose of the meat processing industry could change your mind

By Ryan Parry

DRIPPING with blood and oozing thick layers of defrosting fat, 31 giant chunks of compacted "meat" trundle up the conveyor belt.

An unpleasant stench hangs in the air and I rip open yet another pallet crammed with boxes.

It's my first day on the production line of a meat factory, and I'm feeding a giant stainless-steel mixer with the vital ingredients for an Iceland quarter-pound burger.

But as I load another huge 20kg block of white fat into the machine the wholesome image of a juicy beef burger nestled between a golden sesame-seed bun is quickly shattered.

To continue reading this article, click here.

This article is saying how bad the burgers and meats that are mass produced.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Demonstration speech self-evaluation

After watching myself give a demonstration on throwing a bowling ball, I realized I don’t like the sound of my own voice. After I got over that, I looked at it through the eyes of a critic. I thought that some of my strengths were breakdown of the steps, volume, physical demonstration of the topic, and the background of the topic. I thought that some of my weaknesses were energy and enthusiasm, eye contact when giving the background, and the visual aid effectiveness wasn’t that great. I thought that the relevance was good, but not great. Also, my organization was okay and could have been improved. I thought that my eye contact when I introduced the steps and when I went through them was very good. The visual interest I created wasn’t that good, and I wish I would have pointed out my nice bowling shoes. I would use the same topic again, because I felt that its relevance is really good. Lots of people go bowling every year for fun. I thought that if I do this it could spark an interest in them. If I could do this over there are some thing I would change. First, I would have drawn a bowling alley up on the white board to show where I look at, stand, and the path of the ball. Secondly, I would have practiced saying the background part without having to read it directly from the card. Lastly, I would have pointed out my shoes, or I would have had equipment in the background.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Peer Response 1 to Pat Brady's Real vs. Fake Food

In Pat’s real vs fake food blog, he tells us of his love, beef jerky. He would go to local farmers market in Delaware, and buy beef jerky from the local butcher. He described how great the jerky was and told the price of it. He compares that to here in Madison. Pat can’t get the same great tasting jerky here as he did in Delaware. At Carson’s carryout, the jerky has a terrible taste and is processed. Here he links to a page about the food science of junk food. This article goes on to defend food processing. It compares today’s food processing to when our grandmothers made meals in the kitchen. The article goes on the break down what was in our grandmother’s homemade meals and that it’s similar to what food processors do today. Then, the article says that American Indians added some weird things to their meals such as wood ashes. The article goes on to compare raw, fresh vegetables to cooked, frozen or canned vegetables. It is common belief that raw, fresh vegetables are better, but there are numerous studies that there are negligible differences and that processing the vegetables make it easier to attain the nutrients. Back to Pat’s post, he wonders why they can’t make the jerky here like they’re supposed to. I understand where he’s coming from, but the article he posted doesn’t go with his argument. I think he is saying that real food tastes better than processed foods, but that is an opinion. Overall, I agree with him that “real, fresh” foods usually taste a bunch better than processed foods, but the article tells me that processed foods are just as good for me.

Post 4: Brett Favre Hyundai Commercial

Brett Favre is one of the most popular and well-known names in football today. In this Hyundai commercial, they make a joke of Brett's inability to retire from football and have him winning the MVP of 2020. It goes on to say that the next ten years could be unpredictable, but that your Hyundai will be covered. I believe that they do an excellent job using Brett Favre's retirement limbo and associating it with unpredictability. Then, they nicely assure you that they're product will be durable and make it ten years without problems. Brett Favre doesn't directly endorse the product, but since he's in the commercial, he's endorsing it regardless. I doubt Brett has a Hyundai, but that's a guess. The campaign could be successful, because people know Brett Favre and that makes the probability of it succeeding quite a bit better. I had a hard time finding people who wrote a lot about this. They either said they loved it or hated it. Here is one blogger that liked like me. She just says she loved it and had the outtakes with the original video.