Significant Emotional Experiences (SEE's)

In the process of constructing identities, I believe there are certain SEE's that occur within your life which shape or reshape your identity, your direction, your thinking and even possibly the outcome of a path that was already pre-destined for you.  Over the years I have thought a lot about what shaped the identity of "me" and in class this past week, in discussing Dr. Crafton's first chapter in her book, it made me bring those thoughts and images to the forefront again. 

I have had several SEE's in my life, but none probably as life-changing as in February 1978.  I had graduated high-school early in order to get a jump on college - academia nut that I was, I had scholarships to help and I was going to be the FIRST child in my family's history to go to college and finish!  My parents were proud and I was determined.  30 days after beginning my Freshman year, I discovered that I was pregnant - something that my older boyfriend and I had not planned on.  60 days later we "did the right thing" and exchanged vows, much to the dismay of my father, and my first semester of school became my only semester of school.  My young husband was jealous of my continuing education and I was forced to leave school.  Then after the baby was born, he was jealous of her too, so I was forced to leave him as well.  At 21, I had a 2-year-old daughter to support, with no formal education and nothing promising on the horizon. 


My "friends" were all in school and telling me "there is no hope for you now - a single mom with no schooling, poor Robin, you really aren't going to amount to anything."  My family was supportive, but they did not know how to help.  I had always been a strong, confident young girl and woman, thanks to my upbringing with two solid parents (that have now been married 54 years), yet this SEE brought out new characteristics I did not know I possessed - my determination to succeed became fierce, my acceptance of responsibility went to an all time high, and my drive for knowledge (wherever it could come from) kicked in to high gear.  This moment of time in my life, this SEE, shaped and molded me into someone I am not sure I would have been without it. 

I did beat the odds.  According to 2009 Heritage Foundation data, Thirty-seven percent of families led by single mothers nationwide live in poverty. Comparatively, only 6.8 percent of families with married parents live in poverty and Single Parent Success Foundation statistics are;
• 63 percent of suicides nationwide are individuals from single-parent families.
• 75 percent of children in chemical dependency hospitals are from single-parent families.
• More than half of all youths incarcerated in the U.S. lived in one-parent families as a child.

In reading Dr. Crafton's chapter, there is a line that reads, " I once heard someone say that his childhood was just bad enough to make him successful..." I too, wonder, had I not been pregnant at 18, alone at 21, would I have strived as hard for - and achieved - success?  OR why did I not choose to go down the path of feeling sorry for myself, sign on for welfare, work an hourly job and let the government take care of my daughter and I?  If I had been able to finish college, would I really have valued it as much as I do today - for myself, not for others? 

I don't know the answer to any of these questions, but they are questions I pull out from time to time and mull over - usually right after another Significant Emotional Experience.

Consumer Pushes Ads or Ads Pull Consumers?

As someone who has spent their entire life informing consumers/businesses about things they didn't know they needed, but after seeing the advertising, had to have - I have a somewhat different viewpoint on advertising in general.  Advertising is meant to move the needle for the company product that it is promoting - whether that be for a profit or non-profit organization - and at the end of the day, it is supposed to be entertaining.  Is advertising gender biased?  Absolutely!  Is advertising race biased?  Absolutely!  Is advertising age biased?  Absolutely!  Is advertising geographically biased?  Absolutely! So, if all these bias's exist, why does it come as a surprise when advertising offends?  I believe the only people that are offended by such bias's are the people who are not actually the target audience.  Those people in the non-target audience had no intention of purchasing that specific product, but are offended that the advertising is gender-dominated, age dominated or race dominated. 

There are so many examples of advertising that could be potentially offensive due to "stereotyping", it would take a book to list them all.  But in the interest of keeping this short and sweet, here are some brief examples:  1) Minivan advertising comes to mind - how many ads can you name that have a "happy Dad" behind the wheel driving all the kids to soccer or to playdates?  There are certainly stay-at-home fathers and there are certainly men that drive minivans (with children in them), and even though the white male is the majority in our markets, there is little to no criticism coming from that sector due to minivan advertising being skewed towards female buyers.  Why?  2) Volvo spent two decades advertising safety (without physically using the word) and actually had women design a car in 2002 because "Through customer research, Olsson said, the company discovered that women want everything in a car that men want in terms of performance and styling, "plus a lot more that male car buyers have never thought to ask for..."We learned that if you meet women's expectations, you exceed those for men," he said."(USA Today, March 2, 2004) Again, I make the point that there were no men jumping up and down crying out "sexist" to Volvo.  Why? 3) Vacation advertising - completely driven towards women and young children.  Why?  Do fathers not make decisions about vacations? 

I believe that people drive and influence advertising, not the reverse.  Agencies all over the world spend enormously large amounts of money on research to determine who is their audience, what/how are they buying, how can they get more just like them, and how, if possible, can they cross-over into another demographic, much like Taylor Swift moving from country to pop.  In my opinion, Leo Burnett, renowned genius of advertising, put it the best, "Advertising is the ability to sense, interpret... to put the very heart throbs of a business into type, paper and ink" and "I am one who believes that one of the greatest dangers of advertising is not that of misleading people, but that of boring them to death."

Why is it then with all this said, that those offended are usually in the minority of purchasers and usually not in the target-market demographics with no intent to purchase?  And those that are often in the majority of the overall purchasers sector (white males) claim no offense to ads that they are completely cut out of? Hmmmmmmmmmmm...

Officially entering the blog world, although I have no idea what will be the outcome.  As my father always said, "If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit."  We'll let you, the reader, be the judge of which one it is!