Blog Post #4- A Full House Mess

The "Full House" cast, captured by Entertainment Weekly.

       

      "Full House" is a popular show for all generations that has been around since 1987.  Audiences love the chaos and humor the show has, and also how it presents the American household not as perfect, but rather a loving mess.  However, the last week has definitely presented off-screen chaos for the show as one of its main character's, Aunt Becky, has been caught up in an academic fraud scandal. In this Forbes article,  Christopher Rim writes about how the whole situation unfolded, and then the financial complexities of the situation.  To start off, when I first heard of this news, I was shocked.  Aunt Becky is going to jail? I honestly did not think very deeply about what she had actually done until this article presented me with thoughts about how serious this really is.

        So I know you're probably wondering right now, who is Aunt Becky and why is she going to jail?  Well, Aunt Becky is Lori Loughlin in real life, a 54 year old actress who is married to Mossimo Giannulli.  They have two kids, Olivia Jade and Isabella Rose.  The parents are now accused of paying a bribe of $500,000 to make it appear as if their daughters were recruits for University of Southern California's crew team. This is all coming to the surface with a slew of other arrests of high-profile parents who pay upwards of a million dollars to get their children into top schools.  The Forbes article points out a number of things that drew my attention.  First off, neither of the girls have ever even rowed on a team!  As an athlete who looked into college athletics, this angered me immediately.  Trying to play a collegiate sport is a long, grueling process where not only is around 15 years of hard work in the sport enough but the school has to actually want you to come, which is where many people have trouble in the recruiting process.  To think there are people who commit their entire lives to rowing, but these two girls pay their way in by saying they have done this, is just upsetting.  

      The article then brings up a point I agree with, instead of bribing coaches to lie about your children’s athletic ability, why not invest in developing that ability?  If there was $500,000 split between the two of them for bribery, that would mean $250,000 each.  Could you imagine what $250,000 worth of tutoring would look like?  The girls had the monetary means to have enough tutoring for a perfect SAT score or nearly perfect test grades.   But I guess their family was more attracted to taking the easy way out rather than working for college acceptance like every other American student must do.  

      Lastly, the Forbes article brings up the results from this week's news in regards to their families' jobs.  Lori Loughlin has been fired from both Fuller House, the new version of Full House, and Hallmark Channel.  Olivia Jade ended her YouTube channel and Sephora cut ties with her.  Also, both girls have dropped out of USC.  In regards to Loughlin, I now have no sympathy for her and am perfectly fine with her losing her jobs.  However, when it comes to the girls, I do have some lingering thoughts and questions.  Olivia Jade's future has most likely been demolished because the brand she has built up has been torn apart, and she does not have much hope in regards to college since dropping out is not the best look on another application.  However, Forbes says at the end of the article a line that made me think: "But somewhere along the way, it seems that the Giannullis decided that bragging rights and their own egos were more important than the true aspirations (and mental/emotional wellbeing) of their children."  Are these girls' futures being ruined because of something their parents did that they didn't have control over?  For all we know the girls could have begged their parents not to do this because they feared it would get out or they didn't want to go to a top school like USC.  If you assume this happened, it sure is devastating that their lives truly have been both built up and destroyed by their parents.

     Overall,  the news of Lori Loughlin's arrest caught me off guard at first.  However, after reading Christopher Rim's Forbes article about it,  I was both angered that people were able to get into colleges that most people dedicate their lives to getting into and upset that people in this world really do take advantage of money and people the way they do.  But the last line of the article reminded me, there may be another side of the story we aren't hearing.  Either way, this sadly reveals even more barriers in the college admissions process.  

Post #3- Pepsi Advertising

"More than OK" Pepsi ad in Super Bowl 2019

For many of us, the Super Bowl isn't about the football at all.  If you're like me, the Super Bowl is ONLY relevant for three reasons: judging the halftime show, the Puppy Bowl, and the commercials.  This year Pepsi resurfaced once again with a commercial based off celebrities.  They feature Cardi B (why?), Steve Carell, and Lil John.  The commercial begins with a common occurrence for all soda-drinkers.  The customer asks the waitress for a Coke but the restaurant only serves Pepsi.  This quickly introduces the first technique of a problem and solution.  The ad focuses on the consumer problem of Coke not being served in restaurants and gives the solution of Pepsi, which they believe is better anyway.  The use of celebrities was to try to get the audience to feel more attached to the ad because if they saw their favorite celebrity, which I hope is NOT Cardi B, they would be more tuned in and feel obligated to drink Pepsi because their idol suggests doing that.  This uses ethos through having a person one may believe as credible saying they prefer Pepsi in order to convince the audience it is truly best.  That is the reason a celebrity is not the customer but rather the one suggesting Pepsi.  

Steve Carell uses rhetorical questions to introduce pathos to the commercial.  He says "Are puppies okay?  Is a shooting star okay?  Is the laughter of a small child okay?"  This references the repeated phrase that Pepsi is "More than OK."  Since the Puppy Bowl is a vital aspect of the Super Bowl for me, this caught my attention because I have a soft spot for animals.  He also appeals to people by using a child's laughter, which most love, to emotionally attach them to Pepsi.  

Two of the celebrities featured have famous phrases that relate to the catchphrase of the ad, "More than OK."  Lil John yells "OK!" which is a reference to his famous song, "OK, yeah."  Cardi B also uses her phrase "okurr" when she makes her entrance.  Both of these celebrity references assist in the overall message that Pepsi is "More than OK" by once again trying to relate the audience to the commercial through the use of celebrities.  

I have an Oppositional Reading Perspective to this Pepsi ad because I think all sodas are just disgusting.  I think both Pepsi and Coke are not tasty and not to mention the calories and detrimental health affects just draw me far away from ever wanting to drink either of them.  The ad uses a hasty generalization that everyone will want to order Pepsi/Coke products when they eat at restaurants.  This is far from accurate because only 50% of adults drink soda, and many of those might not even drink Pepsi.  Therefore, I think this advertisement is incorrect in the way that it portrays the popularity of Pepsi.  The message encouraging Pepsi over Coke is just wrong and the creators suggesting the audience should consume an unhealthy, fattening drink is also ethically wrong.

Pepsi made it's appearance in the Super Bowl once again by using celebrity to catch the audience's attention, ethos to appeal to the credibility of the celebrities, pathos to emotionally connect them, and a generalization that everyone drinks Pepsi to convince the audience that Pepsi is better than Coke.