The Story of PolyGram Records

The record label I chose was PolyGram Records. PolyGram Records was founded in 1929 as Hollandische Decca Distribute, and acted as the Netherlands distributor for Decca Records, a large record company. HDD became large enough that it was sold to Philips, a large multinational electronics firm, in 1942. During the 1940s, Philips, already a radio manufacturer, got into the gramophone record market. The various portions of Philips in the gramophone record business were consolidated as Philips Phonografische Industrie (PPI) in the late 1940s. Over the years, PolyGram acquired many record labels under their umbrella. These record labels included A&M, Decca, Island, Mercury, Def Jam, Polydor, and many others. They had nearly every musical genre under the sun. By 1988 they were considered one of the "Big Six" record companies. In 1998, Philips sold off the company, which was acquired by Seagram (the ginger ale company) and merged into Universal Music Group by 1999. 

Mmmmmm.... Browser Cookies

A chocolate chip cookie, loaded with sweet dough and delectable chunks of chocolate. You chew into it, and the chocolate and dough run down your tongue and tickle your taste buds. Yummy.

As it turns out, your most pleasant experience with cookies probably doesn't involve sugar at all. I'm not talking about sugar-free diet cookies - I'm talking about Internet cookies on the computer. Isn't it convenient to go home and be able to pull up Facebook without logging in? Cookies. If you want to close your browser window, you can without having to log back in when you open it back up. Cookies again. Every day I visit certain websites - Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube, and City-Data - and I know that if I've been on the site in the last few days, it will maintain my log-in - with the exception of Wikipedia, in which I have to log back in every 30 days (currently, this is around the 11th of each month)

Cookies are also a big part of why I get the ads I do. I am bombarded with ads for Honda products - because I frequently visit Honda related websites because I am a Honda enthusiast. (Yes, I drive a Honda, it's a 2011 Accord V6 sedan)

Political Ads - Fact or Fear?

For as long as there have been political ads, ads have catered to the fears of the populace. The ads don't say "This is why you should vote for X candidate" as often as they imply "This is why you SHOULDN'T vote for Y candidate". It goes on today, with candidates using the disagreements they have with their opponents as fodder for ads. If a candidate is for an issue, often times they will emphasize that their opponents are against that issue and the downfalls of their opponent's opinion.

There's a reason for this: negative ads get attention. The best remembered political ads of the past have been those of a negative bias. For instance, the "Daisy" television advertisement was used by Lyndon B. Johnson for his 1964 election campaign, implying that his opponent, Barry Goldwater, was weak on military issues by using a simulated nuclear explosion and a two year old in a field. Pulling at both the fears and heartstrings of voters, the ads said "the stakes are too high to stay home". LBJ ended up winning the election. Today's ads usually aren't that blunt or shocking, but the negative bias is there all the same.