Boxing out of poverty and prison in Thailand

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1815747_1815707_1815695-2,00.html


Currently Thailand consists of 65 million citizens of which 170,000 are in prisons. Rubbery, vandalism and drug abuse are the most common crimes being committed. Thailand is trying to reduce their crime rate, however, due to great poverty in the country this is very difficult to achieve.
Many prisoners first come to jail when they are 17 years old. Once they are in prison they are not educated in any way. Therefore, when they return into real life it only takes a short period of time until they are back in jail. Thailand has now introduced a new program which should help the prisoners out of jail and poverty. To stop the boredom in the prisons, sport instructors have introduced boxing lessons for all. Samson Thaveesuk is only one of many prisoners who have started boxing during her imprisonment. During this time she has learned how to box and set herself a new goal for her future life. She decided to box professionally and succeeded by winning many tournaments including the world boxing council championship.
With this new method of teaching discipline to the prisoners and giving them a new perspective of life Thailand has succeed reducing their number of prisoners. Prisoner officials state that no prisoner who has attended boxing classes has returned to jail. This program helps Thailand to reduce its poverty rate efficiently.

The grunge movement

During the 1980’s the grunge movement was introduced in Seattle. Suddenly, the punk rock and heavy metal scene mixed. Although a lot of small bands existed only some became famous. However, the punk movement also introduced a new way of lifestyle. This new generation wanted to rebel against their environment. They believe that society is trying to limit their freedom and control them. The grunge scene is fighting against this control of freedom by listening to loud and provocational music. In addition, they are trying to rebel with their looks by coloring their hair and wearing spikes and old jeans. In the beginning their rebellion was successful as many people felt rejected by this new lifestyle. However, as soon as the first band, Nirvana, got successful with the music, the rebellion was once again sold through media.

Summary of Chapter 2 "No Logo"

In chapter 2 of No Logo the author describes how brands tried to turn their products into a lifestyle and culture. The corporations began to produce products which had bigger logos on them. Suddenly, the people believed that huge logos on clothes are cool and started to buy them. This helped the company spread their brand. Thanks to the big logos even small children could recognize brands and wear them. To increase their incomes, many brands also began sponsoring cultural events, as for example Credit Suisse sponsored the UEFA. Both companies are benefiting from each other, because the UEFA is receiving useful money and Credit Suisse can advertise. To make advertising more attractive for the community, corporations began using art as their advertisement. In some cases even streets were designed and painted by a certain brand. All this advertising became more and more important to the corporations because competition began to increase. As people were always surrounded by advertisements, the brands and ads became part of people’s culture. Also TV series started to advertise for certain products and labels. As for example in Dawson's Creek all characters wore the same labels of clothes. Like this the TV series benefited from the sponsored clothes, and the corporation benefitted because it could advertise through TV series. The TV series’ lifestyle was then sold to the people, who wanted to adapt to their favorite TV stars.

The Deadliest War In The World

After Mukeya Ulumba has witnessed the murder of her family, she is now struggling with losing her six months old son. Mukeya is one of the many refugees who have fled before their village was stormed by antigovernment rebels. During the last years, Congo's crime and poverty rate has been rising due to poor infrastructure, weak leadership and undeveloped economy.
Since 1960, leaders like Leopold II, Mobutu and Kabila had their share of the Congo’s misery and have led millions of people into starvation, torture and death. Today the situation has not greatly improved. Although the UN already sponsored more than 94 million dollars, there is little progress seen. This is because of rebellions within the country. Cuba's military and native organizations are both storming thousands of villages every year. In this process people have been brutally murdered and women have been raped. These people do not have enough education or money to help themselves. Therefore, they flee from place to place searching for protection. The government is under immense pressure, as they are struggling to control their natives and to trade goods and resources with other nations. As they have a very bad infrastructure and lack of labor and money to improve it, the Congo cannot change into an economic development.
The Congo's poverty is worse than in any other country, although in truth the Congo is the richest country regarding resources. Europe does not realize that their trading with the Congo is only for the benefit of the government and the upper class people. Mothers, fathers and children will have to keep on fearing their existence until finally the world realizes the seriousness of the situation. Mukeya Ulumba is now praying that her son will recover from meningitis and like many other mothers she is trying not to lose hope.

Product vs. Lifestyle advertisments

Product

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HsDou-e9qM

What is being sold: The commercial is selling an oil named Minepba which can be used cooking any kind of food. During the commercial the consumers begin to fly because the oil makes such good food and makes you feel free. How do they sell it: They sell the product by making the consumer feel free and comfortable. They want the consumer to believe that the food is the best when you use Minepba oil.

Lifestyle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g-SFpzJshs&feature=related

What is being sold:
Actually the commercial is selling the new Windows Vista program. However, they are also selling new revenues, business opportunities, new solutions for customers, more security, more reliability, more potential and the connection with other people.

How do they sell it:
To motivate the customers to buy the product, people who look happy dance and jump around introducing each new opportunity of Vista. There is no computer seen in the whole commercial, but the happy people bring the customers close to the new product.

Summary of No Logo, Chapter 1

Chapter 1
Before brands were introduced, companies’ aim was to sell their products in a big quantity. They tried to convince the consumers, that they need new inventions or a new product. During the 19th century corporations like Nike, Tommy Hilfiger and Microsoft started to let contractors make their products. While the contractors made the products, the brand could concentrate on advertisements. Soon the corporation’s aim was not to sell their product, but to sell a new lifestyle. Soon generic goods began to be branded and brought to consumers. The sellers tried to make the brand as family friendly as possible to get trustworthy buyers. As all companies began to sell the exact same product, brands needed to be introduced, to show customers the differences between them. For brands it is very important to succeed in this competition, therefore, they spend a lot of money on advertisements, which are mostly bias.

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