When I was growing up, my parents often told me to stay away from those people who had tattoos. During that period, people with tattoos were portrayed as gang members/leaders, or bad company by many television drama series. At that time, I tend to avoid any contact with people who had multiple tattoos. However, even in Hong Kong movies today, gang leaders/members are still portrayed as having a body full of tattoos, or at least have a big dragon tattoo to symbolize power.
In the modern world however, tattoos are being portrayed as something cool and as an art form. Is it because of the western cultural influence? I would say so. Programs like Miami Ink are one of those that try to promote tattoos as a form of body art. They let the viewers into the lives of these people when they are at work to see what they do and what kind of people they are, as well as to see who their clients are and their requests. From the show, we can see that these tattoo artists, although have so many tattoos on themselves, do not fall into the old stereotype as being “bad people”. One of the guys (Yoji) even got married and they showed the beach wedding in one of their episodes. These tattoo artists treat their jobs very seriously and really want to promote tattoos as a form of art. Not to mention that they are very talented too.
Cast of Miami Ink
I feel that they successfully showed the various reasons for wanting a tattoo in the show. It is mainly for remembrance. It can be a very personal reason - like a loved one passed away, a pet died, or symbols to represent a friendship or relationship with a particular someone, or just something to remind yourself of what happened in the past. These were the general reasons why people got tattoos (and most of them custom made). Some stories were very touching too.
I would think Miami ink has been successful and thus London has decided to do a London Ink as well. Maybe a chain of these “Ink” programs will surface after awhile, further promoting the image of tattoos in other parts of the world.
Because Singaporeans have been influenced by many different cultures especially the western one, youngsters find tattoos cool and trendy. So have times changed? Are tattoos more widely accepted? Or are there still certain stereotypes that will always stay around? Is this a global change or a cultural perspective?
This week I’m going to introduce a TV show I find pretty interesting. I personally like to watch “food” shows, like “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations” and “Nigella Express” with Nigella Lawson, as well as other food shows like “Take home chef” and Jamie Oliver’s series of cooking shows on Discovery Travel and Living (channel 16 on your scv box).
This show however, not only catches my attention but also makes me cringe sometimes. Bizarre Foods – a fusion of travel and cooking show. It is hosted by Andrew Zimmern. He travels around the world in search of the traditional and weird foods of various countries and cultures. However, unlike some food shows, this programme shows its viewers the country, the people, its history, as well as natural and architectural artifacts. It not only tells you about the food, but it also tells you how a country’s culture and history “can be seen and tasted through their food”. Also, Andrew is in search of the more unusual indigenous foods unique to their culture.
I have to say, this programme has a great combination of intercultural communication, mass media, and interpersonal communication. In the following clips, you should be able to see these three communications at work.
In this following clip we can see the introduction to Philippines, showing its landscape, people, and their way of life.
Balut – makes me cringe because the embryo is already formed. Colors don’t look appetizing too. And to some people it is just disgusting. However, it is similar to something the Taiwanese eat – egg with formed embryo. But I cant remember if it was chicken or duck.
In the next clip, we can see some finger foods that people of the Philippines eat.
Some people might think it is cruel to kill baby chickens at such a young age. But it was interesting to know that its bones were soft and could be eaten whole. Ice cream – concept is similar to the one we have in Singapore. We use bread or waffle pieces, not hamburger buns though. We have yam ice cream in Singapore but cheese ice cream was interesting because I haven’t really seen it. The only one I’ve seen was Ben and Jerry’s Cheesecake ice cream. However to Andrew Zimmern, this is relatively new as hamburger buns were mainly used for meat in the western countries. And that yam and cheese ice cream were unknown and unusual to him. Therefore I might conclude that whether we find anything unusual very much depends on our culture and whether we’ve seen it before and accept it.
For people in Ecuador, guinea pigs are treated as the national food and a more expensive delicacy. For those who keep guinea pigs as pets, they might think it is cruel and not right to eat them coz they are so cute as shown by the clip. But I guess it’s the same with dogs in china. Pets? Or food? Might want to share some of YOUR thoughts on this matter.
What I find ironic is that the lady was stroking the guinea pig she was holding (they were going to eat it afterwards) while the guy was holding his by the neck. Pretty uncomfortable for the guinea pig there as it was squirming about. >.<
At the end, we could see a cultural procedure being taught to Andrew as to how to eat the brain of the guinea pig. “It is the way” as said by the lady, a kind of cultural/traditional practice of the people – by sucking it out of its skull.
So what do YOU think about this television programme? Enlightening? Or just plain weird? Share YOUR views and opinions! =P
This ad caught my attention when it was shown on television:
This is another ad with a similar theme:
I feel that with vibrant colors, interesting technological animations with visible details, coupled with different genre’s/types of music and making them sound good together, the ads are effective in communicating what they want to deliver.
The first ad we can see it was shown on the MTV channel. Someone watching it for the first time might think it was just another ad for the MTV channel to promote music. On the other hand, it could also have been an ad for headphones (eg.. from Sony or other music companies), or even a radio station.
I have to say, the ad catches attention. And I feel that it is mainly targeted at the younger generation. People might wonder what the ad wants to tell its viewers throughout the advertisement. But at the end, with the commentary and texts, along with the image of the phones and the Nokia brand, makes people go “ohhh, it’s a new phone” or “wow, that’s so cool!”. However, the ad focuses mainly on the music function of the phone and doesn’t show or tell you about any other functions that the phone possesses.
As I said earlier, it appeals to the younger generation mainly because they would be more attracted to these new devices as well as appealing to people who like music and who use their phones often to listen or even make music. The two slogans “Celebrate Your Sound” and “Nokia XpressMusic. Do the Music.” I feel are good representations of what they wish to tell their viewers. Nokia wants to convey the message that these phones are different from others in the sense that you can create your own music or remix available tunes into you own personal style. In both advertisements we can see that they played individual tunes and tempos and then mixed them together at the end. Thus portraying that you can mix and match whatever you like (diff sounds and beats) to create you own unique sound. I personally felt that was an interesting marketing strategy.
What about you? What do YOU think of this ad? Share some thoughts! =)
Cast of Miami Ink
