Media Views: July 2009 Archives

In a recent Slate article, Grady Hendrix argues that vampires in contemporary literature and mass media seem even paler than usual.  What was once portrayed as a bloodthirsty -- and even evil -- creature (largely in part to Bram Stoker) is now a "brooding, crying-on-the-inside, leather-jacketed emo boy" who no longer always shuns sunlight, but most definitely shuns human blood. 

Pointing a finger at Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Angel and Twilight's Edward Cullen, Hendrix claims that this growing "sensitive-vampire industry" may send teens, especially young women, conflicting messages about gender roles, sex, and relationships.

In his Slate article, Jonah Weiner argues that three things have helped spur on the "music-mag death march":

1. The shrinking pool of monolithic stars
2. The professional music critic's demise in status
   
3. The increased use of social networking media to distribute and comment on music and music movements
   

More than 1,500 historic TV commercials from the Duke University Special Collections Library are available on iTunes U in a collection called “AdViews.”

The commercials span across the past 60 years (most are from the 1950s and 1960s) and pitch everything from shampoo and toys to dog food and coffee. New York ad agency D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B) originally produced the ads for iconic American companies such as General Foods, Texaco and Kraft.

The AdViews collection of commercials shows not only what products Americans have bought through the decades, but also tracks changes in advertising strategies.