Interpreting Editorial Cartoons

This is one picture I found after looking through many that I acually connected with on a personal level and really could identify with. I like and understand sports and I liked the humor in this cartoon.

The symbolism in it I think would be the trash and gutter like water (including cans and fishbones) coming out of his mouth and surrounding him.

The exaggeration is the oil drum or barrel of a mouth the artist has put in place of where a normal sized mouth once was. This is done to make his mouth look extra big and like it is spewing this gutter water.

The labeling is the sign that says "toxic waste" . That is a pretty obvious lable of what is around him and coming from his mouth as well.

The words toxic waste help to point out the analogy, which is what Rivers is saying. The cartoon's point is that what is coming out of his mouth or that what he is saying is equivalent to toxic waste, trash or garbage. Basically calling him on his trash talking behavior.

The irony to this cartoon is that his name with the replacing of one letter, the "S", can be changed from Philip Rivers, to Philip's River. Another ironic this is that he was such a horrible bad mouther and his team, the Chargers lost to the Patriots in playoffs.

I actually got to see his mouth in action for myself at the playoff game between the Colts and the Chargers!!! It was pretty bad, he's very mouthy!

The Rule Of Three

This picture illustrates the rule of three by breaking down the picture into thirds. The woman taking up the middle third of this picture. Above her is the radiator and some open space and below her is the color in the picture. Her green socks and red jacket seem to give the room some life and are the bottom third of this photo. I liked the colors and that it looked kind of retro and not too posed for, her skin is also beautiful.

This black and white picture shows the rule of three in a few different ways. First the three square cut outs pull your eyes to the right and cause some tension and movement. Second the stone walls are off to the side and seem to be on the long side of the B and C proportioned line which also applies to the rule of three. The way this picture has so many different textures is why I liked it.

I loved both of these pictures so much I couldn't pick just one and had to include them both. It seems to me (and I could deffinitley be wrong) that each of these pictures has diagaonal angles and depicts the rule of thirds that way. They are cut from corner to corner by their main subjects, both of whom are extrememly beautiful. I liked the simplicity of the showgirl on the bottom and the always overdone luxury of the former Mrs. Jagger on the top.

When I saw and learned about the nine square grid, it helped me understand the rule of three in a different and better way. When I saw this picture that grid jumped right out at me. This picture is a bit obvious, I know but I am not such a fan of technical pictures but I happened to like this one. It reminded me of something my brother would have built when we were young. Not to mention it is a really great picture, of whatever it is.

This was the first picture that I could easily see the rule of thirds jump right out at me. The long table takes up two thirds of the line at the bottom and then the woman the last third. Or the tree taking up two thirds and the woman and table one third. My family is all from Italy and this picture reminds me of life in all ways. Its simple, beautiful and seems you could sit there forever, if that glass is a glass of wine of course!

Can sex sell anything??

As most car companies do, this is volvo using sex to help to sell its cars. This ad is a little different than most though. The quote that goes with it is, "We are just as excited as you." Maybe they think their cars are for men only? I just thought this use of "sex" to sell a car was a funny one.

This ad is one that is used in Germany to sell vacuums! If you look closely you can see the product in the left corner and a little cord connected from the vacuum that is binding this man's hands. I guess she is going to lure him to her using suction instead of seduction. This is one product that I would never have guessed could have been seen in a sexual way but someone found a way to put it in a light that is, although I am not sure how much the vacuum is really being put on display.

Super Bowl Sales..

I thought the Super Bowl ads were really deflated this year. I think they have been getting more and more boring and less creative for the past few years. Maybe it is because the games have been more hyped up than ever, but to me the innovation and thought that used to go into theses commercials just isn't there whether it has to do with sex to sell a product or not.

This year in particular I really didn't think there were many advertisments that were using sex to sell their products or that were trying to use the human form much at all. Unless you count a very small baby with a photoshoped mouth!! There was one Victoria's Secret commercial with an almost naked woman with a close to perfect (if not perfect, or what american women have been trained to think and believe is perfect) body. The ad was for the store in general and for Valentine's Day, apperently the clevege worked because I remember the commercial and so did my husband!

Most of the ads that did run were for beer and usually they do use good looking people. This year it seemed to be horses and a donkey or mule. There were also some energy water ads that used althetes that people want to emulate, but not in a bad way. Super Bowl commercials were unsuprisingly mild to me this year.