Victoria's Secret Annual Christmas Fashion Show

Victoria’s Secret brings millions of viewers to the television each year for its annual Christmas fashion show. With a budget of 10 million dollars, and using almost as many cameras as the Super bowl does, the Christmas fashion show is a major event both to Victoria Secret and its viewers. This year the fashion show includes the scantily clad models decorating a Christmas tree with a choir singing Christmas songs through the crowd. Many wonder if this event is ethical for two reasons. One being that the show is centered on Christmas without even the mention of Hanukah, Kwanza or other holidays. Another question about the show is whether it is ethical to have half naked women on a main network channel, CBS, at prime time. Our book states that “right or wrong decisions depend on whether others see your actions as acceptable or unacceptable” (Fulginiti 296). The shows ratings have dropped from 9 million viewers in 2002 to 6.5 million viewers last year. Maybe viewers are loosing interest in the show? That seems to be highly debatable although, considering the show has been called one of the biggest nights on television. The Christmas issue deals with the values of the people putting the show together, the models in it, and the viewers. Considering it seems highly unlikely that all the models in the show are Catholic and celebrate only Christmas, their decision to participate in the show is their moral decision. If the millions of viewers are watching the show, clearly their moral values are not being violated. Due to the reputation Victoria’s Secret annual Christmas fashion show holds as being one of the biggest nights on television, I think it is safe to say that the company is not violating anyone’s values or morals.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8T7J0NG1.htm

Using Technology to Promote BudJoint

To find a company that solely uses technology to promote their company I went onto myspace. On my friends wall was an ad from a company called BudJoint. The ad is written from a customer’s point of view, and tells how he used to have a friend that would smoke with all the time until he got a job where he had to get drug tested every week. The friend then found about BudJoint, which sells legal weed that does not show up in drug tests. The ad further tells how now the two friends work together to sell this legal weed. The ad mentions the website, BudJoint.com, multiple times throughout the ad. This is a perfect example of a company using technology to promote their company, because clearly this sort of company doesn’t have much of a choice in where they advertise. Aside from the Internet, they may be able to promote it on late night television or certain magazines such as Hightimes, which is all about weed, but they wouldn’t be as effective. Through promoting on myspace the company can reach millions of people at any time. Promoting the company through myspace is also less expensive then promoting through TV or print ads. As well as this, myspace allows the company to reach their target audience because most people who use myspace regularly are probably between the ages of 16-25. People this age are more apt to buy something that seems as stupid as legal weed. Considering there is no such thing as marijuana that is legal and doesn’t show up on drug tests, whatever BudJoint is selling must seem pretty close to the real thing if people are buying it.

Nick Hogan Blames Victim of his Drunk Driving for Injuries

Everyone heard about the car crash Nick Hogan, of the reality show “Hogan Knows Best,” was in over the summer. His friend John Graziano, a former marine, was in the car with him at the time, and has been in a coma due to serious injuries from the crash. Although the accident occurred August 26th, only now is Nick Hogan being prosecuted for his actions. Two days Nick was arrested and is being charged with felony reckless driving and underage drinking.
Nick and the rest of the Hogan family issued a statement to the public about the accident just yesterday. Instead of taking responsibility for Nick’s actions, the family stated that the reason for John Graziano’s injuries was due to the fact that he was not wearing a seatbelt and Nick was wearing his. As well as this, they are blaming the road conditions that night, saying the road was wet and that the accident was not due to speeding. This hard to believe considering Nick Hogan is known for street racing. The Hogan’s have claimed they want everyone to remember to wear their seatbelts. They claim they are going to get involved in public awareness to remind the public of this. Although it would be great if they actually did raise public awareness on this issue, it is no where near as important as raising public awareness of drinking and driving. The statement was clearly made to get the blame off Nick for the accident. There were no apologies made towards John Graziano or his family, although Nick was found to have alcohol in his system at the time of the accident. It is just horrible that the Hogan’s are blaming the innocent victim of a drunk driving and speeding accident for his own injuries.
For those who watch “Hogan Knows Best” they see how the Hogan’s react when the daughter goes on dates. They are so worried about Brooke having a boyfriend or going to a party, they allow Nick to get away with anything. They encourage his partying, as well as going out with girls, and are now allowing him to get away with drinking and driving. The Graziano family should sue the Hogan’s for the injuries their son has incurred. It is sad that Nick, who is not doing anything with his life but living off his parents and street racing for a hobby, has walked away from a sever accident and his friend, a former marine, has been in a coma for the past 3 months.


http://www.tmz.com/2007/11/07/hogan-john-should-have-been-wearing-a-seat-belt/
http://www.tmz.com/

Poor Writing

An example of an article that is poorly written is “Global Warming Solutions Backfire” by Kelly Zhou. In the first sentence you can find various errors in the writing. As we discussed in the lecture, there is no need to use big words that are unknown to most of the readers. The author of the article used words such as bemoaning, which means to express grief or disappointment. Regretting or mourning could have been used in place of this, and would have been clearer for the readers. In addition to this, the first sentence is 43 words long, opposed to the rule that sentences should be 17 words or less. Long sentences, as well as using big, unknown words, are unnecessary and do not allow for clear reading.
These problems arise throughout the whole article, with words such as sanctimonious and irrevocable, along with long, confusing sentences. This article was published in a high school newspaper. The audience therefore ranges from teenagers 14-18 years old. Considering it’s hard enough to get teenagers at this age to even read a newspaper, if an article is confusing and hard to read, there is no way a 16 year old is going to even attempt to read it. The first sentence of this article, which is long enough to be its own paragraph, would have many teenage readers put down the newspaper for good. The writer obviously did not think of its audience, and whom they were writing to. Although the content of the article, which is about the problem of global warming, is informative and includes many good arguments, the article is not targeted towards the right audience.

http://voice.paly.net/view_story.php?id=5821

'Lost' Actor Daniel Dae Kim Drunk Driving Incident

Last Thursday ‘Lost’ actor Daniel Dae Kim was arrested for drunken driving in Honolulu. He was in Hawaii filming for the show when this occurred. Kim was the fourth person from ‘Lost’ to be arrested for drunk driving. Although this was an ignorant act by Kim to drink and drive, especially in a community where he is a visitor, he has recently issued a public statement in which he apologized for his actions. In his statement from TMZ.com he apologized for “jeopardizing the welfare of the kind people of Hawaii.” He also thanked the police for their help, as well as thanked his family, friends, and fans for their cooperation and support. He ended his statement by quoting, “To those that I have disappointed I can only ask that you accept my heartfelt apologies.”
Although drinking and driving is a dangerous and ignorant act for any person, I feel that Kim handled the situation very responsibly. Unlike other celebrities who claim the police didn’t handled the situation correctly, or just don’t take responsibility for their actions, Kim did exactly what was best for his reputation. He knew that this incident would hurt his image, and he would have to do something to reclaim his reputation as a well-respected actor. By issuing his statement full of apologies, I believe he did the best he could to handle this situation. I feel that since he handled the situation so well, his image will not be destroyed, and he will continue to receive the respect he deserves from his fans.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,305316,00.html
http://www.tmz.com/

Ellen's Breakdown over Dog

Anyone who watches the Ellen DeGeneres show, or even listens to the radio has heard about her situation with Iggy the dog. After Ellen gave her newly adopted dog to her hairdresser and the hairdresser’s two daughters, the dog rescue organization took the dog away claiming that Ellen violated the adoption agreement. Apparently Ellen was told the dog cannot be around children for safety reasons, and Ellen gave the dog to her hairdresser knowing she had two daughters.
Ellen made a complete scene over the situation, sobbing and telling her viewers how horrible it was for the organization to take the dog away. According to TMZ.com, Ellen cancelled the taping of her show. Her publicist claimed she needed a long weekend to relax.
NBC has claimed that on Wednesdays show Ellen told viewers she refused to speak until the dog is returned to the hairdresser and her daughters. The situation has gotten so bad that the owner of the rescue organization had to shut down her business for the day after Ellen sobbed on her show. The situation has gone completely out of hand, and not only has Ellen put the owners business in jeopardy, but she’s ruining her image as well. Ellen has never come off as a typical celebrity that thinks the world revolves around them and can get anything they want. One of the reasons I feel Ellen’s show is so popular is because viewers can easily relate to her. By carrying on like a child and refusing to speak until a dog is given back to people who are not even its rightful owner has turned Ellen’s image to be one of a pretentious celebrity. Clearly, Ellen’s publicist has to take action to do something to get Ellen’s reputation back to what it was before this whole incident.

http://www.tmz.com/2007/10/18/ellen-cancels-tapings/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21359655/

Britney's Court Trial

The latest news on Britney is about her court date with Commissioner Scout Gordon over the custody of her two sons. According to TMZ.com, Britney’s behavior in court with the commissioner has said to be “appalling.” She was constantly interrupting the judge, and was extremely sarcastic when thanking the judge for his decision to let her have one overnight stay a week with her children. Apparently when the judge explained to her why she was not receiving more custody she was condescending and argumentative. Kevin’s lawyers didn’t object to her testimony, clearly showing they didn’t feel as if her testimony did anything to help her case.
I think Britney is going more downhill every day. She must think that she can get away with her antics, but the way the courts are reacting she clearly cant. You would think if she knew what was good for her, and her future with her children, she would try to act responsible. Even though it is only one night a week with her children it is better then nothing, and you would think she would have appreciated this. By acting so immature in court she only dug herself further in the hole she in right now, and I do not think she has any hope for getting better.
Another article in TMZ.com states that the overnight visits will be monitored. Considering Britney cannot even be trusted to be alone with her own two children is pathetic. I do not understand how she went from being Americas biggest pop-star to having no career, no children, no family she gets along with, and no husband.

http://www.tmz.com/2007/10/11/commish-to-brit-nightime-is-the-right-time/
http://www.tmz.com/2007/10/11/britney-worst-witness-ever/

Britney Spears is Making a Comeback?

While Britney Spear’s family life is deteriorating, as she lost custody of her two sons last week, her professional life has said to be improving. Her new song “Gimme More” has scored as number 3 on the Billboards Hot 100 list as well as having 179,000 downloads. The song has also been said to be her best hit on the charts since her first single “Baby One More Time,” which came out in 1999. Her new album named “Blackout,” quite ironically, is said to debut November 13th. After answering “no way” to a poll in which asks if you will be buying her new CD, poll results came up with only a little over 50% of people saying no way to buying the CD. Although her new single may be catchy, I do not understand why it would even be a question for people about whether or not they would buy the CD. Her performance for the single at the VMAs was horrible, as she was clearly lip-syncing and still could not manage to dance or coordinate her act. As well as this, I would not buy the CD solely on the fact that she is headed downhill more every day. For the reasons I do not see how AOL news could seriously report that Britney Spears professional career is improving.

In addition to the recent news about Britney Spears, TMZ.com has recently reported that last Thursday Britney was in Cameo Bar asking for an application to be a bartender. Clearly this is not the job for someone who is trying to stay sober in order to someday gain custody of her kids again.


http://news.aol.com/entertainment/music/music-news-story
http://www.tmz.com/2007/10/08/britney-wants-job-as-a-bartender-huh

Teenager Claims that the Police Left His Friends to Die After Accident

Darius Moore, shown in the above picture, was recently in a car accident with three of his friends, two of which died. Moore claims that when the police arrived at the scene of the accident he told the police their two friends were missing. The police report a different story, stating that Moore and Anderson told them that they might have dropped off their two friends before the accident occurred. The police claim that they searched the scene anyway, and after the ambulance took Moore and Anderson to the hospital, they left the scene. Arthur Smith, the father of one of the boys who died, reportedly went to the scene of the accident and found the two boys dead in the bushes within five minutes of searching. Moore therefore believes that if the police had searched adequately for his friends at the time of the incident they may have lived.
The police are turning the attention of the event to the fact that the boys were under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident. Yet the two breathalyzer tests that were done at the hospital showed different alcohol results for the same boy, who they will not name due to the fact that he is underage. I believe the police are trying to influence the publics opinion on the incident by turning the publics attention to the fact that the boys have been drinking, and not that they did not adequately search for the two other boys. The police clearly needed to influence public opinion on the issue because if not, people would question their ability to due their job. I therefore think that the police are manipulating how the public is grasping the situation.
The following link will take you to cnn's website where you can hear Moore's 911 call as well as see a video of Moore telling his story.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/28/indiana.crash/index.html

Taylor Smith visits the scene of the accident where his brother died. For more photos go to:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/chi-070917garycrash-photogallery,0,753571.photogallery

Kid Nation

CBS’s new reality show Kid Nation took 40 children and left them in a ghost town in Mexico City in which they were to rebuild. The show has caused quite a bit of controversy from parents and viewers who believe the show exploited the children. In retaliation, CBS has claimed that the parents signed a contract in which they were told that the kids would be completely on their own, yet an adult would be present to intervene only when needed. The parents also signed a contract stating they could not have any communication with the children during filming, as well as a contract in which they signed away their right to sue if the child died, contracted a sexual disease, or became seriously injured. Considering the parents were informed of what the show enabled and signed a contract proving this, I do not believe they have any right to complain now. They knew the children would be on their own in a random town in Mexico City and I think that any parent who would put their child in that situation is clearly not looking after the child’s safety. The situation seemed unsafe from the start and I can not imagine my parents ever even considering letting me or my brothers go on a show like this. Yet I do believe the show has a good theme and will probably show the country how children can work together more efficiently then most adults.

For more information on the exploitation of the children you can go to http://www.mercurynews.com/tv/ci_6760427 and for a comical view on the show go to http://www.bestweekever.tv/2007/09/21/the-kid-nation-controversy-how-can-a-show-be-so-awesome/.