What Makes a Good Commercial?

The Super Bowl is much more than just about football — it has become a widely anticipated advertising blitz that costs companies close to $5 million for a 30-second commercial. Every year advertisers roll out what they hope will be the cleverest, funniest and most memorable commercials. 

 What do you think makes a good commercial?

What techniques do advertisers use to get what they want?

 What was your favorite Super Bowl commercial this year?  Your least favorite?

 How do this years commercials compare to the past?

 What about the ads that weren't shown? Does getting a 'banned' commercial still sell your product?

Do you think you could do better than the 'Mad Men?'

Words Matter

President Donald Trump delivered his first State of the Union address Tuesday night (Jan. 30), stressing growth in the economy during his first year in office, his stance on immigration and ramping up the battle against terrorism. He rarely strayed from his script and made a point to praise several individuals he deemed "the best of America."

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune placed text of the Trump's address in a word cloud generator, which filtered out articles, pronouns, as well as common and modal verbs to determine the 100 most frequently used words in his speech. It generated the image above -- the bigger the word appears, the more often it was used.

Our words matter. It's not how much you say, but it's making what you say count. Are your words making an impact or is it just chatter? Are you contributing to the conversation or trolling? Right now, there is a lot of noise out there that, unfortunately, is drowning out real, constructive conversations. Political correctness is dead and has been replaced by a spare-no-feelings, tell-it-like-it-is attitude. I'm not a fan mainly because, as a communicator, I understand that it's not so much what you say as how you say it. Being politically correct doesn't mean that you can't or shouldn't speak truth, it is just the recognition that I need to take other people's feelings and dignity into account when I speak. I value frankness as much as anyone, but our words carry more impact if they are not weighed down by rudeness and baseless stereotypes.

Click the link below to watch the video on 'Active Listenting' and practice your skills.

The Difference Between Reflective & Active Listening - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

Do you think you are a better listener than the late Jerry Lewis?  Take the 'Announcers Test.'

For Fake's Sake: The Dangers of Fake News

There's a whole industry dedicated to producing fake US news in Macedonia -- and it's gearing up for 2020. (Source: CNN)

Fake news isn’t new, but it’s provoking division and distrust, both in institutions and amongst ourselves. Fake news isn’t always political, but it’s almost always personal. And guess what? Anyone can fall for it. Even you.

What are the dangers of 'Fake News' and what can we do to protect ourselves?

What is Current Events?

What do you think was THE most improtant event of 2017? Why?

1) What made these events Headlines?

2) What similarities or differences did these events share?

3) Which do you think is the most important? Least?  Why?

4) What predictions can you make up about the events we will study this year?

Sweet Home Alabama

There are two major historical principles about Alabama that grow from our distant history. One is, 'We dare defend our rights,' which is the state motto, and it's sort of a bunker mentality where you think the world is against you. Everybody hates you. Everybody makes fun of you. And so, understandably, what you end up with is a bunker mentality.

And the other characteristic was that blacks need to know what their place is, and they need to stay in their place. And so it was about not allowing Yankees to put you down and not allowing blacks to participate in the political process. ... Alabama politics begins and pretty much ends with race.

Listen to the rest of the story.

'WHATABOUTISM': The President & Pocahontas

Yesterday President Trump made a joke about 'Pocahontas' while supposedly honoring a group of Navajo Code Talker WWII heroes.  Many, including his guests, took to it as a racial slur.

Pocahontas was immortalized in the Disney animated tale of romance between a young American Indian woman named Pocahontas (Irene Bedard) and Capt. John Smith (Mel Gibson), who journeyed to the New World with other settlers to begin fresh lives. Her powerful father, Chief Powhatan, disapproves of their relationship and wants her to marry a native warrior. Meanwhile, Smith's fellow Englishmen hope to rob the Native Americans of their gold.

Can Pocahontas' love for Smith save the day?

Should she have?  How would the Indians be treated in the wake of Colonization? Westward Expansion?

Why is it IRONIC that Native Americans would once again help the United States in WWII?

How did White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders struggle to Defend Trump’s ‘Pocahontas’ Jab?

This tactic is called "whataboutism," a fallacy with roots in old Soviet propaganda that shifts any given topic to another, potentially irrelevant one. It implies that all actions regardless of context share a moral equivalency, And since nobody is perfect, all criticism is hypocritical and everyone should do whatever they want ... It doesn't solve a problem or win an argument. The point is just to muddy the waters, which just makes the other side mad.

The most famous recent example was Trump's reaction to the alt-right rally in Charlottesville. When a neo-Nazi intentionally drove a car into a mass of people and killed protestor Heather Heyer, Trump responded by looking for equal fault on the other side.

Take a look at these other examples.

Do two 'wrongs' make a 'right?'  What do two 'Wrights make?'

Ernie Pyle

Ernest Taylor Pyle (August 3, 1900 – April 18, 1945) was a Pulitzer Prize–winning American journalist. As a roving correspondent for the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain, he earned wide acclaim for his accounts of ordinary people in rural America, and later, of ordinary American soldiers during World War II. His syndicated column ran in more than 300 newspapers nationwide.

At the time of his death he was among the best-known American war correspondents. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for his spare, poignant accounts of "dogface" infantry soldiers from a first-person perspective. "No man in this war has so well told the story of the American fighting man as American fighting men wanted it told", wrote Harry Truman. "He deserves the gratitude of all his countrymen."

Listen to Jon Voigt read Ernie Pyle

How did John Hersey differ from Ernie Pyle?

Why is the book Hiroshima still so important today?