Advertisment Analysis

Olay presents an advertisement for their "complete" facial cream by depicting a calm, happy woman with several, strategically placed words surrounding her. She is seen gazing proudly at her wedding ring on her finger and words describe the life of a happy wife and mother. She is described as a shoe aficionado and a woman who takes time to take care of herself. As a result, Olay's product is something that is well suited to her and helps her to be "complete".

The ad brings forth strong stereotypes in terms of the woman and communicates her as someone who is only a mother and wife with no greater ambitions. This portrays the woman as someone who spends all her time simply taking care of beauty. This is a strong stereotype and distracts from those woman who work hard to achieve larger goals. The ad generalizes woman as people who have no interest in achieving greater things but rather prefer to focus on their beauty only. Even in regards to her role as a mother and wife, it shows that she still be focusing on her beauty. The ad makes the viewer believe that all woman are simply concerned with meaningless things such as shoes and facial products. It may seem that the ad is empowering woman to be complete in all they do however it chooses not to focus on important aspects. It ignores the strong, ambitious woman that is interested in making a change. While this ad could have focused on the woman being able to be strong in all aspects of her life including work, interest and family life, it does not. This shows that the most important message it is trying to communicate is that woman should not focus on real things but rather on feeble things, which encourages the product. This is vital for the placement of their product in the story that they are trying to sell. Olay creates this image of what looks like an "ideal woman" and then emphasizes the importance of their product in this. 

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Learning a foreign language as a requirement

Why all students in high school and college should be required to take at least two years of a foreign language Bilingualism is quickly spreading around the world and it is now estimated that half of the world's population is now bilingual or multilingual. With this, foreign languages are increasingly being taught in schools and universities. It is no wonder that bilinguals have many advantages in the educational and commercial world. One of the most important places that bilingualism gives an advantage in is the work place. It gives an edge in communication skills and allows the speaker to open up more opportunities by communicating with people from different parts of the world. In most instances, an employer will prefer to hire a bilingual rather than someone who only speaks one language. Aside from this, it allows them to interact with more people and gives the ability to research through different channels. With the obvious advantages that bilingualism awards the speaker, it is something that should be encouraged for all. And as school is the primary source of education and preparation for later life, it is the perfect place to teach language. From a non-commercial perspective, learning a new language can open you up to so many prospects. It introduces one to many new paths of literature and written art. This also allows us to meet more people from different countries and to introduce us to many cultures. Just imagine how much more you could understand from the world from another language. In some cases it may allow you to make a difference, for instance if someone who does not speak the common language needs assistance. Cases such as these allow us to realize the important rewards of learning a new language. Furthermore, learning a new language can help preserve the culture and identity of this language. With more and more people learning and speaking the language, it can grow and become stronger. This will make sure that languages are strengthened and the minority groups associated with them can become stronger in turn. The supporting of these languages will empower individuals to make a change and allow us to do this through different paths. As a result of the above points, learning a foreign language should become more widespread in school. Furthermore, the choice of the language should be varied depending on the location and background of the students. To make this even more effective, there should be a range of choices for the students. By learning a new language, we can make so many changes for us and for others. 

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