Blog Assignment 5

Traditional and online marketing is very similar, but differs in how the advertisements are distributed. The biggest difference is that online marketing actively uses the consumer to help push the product its trying to sell. In traditional marketing, the advertisement might take the form of a billboard or a television commercial and try to reach a large audience. This type of marketing has been around for a long time and will most likely continue to be successful for many years to come. However, some companies are now starting to take advantage of their online resources.
Online marketing can be very successful because it has the potential to reach a very large audience if done correctly. For an online advertisement its the companies goal to get the consumer to promote the product for them. For example, when promoting The Hunger Games movie the company Lionsgate had the fans do a lot of promoting for them. They created a website that would give fans points for sharing and posting new things about the movie on their social media sites. This created a competition among the fans to share the most Hunger Games related post, and it was basically free publicity for the movie that Lionsgate let the fans do for them. This type of consumer driven advertisement can be used for almost any type of product and we are seeing more and more of it online everyday.
Both types of marketing tries to appeal to the wants and needs of the consumers its targeting. Online marketing might just be more successful because of how much time people spend online. If you don't see a commercial on TV then it is unlikely that your friend will tell you about it or even mention it in conversation. However, if your friend sees something interesting on their twitter they are more likely to share it and then you will have seen it also. With the potential of exponential growth among consumers the online marketing strategy is becoming very successful and more useful. It will be interesting to see where online marketing is in the next few years as technology continues to develop and companies learn better ways to advertise online.

Blog Assignment 4

The case of Girl Talk is very complicated and I can see both sides of the argument. Personally, I believe that he is using the music under fair use and it could be considered transformative. Since he isn't actually using a song in its entirety and mixing different ones together I don't see a problem with it. Girl Talk also gives recognition to the original song and artist in his work. So, by him just using parts of other people's songs it isn't taking anything away from the original artist. If someone likes one of the songs that make up his music then they will most likely go out and buy the original song, which might actually benefit the original artist. Limiting his use of other people's music would just hinder his own personal creativity. I think it's important for people like Girl Talk to push the boundaries of fair use and help others be able to express their creativity under fair use. I see no problem with him playing the songs he creates at shows so that people can enjoy them live, because its still not taking anything away from the original artist. However, I'm not sure if I agree with him selling CD's of his music. If he wants to give away the music he creates for free and allow people to donate whatever amount they want then that would be more reasonable. Even still, when he sells a CD of his music he isn't taking away any monetary value from the original artist, so it might still be considered fair use. I can see why some people might be upset about him using their music, but I think as long as he isn't claiming to be the original artist and isn't taking away any sells from the original artist then there is no reason for him not to create the music he enjoys.