Zoe Maggio's Blogs

5/7/19 ` As we have been analyzing commercials and ads in class, I have been looking at commercials I see so often every day in a much different way. I look at the actors used, the voice over/music, the setting, and the overall message. After we spent a class watching commercials, I remembered an ad Mr.Masincupp once showed us in his class, Gillette’s “We Believe: The Best Men Can Be.” I really admire this ad and think it does a great job of making a memorable commercial for a viewer that ensures they will remember it. Unlike others, this commercial doesn’t talk about the product at all, and doesn’t even show men shaving their face at any point. Instead, it focuses on making a video that conveys a strong and important theme. The video starts off on men’s faces of all different ethnicities.Then, we see footage of a boy being chased by bullies, two little boys fighting on the ground, a boy crying to his mom after being bullied, men assaulting women, etc. These videos made ...

5/7/19 As I’m sure we all are aware of by now, the Met Gala took place today, May 7th. The Met Gala is a well-known fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This event takes place the first Monday of May every year, and is arguably the biggest event of the year. Since 1946, the Met Gala has been a high class event that all the biggest celebrities are expected to be at, and iconically dressed. This event puts on a lot of pressure for the celebrities themselves as well as the designers that dress them. It is ultimately a huge fashion show for the biggest name brands like Versace, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Marc Jacobs, and so many more. In a way, this event can be a major marketing opportunity for these brands, as if they didn’t make enough money already. For example, this year Serena Williams, one of the hosts, wore a beautiful long yellow dress. On the Met Gala’s instagram they posted a picture of her and clearly stated the dress was made by Versace. Serena Williams is...

4/30/19 In The Persuaders, Starbucks was given as an example as a company that uses lovemarks to advertise and build their business. As I watched the movie, I realized that as odd as it sounds Starbucks is probably one of the closest businesses I have connected with that has created a sense of loyalty like no other brand or company. Ironically, I don’t even drink coffee, and I don’t think it’s their drinks or food that has brought me so close, but the environment of Starbucks that makes me feel so comfortable. Throughout my life, I have lived in three different houses, and in all three, I have lived within  five minute walk to a Starbucks. It became tradition that every Saturday morning my dad, sisters, and I would walk to Starbucks and we have been doing it for as long as I can remember. The employees at Starbucks have become so close with us that they know our names and orders, which makes us feel even more welcome as customers. Starbucks has strategically loc...

 4/29/19 Justin Bieber, a 25 year old singer and influencer is by far my favorite artist and always has been. He has been successful and hardworking in his career from the start when he was just 13 years old. I have been following his life through social media, news articles, radio stations, and anything his name was in for almost the past ten years. It seems crazy that I can know so much about a person I have never met, feel so close to him, and yet he could be a person nothing like the figure I have carved out for him to be. I have watched him through his peak, his ups and downs, and more recently I have noticed him becoming more and more open about his life through social media. About three years ago Justin was on tour for his album, Purpose, and I had the chance to see him live in Los Angeles. About a week before his concert, he announced he was depressed because of the tour and the pressure he felt to make others happy. He decided to end his tour about a month...

4/22/19 4/22/19 Last night I was watching a movie, mid90s, that was recently written and directed by Jonah Hill. The movie takes place in East Oakland, California during the mid 90s, and focuses on a group of four skaters and a little boy that looks up to them and eventually becomes a part of their close-knit group. Every member of the group goes through struggles that many go through today: abusive family, drug addiction, poverty, and loss of family members. Yet, all the boys come together to skate and use it as an escape from whatever they are going through. The main character, nicknamed “sunburn,” is the youngest character, looking for a getaway from his violent brother and immature mother. While on a bike ride through his neighborhood, he sees a group of boys skating a store and smiles while he watches them. Later that night, he spends hours teaching himself to skate, falling, and getting back up every time. He clearly is determined and it later pays off. S...

4/22/19 As many of us are aware, on April 15th, the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris caught on fire. This was a tragic event that I heard about on many platforms of media: radio stations, instagram, snapchat, the news, and pretty much all over the internet. I saw posts of people saying how sad it was, people trying to raise money to rebuild it, but most interesting to me people criticizing those trying to spend millions of dollars to rebuild it. The point is valid, that there are many other problems in the world like starving children, shortage of water, and climate change that could definitely put the millions of dollars to a more valuable cause. This event has caused a lot of controversy and drew attention to some of the issues our planet is suffering. I looked into two news sources that had articles on the Notre Dame fire: Infowars and AP. Infowars , according to the infographic, is nonsense and damaging to public discourse. Their headliner for the article on the fire is ...

As many other teenagers my age would say, I think my relationship with media is overwhelming and unhealthy. I find that in any free time I have,  between classes, at home, or in the car, I resort to my phone to connect with others and see what my friends are doing. Since I was a toddler, the media has shaped my life in ways stronger than I prefer through television shows, news, the radio, and most importantly for me, my phone. For example, one of my favorite shows growing up, Hannah Montana , which I watched at least five out of seven days of the week had a big influence on me as a child. It made me want to have blonde hair, live in a big beach house, and have a closet full of new clothes and shoes that spins and is bigger than the size of my room now. Not to discredit Hannah Montana and the good morals she had taught me like loyalty to my friends and family and how “nobody’s perfect,” but I think I’d be ignorant to believe that her lifestyle didn’t have any infl...