NEW AND IMPROVED!

Everyday we see commercials and advertisements, some brands even have advertise on the product its self.  Too often we just read/hear/see these new wild promises and take them for true, but how much actually needs to be true?

What brought this whole idea up for me was when I was watching a television commercial and the host said, as all hosts do, "just listen to this satisfied customer" and cue cut to random guy saying how much he loves the product…but wait I noticed just visible on his white shirt was white lettering saying "paid actor."  I was just told he was a customer?  I think it is interesting how as long as a disclaimer is added companies can get away with purposefully misdirecting their audience.  I wanted to look further into this and looked to the generic model of the "NEW AND IMPROVED" slogan used by so many companies.  After researching I found that "new and improved" is one slogan that in almost all cases increases overall sales to consumers.  However what does "new and improved" really mean?  I found my answers after some research, it means nothing.  "New" can pertain to anything about the product, it has been watered down, the packaging is different, the color of the box has changed, you get less for your money, anything.  "Improved" on the other hand is a matter of perspective so I could say the taste has improved, or the colors have improved, or the seller's profit has improved.  All of these claims are geared to take advantage of the consumer and purposely misdirect them, however companies can get away with it as long as there is a disclaimer or are vague enough to find a loophole.

I suppose the moral of the story I learned from my research was that we, as consumers, must be more skeptical about the claims made by companies and their products and that (unfortunately)  it may be up to us to decipher truth from fiction when it comes to advertisements.

Revolution on NBC

I would also like to talk about Revolution this week. I started watching it about a week ago and I am not caught up with all 4 episodes thus far, and I have to say that I am enjoying it. The Pilot episode felt a bit rushed but it got a lot better from there. The Pilot wasn't bad, it was just they dove in head first with all of this information and and background info and what happened and why it happened (the power going out) and how everyone came to be. As someone who is into VFX, the one thing I was disappointed in was the plane crash in the beginning, it just looked odd, I feel like that is not how a plane would crash. Besides that, all of the matte painting and set extensions look incredible and they really made it feel as though you are in post apocalyptic America.

Another thing that I had a problem with was the look of some of the characters. Some of them look as though they just had a haircut and just put makeup on and have no cuts or blemishes whatsoever. I mean, it is after all 15 years after the power went out so they may have figured something out. But that does not take away from the story and what is happening so I can overlook that pretty easily.

Something that I really did like was the action sequences and the build up for a lot of them. I think they made the audience feel suspenseful during many parts and had enough action to entertain anyone and still have a good story.

It was recently picked up for a full first season of 22 episodes so obviously it is getting some good reviews considering that most TV shows don't even make it past their first season. I am going to try to watch every episode of the season and see how it turns out. Who knows, maybe it will become the next big thing.