Americanisation

It has come to that time of year again where people get dressed up in 'scary' costumes and go "Trick or Treating" for Halloween. It is at times like this that you realise how much Americanisation has affected countries that we live in (that is not, obviously, America). Halloween is a typically American holiday which is celebrated more over there than it really is down under. However, in previous years Halloween has gone up in popularity around Australia and everyone is getting involved. It is a sure sign of Americanisation in our modern world. Such an occurrence would normally be termed Globalisation but due to the sheer amount of American influences we see every day I think it is a safe thing for me to further categorise it. Americanisation is definitely a growing problem.

Source: http://blog.antonemdin.com/2012/02/americanisation-of-australian-politics/

We can see Americanisation in Australia in more places than just Halloween. For instance, you have the American companies who have come into Australia and already seem to be part of the fixture. These are companies like McDonalds  and KFC. Even Hungry Jacks, known in America as Burger King, is an American company along with Subway and many other things. In recent years we have also seen the introduction of giant bulk-buying stores like Costco which is yet another American company settling in Australia. However, for some companies the settlement is not so easy. Starbucks for instance. Though they are insanely popular in America they have struggled in Australia with the competition from Gloria Jeans. You do not see many Starbucks stores outside of the Melbourne CBD. Another such instance is with the American doughnut company, Krispy Kreme. Though originally very popular they since went out of style. Now there are only a few stores where there used to be many and it is only in recent years that they have started crawling back into the Australian market through chains such as 7-Eleven. Americanisation, however, is not always such a bad thing. There are many great things we have in Australia that have been influenced or is directly from America. For instance we have all the great (and not so great) movies that come out of Hollywood. We have our very own little Broadway in Collins Street as well as numerous American fashion chains and companies with stores all across the country. Americanisation, like most things, comes with its benefits and its deficits. Sometimes, we just have to weigh the good up against the bad.

Americanisation, is it such a bad thing? See you tomorrow.

Weird Advertisements

Has anyone else noticed the recent rise in weird advertisements? I mean weird in the sense that they simply do not make any sense and the basic message is just, well, basic. There have always being weird advertisements but at least they used to make sense. I saw an advertisement today for Devondale Cheese. I saw absolutely no connection between the content of the advertisement and the product other than right at the end when it finally said what the advert was for. There is another one for some soy-milk drink (I think it was Devondale again) "without the soy-milk-aftertaste-face". All it has is one person grimacing from the so-called "soy-milk-aftertast". The basic message I got from this was that in order to avoid awkward moments caused by soy-aftertaste is to buy their product. For a moment there I was sold but then I realised I did not drink soy milk. Also, some of those skittle adverts. I see no way a message but rather a competition to set the world record for the most skittles shown in thirty seconds. Skittles is notorious for these sort of ads. I just do not see how they achieve much other than cause conversation. Now I think about it, it actually does work as I am talking about it now and remember it more than any other advertisements.

If I see one more Rivers advert I am going to become depressed. See you tomorrow!

Another Late Post

So today is yet another late post. As I am typing this on my phone it will not be as long and, of course, will not include pictures. As it is late I thought I would just update you guys on what has been going on for me recently. It has been a while since I have done one of these but from my previous posts you may have gleaned a bit of an insight into what I've been up to.

As you may have realised from my previous post on Acronyms I am currently part of a recruit course for my local CFA as I was in juniors but once you turn 16 you can become a full-firefighter. I started this just before the holidays finished but there is still a long way to go yet. Just a warning that if you do want to become a firefighter there is a lot of theory to cover including tests. In other news, on Monday it is the start of LOTE week at my school and at lunchtime there is a house captain cook off. Apparently though this is just decorating something though which is lucky otherwise they would have had a burnt entry. Nothing much else has happened really so I do not have that much to tell.

Don't let the mundane get you down, see you tomorrow!

Community

Community (No, I do not mean the popular TV show) is something most people classify as history, no longer a part of today's multicultural environment. I beg to differ and I believe that Community is still alive today and I have seen examples of this everywhere. By Community I am not referring to buildings or any physical. I am talking about the social links between people in an area.

Just recently I had the pleasure of seeing this, just yesterday in fact. As you may have read yesterday I went to Relay for Life and there were so many people united to raise money for the Cancer Council. There were just so many people and there was such a good vibe around that it wasn't hard to see the sense of community.

There were so many different teams there, and they were all happy to be there even though they could have been spending their weekend doing something else. There were Fire Brigades, School Groups, Paramedics, work groups and other community groups who all had busy tents and full teams. Then there was also all the teams who also sold raffle tickets, food, lollies (yeah, I know lollies are food) and those beads and necklaces and everybody was smiling and were talking to other teams like they had known each other for years. So there was a really vibrant sense of community at this event and like all other Relay for Life events that I had attended. I really enjoyed my time and that was partly due to the sense of community I felt at every part of the track, it really gives you hope for the world. NOTE: These photos are from Relay for Life 2012 and are from the Wyndham Relay for Life Facebook Page.

May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!