Week 11: Final Evaluation

Based on the course objectives, I think I have done well in this class. I knew some information about advertising before taking the course, but the course definitely increased my knowledge and understanding. Over the passed eleven weeks, I have studies various elements and details that go into creating an advertisement that I never realized before. I believe that both the reading and class work have helped me to greatly progress towards meeting the course objectives. I even learned a lot about the design of an ad, and what goes into it. Before taking this class I didn’t know any concrete information about how text and images should relate in an advertisement, and the various approaches the creator can use.

Another helpful thing that I have learned, and that is a course objective, is the process that the creator of an ad should go through. From research, to design, to strategy. I also worked toward the course objective of understanding the advertising industry from the inside, by studying things like how the industry describes advertising, trade journals, and influential advertisers. 

After looking at the course objectives, evaluating my progress, and evaluating my course work, I think I have done well in the class. I participated actively and did each assignment in order to further my understanding or advertising and the course material. 

Week 10 EOC: What Makes a Good Campaign

Below are a few of the key aspects that will make the new Bad Gal Lash ad campaign successful. These aspects talk about what sets the campaign apart and what will make it a success. 

• Viewers will notice it.

Viewers are sure to notice these ads because they are exciting and different. The Bad Gal Lash advertisements will tell a story and have a personality, instead of just showing customers a mascara and telling about its features. 

• It is distinctive to the brand.

What makes these ads distinctive to the brand Benefit, and their personality. The ads will sell a specific attitude that goes along with this mascara, not just a great working beauty product. 

• Your core idea is elastic—you can create many ads based on the original theme.

The core slogan, “Bad is Better,” can be used in seemingly endless advertisements. “Bad is Better,” is the core idea, and it is elastic. Different images can be used to create different ads; kind of the way Diesel used the “Smart has the brains, stupid has the balls,” phrase in ads that depicted several different situations. 

• It will surprise people.

What will surprise people about the Bad Gal Lash advertisements is the fact that no mascara, or zoom in on a model’s fake eye lashes will be shown. The ads will be a new approach to selling make up. We will be selling a brand personality along with a high end beauty product. 

• It differentiates the brand or group.

These ads will use attitude and personality to differentiate Benefit from other beauty brands. When you see a mascara ad, can you immediately notice which brand it is for? Probably not. The Bad Gal Lash ads will change the answer to that question. Consumers will eventually recognize the style and personality, and know it is Benefit and Bad Gal.

Week 9 EOC: For Those Who Think Young

Both of the above advertisements are clearly targeted toward a younger audience, because of the people that star in the ads. The Pepsi commercial features hugely popular boy band, One Direction, and the Covergirl ad features musician Taylor Swift. One Direction and Taylor Swift both have a mostly young audience, and these advertisements are drawing in the same crowd. 

I think that it is a very smart move for advertisers to tap into the younger market. Young people have tremendous buying power, and they set trends. Another smart thing that is being done in these ads, is incorporating superstars that already have a huge fan base of young people. This way, their advertisement and brand will get attention simply by having One Direction and Taylor Swift in their commercial or magazine advertisement. 

Some people may think it is unethical to advertise to a young market, because they are naive. Yet, many agree that advertisers would be fools not to take advantage of this huge market segment and the power that they hold. 

These Covergirl and Pepsi ads are also examples of brands that advertise to many age groups. It is just in these specific circumstances that they have chose to advertise to a younger audience. Covergirl and Pepsi are both taking advantage of the market opportunity to appeal to a wider range of people and gain even more loyal brand followers. 

Week 6 EOC: Vintage Ads

This week we explored vintage advertisements. A key element that I noticed was that vintage ads often highlight a products specific components or ingredients.

The first example that I have found, is an advertisement for Certs mints. The commercial highlights the fact that Certs contain  "Retsyn," a trademarked name for a mixture of copper gluconate, hydrogenated cottonseed oil, and flavoring. It is the copper gluconate in Retsyn which gives Certs its signature green flecks.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Crest toothpaste emphasized their fluoristan content. At first it used stannous fluoride, marketed as "Fluoristan" (this was also the original brand name it was sold under—it was later changed from "Fluoristan" to "Crest with Fluoristan").

(http://bvikkivintage.blogspot.com/2009/10/vintage-crest-ads-from-196-1964.html)

I also noticed the advertisement of specific fabric contents. I see ads in the present day for things like cotton and Lycra, but these don't seem as popular as vintage fabric ads. The following in a vintage ad for Orlon. The Dupont Corporation created the first acrylic fibers in 1941 and trademarked them under the name Orlon.

(http://www.what-the-frock.com/2011_12_01_archive.html)

Week 5 EOC-Superbowl Ad

A Superbowl commercial that did an excellent job of resonating with the audience and conveying their brand idea, was Busweiser and the The Clydesdales: "Brotherhood" advertisement. 

If you missed it, watch the commercial below:

The commercial can be broken down by looking at the following six factors. 

• The nature of the brand or group
• The nature of Budweiser is all American. The "Brotherhood" ad conveys this by showing a man raising something he loves to achieve greatness, kind of like the American dream.
•  The goals of differentiation and distinction
• Budweiser did a perfect job of differentiating themselves in this advertisement. They used emotion to gain viewers attention, and made them remember the commercial. According to  an article on Mashable, the Brotherhood ad was the number three most shares Superbowl commercial of all time. (http://mashable.com/2013/02/04/budweisers-clydesdale-no-3-most-shared/)
•  A strategic brand personality
• Everyone associates Budweiser with the iconic Clydesdales. That is exactly why views not only remember this ad, they more importantly remember what the ad was for. 
• The target audience
• The target audience of this particular ad was very wide, since such a wide variety of American people watch the Superbowl. Yet, Budweiser did a fabulous job of appealing to the diverse audience. The "Brotherhood" story can appeal to and strike a cord almost anyone. 
• What is important to the target audience
• Yet again, a broad audience means many different things are important to them. The Brotherhood commercial zeroed in on something that is important to any normal American: friendship.
•  Positioning
• The Superbowl was the perfect place for Budweiser to bring back an emotional ad featuring the iconic Clydesdales. People will be talking about the ad for months to come. As Slate.com called the ad, it was "powerful and memorable." (http://www.slate.com/articles/business/ad_report_card/2013/02/_2013_super_bowl_ads_godaddy_budweiser_mercedes_blackberry_samsung_and_the.3.html)

One more thing I think I should mention: I sat down and watched the entire Superbowl this year, and the only think I bothered to tweet about was the Budweiser "Brotherhood" commercial.

Week 4 EOC: Women in Advertising

The two above ads very well illustrate the difference between women's roles in advertising in the passed, compared to modern times. The vintage advertisement, and modern ad are distinctly different because the older ad is in a way derogatory towards women, while the modern Nike ad is meant to be empowering. 

In passed decades, a women's role in advertisements was often in the kitchen, taking care of the home etc., while today women can be seen in all places and in all sorts of advertising. Although, while a was researched women in modern advertisements, I did come across quite a few that were derogatory and objectified women.

What is different now, is that it is normal for women to be seen in powerful positions. Most people are not surprised when an advertisement features women in charge. The particular modern Nike ad pictures above encourages women to be better than men, and challenges them in a way. In vintage ads, it was normal for women to be complacent and perfectly happy making sure dinner is ready for their husband every night. Obviously, this is no longer the case.

Tobacco and Ethics

• 1. Determine the scenario: What happens in this frame?
• The secenario of this advertisement is two happy and seamingly healthy people smiling and laughing together while they enjoy a cigarette.  
  
• 2. What is the setting? What are the conditions?
•  The setting of this advertisement is simply a couple enjoying themselves, while smoking. This gives the idea that smoking must be a fun a social activity.

• 3. Who are the people or groups?
• The people in this ad are two happy and healthy people, both a male and a female.

• 4. What is their point of view around this specific experience?
• The point of view of the people in this advertisement is that smoking is a positive experience. Their view is that a cigarette is an enjoyable part of their day that brings them pleasure.

 

• 5. What are their goals?
•  The goal of this advertisement is for smoking to be viewed in a positive light. Newport was to convey the idea that smoking will make the consumer happy.

• 6. What are their assumptions? What are their perceptions?
•  Their assumption is that cigarettes are fun and pleasurable.

• 7. Are there conflicts? Is there cooperation?
•  There are no conflicts happening in this advertisement.

• 8. What are the outcomes?
•  Newport wants to display a fun, pleasurable outcome from smoking their cigarettes. The real life outcome of this ad is that it can me misleading, and give wrong information.

Questionable Ethics

http://business.time.com/2012/07/05/what-were-they-thinking-10-ads-that-sparked-controversy/slide/lung-cancer-alliance/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first example of unethical advertising, is a PSA made by the Lung Cancer Alliance. The message of the ads was supposed to be that no one deserved to die of lung cancer, whether they smoked or not, but the message was lost. The ads read things like "Hipsters deserve to die", and "cat lovers deserve to die," so obviously people that fit into these categories and others were highly offended. These advertisements are unethical because they are blatantly stating that these innocent people deserve to die, which is obviously never a good thing to say, especially on a public platform like national advertising.

http://www.adpunch.org/sisley-fashion-junkie.html

The advertisement above is for Sisley clothing. I find this ad unethical because it seems to glamorize drug use. The ad shows two stylish girls, and calls them junkies. It illustrates them being addicted to clothing and fashion, but the reference to drugs is unethical. Most people agree that drug use is something not to be joked about, making this ad unethical.

http://www.stayawake.tv/Tag/advertising

The advertisement above for Belvedere Vodka is clearly unethical because it makes a joking reference to rape. Although the ad may night come right out and make an obvious joke, it's not hard to figure out what they are referring to. What makes this advertisement so unethical is that rape is a serious crime, not to be taken lightly. I'm sure most people agree it is not something to be joked about, especially in a large advertising campaign.

Volkwagon Lemon

The Volkswagen “Lemon” ad remains, to this day, one of the most successful and famous advertisements ever created. When the ad was created, Volkswagen saw their objective as “To sell a small, basic, ugly , economical, foreign car to a market used to huge, chrome-finned, gadget-stuffed, home-built gas guzzlers.”
http://www.brandstories.net/2012/11/03/vw-beetle-story-lesson-in-brand-persona-development/
    The Lemon ad took an honest approach, and that is what made it stand out.
“The VW Beetle is an honest car.  Everything about it had to be honest, transparent and straightforward – the product, the pricing, the dealers and even the advertising.
The body copy had to be like a tip from one friend to another.
The rest is glorious ad history.”
Labeling their own product as a lemon was also a fabulous way for Volkwagon to get attention. A Luon.com article all about the famous VW ads mentions, “Volkswagen paying for advertising to say how bad their cars were? I bet you that everyone who saw the ad, started reading the body copy.”
http://www.luon.com/blog/2011/3/2/mad-men-today-how-a-jew-sold-hitlers-favorite-car-to-america.aspx
Instead of going the typical route and calling themselves innovative, the Volkswagen advertisement said negative things about their product before any consumers could. During a time where flashy, large cars were the trend, Volkswagen gained consumer attention by being honest, and a bit surprising. The “Lemon” ad was created during the beginning of modern advertising, and set the standard for decades of advertisers to come.
“You couldn't help but love a company willing to kid itself in public, and no one responded more to the Beetle or its advertising than America's vaunted "baby boomers." As these children of postwar affluence came of age in the 1960s, they embraced Volkswagens as a way to show rejection of what they saw as the materialism of older generations. Besides, Volkswagens were cheap to buy and run, and they were easily fixed.”
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1960-1969-volkswagen-beetle4.htm