Washington Square

Here is an acoustic version of the Counting Crows' new single "Washington Square". How do you think Adam Duritz's hair speaks to popular culture? If the album is half as good as this song, looks like the new album "Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings" is going to be another must have from one of my all time favorite bands!

Way Out West

I was trying to think of an artifact that combined an icon of American contemporary culture with a myth that reflects the ideals of American society. As I struggled to find the appropriate artifact, as chance would have it, it appeared to me. Not in a vision or a thought playing out in my head, but there on my television screen. It was Jack, as in Jack in the Box, and the commercial for “Mini Sirloin Burgers”! Unfortunately or luckily, depending upon your point of view, you may not have had the pleasure to see or to eat at a Jack in the Box. For those uninitiated, Jack in the Box is a fast food franchise that traces its origins back to 1951 in San Diego, California that has prospered and grown to have outlets located in 18 states generally across the west and southwest. However, at one time or another I bet you all have had a jack-in-the-box toy as child that played "Pop Goes the Weasel" as you cranked the handle and whose lid would unexpectedly open letting escape an adorable clown that popped out to both your chagrin and amazement. The jack-in-the-box has taken its place in the culture of America, through comic books, children stories, television, and video games.

Jack, as in Jack Box, is the fictitious chief executive, a human-like “clown” of the franchise. Jack has been seen in many different situations over the years from the boardroom dressed in a coat and tie, to being hit and critically injured by a bus, as witnessed by millions during the 2009 Super Bowl. There have been 28 million antenna balls sold of Jack’s likeness along with more than 5 million other premiums. He has a Pez candy dispenser made with his round head atop, an honor bestowed on other fictional luminaries like Fred Flintstone, Santa Claus, and Batman. Jack even rang the opening bell at the Nasdaq Global Select Market (NASDAQ) (Jack In The Box Inc., 2009).

In this particular ad, Jack out west along with some little ranch hands finds himself riding horses, driving “cattle,” and at nightfall singing the praises of his restaurants new mini sirloin burgers around the campfire. This ad plays off the myth of the American West. The myth of the American West conjures up emotions of individuality, independence, the frontier spirit, an appetite for risk (who doesn’t need that when you make a quick pit stop at a fast food restaurant!), masculinity, and the sense of creating a new identity for oneself (University of Texas at El Paso, 2003). The myth often makes use of panoramic landscapes as employed in the opening frames of this advertisement, along with the proverbial cowboy. Here the Western myth is probably used to target males and a burger of “western” sirloin beef is portrayed to be of superior quality to just any old burger from back east. Through the use of the American West myth, we are captivated by the scenes and the jingle, one I must admit I find myself breaking into a chorus of the tune at all hours of the day.

But it is not only the myth of the American West that makes the viewer have an emotional connection with this commercial, it is the use of a iconic jack-in-the-box clown figure, which at its core makes us feel nostalgic, young at heart, and plain giddy like when we watched that clown pop out of the box as a toddler. Good commercials don’t always translate into good products, but this commercial for “Mini Sirloin Burgers” literally strikes a chord and captivates viewers! I need to go get something to eat!

References

Jack In The Box Inc. (2009). Fact sheets. Retrieved August 25, 2009, from http://www.jackinthebox.com/corporate/press-room/fact-sheets/

University of Texas at El Paso. (2003). The myth of the American west. Retrieved August 25, 2009, from http://faculty.utep.edu/LinkClick.aspx?link=Myth+of+the+West.ppt&tabid=57572&mid=130014

from youtube

Three Icons of Contemporary Pop Culture

There is no shortage of icons of contemporary pop culture today. Douglas Holt (2004, p. 1) describes icons as “anchors of meaning continually referenced in entertainment, journalism, politics and advertising.” As we embark into the second decade of the 21st century, three symbols considered important and representative of our American society’s ideals and values are President Barack Obama, the Toyota Prius automobile, and the Harley-Davidson Sportster motorcycle. Each is therefore an icon of popular culture, venerated and put on a pedestal with almost sacred status.


In the 2008 Presidential Election, more than half our country, almost 67 million Americans, believed that Barack Obama was a symbol of hope and change. They became emotionally attached to the man and his rhetoric. What the “symbol” of President Obama means to me is validation that American society has evolved from a nation of slaves and segregation, to a culture that is for the most part “colorblind” to the shade of one’s skin. He is affirmation that no longer should people of color use past wrongs as an excuse for decisions they make about how to live their lives. Agree with him or not, President Obama, as the leader of my country, is a symbol of democracy, freewill and opportunity.


The Toyota Prius too is an icon of American popular culture. As the world’s best-selling hybrid car, the Prius represents society’s desire to find lower-cost, greener alternatives to the gas-guzzling automobiles they prefer to drive. It turns out it was not a symbol of society’s commitment to making a positive ecological impact on the environment through natural resource conservation, but more a respite from $4 a gallon gasoline prices. For me, the Prius is an icon of how the automobile industry adapts to governmental constraints and develops a product that meets the stringent CAFE standards placed on them, even when it is not commercially feasible. It is a symbol of ingenuity and inventiveness.


My third example of a contemporary popular culture icon is the Harley-Davidson Sportster. In continuous production for 44 years, it is one of the world’s most popular motorcycles. To me the Sportster represents a toy for affluent baby boomers to get back in touch with their more youthful wild years. The Sportster delivers a sense of adventure and daring. It plays to the rebel in all of us, the James Dean in our souls. It is a way for us to connect with nature with nothing between the rider and the road except a 500 pound machine between their legs. To me it personifies a free spirit and a yearning to be unhindered.

References:

Holt, D. B. (2004). How brands become icons: The principles of cultural branding. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press

Is there Pop (Culture) in your kitchen?

Not too long ago my wife and I purchased and built a new home. We picked out plumbing hardware, flooring, paint colors, kitchen cabinets, and kitchen appliances. The most expensive upgrade option, and what our sales representative recommended we select, was the stainless steel appliance package. She said stainless steel appliances were what everybody wanted in their homes today, nothing else would suffice. It seems as though stainless steel appliances have become a popular culture icon of the day. But pop culture in many instances is a case of the tail wagging the dog. Big business, special interest groups and the media employ pop culture to influence public opinion and morality.


There is an unswerving chorus of pundits in the media today, with the backing of big business, espousing the virtues of stainless steel appliances. We are told that they are sleek, modern, easy to clean, stylish and will be the envy of all our house guests. Purchase stainless steel appliances and be someone you’re not, a master chef in the culinary castle of your kitchen. Each day I turn my television on to a show on how I should decorate my home, or what I should or shouldn't do to my home to get the most resale value for it. Stainless steel appliances are always on the list of what one should do. Shelter magazines, a publishing trade term for the segment of the magazine market with an editorial focus on interior design, architecture, home furnishings, and often gardening, show kitchen photo layouts with stainless steel appliances prominently featured. But will stainless steel appliances be just a fad, the gold and avocado appliances of the 60s and 70s? Do consumers really find them attractive, or do they just want to keep up with the Joneses after being programmed by the incessant media hype? The American populous in general has become a society of conformists who no longer can think on their own but look to the media, politicians, or whoever crosses their path, to tell them what they desire, how they should act, and what they should think.


Popular culture is democratic as Ray B. Browne (2005) posits in that if the public doesn't purchase what big business and the media feed us a steady diet of, then they circle their wagons to try another backdoor assault on our freewill. Popular culture may encompass all that surrounds us by providing society with a common palette of likes and dislikes, behaviors, beliefs, customs and tastes (Browne, 2005) to interact with each other. In an American society, self-consumed and neurotic about keeping up with the Joneses, there are unfortunately too many of us that prefer to see the emperor’s new clothes. In that framework , pop culture does not universally represent the overwhelming mindset of society, but is the fabrication of a few, malleably accepted and advanced by a duped public that fears being seen as idiosyncratic. It is then that popular culture becomes the diametric opposite of a true democratic process and is a hyperbole of what is acceptable and desirous to society as a whole.


I will not be made to feel guilty for purchasing black appliances for my home. I won’t wear my pants precariously close to succumbing to gravity and falling to the pavement. I won’t watch reruns of Will & Grace, Sex in the City, nor programming on ABC or HBO in general, two networks rated the most pro-homosexual by The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). Society cannot afford to be led by our noses, or our pocketbooks, by companies using popular culture as a vehicle, to do whatever it takes to sell their products of mass consumerism as a pretext for a way for us to find happiness and a better more interesting life. Symbols that glamorize, condone, and advance a particular agenda, be it stainless steel appliances, same sex marriage, gaudy bling, sexual promiscuity, the list goes on, may float within that common body of water that that is popular culture as Ray B. Browne (2005) describes it, but we must resist floating to the top as long as we have a breath left inside us and the will to be individuals. We cannot be sheep and accept for fact what is glamorized in the media and contorted into popular culture as acceptable behavior and the way most people live. We must swim against the current and be free thinkers to recapture a more wholesome popular culture of yesteryears, or be relinquished to continue on our journey to anarchy.

References

Browne, R. B. (Ed.). (2005). Profiles of popular culture. Madison, Wisconsin: The Popular Press.

An Artifact of Pop Culture

Popular culture is a vast continuum of dynamics that make up our daily lives. If one can truly define pop culture in a sentence or two, my definition of pop culture would be the symbols, beliefs, and values that a majority of people in a society are accepting of and which they find appealing. Ray B. and Pat Browne in Profiles of Popular Culture, categorized pop culture "as a model for the American Dream." My hope is that I fall somewhere on the far right fringes of that definition, because my American Dream is void of many facets of what is generally considered pop culture of today.

Pop culture has a relevancy to the business world as products must appeal to the masses to be commercially profitable. It is important to be able grasp what the masses find appealing and are accepting of in order to produce the goods and services that they will consume. A moral dilemma though surfaces as one must decide to join with the democratic majority and reap the monetary rewards of their mass consumption, or to conscientiously object and personally campaign to recruit at least one more soul to help tip the scale of acceptability to the side he or she finds more in tune with their own attitudes and tastes.

An artifact of pop culture is epitomized by the video of Miley Cyrus and the song The Climb. Cyrus truly fits the definition of being appealing and acceptable to a majority of people, not only in America but around the World. The Climb has been on 17 Top 100 singles charts from Australia to New Zealand according to acharts.us. The song has made its way onto not only the Pop, but the Country and Hot Adult Contemporary music charts too. She has a line of clothing at Wal-Mart and can be found gracing the covers of numerous magazines geared to children and adults alike. Miley has her own television series and performs to sold-out concerts across the country. The video contains images of popular clothing and dress, dancing, the American myth of the western lifestyle, and sexuality (even for a young women 16 years old). One can not escape this icon of popular culture.

from youtube

Still Undecided

It has been quite a few days since my last post and I am still not sure what I am meant to blog about. So I will just bring you up to speed about what is going on with me in my personal and professional life. I have been attending long-distance undergraduate classes at Franklin University in Ohio and working towards a BS in Operations and Supply Chain Management and an MBA. I have gotten several of my general education requirement classes and my business core classes behind me at this point. I am now ready to embark on the classes directly related to my major! I hope to graduate before I turn 50! Not sure if the ROI will be worthwhile, but at least I am learning something and keeping my mind sharp.

Summer has been brutal here in San Antonio this year. July was the hottest month on record! It has been very dry also and my grass is is feeling it. I am glad when we bought our house that we paid for the extra attic insulation and the radiant barrier! I think it has helped but I don't have any thing to compare our utility bills against other than the complaints from everybody about their bills. We have been thinking about getting a swimming pool, but it is almost too hot to swim and the water would feel more like bath water than a refreshing dip. Well fall is right around the corner and then winter and those are the months we moved to San Antonio for anyways!

You probably have heard that CNN reported that the recession is over. Well someone should tell the housing industry. Work is still quite slow but hopefully we have seen the bottom and are at least getting a little bounce. Unfortunately there are still too many foreclosures in the pipeline that will depress prices and mean lackluster new starts for months to come.

Well that kind of brings you up to speed on me. I will go back and try to come up with a more entertaining slant for this blog instead of just rambling on!