With the Olympic games taking place in China in 2008 and Canada in 2010, these nations are working to strengthen their brand images. It’s expected that the juxtaposition of these two countries will create discussions in how each national brand relates to the environment. Air pollution in cities is leading higher rates lung diseases, which has caused concerns amongst Olympic athletes who may withdraw from the event. China’s reputation suffered from lead paint in children’s toys, poisonous pet food and polluted cities. Concerns about the quality of China’s exports has resulted in a decline of China’s brand value. In contrast, Canada is seeking to base its national brand on sustainability. It wants to slow the extraction of its national resources and increase its brand value through quality.

Kellogg’s is staying ahead of consumer trends and competition by placing green banners that read “Organic” onto their iconic cereal boxes. By updating their brand they are staying current to the times to create new customers, while remaining familiar to its loyal customers.

Nintendo repositioned itself in the videogame market with the Wii. The Wii uses an innovative controller that creates a distinct gaming experience, which can only be found on the Wii. Instead of focusing on creating the most powerful gaming system, as its competitors Sony and Microsoft had, Nintendo leapfrogged them both to make itself visible to the consumer.

A new tactic in advertising being used is to blur the line between the advertising and the desirable content. These ads aren’t intended to just fill the holes between the content but be perceived and distributed as part of the content itself. Banners on myspace advertise ring tones and you’ll get a free ring tone if you’re able to slap the sumo’s belly faster than your opponent. These ads/games are often just as fun as the site itself and fits into the emotion experience that myspace creates. A company called Massive is developing ways to place ads into video games since young males are no longer being reached through television. Here a TV ad for Toyota uses the game World of Warcraft to advertise the emotional experience of driving a truck to young males. The truck battles a dragon and returns to the group with the dragon’s beating heart its bed, worthy of bragging rights. Dove created a string of commercials that proclaim themselves as films. The label of being a film is more positive than having the negative label of being a commercial.

Mr. & Ms. New Jersey

Bill Hicks has a sense of how humanity is evolving and he is unsentimental to the traditionalists. He finds empowerment in the weakening of tradition and believes their are new beliefs to be explored that are relevant to the times.


Kathy Griffin is unapologetic, unsentimental and it seems an atheist. She deviously sought to create controversy.

Words describing my choices
Unsentimental - facing facts or difficulties realistically and with determination
Evolving - to develop or achieve gradually
Empowerment - to invest with power
Relevant to the times
Social Commentary - the act of expressing an opinion on the nature of society
Unapologetic - unwilling to make or express an apology
Atheism - the doctrine that there is no God
Controversy - dispute, especially a public one, between sides holding opposing views
Devious - not straightforward

Runners up

Gloria Swanson, Billie Holiday, Pablo Picasso & Martin Scorsese

Thesis Statement (2nd attempt)

The aesthetic beauty of New Jersey is an unsentimental soliloquy of juxtapositions.

Macbeth: Is this a dagger

GOAL: To have an example of a soliloquy fixated on a single object.

Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppress'd brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before.