Say It With A Condom!

You don't have to be a prominent figure in media or marketing manager to know that in almost any way, shape, or form, SEX SELLS! The ingenious idea of using the humility of serious situations to promote the positivity of safe sex belongs to a man named Benjamin Sherman. Back in 2008, Sherman elated the election season by "lampooning the campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain" with creative condoms. If you were strolling New York City mid-election year, you most likely passed a young entrepreneur and his friend proudly waving around the unmentionables and reminding you to "Remember the election with your next erection!"

Fast forward 10 + years. What once was a sidewalk hustle is now a highly sought-after marketing tool and in the best way! The company's formal brand name, Say It with A Condom™, does just that as they work with clients from every industry - music, film, commercial, manufacturing - in order to fluently promote "awareness of their brand, product, service, or event." They even serve individual interests with things like "gag gifts", "party favors", and "organizations promoting events".

Funny Condoms™ is just one of their many campaigns that uses relevant graphics and clever jokes in a rhetorical, meme-like fashion that immediately catches your eye. See Is Life Just A Meme. It is the brand's very first campaign, launched in 2012, as a response to what BuzzFeed calls "the year 'the meme' went mega-mainstream."

The newest campaign is the Consent Condoms™ to shift focus on sexual assault awareness "through empowerment and a healthy dose of comedic relief", says an article by HuffPost. The condoms image quickly jumped on the current "rape culture" trend to promote the proper mentality and usage of proper language when engaging in any intimate activity,

Say It With A Condom's brand truly is an immersive way to speak to all ages. Their mission of starting a conversation of safe sex definitely resonates as a future integration for the millennial entertainment and marketing demands.

Classmate Blog Critique

It's that time of the year again, and I know you all missed me! Well, if it makes it any better, I have been keeping up with you guys and I am excited to say that my favorite blogs of this year would have to be from Mary Alice Cole and Lauren Estes.

Mary Alice's blog was definitely something to envy. I love your choice of theme; the flip cards are very entertaining. Before I get into your posts, I would like to say I love the choice in background. The texture asks character, but I think it would look better if the texture was more detailed. As someone who is, in my opinion, aesthetically inclined, I appreciate the consistency of your blog and how easy it is on the eyes. Your graphics are very eye-catching as the post opens. My favorite post would have to be "Forever My Miss America". You could tell that it was something that you were well informed about. I also liked your juxtaposition between light more fun details and hard facts.

Lauren's blogs always come off as fun and I hope she is rubbing off on me! What always catches my attention is here consistency in her graphics and how well they tell about her post without even reading. I like the choice of color schemes, but I would suggest playing around with your blog titles font or structure. The pop of orange is fun and attractive, but that gray block around the title kind of throws it off for me. My favorite post would have to be the one about "You" the Netflix series. My main reason being I also did my post over "You" and I got the chance to compare our ideas. I like how you included several reviews to help validate someone's decision over the show. I also like how you got more personal with the characters and their viewpoints. It definitely shows in your research that you were involved in the show.

Try Harder America!

Press TV - Why American Cars Don't Sell Well In Japan

It is no secret that the American economy thrives by the influence of foreign markets. As a citizen, I can honestly say that a "MADE IN U.S.A.." label is a rare thing to come across. If you do then you feel just a little more patriotic then yesterday, but your response is still fairly anticlimactic. What does this say about the quality of American products? Is the American brand a formidable opponent to our international counterparts? 

Well, there is a reason why you stand very little chance of seeing an American car on a Japanese road. According to CNBC, Japanese people don't buy American cars. 95 percent of all cars currently in Japan are made by Japanese companies. "Roughly 40 percent of the cars sold in Japan are a special class of extra small cars called Kei cars. Nearly all of those are sold by Japanese brands, such as Suzuki and Daihatsu." The few American car brands still selling in Japan are Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Jeep, Volkswagen, and Audi. After "Ford left Japan entirely in 2017" and "GM [(General Motors)] only sold about 700 cars in 2018", Tokyo-based CLSA analyst Christopher Richter stated in the article that "American carmakers 'don't really try'" because of the tough native competition.

It was also noted that "President Donald Trump has called it unfair, as has the American Automotive Policy Council." that the US parking lots are filled with Japanese brands, but there is so little for America to show in Japan. As confident as we are in our work, our cars don't really aid their common lifestyles. "Japan is a crowded country, and drivers like the convenience and efficiency of small vehicles that are easy to maneuver on narrow streets or fit into tight parking spaces." The real reason that Japanese buyers do not spend money on American merchandise is because the US lacks in dealership presence in Japan. Because the US has not taken the time out to analyze their target, "American firms don't really make cars that suit Japanese tastes."

It was said several times that the presumption of American cars being "unreliable", "poorly built", or "inefficient" is outdated. These ideas stem from as early as the 60s rendering any judgement to quality as subjective.

Press TV is a 24-hour English- and French-language news and documentary network affiliated with Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting. Press TV is headquartered in Tehran and is extensively networked with bureaus in the world's most strategic cities.