Adidas Comeback

Do any of you remember the Adidas commercials about two years ago? My bet is that you probably don’t remember. Over the past year and a half there has been Adidas frenzy in the media. The most familiar commercials right now are the ones with Katy Perry, B.O.B., and Dwight Howard in them. In my opinion, Adidas use of ethos is pretty extraordinary. There is even advertisement in TV shows. In the television show Glee, the antagonist of the popular glee gang is always decked out in Adidas sportswear in every episode. Another example of television publicity is on the live show 106 & Park on BET Network. The popular show gave out Adidas sportswear to a selected group of Audience members involved in sports. They did not only give out the sportswear, they described each aspect of the outfits given to the audience members. It’s crazy that something that was very popular in the past can be brought back instantly with the right celebrities. If celebrities are dying their hair red, there probably would be people running to getting their hair dyed red as well. It might not be to that extent, but my point is if a celebrity is doing, wearing, eating something people will emulate what they see. In this case people are going to buy this now very familiar sportswear because singers, basketball players, and actors are now sporting this now popular look. In my eyes, Adidas is trying to appeal to a younger generation. If you look at the commercials for Adidas you see younger people sporting the look. Even though you have celebrities like Rev Run who have been sporting this look for years. Adidas is bringing their sportswear back harder than ever. The most amazing part is that they were always a good buy, but becoming even more popular to buy.

Picture Perfect?

Memory is defined as the processes that are used to aquire, store, retain, and later retrieve information. It is impossible to remember every detail of every day and of everything you have ever done. That's where technology comes in. Today we have high tech cameras and video cameras that capture high quality footage. The tricks and gadgets that cameras now-a-days have makes it easier to capture the moment. Back in the day cameras never had times, zoom features, or big screens on the back of the camera to look at what you are exactly taking a photo of. The recreation is remarkable. My grandmother's pictures are all in black and white and just no the best quality picture. Pictures are important because it allows people to look back and remember times that they may have forgotten about.

Whether you have a good picture or a low quality picture it always triggers memories. Over winter break I looked through my picture albums and was reminded of so many times that I had forgot about. It is always nice to look back and remember happy, joyful times. Pictures have a way of suprisingly striking people. Seeing a distrubing picture may make you want to help, make you want to cry, or make you appreciate what you have. All pictures have some sort of an effect on viewers, postivie or negative.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but do pictures always show the real story? Whenever you see a camera flash or know you are about to get your picture taken, the first thing everyone does is smile. That smile could be real or it could be fake and other people would never know. You could look at a picture of a boy playing soccer and you would assume he enjoys playing soccer but maybe he is only playing soccer because his parents want him to. Pictures capture a moment but they do not necessarily capture the whole truth of the moment. Sure you can make up a story of what you think could have happened but unless you were there, the true meaning and feelings are open for your own interpretation.

Disasters Provide Unity

Natural disasters are the most devastating and destructive things that occur. Natural disasters inclue hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, flooding, landslides, and tsunamis. The big problem is that no one can control them. Of course people such as weathermen etc. can predict natural disasters but the exact magnitude and strenght of the disaster is never really known until it hits. A recent devastating natural disaster that occured was the tsunami in Japan.

More than 18,000 people were killed due to the Japan tsunami that happened on March 11, 2011. There was an earthquake which caused the tsunami to happen. Media videos show the tsunami as water just keeps rushing farther and farther onto land destroying homes and buildings as if they were paper. This earthquake was a natural disaster that was predicted whether people knew about it or not. My uncle is a marine biologist in California and he frequently goes on research trips. Last summer he went on a month long research trip in the Pacific Ocean to look at the plates of the Earth in the Pacific Ocean. By doing tests on the plates and getting data, they predicted that there would be an earthquake and it would be pretty big. They did not know when the earthquake would occur and they did not predict that the earthquake would be as strong as it was.

When natural disasters take place in a country, other countries pitch in and help them get back on track. That is one part of globalization; working together. When a disaster hits one country, it inevitably affects other countries. It will take a long time to rebuild Japan and its economy, so in turn, the world's economy is affected. Countries such as the United States are lending a hand and raising money to send to Japan. On a large scale, the American Red Cross has donated ten million dollars to the Japanese Red Cross. On a smaller scale, right here at Clemson University, Sigmapalooza was held and a portion of the money raised from that was sent to the American Red Cross to aid in Japan's relief efforts. The act of helping goes a long way because when Hurrican Katrina hit New Orleans, countries sent the USA relief money. It's a system of giving and receiving that builds a positive relationship with other countries, assisting in the spread of globalization.

Image Tarnished?

Tiger Woods was once a huge role model for so many people. He was winning many golf tournaments including many major championships. He had a family, was raising kids, taking care of his wife, and earning more money than any of us could even think of earning in our lifetime. There was talk of him being the greatest golfer since Jack Nicklaus and possibly being even greater than Nicklaus. Tiger was quickly closing in on Nicklaus’ record of 18 major championships. Then the rumors and reports started flowing out from the media about Tiger Woods’ personal life. Tiger Woods was rumored to have been sleeping with many different women during his marriage. He then ran his car into a fire hydrant one night when he and his wife supposedly had gotten into a big fight. Weeks passed and there were even more women being talked about being linked to Tiger. His wife divorces him and demands a lot of money from him. He then publicly addresses the media about how sorry he was and how he was going to get his life straight again. He has not shown the type of golf game that he had shown before all of the turmoil in his life occurred. He has not won a major since the incident occurred. The most important question about Tiger Woods is his image and accomplishments tarnished since the incident occurred. I think that many people now do not like him due to all his actions that he has done. Many people that have pulled for Tiger all of their lives now pull for other golfers and some even hope he does not win another tournament in his career. I am not one of those people though. Even though he messed up big time, I still think he is a great person. I never viewed Tiger as a role model in my opinion. I just thought that Tiger was a really good golfer and I loved to watch him contend for golf tournament wins. I think that when Tiger is in contention to win a golf tournament, that the game of golf is better and more enjoyable to watch. I know that when Tiger was at the top of the leaderboard at the 2011 Masters for the final round for a little bit, I was cheering that he would continue to stay atop the leaderboard and win. I think that for both Tiger and the game of golf, a Tiger Woods win in a tournament would do much to help get the game of golf back to when Tiger was winning tournaments. It makes all the golfers better when Tiger is at his best. Even though Tiger messed in his life, I still think Tiger is a great person and everything that he accomplished in his life is great and his image should not be tarnished because of the incidents that occurred.