Green…..or is it

Going along with the whole green advertising campaigns I found this article about Norway implementing strict guidelines for ad campaigns boasting environmentally friendly vehicles.   

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL0671323420070906?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&pageNumber=2&sp=true

 

The main point of the article is that cars are not good for the environment.  Just because one car pollutes less than another it doesn’t mean that it is good for the environment.  These guidelines were implemented late last year and it restricts companies from using phrases like “environmentally friendly’, ‘green’, ‘clean’, ‘environmental car’, ‘natural’ when marketing cars.”  Not following these guidelines would result in fines. 

 

Using “green” terminology is a big part of advertising these days.  Everyone is trying to have the lowest emissions, best gas mileage, etc.  Not being able to boast these benefits in their commercials will change their approach in Norway. 

 

 

I found this Toyota Prius commercial that I think would probably get fined if it were aired in Norway.  The phrase “low emissions,” would probably fall into the category of words and phrases they can’t use.  While I was reading the comments about this ad one person made a good point.  This car is a hybrid car, which means it is both gas and electric.  This would probably mean that the battery system on it would be different from your normal car.  I know that batteries are not good for the environment and need to be disposed of properly.  What happens in 10-20 years when the first generation Prius’ start to get old and people are getting rid of them.  Or even when the battery system needs to be replaced.  People or even service centers may choose to dispose of these batteries incorrectly.  The toxic metals in the batteries could be more harmful than the benefit or lower emissions.  I am not saying that many people will do this or that it is common, but it could happen.

 

The companies using these ad campaigns rely on people being more aware of the environment.  Not being able to advertise these advances in technology will make developing ads for Norway more difficult.

Support our troops

Anheuser-Busch the maker of beer products has been known for their funny and memorable commercials.  How many emotional commercials can you think of?  For me it was hard to even find one.  Then I found one in the most unlikely of places.  I was going through some old Superbowl commercials when I found this one.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osTrMe76kes

 

 

Superbowl commercials are usually very expensive.  Most companies buy 30 second spots due to the high price.  Anheuser-Busch ran this minute long commercial during a Superbowl a few years back.  When I saw this commercial it really touched me emotionally.  It doesn’t matter whether you support the war or not.  This commercial is to thank all those soldiers who have gone to war. 

 

My cousin and brother have both served in the military.  Both have been to Afghanistan and my brother was also in Iraq.  There are some stories, that my brother will still not tell us, about experiences he went through while he was out there.  He is a totally changed person, who has done and seen things that some of us can’t even imagine.  My cousin is still serving and is considering re-enlisting for another four years.  It has been hard for our families to not have our relative around, and always thinking something might happen to them. 

 

This commercial really struck a cord deep within me.  I can remember waiting at the airport when my brother first returned from the military.  Seeing all those people supporting what they have done in the commercial brought back so many memories.  Anheuser-Busch did not once try to sell their product and not till the last three seconds do you even know who made the commercial.  This commercial was a very emotional way to advertise because it didn’t really try to sell the product.  The emotion used was for our troops and this company showed their supported for them.

Wiiiii- Sounds like fun

For my ad campaign project I would like to analyze the Nintendo Wii campaign.  The form I use will be a wide campaign and the medium will be television.  The technology behind the Wii is amazing.  It is the first of its kind, and being so most of the ads show the product in action.  The ads integrate many different age groups and both genders to appeal to wide variety of people.  This is a product that I am interested in and would like to further analyze Nintendo’s advertising style.  This product originates from Japan, so I will also be able to compare and contrast the different types of ads internationally.  

Since we are talking about sound this week in class I will talk about one of the Wii commercials that does a good job incorporating sound.  This ad is very long and shows a numerous screenshots of actual game play.  Mixed with these screenshots are images of a person actually playing the game.  There is no talking or any type of slogans, only the visuals and the song.  So let’s talk about this song.  I don’t know the name or artist, but all you have to do is hear the first five seconds and you will recognize the song.  With echoic memories that recognition may be good or bad.  In my case the decision to use this song is a very good choice.  The Wii is supposed to take gaming to another level by having the gamer become part of the game.  The gamers movements controls the movements of the character.  Two memories come to mind with this song.  The first is of many trips to action packed sporting events.  I associate physical activity and sports with this song.  Good association for a game that has the player actually moving around.  And second, the movie Mortal Kombat had this song playing during one of the fight scenes.  Once again a great association for a product like a video game platform.  This ad appealed to me because it showed the product in action and the song had me associate good memories with their product.           

Not Cute

What is the deal with the idea of photocopying yourself at the office?  Not to long ago I say a commercial for Subway where a manager asks an employee for a receipt.  The employee responds with….um can I just photocopy my butt.  The boss lets the guy photocopy his butt, but while doing so the guy breaks through the glass.  When I conducted a search to see who the advertisement was for I found multiple sights talking about the Subway commercial but numerous others talking about the subject.

I bring this up because I went to Google to do a search for a print ad that I could do for this week’s assignment.  I typed in print ad and started my search under the image setting.  What do I find on the fourth image of the search results?

 

 

This ad for Dodge is using the same idea of photocopying a rear end.  I actually think the ad is very creative with the use of personifying the Dodge Caliber.  It even goes further with the statement “anything but cute.”  The Dodge is not only personified, but personified doing something our culture labels as inappropriate or “not cute.” 

 

This weeks reading talks about companies using cultural surroundings to create appeal.  Photocopying oneself at work appeals to people.  Whether it be the danger of doing it without getting caught or a juvenile sense of humor, photocopying rear ends is appealing.  Dodge tapped into this appeal with a creative twist.  When you first look at the ad you are focused to the rear end of the Dodge and the photocopier.  Cars don’t sit at an angle while resting its weight on a photocopier.  The attention of the reader is focused at the actions of the Caliber.  The light of the imager is still on, the SUV has been caught in the middle of the act.  Not cute at all.  This ad does not show features, specs or even a believable picture.  It does, however, use the cultural surrounding of today to appeal to our societies humor.  I don’t believe either ad discussed was very effective.  I couldn’t even remember what product the guy busting through the photocopier was promoting.  Both ads did get their names out there and the repetition can get people thinking of the product.

Do you have the time?

Billboards need to be short and to the point.  It can’t have too many words because the cars driving by would not be able to read them.  How about the only words on the advertisement is the company’s tag line.  The McDonald’s golden arches with their tag line “I’m lovin’ it” are the only words on the ad below.  McDonald’s is a household name.  This ad isn’t trying to show a new product, or show an improvement to a current product.  This ad shows their creative advertising.  It is colorful and has pictures of items off their breakfast menu, with numbers by each.  These numbers represent the time.  The billboard has a working sundial built into it.  The shadow shows what time it is and points to one of the breakfast menu items.  The tip of the sundial has an M on it.  At the very last time the billboard works, which is a little past 11 AM, the M casts a perfect shadow of the golden arches.   I think the effective part of this ad would be when the average person drives by they will look down at their clock to see if the sundial actually works.  At that point maybe they realize, I have enough time to stop by McDonald’s this morning.  At the very least this ad has the customer thinking of McDonald’s.  I think the advertiser could have spent a little more time on the actual menu items.  The pancakes especially don’t seem that appetizing.  The unique idea would have got their attention, but the food needs to be what draws them in.  Creative adverting, yes.  Effective advertising, I’ll say maybe slightly effective. For a better look at the billboard go to:  http://adsneeze.com/media/2007/09/sundial.jpg    

Law Givaa

World of Warcraft is an online game played by millions every day.  Toyota is a automobile manufacture with billions of dollars of revenue last year.  What do these two things have in common?  Normally I would say that Warcraft and Toyota don’t have anything in common.  However, in the world of advertising anything is possible.  Take this commercial.

A synecdoche is used to bring Toyota and Warcraft together.  A synecdoche is a trope that represents one position by another.  People spend hours playing World of Warcraft each day.  Their goal is to have the best armor, weapons, skills and character.  With expansion packs coming out every few years World of Warcraft is able to keep players coming back.  The commercial shows three characters getting ready to fight a boss.  Some bosses take hours and groups of numerous characters to defeat.  As each character arms for battle one calls on his “four wheels of fury,” and out pops a Toyota Tacoma .  The character drives up to the boss and is immediately swallowed by the boss.  Seconds later the Toyota bursts out of the boss’ chest with his heart in the bed of the truck.  The boss’ health falls to nothing and he dies. 

The Tacoma represents the ultimate weapon in World of Warcraft.  The Tacoma is able to kill a boss that would normally take hours in a matter of seconds.  Toyota is one of the first companies to target World of Warcraft players.  To a World of Warcraft player the Toyota Tacoma must be great truck because it can do amazing things in the Warcraft world.    

Tea Time

This past weekend I went to Colorado with a group of friends.  We decided that one of the places we wanted to see was Boulder, CO.  We shopped and ate lunch at the Pearl St. mall.  While waiting for our food we looked at a tourist map trying to see where we would go next.  Among the things to do there was a free tour of the Celestial Seasonings production plant.  Free being our favorite price, we decided to take the tour.  It was nice to see what actually goes into making a bag of tea.  We learned that they are the largest specialty tea manufacturer in the United States, and have one of the most highly automated facility in the industry. 

After reading Ogilvy’s section on marketing a started to think back to my trip to Boulder and my Celestial Seasonings’ tour.  When one thinks of traditional, mainstream advertising, television ads first come to mind.  I could not remember ever seeing a television ad for Celestial Seasonings.  After doing some research on the Internet I was not able to find any television commercials.

They point of this blog is to show that advertising comes in many different forms.  Ogilvy never really says what type of advertising he is talking about.  He is just stating the importance of advertising as a marketing tool.  Celestial Seasonings has taken a different approach to advertising.  I learned from the tour that they are very selective and limited on the types of advertising they choose.  The main form of advertising they use is company and brand recognition.  Each new line of tea has a nationally recognized artist contracted to create unique artwork for the packaging.   Here are a few examples. 

    

          

Celestial Seasonings believes in their product quality, and prefer word of mouth advertising to increase customer base. 

  

Save time and money

Williams stated that the values of time and money are correlated. He uses a quote from Pennie Williams to show this correlation, “Time and money are interchangeable. You can always save one by spending more of the other.” The emergence of Home Depot and Circuit City gave the consumer the ability to go to one store and feel confident that they will find what they need. This new confidence comes with a price, Williams writes. These stores do not always have the lowest prices. The cost of saved time is additional money. If that same consumer was to research and visit a couple of different stores, a lower price could probably be found. This saved money comes at the price of lost time.

I don’t fully agree with Williams. While reading the section on time vs. money the first thing that popped into my head was Wal-Mart. Their advertising campaigns are a combination of saving both time and money.

When the Wal-Mart Supercenters first opened they initially informed the consumer that they are the one stop shopping center. All the great product of a traditional Wal-Mart combined with a grocery store. The busy person could do their normal shopping and grocery shopping at the same place.

 

 

Recently the advertising has moved away from saving the consumer time, to saving the consumer money. After a quick visit to Wal-Mart’s website one can find this new direction. There is even a counter at the very bottom of the home page showing how much money has saved their consumers. This can be seen here http://www.walmart.com/. Since January 1, 2008 Wal-Mart customers have saved over $35 billion, and counting. When you click on the store info link on that same page there is more information about Wal-Mart focusing on saving money. There is a very colorful picture of two children with a statement of their common mission. Wal-Mart wants to save people money so that those people can live better. http://www.walmartstores.com/GlobalWMStoresWeb/navigate.do?catg=316

Here is a link to the video. I couldn’t find it anywhere else.
http://www.adage.com/video/Player?spotId=1285&instanceId=&startId=&PageDate=&PageTitle=’,578,500)

Wal-Mart’s advertising does not agree with William’s thoughts on time vs. money. They are giving the consumer savings of both time and money, without having to sacrifice one for the other. The ad shows a family on vacation. Doing vacation type things like going to the beach. After a couple of strategic Wal-Mart shots you learn that Wal-Mart saves the average family $2,500 a year. This family chose to use this savings to take this wonderful trip that we just experienced with them. What will you spend you savings on?

CareerBuilder

With all the hype of Super Bowl XLII commercials it was not hard to find a commercial to analyze. With companies paying as much as $2 million dollars for one 30 second spot, one would expect high quality commercials. I chose the CareerBuilder commercial that is available above.

It is hard to use any of Aristotle’s four causes because you don’t even know what the product is until the last couple seconds of the commercial. Persuasion is the power of words to influence a person’s actions. This commercial only had five words and they weren’t even spoken. So how, one might ask, is this commercial persuasive? I think that it was one of the most persuasive commercials during the Super Bowl. The people at CareerBuilder used our own personal feelings against us.

To start they set up the environment, a person working while the boss sits around doing nothing. Now think about how many people have ever felt the way she looks. I think the feeling of being burnt out at a job is a feeling that everyone has experienced at some time or another. To draw in a bigger group the worker is female and the boss is male. Females in many different industries feel that they have to work harder than males to get recognition.

Now they have us hooked. We can all relate in some way to the worker. Add some desperate, sad music and the stage is set. The worker’s heart explodes out of her chest and storms into the boss’ office and jumps on his desk. The heart pulls out a sign with two very powerful words, “I QUIT.” I know that I have considered those same words on a number of different occasions, and I’m sure many other people have also. As the heart storms out of the building, it is followed by “follow your heart.”

CareerBuilder is trying to persuade its viewers not to use their product, but to have the courage to get out of your current, possible dead end job. Then at the very end, the last two minutes, of the commercial they throw in their name. They are saying if you decide to “follow your heart,” and get out of your current job, come see check us out. Maybe we can help you and your heart find what is right for you.

Let’s Begin!

This is my first post and will be used as a sample.