Billboards Galore: Spring Break Media

1. Over my spring break experience was getting acclimated to the environment in Florida. I realized that everything in the Orlando area revolves around the entertainment business (Disney and Universal for example). The one experience that affected me was the ownership of billboards in the sunshine state and around the US. I never realized the company logo's at the bottom of each billboard (CBS, Clear Channel, Disney). People can turn off a TV, Radio, or the Internet, but on the commute to work they can't really avoid the large billboards. This is just another way that big business seems to be providing messages to the masses. 2. In my use of the Triune Brain I put the neocortex into play by thinking about the messages each sign provides. 3. The persuasion techniques used were symbols, beautiful people, and hyperbole's. The symbols provided on the billboards were company logos that the American people know and trust. In terms of beautiful people Disney used a sign with a gorgeous women showing their new attraction, "American Idol." And there are many exaggerated claims made on these billboards (i.e. Come to Universal Studios and change your life forever!) that fit into the hyperbole category. 4. General Principales used in this form of media are ownership and emotional transfer. There are commercial motives being fullfilled and they are used to create knowledge of specific products. Emotions are transfered when viewing these signs because they display pictures like Shrek that excite little children and make adults smile at the sight of the big green fella. 5. And finally a media shift that sticks out to me is the technological shift. The media consumer sees a message as a plain image at first and most of these images have information about websites and online sources which lead the American consumer to surfing online and checking out the information provided.