Charlie Cowan's Communications

In this post, I will talk about the semiotics in Taco Bell's annual ad, "Steal A Base, Steal A Taco". These advertisements are from Delish  and 94.7 FM . The premise of each article is that a player in the World Series steals a base, then fans are given a free taco on a specific day chosen by Taco Bell. The sign in each article is each advertisement itself. The signified within the advertisement is the taco and the representative idea that you'll be awarded a taco if the player steals a base. If the player doesn't a base, then you won't be awarded a taco. The signified changes, however, as the signifier remains constant throughout the advertisements. The signifier is each is a "taco", because that is what we associate a taco with, especially in the fall, baseball fans associate tacos with stealing a base, winning a taco in the World Series. In the first advertisement, it highlights the taco outside a baseball. In the second advertisement, it isn...

For my example of gamification, I used an example of GottaGoGottaThrow, a disc golf store in Golden Valley, MN. GottaGoGottaThrow uses an online gamification reward system to encourage users to spend more to earn rewards. For every dollar you spend, you accumulate 1 reward point in your system. The first reward is 100 points, which is equivalent to a free disc! A principle of gamification would be co-production, the idea that when you engage with the rewards system, you need to spend more money to get a higher rewards system. For example, you need to spend more money to get more points and more rewards. This implementation works, because it incentivizes myself to spend more and shop more, thus, earning more rewards. Some concerns that some could have would be some may not understand that the rewards transfer both in store and online. Initially, I thought the rewards system was exclusive to the in-store platform. I didn't understand that the rewards system worked online as well. So...

Today, I will be talking about the prevalence of global media. When I was a kid, my sister and I played Mario Kart on the Wii, which was developed by Nintendo. Nintendo is a Japanese electronics company that has created various consoles, such as Wii and the Wii U. Mario Kart, which is one of the most popular Wii games of all time, is a racing game that uses various Mario characters from the Mario franchise. This content appealed to me, because it was a fun game that challenged me throughout the game. Mario Kart also had an option that you could use your "Mii", a customizable character offered by the Wii that will be your avatar. Once you reach a certain level throughout the game, you can upgrade to different tracks and different cars, which offer different incentives for their performance. Global culture is prevalent throughout, because it highlights different aspects of Japanese culture within the game through different areas. It teaches me that Mario Kart is respected and v...

Today, I will be talking about Media Economics. In the media and tech sectors, there are many horizontal and vertically integrated companies that exist. I will be talking about ESPN , one of the leading sports entertainment companies in the United States. Within the sports entertainment industries, there are multiple examples of vertical integration, which is when a parent company produces and creates all of it's original media through all of their channels. ESPN has multiple channels, including ESPN2, ESPN+, ESPNU and ESPNFC, which cover different content to feed the different demographics of sports fans. ESPN2 is geared towards providing non-traditional sports content, ESPN+ is an exclusive streaming service that provides exclusive content to its subscribers. ESPNU was created to give content to those who enjoy college sports, specifically college sports. Lastly, ESPNFC is created for all things soccer all year round. This market is very concentrated, especially with the addition...

Today, I will be talking about energy savings on my phone, the iPhone 7 Plus . The iPhone 7 Plus has various energy savings options. First, you can set auto-brightness which can adjust based on your location and the brightness of your surrounding area. This can be helpful, because it will save battery life and help preserve the energy on your phone. Secondly, there is a battery savings option on my phone that allows for saving energy by conserving your battery. However, I have noticed in the past that I have somewhat limited usage from enabling this feature. Next, closing your open windows after you are done using them helps save battery. Personally, I have closed over a dozen windows from apps I haven't used in days. These settings can be adjusted using the "Settings" app on your iPhone. Depending on which energy feature to use, these are somewhat difficult. If you don't know about the battery feature or closing the windows, you would have several windows opened up f...

I chose Vizio for my CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) report, because I have a Vizio TV in my apartment that is extremely reliable. Vizio uses an infographic to describe their recycling and waste programs. According to their infographic, Vizio reuses 100% of their recycled materials by sending them to third party recyclers and increasing their recycling production each year. They have also recycled over 238 million pounds of "collected electronic waste". They have also achieved the U.S. Environment Protection Agency's Silver Medal, which is awarded to the most reliable and environmentally friendly companies each year. To achieve a Silver Medal, a company needs to send at least 95% of all electronics by the end of the year to become eligible for the Silver Medal. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has strict requirements for recycling, which listing the names and locations of all recycling facilities used. Additionally, they also have an additional infographic ...