Harley Davidson - A community under brand

1. Yes, I believe that brand communities result in greater involvement with the brand. My step-dad used to own a Harley and every time he passed another owner they had this all knowing nod. The Harley community is wide spread across the world. There are movies made with two Harley riders driving from the bottom of South America to Alaska. The brand is more than its name. Its starting to become a way of life. Many Harley owners get together just to ride their bikes for 2 hours. Its a way to bond with others and also get away from life and be free. Even when bikers are not riding, they are wearing Harley gear that sets them apart from other people.

2. Yes, The Posse Ride enhances the meaning of the brand. A reason for this is the Oath the riders must take. This brings them together as a group of bikers. They solidify friendships through storytelling of different events with their Harley's. The Posse Ride brings strangers with a common shared interest together as friends. The Harley groups is just a large group of friends believing freedom that Harley provides.

3. Harley could be more involved, as in making it easier for the bikers to meet. They could make use of social media to connect more bikers that would, ultimately, join the large rides. If the company became too involved it would definitely dilute the progress that they have made. The rides wouldn't seem freeing and wouldn't be as enjoyable because a large company would be overseeing a lot of it. It should be largely up to the bikers because they need to be free to make the decisions of the rides or else the brand's meaning would fall apart with company interference.

4. Harley could increase involvement by making it easier for bikers to meet each other because many bikers may not know about the Posse Ride. The ones who don't are missing out in a chance to share stories and connect with others. Harley needs to make sure to expand the news about the Posse Ride but not so much that people outside the brand know about it. It should be a Harley exclusive group in order to preserve the community.

Tide Ad...Day in the Life of....Emma

A young, stay at home mom named Emma who has two boys named Jacob, 5 years old, and Jeremy, 7 years old; begins her morning by waking up at 6:30 AM by her internal clock. She begins her day by making her Folgers coffee for her and her husband, Max, before he heads off to work. She wakes her children up and begins making them breakfast composed of Cheerios and milk. As they are eating their breakfast, she makes their bagged lunches of Jiff Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches, carrot sticks, and sliced apples. She and her boys dress in Target brand or Eddy Bower brand clothes. She drives her boys to their public school in her Hybrid Honda SUV. When she returns home, she takes their dog, Buddy, the Golden Retriever for a morning walk. She takes a quick shower with her BB green products. After she gets out, she begins on her large load of laundry with her green Tide detergent. She shoves the load into her GE brand washers and dryers that use less water. After she finishes laundry, Emma watches her Telenovelas, Amor Mio, as she munches down on her chicken salad for lunch. After her lunch, she drives over to pick the kids up from school and take them home, in order, to make dinner on time for when Max's Hybrid Honda Civic pulls up. For dinner, Emma prepares grilled chicken with asparagus. The family watches ABC sitcoms as the Max and the kids clean up from dinner. Her day ends by tucking her kids into their beds with fresh sheets and Emma climbing into her own bed with Max.

Laserdics - product flop

The laserdisc came out in the late 70's and was advertised as offering better quality video viewing abilities. At the time these advertisements were true. The laserdisc was just an over sized cd as we would see it today. The product was to rival VHS and betamax videocassette systems. The reason for the flop was because it just didn't attract many people in the United States. It seemed to become popular in Japan but was irrelevant in Europe and Australia. People believed it was too expense for the product and then to buy all the different laserdisc in order to use it. This product was not accepted by the majority of people and fell out of favor fast. Another reason as to why people didn't buy it was because half way through the movie, you had to flip the disc over to continue to the last half. Why do that when a VHS had all of the material on one cassette?

Greenpeace showing the darker side of things

Greenpeace is an organization that focuses on being green towards our planet. They want to diminish the oil the seeps into the ocean, put a big focus on global warming, and fix the pollution we put in our air. They really hooked me with their advertisement for Volkswagen's environmental opposition. Volkswagen is not keeping up with the environmental laws that Greenpeace is pushing forth. The company has not produced a fuel efficient car with their concept. They seem to refuse to be green. Greenpeace is really cracking down hard on VW because they are the largest car company in Europe and if they begin to change that will start a chain reaction of all car companies to have reliable fuel efficient cars.

Greenpeace is a great organization because it is made up of many different people from different backgrounds. Some are dedicated younger folks just wanting to make a difference and some are older people donating money for a good cause. Greenpeace uses a lot of its energy into showing the dangers of oil companies sucking the life blood out of the Earth.

Rose Petal Gender Stereotyping

The Rose Petal Playhouse was very stereotypical of girls. The producers believed that all girls want to do is play house. I'm a girl and I never wanted to do that but I see that stereotype being placed on my little sister. For her birthday, she asked for a kitchen, shopping cart, and baby dolls. She got all of these. Along with the shopping cart, she received a bunch of little plastic vegetables and fruits. For the kitchen, it was a light purple color with little flowers around the edges. Along with the baby dolls, she also got a stroller. She plays house everyday. She puts her baby in the cart and pretends to go to the grocery store to buy food for dinner that she cooks us on her little kitchen. She doesn't like to play other games that boys would play. She loves playing house and cooking for her family. I honestly hope that she becomes a chef and cooks for us when she gets older. The Rose Petal Playhouse just shows us how we start to set up our children for their lives later. We want them to know the gender differences. Women cook, clean, take care of babies - domestic activities. Men fight dragons, drive off road, fly helicopters, play with action figures, and play violent video games - manly activities.