For this audio assignment we had to record a clip from tv where a show used product placement. I went with the family dinner scene from Talladega Nights. In this 27 second Will Ferrel hilariously advertises for KFC, Domino’s, Taco Bell and most importantly of all, Walker Texas Ranger (or T.R. for short). I chose this because it is a satire of product placement. Later on in the scene he actually advertises for Powerade because his contract makes him legally obligated to say something about Powerade in every grace. Since that would have made my clip over two minuted I decided not to include it. This was an easy assignment, all I did was put Talladega Nights on my TV (Free on Fios on Demand) and recorded it with Audacity then posted to sound cloud.

New Girl has been one of my favorite shows since it started. I can really connect to lovable wierdo, Jess. However, I have also noticed that they have done numerous, shameless plugs for the Ford Fusion car. I mean compared to other promos in TV, they do it in a really cool, meta way. They feature the Ford Fusion car in such blatant, over-exaggerated ways that clue in the audience that they are in on the joke. The joke is basically that they are doing an advertisement within the realism of the New Girl universe . In one episode, one character goes on and on about how roomy and spacious the Ford Focus is. In another earlier episode, Jess subs in for Ceci as a car model for, you guessed it, a Ford Fusion. Some serious funny moments happen when her incredibly high, high-heels get stuck in the revolving stage. While Deschanel uses physical comedy for most of the schtick, the only audio playing is the speaker in the background going on for a solid two minutes about all of the features of the new Ford Fusion. Sneaky, sneaky…

This first audio assignment made me familiarize myself with the media site: SoundCloud. I’ve used it before but only a handful of times, as purely a listener. Some free remixes and covers were only available on SoundCloud for download so that was always my primary use for it. Never did I think I would be uploading my own content! To create this advertisement, I downloaded a Youtube video of a particular scene from the episode.

I used Keepvid to download the video onto my desktop and then uploaded it to iMovie as an audio file.

I saved it, found a thumbnail of Ms. Zooey Deschanel and uploaded it to SoundCloud.

What sets New Girl‘s advertisement from other product placements is that they let their viewers know that they are aware that it is silly to insert these promos at absurd moments. It almost normalizes it. I think its reminiscent of that famous scene in Wayne’s World where Wayne (Mike Meyers) is talking about how he would never sell out to corporate sponsors while holding up a Pizza Hut box, then a bag of Doritos and then a can of Pepsi. I think when we as consumers get a chance to laugh at the joke of advertising, rather than just having to accept these shameless promos, it feels a little less gimmicky and forced. It is exactly why I love New Girl and how their writers go about their advertising. So, I just went ahead and make their “subtle” product placement into an actual radio ad.

Assignment Rating:

http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/tv-product-placement-radio-ad/ (2 stars)

I did this assignment, but was kind of unsure of the directions that were given about it. I took a TV commercials words for a twix commercial and turned them into words instead of songs, I then said them “in my best radio voice” and made it a radio ad instead of a commercial with music. I love twix so that is why I chose this one! I hope I did the assignment right since the directions weren’t super clear, but the assignment seemed really fun.

Alright so I went ahead and found an advertisement for Snickers and translated it into radio. It was pretty easy… just imported the video into Audacity and there you go. To be more specific, I played the video and recorded it. Sups easy.

Thanks to Mr Bean for making the one of the best commercials I’ve ever seen. Where has this commercial been?!?!?!?!?!

this assignment is worth 2 stars- here is the LINK to the original assignment.

For this assignment I was a bit unsure about what clip I should use because nothing came to mind at first. However, there is a show called Hawaii 5-0 that I used to watch and I remembered the often shameless product placement they would have on occasion. For the ad that I did, the two detectives interview a lead who is more than happy to give his opinion on Subway sandwiches. Again, I used YoutubeMp3.com to covert the clips in mp3 format. Here are the two sources. 1. Hawaii 5-0 Scene  2. Subway Ad

I used Audacity to complete this assignment and uploaded by mp3 files where I then arranged them to coincide with one another. Since the TV scene complied the full length of the product placement there was very little editing needed. However on the Subway ad, I cut the vast majority of except for the final few seconds which included the Subway jingle. I then used the Time Shift Tool to add it on the end of the TV scene. Here’s a screenshot:

Assignment – 2 Stars