10/11/2012

ADV 587 - Dr. Duff's Lecture - Attention 10/15

Hi everyone,

Here are our questions for Dr. Duff's lecture:


Grace:

1. Which kind of cognitive process -holistic or analytic- do you think you are? Can you give some specific examples to demonstrate it?

2. With the development of society, multinational corporations promote their goods or services throughout the world. Are there certain examples sparked in your mind about how corporations promote differently according to distinct cognitive process in different country? If not, faced with the tremendous differences between different cognitive processes, are there certain brands' ads which are not compatible with your culture and can you give some advice to them?


Fanny:

According to the article “Cognitive control in media multitaskers,” do you think you are heavy media multitaskers? Please list three kind of media you use most frequently everyday( such as internet/SMS….)

Do you think the information you receive everyday are over saturated? Please share some example.


Bobby:

1. The Synesthesia article states that ~80% of people are exposed to and/or use several forms of media simultaneously. Do you do that as well? If so, which media do you use together most often and how?

2. Because most people are exposed to more than one medium at a time, Pilotta and Schultz argue advertisers should focus on developing campaigns that work well in a multitasking environment rather than in isolation. Do you agree? Have you ever been exposed to a campaign you thought was conceived for multitasking?
 

19 comments:

  1. Anonymous10/14/2012

    I think I am analytic, because I am always looking for logic, details and rationality into everything. Also, as an example, I consider TV food commercials to be very different across US and Brazil. The music, the language, everything is clearly different – US commercials are not appealing to me because I certainly have a distinct cognitive process than North Americans – although the paper treats differences among Eastern and Western, today there are a growing number of subcultures that also need to be considered.
    Regarding the multitasking questions - I browse the internet mostly for work and that’s it. No facebook, no twitter, no sms and only one email. Also, I do just one thing at a time because I like to concentrate in that specific task – I am definitely what the market categorizes as low profile consumer, online and offline. I purposely avoid being overload with information.
    Regarding Pilotta and Schultz – I am not sure if all consumers are ready to accept this. For consumers like me, this wouldn’t work very well – I guess that once multitaskers are the majority in the market, then this could be true. Otherwise, this will depend on the characteristic of every targeted audience. I tried hard, but I don’t remember any multitasking campaign! I probably ignore them…

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  2. 1. Which kind of cognitive process -holistic or analytic- do you think you are? Can you give some specific examples to demonstrate it?

    I think I am a mix. It's interesting because the article actually references Asian Americans as generally being in the middle. That's true with me. For example, when it comes to medicine, I am very open to both pharmaceuticals that claim to be able to isolate an issue and fix it and also open to acupuncture that talks more about fixing the whole of the body as a unit.

    According to the article “Cognitive control in media multitaskers,” do you think you are heavy media multitaskers? Please list three kind of media you use most frequently everyday( such as internet/SMS….)

    I am LMM. I actually have to turn everything off before I study. I cannot even have music playing in the background when I study. I need absolute silence.

    1. The Synesthesia article states that ~80% of people are exposed to and/or use several forms of media simultaneously. Do you do that as well? If so, which media do you use together most often and how?

    Honestly, I try to use different things at once like IM, browsing, email, phone, talking to someone in my office, but it never works out well. I need to always slow down and focus.

    2. Because most people are exposed to more than one medium at a time, Pilotta and Schultz argue advertisers should focus on developing campaigns that work well in a multitasking environment rather than in isolation. Do you agree? Have you ever been exposed to a campaign you thought was conceived for multitasking?

    I mean wouldn't product placement into tv shows be exactly this?

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  3. Grace> I think it depends on the situation I guess. When it comes to certain event that requires analytic thinking, I try to be so and the same as the other way around. Analytic regarding personal business such as bank issue and school work, while holistic about life values and choices.

    Fanny> I am certainly not a heavy media multitasked (But it is interesting that I sometimes intentionally look for a noisy place like cafe and listening to music while studying. It just makes me concentrate more on it). Internet, TV, Smartphone. And I hate being overloaded with information, so try hard to avoid it.

    Bobby> I usually can't focus with several media, so I rather use just one media at a time.
    Personally, I agree with Ophir, Nass and Wagner's article that HMM are easily distracted by the multiple streams of media. I don't think campaigns for a multitasking environment works.

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  4. I think I'm holistic cognitive process. I seldom carefully think about the little details. Like the other day Bobby mentioned Gangnamstyle, she thinks the context doesn't make any sense, and she seems to be using analytic cognitive process. But for me, I never thought of how the scenes are changed and what's between each scenes. I just noticed the overall style video but not the specific details.
    I think advertising is tightly connected to culture, and the difference between western and eastern culture is obvious. To appeal to different audience, different strategies must be used. The typical example is KFC. Its adjust to China is very successful, by changing its menu, focusing on healthy diet, bring out new products very often and stuff. Yet in the US, KFC haven't changed for a long long time. This is largely influenced by the different habit in western and eastern countries.

    Basically I just use internet, both on computer and on my phone every day quite often. And I always visit the same sites every time, and use the same SNS. I seldom explore new sites or stuff.

    I can only focus on one media at a time. And I hate overload information. I think multitasking campaigns could only appeal to a certain group of consumers, and certainly that doesn't include consumer like me.

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  5. For Grace's question:
    I think I'm analytic, but actually I guess the fact is that I'm only thinking myself to be analytic, thus in essence I could be holistic. I can't tell exactly, for one reason is that the process varies due to different cases; another reason is that I might not know myself very well. Anyway, the author's argument of different thinking system between east and west seem plausible to me.

    For Fanny's question:
    I'm definitely overwhelmed by information now.Simply emails would be enough for me. Think about how much time you spend on checking emails and paying attention to those ones which are not relevant to yourself but somehow appeared in your mailbox.

    For Bobby's question:
    Currently I think I'm in an isolation condition which I'm not exposed to various media.At least, I'm not aware of my exposure to many media now.


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  6. For Grace:
    1. That depends. But mostly I'm a analytic person because I would forcing myself to consider every specific details of a certain thing.
    2. Of course! Take Haagen-Dazs for example, it is just a overall brand normally sell in the supermarket with a relatively decent quality in the U.S. That's all. But when the company transfer it to China, they adopt a completely different strategy which aiming at the hi-end consumer to create a image of aristocratic and elegence by eating this brand of ice cream. I can't tell the reason why they made such a difference in such two different market, but that's really worth of noticing.


    For Fanny:
    Internet, SMS, and IM.
    Basically, the information I received is saturated. Because the overlap of such three media, the very same information could reach me several times a day. They exposed on Facebook, Twitter, Friends' message, We Chat and so on. It's good to receive all kinds of information but sometimes a little bit annoying to discern all the homogenized messages.

    For Bobby:
    1. Like I just mentioned, Internet, SMS and IM are the 3 most common method I used. I believe that the Internet is most frequently used by me because it contains the largest volume of necessary information and certain have-to-do stuff like checking the e-mails.

    2. Yeah I totally agree with there viewpoint. The most recently multitasking campaign I've met is a Chinese entertainment show called "The Voice of China". It's kind of like the "American Idol" or "The Voice of America". While it's a television program, except for the necessary TV commercials and propaganda, Weibo (a Chinese version of Twitter) has became another major battlefield for the column group to conduct their campaign. Thousands of topics and issues been raised on Weibo and people fall crazy about it. Not limited to the performance of the singer on the show, but even reach their personal life. Besides, they allow the mass audience to vote for their favorite participants by sending a short message through their cell phone.In this way they could even determined the progress of this show.
    Therefore, this program finally reached a new level of attention from all over China. I believe it's a good example of this multitasking media strategy.

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  7. To Grace:
    I think I am holistic after read Peng and Norenzayan's article. As I retrospected myself, I found that When my friends and I talked about some issues such as music, movies, governments… I always expressed myself in an abstract manner, most of time, I don't bother to focus on details when I perceive things and events around me; Also, environment and relationships do have impacts on me.

    To Fanny:
    I don't think I am. Maybe I can't live without internet no matter what devices I use. Cause I don't watch TV or listen to radio. Most of information I get every day comes from internet.
    And, even though I do receive too much information via email and social websites for me to handle, I would never immerse myself in it, I just ignore them if I want. thus, I can't say i use internet frequently.

    To Bobby:
    I think the statement might be true, cause we are exposed to them, however, sometimes I am simply unaware of the situation. For example, when I am using the internet by my laptop, I might be exposed to television just because my roommate is watching the television (and I can hear the voice at least), and I might exposed to my smartphone, because it pushes and receives phone calls and texts…However, I use the smartphone most often, cause it's always near me.

    Also, I agree with their argument. As I said, most people are exposed to more than one medium at a time even if they don't know. And as another article I read talked about how incidental ad exposure effects people, I believe in most cases, advertisers should consider using multiple medias. I think that's the theory of IMC is so important to marketers now.
    And, I think I have been exposed to such campaign, however, it's funny that I can't name one at a time, nothing impressing came to mind.

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  8. To Grace
    I don’t know which one I am. It depends on different situation. If I choose some high involvement product like computer, maybe I will pay a little more attention on analysis the detailed information and compared different computer brands although sometimes my friends help me to do this. But most time, I don’t care about detailed information of product or advertising.
    The second question, I have to say I have no idea. I just think considering different culture spirit and habit of certain country or place is very important regarding advertising strategy. Like many famous western brand LV, considering the especially show-off mentality of China consumers their design emphasize more and more about the logo.
    To: Fanny:
    No, I am not, the tree kind of media I use frequently is Wechat, SMS, youtube
    Sometimes, when I open my email, there are so many product information that confusing me. I have to waste my time to delete many spam email. And when I want to watch some shows, before or in the middle of that show appeared short time Ad and you can’t skip them. And there are also many information about product, brand in SNS, I just now ignore them.
    To Bobby:
    Sometimes, I will use different media almost simultaneous, but it is true when I use one of them, will to some extent ignore another. I believe I prefer at one time use one media.
    I think multitasking campaign maybe not appeal me. People who can focus different things at the same time is not that many, So I disagree.

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  9. Grace:
    1. I am definitely a holistic person and the description in the article is highly relevant to me. The recent example is when I was doing shopping with consumer assignment. I paid a lot of attention to environment. I focused on the locations of my consumer and once he picked up an item, I instinctively checked the environment of this product, such as which layer it was placed, what other products surrounding it look like. However, I didn’t care about the product itself too much.

    2. Great question! I notice that Pepsi launches different advertising in China vs. America. The core information they try to share in China is that bring happiness (Pepsi) back home, while the one in America is that everyone should have a Pepsi.

    Fanny: I feel myself more apt to a heavy media multitasker, since I often browse the Web, while listening to music or watching movies, and talk on the phone while watching TV. I used to watch TV a lot, but now I don’t have one. So I use Internet and cellphone at present.

    Bobby:

    1. Yes, I do. I use Internet, cellphone, TV and MP3. I often browse the Web, while listening to music, watching movies, or chatting with my friends through Skype, and talk on the phone while watching TV or reading magazines.

    2. I think it works, because I saw advertisements of Estee Launder in magazines, Internet, TV commercial, and even my email, which drives my attention and enhances my memory. However, the amount of advertisements should be controlled. I subscribe from their email ads, after they sent them to me too frequently.

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  10. To Grace:
    I'm holistic. I'm always concentrate on the whole instead of details.
    According to my experience, the most impressive ads for me that are made by multinational company is the KFC's ads. The KFC's market strategy is to combine with local culture. I remember that it was about 2000 when the ads were released about the Beijing chicken roll sold in Chinese KFC.
    To Fanny:
    I am totally saturate by information. I am a heavy-user of Internet. Renren, Facebook, Wechat, QQ, Weibo, Twitter. I spend a lot of time manage all the accounts. Because there are similar information posted on all the media tool, I always get much information through them. I seldom watch TV, all the news comes from the Internet. To be honest, I couldn't live without Internet.
    To Bobby:
    I definitely belong to the 80%. I always open the websites of twitter, Sina weibo(Chinese version of twitter), facebook, renren(Chinese version of facebook), at the same time. I have all the communication apps on my phone. I also have chatting apps such as msn, QQ(Chinese version of msn), momo, and so on. I have at least 4 email accounts and they are all set up in my computer. I think I am buried by information. But I'm very pleased by that.
    Well, I agree with the statement that advertisers should focus on developing campaigns in a multitasking environment rather than in isolation. It really helps because this is a media age. The most recent campaign comes to my mind may be the "Gangnum Style". I watch more than ten versions of the video through all kinds of medium I use.

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  11. Hi, think you for sharing wonderful opinions and experiences! This is my answers of the questions!

    Grace>

    I think I am a holistic after I compare to other students’ propensities. I usually try to see the relationship among events or cases – analyzing similarities or differences of those. I think that capturing overall phenomenon tells individual category or characteristics of each case. To give an example, when I observed children in CDL, Thais tend to see how and why each child behaves in specific way. However, I tried to catch the similarities or difference between right side and left side of the children, or how most of children react to teachers’ words or actions. In other words, instead of observing each child’s characteristics, I attempted see the big picture of children in CDL.

    Fanny>

    1) I think I am one of the heavy media multitaskers. Although now I usually use my i-phone and lap-top at the same time, I also additionally consumed television with those two media form simultaneously when I was in Korea. I think that’s why I usually cannot focus on one thing which I should focus such as ‘doing assignment’…

    2) Yes. I always think that I am exposed to too many information and stimulus, and actually I felt more after I study in US. I frequently receive direct email from various kinds of brands and companies, and also encounter many advertisements when I search articles for my assignments. They are making me crazy. Moreover, I meet excessive “information” on street or in store or supermarket. I usually go to Wal-Mart, Walgreen, or sometimes County Market to buy products I need. Whenever I go there, I always overwhelmed by information from packages, copies and point-of-purchase of tremendous amount of products. Today evening, I purchased cereal with whole grain and blueberry. At that point, I recalled what we learned in Dr. Nelson’s class, and looked around the cereal corner. I was speechless.

    Bobby>

    1) As mentioned above, now I use cell-phone and lap-top simultaneously. While I am working on my assignment using my lap-top, I also text to my friends or listen to the music with my i-phone. When I was in Korea, I usually consumed 3 kinds of media forms: television, cell-phone, and computer. While I was watching television, I did not pay much attention just intermittently checking what news or dramas aired. Simultaneously, I talk with my friends via cell-phones and played games with my computer.

    2) I also agree with the authors’ argument that marketers should notice people’s simultaneous media consumption and also figure out the foreground/background relationship of each media form to more efficiently attract people. For instance, they should know not only how people perceive television advertising while they are also web-surfing, but also how they pay attention to the online advertising when they are also exposed to television. If they know how multitaskers are receptive to those ads in both situations, they can reallocate their resources more efficiently and attract more consumers.

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  12. Grace:

    I think I'm mostly analytic. I always look for the logic behind most things when it comes to school and business life. However, I don't know if I believe it's possible to be totally one way or the other. I know that sometimes I'm holistic. There are times in my personal life that things don't always go according to logic so being able to recognize the big picture is important.

    Fanny:

    Yes I am always engaged in multiple ways with media. I don't think it's a good thing because I can never focus on just one thing. When I do homework I need to put my phone in another room and turn of music and the TV. If I don't do this things take me twice as long and possibly longer!

    I think I receive way too many messages. Theres no way I could take them all in, so I have to pick and choose.

    Bobby:

    I use my cell phone, computer and the TV all at one time. Like I said before when I do this I never get anything done. I think this is a really bad phenomenon that affects our time management, but more importantly our relationships with others!

    I think that marketers should and already do this. Whenever you see an ad on your phone or computer there is normally something about twitter or facebook on it. I always agree with Joe that product placement is like this. They put the products in the show so that as we are distracted with the show we associate the products with it.

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  13. Here are my answers for the questions:

    Grace:

    Companies definitely should target different countries with different brand strategies, but I don’t think it should have anything to do with cognitive differences. It’s more of a cultural thing. I’m a holistic but I like American-style ads.

    Fanny:

    I used to be HMM, but now turn to LLM. It depends on the difficulty of the central task. For example, if I’m writing concept explication, I would turn off everything in order to concentrate, but when replying emails, I would use several forms of media simultaneously, such as listening to music, browsing and chatting.
    When I was back in China, I would check (or update)various SNS such as Weibo (Chinese version of Twitter) very frequently, and I gradually got tired cuz there’s too much information coming in everyday. I hate that kind of feeling, so I don’t use them that often now.

    Bobby:

    As I mentioned, that depends on what central task I’m focusing on. I need to focus on one thing at a time when the task is difficulty, such writing a paper, but at other times, I could be multitasking. For me, Internet is the most often used media. I use my laptop and ipad to do all kinds of stuff, such as checking emails, browsing, chatting, SNS, watching videos, etc.

    Although I couldn’t recall anything that is targeted to multitasking at the moment, I do agree that advertisers should make use of different media platforms. Advertainment (like the Chinese program Travis mentioned) would be good examples.

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  14. Grace,

    I think I am very analytic in the way that I think. I always find myself breaking down my thinking into parts to better understand things. An example of this is how I approach the way I observe film for football. Instead of watching the play and taking it in as a whole, I watch each ply about 6 or 7 times so I can watch each position and analyze and breakdown each player. While this way may take more time I believe I get much more out of it than if I were to just watch each play and take it as is.

    When thinking of advertisements that don’t match our culture I can’t think of any that come to mind, however I’m sure I would notice plenty if I were to travel to another country and experience their advertising.

    Fanny,

    I definitely think I’m a heavy media multitasker. Just yesterday I can remember watching a movie, while I was shopping on the internet, and texting my fiancĂ© all at the same time.

    I do believe that some of the media I experience today is over saturated, but not all of it is. One example I have of media being over saturated is the USA Today app I have on my iPad and on it there are pictures, videos, article descriptions, and advertisements all going on at the same time.

    Bobby,

    I do use multiple media outlets simultaneously. An example I have of this is that I am constantly either on my phone or iPad while I am watching TV.

    I do agree with Pilotta and Schultz that advertising in a multitasking media sense would be more effective in today’s world. I have experienced this multitasking advertising before, while watching a movie there was an advertisement for Coke Zero and I decided to look up more information on the movie on IMDB.com and I found the same advertisements running on their website.

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  15. Thanks everyone! Here is what i think:

    Grace:
    1. I believe that I very analytic in nature. In life i happen to analyze everything i do from specific day to day tasks, to friendships, to my love life and everything in between. Just last weekend i got into a little tiff with my twin sister because i read too far into something she said. I over analyzed the situation, and therefore it led me to a 'sticky' situation.

    2. The only example i can think of is McDonald's. In Holland, and many other countries, McDonald's tries to cater to each country and culture buy altering their menus to fit what is locally acceptable, or liked. For example, in Holland McDonald's created the McKroket, which is a dutch delicacy (extremely delicious!). Holland is a pretty liberal open culture, therefore i cannot think of any instances in which an ad is not compatible.


    Fanny:
    1. I like to think that i am a heavy multi-tasker. But the fact of the matter is that i am not. I try and do more than two things at once, but it rarely proceeds with success. For example, if i am talked to by someone when i watch TV or browse the internet, i stop what i am doing and listen, sometimes i even don't hear that i am being talked to because i am so consumed with what i do.

    2. I use TV, internet, and my cell phone as media constantly everyday.

    3. Yes i do think that the information i receive today is over saturated. For example, i think that invasion of advertising on Facebook has gone too far, and it deviates the users from the actual use of Facebook.


    Bobby:
    1. This is interesting because i just found myself using my ipad, computer, and phone at the same time. I use them together because i have my calendar on my ipad, a keyboard on my computer, and contacts on my cell phone which i all need daily, especially in the life of a graduate student. Most of the time i do all of this while i watch TV :) So, i would say that i do this constantly.

    2. I too agree that this is important in advertising. Yet, i cannot specifically think of an instance where advertising presents a multitasking environment. However, i believe that like i said before, many times people try to multitask and fail, thus i think advertising in a multimedia sense is different among various people.

    Thanks,
    Rebecca

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  16. Grace:

    I am more of an analytic; analytics deal with logic, and even though I would like to view things in a holistic way, I naturally tend to be analytic. I have to force myself to be holistic, but that is only when analytic techniques can’t be applied. For example, if I come across a problem that can’t be solved easily solved with my logical thinking (Analytic), I resort to critical thinking (Holistic).

    Fanny:

    At most, I use two kinds of media at a time, but I do multitasking inside of those media. For example, I use my computer (internet) and while on the computer I have multiple tabs open looking up and reading multiple websites, emails and watching Youtube, etc. Some information can be oversaturated, but I seem to filter the things that I am interested in, so it doesn’t bother me.

    Bobby:

    I’m using my computer right now, although it is one device, I have three applications open at one time (MS Word, Google Chrome, Adobe Reader). I multitask within one medium. I barely use multiple different medias simultaneously, but I use multiple programs inside one media. I agree with Pilotta and Schultz, to reach more you have to diversify your media outlets. Political campaigns can seem deceiving when I use a different media to dissect them. For example, if I watch the debate on Youtube, versus reading about it in the paper, the information will be conveyed differently; I sometimes feel as though most media, if not all, puts a spin on their point of view.

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  17. Grace

    1. I am mostly holistic. Evidence includes the fact that wherever I get I have to orient myself (in terms of the location, situation, goal, etc.) and ensure myself grasp the whole picture.

    A few years ago, McDonald's apologized for making a commercial in China that contained scenes where people kneel down on the floor. In China kneeling down to someone could seriously mean you put aside dignity to express certain emotion like gratitude. This is an example of commercials did not pay enough attention to cultural difference.

    Fanny

    I don't think I am very multitask. Currently in my life the most frequently used media are first of all the internet, and then the cell and TV. Now that I've read the result of the Ophir, Nass and Wagner article and knew that HMMs are generally less capable of some cognitive actions, I think I should not be too multitask to ensure a high working efficiency.

    I often feel that life's been very saturated since grad school started--study, events, and a balance between life here and relations back in China. But sometimes I guess as grad student I need to be capable of managing this. Even though I am not capable now, I should strike to be.

    Bobby

    I think online and TV ads together could well make impact on my mind. Things are when I first saw an ad on TV and if it interested me, I would search online to gather more information about it. Yes I think it works on me.

    I strongly think that ad campaigns today should be through multichannel to make the best impact. Advertainment and the VERB campaign and maybe some other topics we've talked about previously could illustrate the efficiency of using multimedia. It should better make people feel interactive, interesting, and that the advertised products are much more accessible.

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  18. Grace:
    I think it depends. I try to be analytic in high risks events,such as bank issues and medical issues.In some other situation,for example,deciding my lunch, I am holistic. Some simple reasons to convince myself is enough..

    Fanny:
    I use social media like facebook, news website like sina.com and newspaper like illini daily and some magazines everyday... But I don't think it is over saturated. I use multiple medium because I want information in multiple domains and opinions from multiple stands. For example, When the earthquake happened in Sichuan,China. I tried to obtain official information from news websites, comments from multiple stands from social medium and other opinions from foreign source of information(because of the restriction of Chinese government). So...I think more medium provide me more opinions....

    Bobby:

    I agree that I receive information from multiple medium.However, I am not processing information from these medium simultaneously.Instead, I am processing one by one...I also need salient environment for study as most of you do.(So...I like libraries...)

    I agree with the authors regarding your second question. We seldom concentrate on only one task nowadays. I remember an TV program I saw in China that talked about cuisines.The program was broadcasting at 6 p.m.,which is the cooking time for Chinese people. The rhythm was quite slow because it assumed the audience was cooking in front of their TV. I think this may be an example

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  19. Grace:

    I recognize that there are many differences between advertisements in US and Taiwan. Taiwan’s ads are more holistic while US ads makes me feel like it’s more analytic. Taiwan’s ads always aim at telling a story or featuring some atmosphere to attract consumers but US ads always tell consumers the reason why you have to get this product directly.

    Fanny:

    According to the article “Cognitive control in media multitaskers,” do you think you are heavy media multitaskers? Please list three kind of media you use most frequently everyday( such as internet/SMS….)

    I think I am a heavy multitasker. Every day when I am using the computer, I look up Facebook, Plurk, Pinterst…just name a few. It seems that I just can’t stop from knowing the newest information and I like to do so many things one at a time.

    I don’t think the information I receive everyday is over saturated. They seldom bother me. If I don’t like it, I just skip it.

    Bobby:

    I agree with that because I believe most people are multitaskers. Most campaign are designed for mutitaskers since they use different media to create the campaign and want to involve people into the campaign. I hardly see any campaign that only focused on isolation environment.

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