Voice Critique

Voice Critique
I was immediately drawn to Gerd’s Consumer Behavior blog because the first page contained images of trendy products, celebrities and pop culture. In one of her posts entitled “Why I Love Ikea,” Gerd lists her #5 reason as the “You cannot go to an IKEA store without stopping by the cafeteria for the Swedish meatballs.” I liked this post in particular because I also enjoy them and no trip to Ikea is complete unless I eat a tray of meatballs covered in gravy, not to mention the mashed potatoes on the side. This blogger clearly shared my obsession with food and cheap furniture. This display of personality really helps the reader get an immediate sense of the blogger's voice. The graphics posted on her blog also speaks volumes to her personality and voice.

Gerd also complements many of her blogs with relevant images or video clips, which help the readers get a better feel for the topic being blogged about. She spiced up her blog by integrating a YouTube clip of a man that lived at Ikea while his apartment was being fumigated. I thought this was a clever way for her to market her own blog, while at the same time exposing another person’s media stunt.

This blog was very conversational in nature because it usually begins each blog entry with a question. In doing this, Gerd initiates a conversation with her reading audience I chose her blog because it was very easy to navigate and browse. She effectively created a nice flow by using bulleted and numbered lists. In doing this, it brought by attention to the main points and allowed me to skim over the blog quicker. Her Ikea blog is a prime example of this. Given that she is a female student interested in pop culture/media, her persona leads me to believe that she is a typical student on a budget that shops at Ikea. This topic reflects Gerd’s personality as a blogger because she chooses topics that would be of interest to the average college student. Given that she is a college student herself, she can connect to that specific audience.

In another post, Gerd’s personality is very apparent when she blogs about the over-consumption of different products and it’s effect on the environment. Again she employs her device of bulleted lists and offers several suggestions on how to reduce pollution. Her first lists includes ridiculous items like

• “Meat consumption takes 10 times the amount of resources to produce as a corresponding amount of vegetables. Therefore; quit eating meat.
• Did you hear about the British MP who announced that he was going to quit flushing after doing “number one” on the toilet? You can do better: Stop flushing the toilet even after number two; it will save much energy and water.
• While you’re at it, quit showering.”
She engages in a casual conversation with her audience if
“you love meat too much to give it up, you like smelling nice, you think the sound of a toilet flushing is like music to your ears.”

Gerd uses humor when talking to her audience and says if they agree to the above statement, then they must heed her second bulleted list of tips. By offering the first set of lists, she sets the tone that she can be comedic about the issue, however she transitions to a more serious tone. Her second list offers more realistic and practical solutions to over consumption. At the end of the blog she speaks more to her persona by saying “Next week I become a green consumer super-hero!” and places a picture of an imaginary super hero. Again she does this to add humor and possibly relay to the audience that although she blogs about a sensitive topic, she can still be funny.