Hello, my name is Rachel Roznos and this is my Popular Culture course blog. I consume popular culture through a variety of ways: movies, TV shows, reading, podcasts, and even good ol’ fashion word of mouth. The last method is especially useful to me as I tend to avoid media based in current reality and will, therefor, often miss important pieces of news if not informed by the people around me. This isn’t always reliable, however, as most individuals have their own opinions and bias jading their presentation of said information. The other forms of pop culture I tend to engage with are firmly fiction based or historical. I often use these as methods of escaping reality and therefor do not think too much about the ideas or products being advertised throughout. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t there or that they don’t have an affect – just that I haven’t allowed myself to notice if they do. In Chapter 1 of Introducing Popular Culture by Imre Szeman and Susie O’Brien, it is revealed that coffee–despite being nothing more than a simple seed-based drink–has grown to have such significant meaning in modern society that many of us now have subconscious triggers creating a compulsive desire for the drink. As a college student, I have seen this appear in two main ways. First, social outings. In David Crane and Marta Kauffman’s television sitcom Friends, the six front liners of the show always meet up and hang out at their local coffee shop. While this may seem insignificant, the repetition of this scenario in this program as well as other media sources have cemented into the collective mind of society that, if you ever want to meet up and talk–be it a date or just a friendly outing–a coffee shop is the place to go. Another way in which the idea of coffee has embedded its way into college culture is through the “I need a coffee,” mental state. This appears a lot in cop or office dramas; the idea that one cannot get through the day without a cup o’ joe…or two…or three…or four. Around campus there are hundreds of people who have never once needed or even liked the stuff now downing it like there’s no tomorrow. It’s not because they are staying up any later, or working any harder–it’s because the idea that drinking coffee is what college students, what adults, do. Its rather difficult to view this kind of product plug as advertising or marketing, but that’s exactly what it is. The kind of brand-based endorsements shown in Morgan Spurlock’s The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, are much easier to process, but they are also much easier to identify. The continuous subtle conditioning is hard to spot. In terms of whether or not this can be used as an agent of good and spread awareness, I absolutely think it can. But whether or not I think it will actually happen is a different question entirely. Most individuals orchestrating these long-con developments are more concerned with conducting business and making money than they are with any particular movement. There is likely more luck to be had with more obvious advertising.