Major bummer dude...

First off, I'd like to apologize to any readers who also happen to be in my class for making you do this assignment, but you get to read Cracked articles, and that's always fun.

Except in this case, however.  Cracked almost always has hilarious articles relating to everything from narcotics to fish to spy gadgets, and has a tendency to build and title articles around a "List", such as the 7 Biggest Reasons that Squids will Take Over the Planet (I just made that one up).

The story goes that I was reading through a couple of Cracked articles after/during working on some homework assignments.  As always, the clever and somewhat raunchy humor had put me in a pretty fantastic mood, until I stumbled on the little patch of shadow that is the article in question.  Go ahead, read it and be depressed like I was.

I couldn't help but feel terrible after reading this article, like someone had kicked my puppy on my birthday and stolen all my presents.  Reading this really broke my mood, and it felt horribly out of place in such an environment.  There was no warning, no disclaimer that this would be a much more serious and dark read than what we're used to seeing there.

I'm not saying that these types of articles, even on humor blogs/websites, aren't ok.  It's just that the writer needs to be able to blend it in seamlessly with the rest of his works instead of letting it slap you in the face with your own wallet, which it just stole.

Is this the new stereotype?

Starting in the 80s and continuing even to the present day is some genres, women in music videos have largely been objectified and shown as nothing more than hunks of meat or livestock to be bought, sold, and used at the buyers discretion.  The video I'm about to show you, however, seems to diverge from this path of sexism, and usher in something new, though still slightly unsettling.  Take a look.

Watch the young Hispanic woman in the video, and the elderly woman earlier on.  Pathetic, aren't they?  It's a harsh statement, but one that is ultimately true.  The elderly woman has taken an entirely submissive role, seeming content to weep in one short frame and then later on in the background, once more relegated to being nothing more than scenery.  The second woman almost mocks the conventions of music videos.  A flash of her bra is seen after we watch her try to rub something (lipstick?) off of her face in a disturbingly sensuous fashion.

This is definitely different than most things we've seen before, but does it break the stereotype?  Hardly.  It just lets us look at it from a unique and undeniably dark point of view.

What is this? I don't even...

Most people, myself included, have a tendency to filter out advertisements wherever we may see them.  They become that much more white noise or background, or even just a quickly flipped page.  While this may seem convenient to most (OK, to ALL), this does give us a tendency to miss almost everything about said ads.  It's only when you really take a closer look at that obnoxious image, and start to delve into it's inner meaning that you truly say "Um... What the f*ck?"

Take this, for example.

So it's a hairy camel man smoking a Camel cig.  Redundant?  Yes, yes it is.  But lets just go over exactly what we see.

Our subject, despite being an animal that spits, is smoking and assuming a very masculine and "cool" posture, complete with tight black shirt and jeans that probably make is genitalia cry.  Behind him is some kind of vintage convertible, polished to an awe inspiring gleam.  Obviously he's the focus of the picture, and it drips with masculinity, but on closer inspection of his nose we see a very obvious phallic symbol.  Creepy, and kind of disgusting when you think about the fact that this was probably in a men's magazine.

Like most smoking ads, this one is trying to make the reader think that smoking is cool (and won't turn you into a camel).  You'll look better, be cooler, and have a nice car if you smoke!  Really, it's true!

This Advertisement really reinforces the focus on outer beauty in this country, though in a different way than the ultra thin super models that occasionally flit about our vision.  Guys are expected to be tough, slick, smooth, and never make mistakes (or have interests that go against the social norm).  So the moral of this story is to start smoking, dress well, buy a nice car, and date a woman who weighs about 60lbs.  Cool story bro.

BEER! (And advertising)

So, I've never been much on advertisements, but in all honesty this one really caught my eye.  For the most part, I generally just ignore commercials and write them off as filler in between the shows that I'm watching, and I almost never buy anything I see on TV.  This, however, was a huge exception, and it introduced me to what has become one of my favorite beers.

Check out the most interesting man in the world.

Watch the glory of this man, and his beer.  Go ahead, I'll wait.

Back?  Cool.

After seeing this commercial (and reaching the ripe old age of 21) I decided to follow in the footsteps of the most interesting man in the world and try Dos Equis.  I mean, I would like to think I'm pretty damn interesting if I do say so myself.  The beer its self is fantastic, but what initially drew me to it's wonderful brew was this fascinating bearded man.

Remember, stay thirsty my friends.  And comment on my blog!