Class questions 1,2

1: I think that the goal of making advertisements look "homegrown" and amateurish is to make it more easier for the audience to relate. Recently, people have seemed to grow tired of marketing strategies. People are constantly bombarded with thousands of advertisements for absolutely everything, and they are aware of it. This leads to many advertisements being ignored because people want to feel as though they cannot be swayed by corporate goals. With YouTube becoming so popular along with all other social media that allows people to publish and share their own opinions, videos, etc. corporations are trying to break into the field and generate revenue from it. If social media continues to boom in popularity, than I think this goal for "homegrown" appearances will continue to gain popularity. It will work as an under-the-radar ploy that may get people to drop their guard and lead to effective advertising. As the quality of user-generated information increases, I think production costs will go up as well. This is inevitable because technology is evolving and improving on a daily basis. As better technologies are available to the general public at lower prices, quality will undoubtedly go up.
This is only for certain companies/products though because there will always be those companies who keep their professional appearance and do not want to appear amateur in any way.

2: http://www.toyota.com/recall/?srchid=K16005_p280560543
My Tags: Toyota, Recall, Gas Pedal, Repairs, Fixing the problem, Company Ad, PR
Tags: floor mat, gas pedal, recall information, Toyota

I'm not sure why floor mat is included in this other than that the original cause for the problem was said to be floor mats, which is how the recall was delayed for some time. I included company ad as well as PR because it seems like it is by how things are said as well as user comments below. Someone said the article itself isn't a paid ad, that it just was paid for to be on the homepage of Digg, but it is PR none the less. "It is good to know that Toyota is doing everything they can to fix this problem both quickly and safely," the first comment by "Roy" is something people need to be aware of online. It is increasingly popular and profitable for companies to have people constantly boast the company on websites and blogs related to them.