The Racy Candy

This is an ad for people to choose which color M&M is their favorite.  Miss Green the M&M is chained to the last standing tree in the middle of a beautiful valley.  There is a happy sort of euphoric essence to this ad; there is a rainbow in the background, lush green grass, and butterflies in the left corner.  There are many different things about this ad that play to current events and modern marketing techniques.  In this ad the green M&M has chained herself to the last tree standing amidst a bunch of stumps from previous trees, as a way of standing up against those that want to cut them down. The title at the top of the picture says “Vote Green”, this is a play on the fact that she is green and that she is trying to save the trees. This targets the audiences emotional appeal of wanting to stop things like global warming by saving the forests.  There is also an underlying sexual appeal to this ad.  The M&M is wearing handcuffs and has her legs wrapped around the tree with a sort of seductive expression.  The caption at the bottom of the ad says “Miss Green, working the polls.” This insinuates a sort of stripper stereo type, that the poll she is working isn’t just the election polls.  This ad would appeal to more of a male audience. Due to the fact that it is a female character with a sexual undertone to the overall message it is conveying. This also applies to the modern approach to marketing that “sex sells”.   This ad is fairly racy and uses the idea of wanting to save something pure like nature and mixing with something impure like an exotic dancer.  The creators used a lot of play on words to hide underlying meanings and hidden messages.

The "Almost anytime pasta"

Pasta Carbonara

9/14/2010

            For my first food blog I decided to write about a food that is special in my home, it is called pasta carbonara.  I come from a large Italian family and, true to form, we eat a lot of pasta.  Pasta carbonara is a different kind of pasta dish that is one of my personal favorites.  This dish has, over the years, become the “birthday pasta”, the “having guests over pasta”, and the “basically any special occasion pasta”.  It is always my request for my birthday dinner with family. 

            Past carbonara has a not altogether, outrageously different taste.  It is simple but perfectly delicious, and always a favorite.  The tastes and the smells of this meal in particular always remind me of my wonderfully loud and energetic family and the laughs and great memories we always have over one of our family dinners.  It also reminds me of the chaos that always seems to center around the kitchen, like the eye of a storm.  The loud clanking of pots and pans, the steam of the boiling hot pastas being strained, the always enticing smell of garlic sizzling in a hot pan of olive oil, and my favorite, the smell of the frying bacon, all of which will contribute to the delicious pasta that tantalizes the taste buds with a variety of wonderful flavors. 

            I remember sitting at the counter and watching my mother and my grandmother while worked together in a flurry of ingredients and utensils to create tasty dish.  Since it was my favorite meal I asked my mother to show me how to make it, and I can still perfectly remember her explaining it to me.  First, you boil and strain the pasta and fry the bacon then while the pasta is still hot you place it in a big bowl.  Then, for every one pound of pasta you crack one raw egg over the steaming noodles and mix it around.  The steam from the pasta cooks the eggs into the noodles.  Next, you take the cooked bacon and sprinkle it over the pasta along with garlic sautéed in olive oil, a little bit of parsley, salt, hot red peppers, and lots and lots of parmesan cheese. 

            Pasta carbonara is possibly one of the easiest pastas to make but it is so delicious and almost always brings back memories of good times with loved ones.