Barbie Doll Essays (Examples)

Barbie Doll Effects

Mattel's top-selling doll could have started a cultural revolution. Barbie could indeed be responsible for shaping gender identity and norms in American culture in particular. The demand for ethnic Barbies and themed Barbies points to the fact that all little girls, whatever their family or cultural backgrounds, are aspiring to be like Barbie. Pop star icons like Brittany Spears and Jessica Simpson bolster the Barbie image ideal. hether girls are being subliminally programmed or whether Barbie simply reflects an already extant cultural norm is up for debate. Heidi Burton states that the roots of Barbie's body image extend into antiquity (1). However, Greek statuary does not depict women who could fall flat on their faces; rather, the artists of antiquity portray the physical body far more realistically than Mattel does. Perhaps Barbie is a manifestation of changing norms and ideals, but it seems that the Barbie-doll body…

" The poem used heart wrenching language to describe one young girl's constant attempts at and eventual frustration towards living up to society's ideals. This can be seen when after being "advised to play coy... exercise, diet, smile and wheedle" the girl's "good nature wore out like a fan belt."

Towards the end of Herbert's poem the speaker experiences a revelation, which occurs when the speaker feels that God has spoken to him. Once he realizes that God loves him enough to consider him as His "child" then the speaker no longer feels any resentment towards his Master. He thus becomes more morally conscious of continuing to fulfill his Christian duties. Piercy's poem ends with the girl's eventual suicide and funeral, which leads to the story's sad irony that even though the girl hoped to escape society's ideals regarding womanhood through death, it is only after she died that society…

Barbies, Ourselves" and "Barbie, G.I. Joe, and Play in the 1960's," Emily Praeger and Gary ross, respectively, discuss the cultural importance of children's toy dolls, and of Barbie and G.I. Joe in particular, although from different perspectives. Praeger focuses primarily on messages about femininity, lifestyle, appearance and personal identity absorbed by little girls as they play with, dress, and acquire new outfits for their Barbies; ross explores the advent of Barbie and G.I. Joe as early consumer objects for children and the durability (although less so than for G.I. Joe than for Barbie) of their popularity.

At the beginning of her essay, Praeger states that upon first learning Barbie had been designed by a man, "suddenly a lot of things made sense to me . . . Let's be honest: Barbie looks like someone who got her start at the Playboy mansion. She could be a regular guest on the…

Barbie's official website does feature an adult doll collection of "Dolls of the orld" which has a slightly more diverse range of images, but even these dolls are fairly uniform in style: the Asian doll is decked out in a midriff-bearing sexy, sari, for example, but looks just like a 'regular' Barbie.

In terms of body image, the typical Barbie doll has branched out to slightly more diverse interests than fashion: Barbie now skis and surfs, and even rides dirt bikes. Barbie is athletic, as well as feminine, in the official image she projects to young girls, suggests that one can be outdoorsy and girlish at once. Barbie's "I can be" collection features a Barbie news anchor and computer engineer, the latter in plastic pink 'geek chic' glasses. Barbie's adult line now features less artificial looking dolls that are supposed to represent famous characters from film and fiction, including the…

Nairn sees these Barbies as being tortured to destroy the doll's perfection, but the same children (I have noticed from observing female relatives) may demand a new Barbie, even after treating the old one carelessly.

Additionally, not all Barbies are disposed of. In fact, there is a thriving industry of adults who collect Barbies. These Barbies embody characters from famous old films, new films, or characters from around the world. Even some Barbies marketed at younger girls that are reasonably priced like those of the Twilight series of Barbies, are clearly not disposable. Barbies run the gamut from the cheap to the beautifully coiffured, yet all of them suggest a model of femininity that is similar: adult and girlish at the same time. Even as early as the 1960s, according to the website "Barbie's Career History," Barbie was used to embody 'acceptable' female occupations for young women, including that of…

Barbies, Ourselves

Emily Prager's "Our Barbies, Ourselves" examines the impact that the Barbie doll has had on American culture, perceptions of gender, and heterosexual relationships. Prager begins by noting that Barbie was designed by a man, a fact that makes sense to Prager given the outrageous physical proportions of the doll. As she states, Barbie "looks like someone who got her start at the Playboy Mansion," (766). Barbie's body is completely out of proportion and unrealistic, even if she had breast augmentation surgery. In fact, Prager suggests that the current fad of breast enlargement might be related to the subconscious desire to look more like Barbie. Barbie, the author suggests, has influenced generations of women and programmed them to try to look a certain way.

In her analysis of the doll's cultural, social, and psychological implications, Prager investigates the potentially sinister motives behind the doll's creation, even if those motives…

S. woman." (288).

In response to this negative impact of Barbie not being found in the 7 1/2 to 8-1/2-year-old girls, the researchers admit that the finding was unanticipated and assert that, "For these older girls, if they have already internalized the thinness ideal, then the depiction of a full body could represent a possible, but feared, future self." (290)

The study is weak in several areas. The research sample is small, predominately white and middle class and comes from the same geographic region, causing one to wonder how much socio-economic factors play a role in the results of this study. it's not clear if the use of picture books rather than just dolls introduced bias into the study. Clearly, the researchers tried to emulate similar scenes for Barbie and Emme, but there are differences such as there as the use of an image of Barbie in the supermarket and…

Mattel Faced in China

In 2009 Mattel opened a six-story House of Barbie in Shanghai, expecting it to be an enormous hub for an emerging market in China. However, just two years later Mattel was forced to close the doors on the $30 million facility. This paper will explain why Mattel failed to make an impact with its House of Barbie in Shanghai. It will show the problems that the company faced going in, which it failed to sufficiently consider, and how those problems might have been overcome.

The main points that this paper will examine are the specific market problems that Mattel faced by opening its store in China as well as the cause of the failure in terms of values and attitudes, gender differences, polite behavior expectations, forms of communication, importance of emotion, and education. The last points will focus on recommendations. In short, the American company expected…

BABIE AND GILS' BODY IMAGE

Does Barbie Make Girls Want to Be Thin? The Effect of Experimental

Exposure To Images of Dolls on the Body Image of

to 8-Year-old Girls

Jill Someone

BABIE AND GILS' BODY IMAGE

BABIE AND GILS' BODY IMAGE

Does Barbie Make Girls Want to Be Thin? The Effect of Experimental Exposure To Images of Dolls on the Body Image of 5- to 8-Year-old Girls

I'm fat. I want to be thinner. I want longer legs. I want a perkier butt and breasts. I want straight hair. I want curly hair. I want a smaller nose. I want more toned calves. I wish I were taller. These are very familiar thoughts to most girls and a lot of boys, too. These thoughts plagued me most heavily during and immediately after puberty. I was embarrassed about my maturing body and wished I were developing faster while simultaneously wishing…

Barbie Lost Her Groove

Mattel- why managers changed their decision-making over time, and the kinds of cognitive errors therein

A formidable business intelligence gathering program identifies threats in good time. However, according to George Day, intelligence is only one aspect of the whole. Day has studied numerous business giants that failed to pick cues from the market and paid dearly for such flips. Day is a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School. There is need to have both human and technological systems to deal with and interpret data. You also need the know-how to deal with the information. Mattel stumbled at this point. Several ex Mattel managers such as Bruce; a Bruce Stain; the chief officer in charge of operations and the head of Mattel globally from 1997 to 1999, and consultants such as Day confirm this fact. According to expert analysis, two factors weakened Mattel's reaction.…

Advertising

Company Overview

Mattel is a producer of children's toys, including the well-known industry brands Fisher Price, Barbie and Hot Wheels. The company has strategic partnerships with several other major brands such as Disney, WWE, Nickelodeon and Warner Bros. The company did nearly $6.5 billion in revenue in the last fiscal year, and turned a profit of just of $900 million. Nearly half of its revenues come from international markets.

The Barbie brand is the most important for the company, with just over $1 billion in annual revenues. The company's marketing is focused around the end-of-year, when gift-buying for children reaches its peak. The company utilizes most forms of media for its advertising, including traditional 30-second television spots. Mattel spent $733.2 million, or 12.2% of net sales, on its marketing efforts in the last fiscal year (Mattel 2014 Annual eport). In terms of distribution, its three largest customers are Walmart,…

Anna Quindlen's "The Name is Mine," the author uses a personal anecdote to convey her experiences grappling with battling patriarchy. Marge Piercy presents a much more pessimistic view of female empowerment in "Barbie Doll," a poem in which the central subject is completely consumed by the catastrophic effects of a sexist society. Both these works of literature make powerful social commentary about the source and nature of sexism and patriarchy. However, Quindlen and Piercy use dramatically different literary strategies to achieve their respective, unitary goals. In "The Name is Mine," Quindlen uses the first person point-of-view and a straightforward narrative prose. In "Barbie Doll," Piercy uses a poem written in third person. In "The Name is Mine," Quindlen's tone is lively and upbeat, ultimately optimistic and encouraging. On the contrary, Piercy's tone in "Barbie Doll" is bitter, scathing, and righteously angry. Their tone and point-of-view might be different but both…

The tone is personalistic and is parallel with the narrative style used by the author in her analysis. Furthermore, McDonough's choice of words is simplistic, primarily because she aims to give understanding to her audience the main arguments she presented. All throughout the article, there is a conscious effort to sensitively discuss the issue for the sake of its audience, which are primarily, women, and secondarily, parents of female children.

Contrasting McDonough's essay with that of the editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle entitled, "Beauty and the Barbie Doll," it is evident that the arguments presented are oversimplified. A reader may get the idea that what the editorial points out is the argument, "Barbie is the only factor that strongly influences female children's concept of beauty and sex." It does not take into account other factors that may influence children's attitudes and behavior, such as what McDonough centers on in…

Barbie doll top ten viral commercials as of 2013 rely mostly on You Tube, Dailymotion, Facebook and Twitter.

The third doll brand, subject to this study is Bratz. As evidenced from the four commercials assessed in the course of this study, Bratz deploys a slightly different mode of advertising, which involves marketing adult entertainment to kids. Social psychologists have argued that this strategy is very effective within the realm of modern-day material culture. Adult entertainment, which often involves depiction of violence, sex, strong language and obscenity, has become very popular among children

. For Bratz, one of the most popular commercials involves cowgirls in Texas fighting crime modelled along the risque film group Charlie's Angels. The use of guns to depict violence is central to this commercial, which has since increased the brand's digital reach through pervasive advertising on TV and in the internet. In a similar commercial, Bratz acquired…

B.

Human development and evolution across all cultures mean that there will be a gap between older generations, who tend to cling to outdated ideals and paradigms, and younger generations, who tend away from the traditional and towards new developments. While there are merits in both positions, subscribers to each respective position seldom see the value in the viewpoint of the other. Hence, the conflicts that arise are often difficult to manage and impossible to overcome.

Such conflict is clearly portrayed in Nash Candelaria's "El Patron," and also to a degree in Oscar Hijuelos's "Visitors, 1965. n the former, the traditional viewpoint is represented by Lola's father, Senor Martinez, while the more progressive viewpoint is represented by the other three major characters in the story; Lola, her brother Tito, and her husband, the narrator of the story. The difference in viewpoints can be seen on a variety of platforms, including…

Distribution Levels

olex watches: olex deploys an exclusive distribution strategy. Its high pricing is part of its appeal, given that wearing a olex signifies one's economic status. olexes can be bought at high-end jewelers, department stores, and select shopping areas which high-income consumers are likely to patronize.

Coach purses: Coach similarly has an exclusive distribution strategy. They are expensive items of clothing, usually sold at select Coach retailers. These stores are often in exclusive malls or in high-rent districts of urban locations.

Land over sport utility vehicles: Although these vehicles are not the most expensive means of transportation available, they are not universally desired by all consumers. People in cities will likely have less desire for SUVs given that they do not need all-terrain vehicles and are more concerned about the price of gas than their suburban counterparts. However, within certain pockets of the country, and also within certain consumer…

Jonathan Zaun

In two perceptive and provocative essays, authors Ann duCille and Henry Giroux examine toys, movies and media and examine ways in which the modern commercial culture directs the development of a child's psychology. Ann duCille's thoughtful essay, Dyes and Dolls: Multicultural Barbie and the Merchandising of Difference, provides an insightful analysis of the ubiquitous Barbie doll and the role this icon of Americana plays in molding the maturation of entire generations of young girls. With his expansive and detailed Children's Culture and Disney's Animated Films, essayist Henry A. Giroux investigates the Disney empire and its vast influence on today's youth, exercised through their domination of the children's media market. Both of these works provide readers with empirical evidence supporting their separate, yet inherently intertwined, suppositions that media manipulation targeting children for the pursuit of capitalistic gains invariably causes lasting unintended consequences. Whether through the rebranding of a centuries…

Fiction's Come a Long Way, aby

The development of fiction from its nascent stages until today's contemporary works is a storied one. Many features mark contemporary fiction and differentiate it from the classics of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries: For one, modern writers use different perspectives to narrate: In some works, the narrator switches from third-person omniscient to first person, and in some contemporary works, even the challenging second-person. Experimentation in styles also marks contemporary fiction: Nabokov, perhaps fiction's greatest ever stylist, has written one novel penned to ladies and gentlemen of the jury, and another as literary criticism on a purposefully mediocre poem. (Nabokov: Lolita and Pale Fire).

ut one of the most pronounced shifts in fiction over these centuries has been the move from stuffy, high art to a fixation on and immersion in pop culture. George Eliot, for instance, in "Daniel Deronda," interspersed a very staid…

Marketing

General Economic Environment

Mattel Incorporated's general economic environment in the United States is favorable, since the income distribution among U.S. consumers of Mattel Inc. products are relatively higher compared to other regions where Mattel Inc. is internationally located. For example, Asian consumers purchase relatively less number of Mattel products because of the high costs of these products when they are marketed and sold internationally. Income is also affected in the current social and political states of countries wherein Mattel Inc. sells its products. Because Asian countries tend to have more social and political instability, there is also financial instability as a result. Thus, because of financial instability, income is lower, thereby resulting to lesser consumption of toy products, which is not considered a priority among Asian households and consumers. Therefore, there are higher economic returns for Mattel Inc. For its European, North, and Central America regions compared to Asia-Pacific…

Gender Equity in Education

Taking the Field: Women, Men and ports (Michael a. Messner)

Chapters One, Two, Three & Five

Women and men are clearly different, in ways far beyond mere physical composition, as Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus discusses in deep detail. But, the author (Messner, 2002) of Taking the Field: Women, Men and ports also wonders: where children are from, how children "do gender," how the American Youth occer Organization (AYO) does gender, and he wonders about the cultural symbolism of the process of sports. These are valid investigative questions.

Other questions posed by Messner: is gender a "thing" that one "is" or "has" - or is it situation-constructed through one's performance on the soccer field, for example? Those questions came to mind after the author witnesses the "Barbie Girls vs. ea Monsters" soccer contest - with "boys...unwittingly constituted as an audience for the girls"…

Written from the cat's point-of-view, it forces the reader to examine their sense of superiority. The cat tells of all of the things that humans cannot do, but that cats do with ease. Unlike the anger expressed in Piercy's early years, the Cat's Song reflects a sense of inner peace and a need to bond with the natural world. Cats appear in much of Piercy's later work.

The rhythm of Piercy's poetry changed to reflect the rhythm of her life. Early works, such as Barbie Doll, use a stumbling rhythm, one long line, followed by a short, terse line. Her early works did not flow smoothly, reflecting the inner turmoil of the writer and the inner turmoil of the women that she portrayed. Piercy's later works flow, using even rhythmical lines and language that reminds the reader of a river gently flowing. This change in style reflects changes within the…

"Why? Because of their products. Product development is what interests the consumer" (Blanchard, pg. 7). Perhaps the automakers should take note.

One toy manufacturer does an excellent job of marketing to the consumer. Mattel uses an ongoing tracking program in its efforts to sell more Barbie dolls.

The last decade has seen over 40 differently featured Barbie dolls for sale in approximately 140 countries. ecently Mattel discovered they no longer had to change the features of Barbie (at least in Asian countries) because "market testing led an official from Mattel to proclaim: "Blond Barbie sells just as well in Asia as in the U.S." (Cross, Smits, 2005, pg. 874). Now it is possible for children almost everywhere in the world to be happy with their new Barbie dolls. That is a fine example of consumer-centric activities.

eferences

Blanchard, D.; (2006) Are your best practices getting the job done?, Industry Week,…

Regarding the doll's appearance, I remember being happy, feeling lucky, that it was easier to find dolls that resembled myself, and considered this in my young mind a kind of privilege.

The girls I played with were fairly democratic, but I do remember one girl mentioning to the lone African-American girl, that she couldn't 'have' a particular doll to dress when we were playing, because it didn't look like her. I didn't protest, even though I felt it was unfair, remembering the anger I felt about being excluded from boy's games. In fact, my anxiety about being accepted into boy's societies also often encouraged me to reject or make fun of 'girly girls,' who tried to join in with my male friends and myself. However, in both male and female friendship groups I also reacted against such oppression, demanding that my African-American female friend and my other female friends be…

Family Loyalty Is at the Heart of Any Successful Family

Without the obvious family loyalty peppered throughout it, "Little Miss Sunshine" would be just another film. The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze Denise Duhamel's poetry collection "Kinky," and Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton's film "Little Miss Sunshine." Specifically it will discuss the role of family in the works. Clearly, the Hoover family of "Little Miss Sunshine" is not your average, run of the mill family. They could be one of the most dysfunctional families every introduced in a film. However, they have one common denominator, and that is loyalty. They stand behind Olive and her dreams, and they all support her, which shows that despite their faults, they love each other.

One of the main messages in the film "Little Miss Sunshine," is that family, no matter how dysfunctional, is the key to any real…

Marketing
1. Under what conditions do organizations conduct a marketing audit?
The conditions under which an organization may want to conduct a marketing audit include: (a) whenever a company needs to be reminded of what products and services it actually offers to the public—which can happen more frequently than one might realize, as there are typically many products and services that a firm will offer that it fails to monitor or keep track of effectively; (b) whenever a company needs to be reminded of marketing campaign objectives so that the campaign can be more effectively arranged; (c) whenever a company needs to know why some actions have worked and others have failed—learning lessons from the past is one of the best things a marketing audit can do for an organization; (d) whenever a company needs to identify where it is wasting resources and being inefficient—the marketing audit can reveal ways…

The role of sex in advertising is even more blatant in a food advertisement of an ejaculating Tabsco sauce bottle over a split bake potato -- hot and spice as a metaphor for intercourse.

Sex sells: a woman wants to be desired by a man which requires the perfect figure, in the perfect low-cut dress with the perfectly matching nail polish, and a man can only be desired by a woman if he drives a BMW, wears a olex watch and has on a alph Lauren suit (which is not a Polo suit but the higher end and much more expensive Purple Label suit). Media's objectification of women and the fact that sex does sell has lead to the "sexification" of young girls and teens. Kilboure makes her point with magazine covers and television spots, including JonBenet in full makeup for a toddler beauty pageant, a teenage Brittney Spears displayed…

Advertising's most fundamental function is to sell products, but in order to do so, advertising must also shape the values and norms of the culture. One of the most obvious ways advertising shapes social norms and cultural values is through the representations of gender and sexuality. Few products other than adult toys, condoms, and others of an overtly sexual nature offer as much potential to shape, play with, and manipulate gender and sexuality than undergarments. In an advertisement for its line of men's underwear, the company Under Armour promotes an ordinary product by claiming that it has an erotic appeal. The fine print of the advertisement states mainly that the underwear is comfortable and can keep the wearer "cool and dry," but the image speaks more about the way the underwear will confer grand sexual prowess and status on the males who wear it. Although the Under Armour advertisement is…

Sociology of Popular Culture

Popular Culture

A popular culture is a complex term defined by a number of already existing definitions which explore the different spectrums associated with the term. The initial understanding of this culture was based on the lifestyle adopted by the masses; the subordinate, lower class, which made them separate from the elite class. However, today, it is considered to be a lifestyle which includes different cultural practices, artifacts and other cultural commodities, that is widely accepted by the population. Therefore, in order to study a popular culture, it is important to focus on the varying aspects such as identity, representation, regulation, production and consumption where the latter two have an interdependent relationship. For this reason, this paper would look into the underlying fact of the contemporary popular culture where the producers are also the consumers.

The theorists of the cultural studies started studying popular culture when…

Anyone who chooses to engage in this expensive and controversial surgery for the sake of a boyfriend should consider the real motivation behind his asking and her acquiescence. The surgery may not deliver on what it promises and the sense of inadequacy is psychological and may not abate because of a cosmetic change. I would also include the truth that there is no such thing as the perfect vagina and we should be willing to love what we have and accommodate difference.

PART THREE:

The concept of beauty was different for different groups, White girls considered beauty as a static quality that is personified in the Barbie doll. African-American girls espoused a concept of beauty as the result of the intersection of multiple qualities, attitude, style, personality, and presence form the basis of this nexus. For African-American girls there is no perfect or uniform look to attain, therefore their body…

Conclusion

Standing at the pivotal point of a changing world economy offers companies and business organizations new opportunities, but they must heed the lessons learned thus far, and make wise and pragmatic business decisions. These business choices are responsible for bringing about a stable world economy. Kemal Davis (2005) at the Financial Times and International Finance Corporation, summed it up this way:

"Given the scale of the challenge we face, there has never been a more critical time for the private sector, together with government, society and others to work together to build a better globalization for all (online)."

Building a globally-integrated world is a bold goal, but not unattainable. Business must take the lead and create for itself an environment of consumer trust, product quality and safety, and become more socially diverse and politically smart. Business must demonstrate its integrity, and concern for their markets by creating international trade…

Discussion 1

Corporations that produce products for children are in a position of great trust. Parents cannot inspect the factories owned by every toy manufacturer, to ensure that the facilities are free from lead or other banned products. Creating a toy for a small child that can be toxic if it is chewed is like leaving a swimming pool open without a fence -- an attractive nuisance something that is inviting children to take a dangerous risk and is therefore illegal.

Discussion 2 different issue arises with toys with small parts that could be hazardous if handled by a very young child but not by an older child. Companies label their toys to indicate if the toy is suitable for young children, and if children under a certain age should not use the toy. Some toys can be dangerous for young children if they are used inappropriately. It is not…

Family Trip

It seems strange to me, in retrospect, that I could have managed to reach the age of sixteen without having ever visited an amusement park. Of course, I was aware of places like the Epcot Center and Disneyland -- what American child isn't? But I grew up in a city that didn't have any local amusement parks, and my family didn't have a lot of extra money to spend on vacations. Instead, my parents saved up to send me to boarding school in Massachusetts. Living away from my parents and siblings was at times stressful, and required me to develop a great deal of independence. However, the road trip that we took to Bush Gardens in Virginia remains one of my fondest memories and marks a strong transition point between my adolescence and young adulthood.

When I returned home from school for the summer after my junior year,…

Coca-Cola leads the world's beverage industry with as many as 400 products and has its presence globally in more than 200 countries. In addition to this, Coca-Cola collaborates with some 320 licenses to produce more than 10000 products in 57 countries. Products range from fashion apparel to holiday decorations and even a Coca-Cola Picnic arbie doll. Every year, licensees sell 50 million licensed Coca-Cola products.

Internal usiness Environment

Core Activities

For over 100 years, Coca Cola still remains the world's largest producer of carbonated soft drinks. The company sells the very famous Coke® with the punch line "Always Coca-Cola" that is still the common man's term for any aerated soft drink.

The company's signature Coke® brand is well recognized by literally billions of consumers, and Coke is sold in almost every country in the world - more than 200 countries worldwide.

Customer ase

The Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest…

psychological concepts. In some questions, specific scenarios were also given and we had to analyse them with reference to psychological concepts. Over all, this assignment broadened our knowledge of psychology and improved our thinking skills.

To answer this question, first we have to understand the meaning of gender. While sex refers to the biological differences between males and females, gender refers to the sociological differences between males and females. Gender however can be influenced by biological differences but it basically is a social phenomena. Gender differences can vary in different cultures and societies. For e.g. most of the females work in the U.S. But many women in Asian countries do not go to work. So if women and men were classified on basis of going to work, then women in U.S. would be very different from women in the Asian countries.

Let us now talk about gender roles. Gender roles…

Feensrta, R.C. "Integration of Trade and Disintegration of Production in the Global Economy." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 12:4, 1998, pp. 31-50.

The article is about globalization and particularly how manufacturing operations are becoming global. The article describes how organizations are increasingly able to move their production processes overseas, with the author describing this as "causing a breakdown in the vertically integrated mode of production."

The author argues that foreign outsourcing has increased since the 1970s based on several different measures.

The author then looks at two implications of the changes: the impact on wages and the implications for labor policy.

Agreements

The author distinguishes between final products and intermediate products, arguing that this point is often neglected, which I think is true. Manufacturing in other nations does not always mean moving complete operations to that nation, it means using certain parts from that nation that become intermediate in the final…

education is struggling to uncover the reasons for continuing levels of academic achievements, and recover its place of world class leadership which it once held. While academic levels in public schools have suffered to the greatest extent over the years, the same cannot be said regarding religious education, in particular catholic schools. These schools continue to produce higher levels of academic achievement, and more students who continue on to college that similar public schools. This research is an initial investigation into possible reasons for this phenomenon.

Educational difficulties across the nation have been receiving increasing amounts of attention. Despite the attention of teachers, researchers, and rhetoricians, the academic performance in public schools is not making appreciable improvements. The classroom is becoming more diverse, and multicultural. While this perceived shift is understood as a positive adaptation to he different needs of the individual student, the results is that the teacher is…

Marketing Plan for a New Product

Marketing Plan New Product Launch

Background and Competitors

Brite Briks is a multinational company in the business of manufacturing construction toys. Brite Briks ranks third in size with Lego leading this market, followed by Mega Bloks (Solomon, 2013). Both Legos and Mega Bloks are inter-competitors as the toy construction products they sell are very similar, and fundamentally compatible -- although the brick to block match is not exact. Over 100 countries offer Brite Briks for sale, featuring a line of roughly 100 items in four block sizes (Solomon, 2013). The exponential growth in Brite Briks' sales over the past five years indicates that the company's overall approach to marketing to its targets is effective. Indeed, Brite Briks has the largest market share in the preschool construction toy segment (Solomon, 2013).

Situational Analysis

Environmental analysis

Prestige of American made products

Branding and distribution key to…

Privacy: E-Marketing as a Threat to Privacy

Privacy is one of the most complex issues facing e-commerce today. Due to advances in information technology, it is becoming harder for individuals to maintain control over their personal information. More specifically, the advent of the information age has brought with it numerous concerns particularly because the accessibility of the internet allows for easy collection, processing, storage and utilization of personal information by multiple parties, which they use to their own advantage (Pavlou, 977). hen it comes to e-commerce, information privacy is also a major source of concern because firms make use of their websites to gather information about their consumers, and they utilize this information to develop marketing strategies and conduct customized promotions. One study by PriceaterhouseCoopers (PC), for example, revealed that two thirds of all customers surveyed would embrace e-commerce more if they knew retail sites would not misuse their personal…

Question 1
Background:
A relational contract can be described as “informal agreements and unwritten codes of conduct that powerfully affect the behavior of individuals, clearly emphasizing the informal nature of contracts.” (Ho?hn 35) They help businesses overcome obstacles typically faced in formal contracting. Formal contracts must be written in a manner that allows for easy verification by any third party, therefore must be self-enforcing. (Ho?hn) The basis for relational contracts is self-enforcement, especially when relationships are finite. When relationships remain open-ended, the situation changes. Meaning, inclusion of extensions with information self-enforced provisions. When these changes happen, such contracts become self-enforced relational contracts. (Ho?hn) Thus, begins the ‘trust game’.
The trust game is simple, player 1 must choose to ‘trust’ or ‘not trust’ player 2. If player 1 ‘trusts’ player 2, player 2 can have the opportunity to betray or honor player 1. Should both parties not betray each other, they…

Sexyuality

Sexuality

The 1950's and Sexuality

World War II can be seen as an ending and then a beginning for different eras. Prior to the war, the world was in a the most severe economic downturn that anyone had experienced in modern times, whereas the 1950's were one of the most prosperous times in American history. The prewar years were fraught with struggle for between the wealthy elite and the poor. There was a relatively small middle class that served the wealthy and helped to dominate the poor. After the war, people, as a whole, had more economic opportunity, and the middle class grew astronomically. The war also separated America's ideas of what a woman was from what she could become. During the war women had been required to work in factories doing jobs that were normally reserved for men. Women could be teachers, nurses, or mothers before 1945, but…

Biologist

He was born a normal, healthy boy and he grew as little boys do, with G.I. Joe dolls and plastic guns.

He seemed so normal through and through.

When he chose books over monkey bars they thought him a little bit queer.

He didn't pay sports like the others;

instead he read all of Shakespeare.

Then they told him men did not write poems, but they loved working with numbers.

So he buried his inclinations and struggled with physics blunders.

The boy became a biologist, successful and smart they all thought.

But in his heart he hated his life and the terrible lies he bought.

Jennie's Side of The Yellow Wallpaper

I feel so sorry for John's wife. Sometimes I just do not know what to think of their situation. On one hand, I understand that she is suffering from something dreadful and John is only trying to help…

307).

Yet American Girl dolls, perhaps because of their expense but also because of their reliability seldom provoke such mutilation. "I have to confess -- I have an emotional connection to this brand," admitted one adult, female NPR commentator, reviewing the film, stating that it was impossible for her to give an objective review of "Kit Kittredge, American Girl" because of her own love of the Kristen doll, as a girl, a doll that had traveled far from Sweden to settle in colonial America (Baker 2008). "She has the same name as me...I like playing with them [better than Barbies] because they're more like me," said an eleven-year-old interviewed by the NPR reporter, explaining why she adored the brand and couldn't wait to see the film

Even while some might be cynical about the fact that "a Kit doll, complete with book and accessories, will currently run you $105" and…

However,
the toys themselves had a distinctly gendered feel.
While the author recalled Legos as gender-neutral, they did not appear
gender neutral in the toy-store setting. Instead, the Lego products were
based on action movies, such as tar Wars and Indiana Jones or else
featured something called a Bionicle, which appeared to be some type of
robot. There were some Legos called Clickits, which were pink and white
and featured teenage-looking cartoon-character girls. However, the Lego
sets from the author's youth, which featured blocks and other features to
build gender-neutral items like towns, simply were not present. Instead,
the Legos seemed less free-form and more structured, and came in boxes to
build specific designs, almost all of them masculine in stereotyping.
The other building materials were similarly gender-differentiated.
While the toy store had apparently gender-neutral building toys like Tinker
Toys and Mega Blocks, they also managed to capitalize on stereotyping.…

Representation of Women Through Media Has Changed From 1960s

How representation of women through media has changed from the 1960s

Susan Douglas suggests that fifty years ago, mass media existed in the form of music, television, and magazines. However, she suggest that the journey has been tough owing to the manner in, which the media represents women. The media used a sexist imagery to represent women, especially women who took part in music. Although researchers suggest that the media is a powerful tool, she suggests that the public had an option to resist the media by turning off their television, or ignoring advertisements in the magazines (Douglas 1995). Mass media had substantial influence on the social, cultural, economic, spiritual, political, and religious phases of the society as well as personal level thinking, feeling, and acting. Notably, mass media has both a good side and a bad side; it is insidious…

Organizational Change

Nike could have avoided the downturn had it been more receptive to ongoing change. One of the things it could have done differently was to "periodically analyze the organizational environment and identify forces for change." It is evident that Nike did not do this until it saw its sales slump. There were several underperforming divisions, and more importantly there were several untapped new product areas. An environmental scan would have allowed Nike to identify those much sooner, and perhaps respond more quickly. By being slow to respond to its external environment, Nike put itself in a more vulnerable position. Nike was forced in the to embark on revolutionary change, rather than evolutionary, because of its slow response. Ultimately, it could have adopted the revolutionary approach by being in tune with its environment, and by creating an organizational culture that was in general more receptive to change.

That said,…

Penetrate Global Markets

Global marketing in today's world depends upon a mix of technological and cultural understanding as Spillan (2012) points out: the "reach of the Internet to unknown places" and the "social environments that exist in global regional market segments" help to drive the global economy and the markets that exist within it. Therefore, comprehending how the Internet and various social media outlets intersect and interact with social environments, especially in developing worlds, is supremely important in assessing one's role in the global market strategy. This is essentially also the point of Luca Lindner (2015), president of McCann Worldgroup and author of "Why Global Marketing Must Move Beyond Cultural Stereotypes and Go Deep." When Lindner advises that marketers "go deep," he means that marketers must tap into the "local" economy and culture of the environment they seek to reach: after all, the trend in recent years is a rise…

Boys pretty much dress like they have always dressed - baggy pants and a t-shirt or baggy shirt or sweats. There is a huge socialization difference between how girls and boys dress, and how they see each other by the time it comes to high school. I was socialized to always look my best and always try to be attractive to the boys who paid attention to me. I think women have much more pressure on them to look good and be attractive with whatever it takes - makeup, clothing, hair, and today even plastic surgery for teens. Women are taught from a young age that they have to be attractive to attract a man, and that is the "ultimate" goal in life for most women, to attract a man. Therefore, that starts very early, even earlier than junior high school, when young girls get dolls like Barbie. These dolls…

Inside can be found museum-like dioramas, a theater, a cafe, a doll hair salon, and lounging areas designed to facilitate interaction among shoppers and the examination and use of products" (Diamond 2009, p.119).

Diamond et al. (2009) argues that entertainment brands, such as American Girl, the Disney store have a unique power as brands, not simply to encourage consumers to buy the product, but also to foster consumer creativity, and suggest that as a result identity exists in dialogue with the corporation, and is not merely manipulated by the seller. Consumers are crafting their own unique image as they choose, consciously, to 'brand' themselves. In these "themed flagship brand stores" offering "spectacular environments… far from being overwhelmed or coerced by the sign-rich context, consumers use the retail environment as a stage on which to perform, enthusiastically enacting the brand and cocreating the spectacle. Therefore, emplacement is reconceptualized as a shared…

" (Barry, 36) He continues to suggest that women shouldn't care what they look like either. He says that women may say they are obsessed with looks because men want them to be, but argues that (a) women shouldn't be idiots just because men are, and (b) that men don't recognize women's beauty efforts anyway. "Many men would no notice if a woman had upward of four hands." (Barry, 36)

McLaughlin does not deny that the gender stereotypes are precisely as Barry reports them to be, though she recognizes as stereotypical what he claims as truth. She says that it had always before been that "what mattered in life was how women looked and what men did." (McLaughlin, 31) This is talking about the same thing Barry is when he says that men would find some way to bolster self-esteem other than appearance. However, McLaughlin continues to point out, that…

'

Marketing to children is always complex, because although children do the begging, moms and dads do the buying. Thus, the ad is carefully constructed to appeal to girls and to stimulate their persuasive abilities. The presence of the beloved and popular American Girl Dolls at the bottom of the ad adds to this appeal, as well as links to the doll-selling site. But ultimately, the ad really appeals to American girl's mothers who wish to create an idealized image of girlhood for their still innocent children. This is an image of American girlhood, that may never have existed but which many mothers would like to provide for their children. They mothers are, American Girl, hopes willing to pay richly for their children's images of spring innocence.

Despite the ad's placement on the international medium of the Internet and the expanding base of the company, the whiteness of the girls…

Children's Ads

Children's television, like all programming, is inundated with advertisements. According to one study, "children between the ages of 6 and 14 watch about 25 hours of television per week and are exposed to as many as 20,000 commercials in a single year," (Moore and Lutz). Advertising aimed at children sells a wide range of products, from packaged foods to fast foods, from toys to movies. Animated characters, mascot animals, celebrities, and child actors all tout products for kids. In general, children react to the ads they see in similar ways that adults do: by subconsciously absorbing sensory data such as slogans or jingles and by associating certain emotional responses with certain products. However, children, especially young children, do not possess cognitive skills sufficient to fully understand the impact of advertising on their impulses. hen children approach puberty and adolescence, they are better able to critically examine advertising, but…

Because of Haynes use of dolls, I was much more interested in Karen's story; I most likely would not have been interested in the film if it simply approached her story from the same perspective as other filmmakers.

Horror films can be subdivided into various subgenres. Rosemary's Baby, for instance, may fall into the category of Satan-inspired films due to the fact that in the film, Rosemary is used as a surrogate to Satan's child. What is interesting about this film is that it relies heavily on the viewers' perception of Satan since the entity is never actually shown and neither is his child. Not showing what Rosemary and Satan's child like forces the viewer to imagine what it must look like based on how he is described, which makes it much more frightening because this image is based on the viewers' psyche and feeds off of what they are…

Products Liability esearch:

Mattel Inc. is a company that was founded in 1944 by Elliot and uth Handler that designs, manufactures, and markets a huge range of toy products. The firm is headquartered in California with its core product lines including Hot Wheels die-cast vehicles, Barbie fashion dolls, Disney toys, Fisher-Price preschool toys, and games like Scrabble. While Mattel also manufactures its toy products based on license agreements with movie makers, most of its toys are produced outside its huge market in the United States i.e. Southeast Asia. Actually, the firm's principal manufacturing facilities are located in several countries in Southeast Asia like Malaysia, China, Thailand, Indonesia, and even Mexico. Since its inception, the company has continued to experience significant growth that enables it to generate huge revenues. By 2007, its revenues had grown to $5.97 billion with its three largest customers accounting for 41% of sales across the globe.…

In this article, the author describes the technological, demographic, and market forces shaping this new digital media culture and the rich array of Web sites being created for children and teens. Many nonprofit organizations, museums, educational institutions, and government agencies are playing a significant role in developing online content for children, offering them opportunities to explore the world, form communities with other children, and create their own works of art and literature. For the most part, however, the heavily promoted commercial sites, sponsored mainly by media conglomerates and toy companies, are overshadowing the educational sites. ecause of the unique interactive features of the Internet, companies are able to integrate advertising and Web site content to promote "brand awareness" and "brand loyalty" among children, encouraging them to become consumers beginning at a very early age. The possibility that a child's exploration on the Internet might lead to inappropriate content, aggressive advertising,…

"

Following on the heels of Michel Foucault, Butler situates the dichotomous conceptualization of gender as a product of discourse, just as Foucault (1990) realized that homo- and heterosexuality were both discursive products. The maintenance of coherent norms in the realm of gender through cultural discourse is intertwined with the positing of heterosexuality as the norm. This is why, for example, when a young boy "dresses up" as a girl and/or plays with dolls, his parents frequently express concern that this is a sign of burgeoning homosexuality and punish the child.

Butler would interpret the child's act as a "performance" and the parents' intervention as a means of correcting that performance in order to condition the child towards "acting the right way" - that is, enacting the role of maleness as it is rigidly codified by the heterosexual norms upon which our society is based:

The notion that there might…

Toys RU.S. - Gender Issues Boys / Girls

Angela Mantz

Gender Issues in Children's Toys

A survey of the children's section of the department store reveals fundamental differences in the types of toys available to male and female children. The toys marketed to the respective genders are reflective of some of the most common social stereotypes and messages typically communicated by our culture with respect to male and female role identities. They obviously communicate some of the expectations about things such as what types of activities are suitable for boys and girls and what talents and abilities little boys and girls are supposed to focus on developing. Moreover, the types of toys marketed to boys and girls also seem to suggest what type of professional career interests children of different genders are expected to develop. Even more generally, some of the types of toys available for boys and girls also…

Gender

The challenges families face include lack of social support, lack of guidance, lack of information, prejudice, and hostility. Gender roles and norms are entrenched in the society, making it difficult for children and their parents to resist or subvert conformity. The media and all social institutions perpetuate gender roles and norms. Yet when parents are willing to encourage gender fluidity or gender nonconformity, children and their parents are liberated from constraints to their creativity and self-expression. Specific challenges to resisting conformity include locating gender-neutral toys and games for young children, and finding strong social support networks for the child and the parents. Gender neutrality scares people for many reasons, not least of which is its perceived kinship with homosexuality, but also its being symbolic of social deviance. A person who does not fit into the neatly arranged categories of male and female may be viewed as an outright threat…

Marketing in Healthcare

Catholic Healthcare West

Catholic Healthcare West (CHW) is a not-for-profit healthcare organization serving parts of Arizona, Nevada and the majority of California. With 42 hospitals it is the largest Catholic hospital system in this part of the United States. The organization focuses its services upon the poor, who cannot afford private hospital services. Regardless, the aim is also to provide high-quality healthcare to those in need. The target market is thus the poor in the western areas of the United States.

Taking into account the size of Catholic Healthcare West, it should not be a problem to implement new services without a loss of either mission or customers. New services should however be implemented with the proper care to ensure that the focus remains as originally intended.

The service management strategy of CHW has always been collaborative. y collaborating with other groups who share the vision and…

Why should this be so?

If the educational experience of boys is slipping, then this is an issue that should concern everyone.

Education should be a good experience for all children - male or female. Feminists have recognized previously that young girls were being shortchanged, a fact that should have concerned everyone in society (including Goldberg). To say that the education of boys slipped simply because feminists improved the education of girls is a post hoc fallacy.

Second, Goldberg ignores that there are many other issues that affect girls once they are out of college. Even if they do better academically, this does not translate to gender parity in the working world. There is still a significant wage gap between the genders, and women remain underrepresented in many leadership positions in the corporate world. These statistics challenge Goldberg's suggestion that boys suffer into manhood due to their lack of a…

More and more materials and equipments are now present on hospitals and clinics. Furthermore, lots of medicines, such as vitamins, antibiotics, and the likes have been developed that enhances the life, the immune system and the way the people live. Unlike before, the medicines and the medical equipments are very limited. That is why, people back then do not have enough supplements for their body, or do not have the capabilities to prolong their lives because of the inexistence of the said breakthroughs. Having not to worry anymore about lowered immune system is extremely lesser stress.

The similarity on this aspect lies on the fact that people then and now are both conscious to health and lifestyle. This is the very reason why people in the past and people of today's generation do exercises and maintain good eating habits. These are the natural ways of maintaining healthy living. With or…