Mediated messages, like politics, are everywhere. For this assignment, I went about my
day as usual but for twenty-four hours, I took notice of every advertisement that popped up on
my laptop, television, or phone and noticed whether it was promoting any political aspects such
as news or campaign. Within a twenty-four hour period, I spent most of my time working on my
laptop. During this time, I took note that most of the advertisements that popped up on my
screen were related to shopping searches I had made in the past. Every once in a while, I would
see an advertisement concerning the upcoming election.
I typically do not take any mind to advertisements that are displayed on my laptop
screen or social media because I am usually in the middle of working on something and scroll
right by it. But for this project, I took a second to really look at the advertisements that popped
up on my screens and consider how it made me feel. Throughout the project, for each
advertisement that popped up, I watched the entirety of the video or read the full article to get
the full feel of this assignment.
While watching “It’s Always Sunny in Philidelphia” on Hulu, an ad promoting the former
Mayor Michael Bloomberg came up on my feed. He was being promoted by Former President
Obama. During the run of the ad, the voiceover stated that Mayor Bloomberg promoted gun
safety laws, and if elected, would improve education and develop innovative ways to help teens
gain the skills needed to find good jobs. At the end of the ad, Mike Bloomberg’s voice came on
to say “I’m Mike Bloomberg and I approve this message”. This ending is used by almost every
candidate to reassure viewers that these are not false claims. Typically, I do not pay any mind to
political ads and this one was no different. Politics have also been a very large controversy in
my family so I prefer to not get involved or engage in debates with family members. While
watching this advertisement, I was interested in how Mike Bloomberg plans to improve
education because I am currently a student and could benefit from tuition assistance. As a
teenager myself, I chose to get a job and then face the repercussions of telling my parents after
the fact. I had a work ethic back then and have the same one now. But the only way I got the job
was through connections. In school, a few of my friends already had jobs so through them, I
was able to secure a job and begin to build my resume as a kid. For kids without those
project, I was expecting to see a lot more political push so I was pleasantly surprised when I did
not have to sit through a bunch of political advertisements throughout the day.