Recently in class we watched King Corn. A film about two guys who decide to grow corn on an acre of land for a year to see the whole process of exactly what happens to corn from start to finish. In the film they discovered that a major part of the corn crop goes to making high fructose corn syrup. This syrup is used in a wide variety of products. In fact, if you go down to the local gas station or walk through a grocery store, a majority of the food there contains this corn syrup. Even the beef we eat is most likely corn fed beef. This might not be so disconcerting if this high fructose corn syrup was good for us. However, our bodies can't break down large quantities of this syrup. Since its in a large quantity of our foods we have a high intake of it. This disturbed me. If you look at a majority of the juices or sodas you will find that it contains high fructose corn syrup. Statistics show that if you drink one pop a day you are two times more likely to get diabetes that someone who doesn't drink much pop. This is due to partially to the corn syrup. That's a scary fact.
After class I went home and turned on the tv. As if to combat the information I just saw in king Corn a commercial came on. The commercial was a couple sitting in a park. The woman offers the man a bit of a pop sickle and he says, "I thought you loved me." So she said then have two bites. The man says, "don't you know that has high fructose corn syrup in it? You know what they say about high fructose corn syrup don't you?" "No, what do they say?" He doesn't have a response, showing he really doesn't know a whole lot about it. So she goes on to explain that its a cheap substitute to sugar and that its ok for you in moderation. Now given what I just saw in the movie this is kind of ironic. Ok so its good for you in moderation, but its in most of our products. We consume large amount of corn syrup with out consciously knowing it. What does that mean? How can I consume high fructose corn syrup in moderation when its in so many products?
This just shows you the efforts of a company to keep up its profits. The public is leery about high fructose corn syrup so they have to put out a video to convince consumers its ok. The market can been so manipulative its scary. This commercial definitely cries out for the empire, trying to convince the consumption of high fructose corn syrup. If you don't pay attention they will pull the wool over you eyes.
Here's the commercial:
Update (rob vg-r): Here's a response from the King Corn guys:
23 January 2009
Griffins Game
On Wednesday I went to the Grand Rapids griffins hockey game against the Toronto Marlies. It was an exciting game and the Griffins won the game in overtime. Even though the game of hockey is a sport it was still very clear that the league is a business at heart and its main purpose is to make money and they were extremely creative in how they went about trying to accomplish this.
There were all kinds of advertising techniques used some of which I had never even seen before and I have been watching professional hockey since I can remember. Before the puck (which was delivered to the referee by a pharmacist on skates) was even dropped the team’s mascot Griffin came flying out of the zamboni entrance on a shiny new all-terrain utility vehicle which he drifted around the ice as an another mascot threw t-shirts out into the stands. Everything was sponsored by someone, from the instant replays shown on the jumbo-tron to the crazy events performed by fans during the intermission to win prizes. The team even had invented their very one Griff Gatlin Gun, which I will admit was pretty sweet, as it spun rapidly shot t-shirts high into the stands, which advertised a cosmetology school. Also during that same intermission various coupons were dropped from the rafters and rained down on the fans like confetti. With all this going on alongside the game it’s not hard to notice that we live in a very capitalist empire.
Music was also a key part in attending the hockey game. It was used quite effectively to invoke a wide variety of emotions in the fans depending on the circumstance and even creating a creating a greater sense of community as a result. In the case that the griffins scored a loud exciting song would be played alongside the goal horn, which would create a real sense of excitement among the fans and in turn them cheer louder. If the opposing team gets a penalty and is arguing the call with the referee something like “Hit the Road Jack” wouldn’t be unusual or if on the other hand a Griffin’s player received a penalty that the fans didn’t agree with a song would be played that gave the referee a hard time like “Why Don’t You Get a Job?” by The Offspring. In virtually every situation a suitable song would be played, if there was a fight the start of “Eye of the Tiger” might have been played, all of which not only served to stir up the fans emotions, but also as a result everyone got into the game more, which created as sense of community among the people who were rooting for the same cause as you, and not to mention a much greater atmosphere.
Music was not the only tool used to create a greater sense of community among the fans, there were many other tools used, even some of the promotions served this purpose in some way and there were some things that were done solely for the entertainment of the fans because if the are not entertained they won’t come back and the team will lose money. For example they did the “kiss cam”, which will focus on a couple (most times) and they will have to kiss on the camera, this seems like a simple exercise, but it can be surprisingly entertaining like when the cameraman gets a smart idea and focuses the camera on two Marlies players beside each other on the bench. Everything done during the game, even the game itself, is a direct result of the empire and capitalism, which, in this case, I would argue is a good thing as it makes for an extremely entertaining experience.
There were all kinds of advertising techniques used some of which I had never even seen before and I have been watching professional hockey since I can remember. Before the puck (which was delivered to the referee by a pharmacist on skates) was even dropped the team’s mascot Griffin came flying out of the zamboni entrance on a shiny new all-terrain utility vehicle which he drifted around the ice as an another mascot threw t-shirts out into the stands. Everything was sponsored by someone, from the instant replays shown on the jumbo-tron to the crazy events performed by fans during the intermission to win prizes. The team even had invented their very one Griff Gatlin Gun, which I will admit was pretty sweet, as it spun rapidly shot t-shirts high into the stands, which advertised a cosmetology school. Also during that same intermission various coupons were dropped from the rafters and rained down on the fans like confetti. With all this going on alongside the game it’s not hard to notice that we live in a very capitalist empire.
Music was also a key part in attending the hockey game. It was used quite effectively to invoke a wide variety of emotions in the fans depending on the circumstance and even creating a creating a greater sense of community as a result. In the case that the griffins scored a loud exciting song would be played alongside the goal horn, which would create a real sense of excitement among the fans and in turn them cheer louder. If the opposing team gets a penalty and is arguing the call with the referee something like “Hit the Road Jack” wouldn’t be unusual or if on the other hand a Griffin’s player received a penalty that the fans didn’t agree with a song would be played that gave the referee a hard time like “Why Don’t You Get a Job?” by The Offspring. In virtually every situation a suitable song would be played, if there was a fight the start of “Eye of the Tiger” might have been played, all of which not only served to stir up the fans emotions, but also as a result everyone got into the game more, which created as sense of community among the people who were rooting for the same cause as you, and not to mention a much greater atmosphere.
Music was not the only tool used to create a greater sense of community among the fans, there were many other tools used, even some of the promotions served this purpose in some way and there were some things that were done solely for the entertainment of the fans because if the are not entertained they won’t come back and the team will lose money. For example they did the “kiss cam”, which will focus on a couple (most times) and they will have to kiss on the camera, this seems like a simple exercise, but it can be surprisingly entertaining like when the cameraman gets a smart idea and focuses the camera on two Marlies players beside each other on the bench. Everything done during the game, even the game itself, is a direct result of the empire and capitalism, which, in this case, I would argue is a good thing as it makes for an extremely entertaining experience.
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