Reflection

This class was, despite my preconceptions, a lot of fun. I learned a lot about how advertising actually works and how advertisers think in order to get their product across. Being in graphic design I find this class to be extremely helpful as the two are very closely related. Knowing how this field works, hopefully will help me in the future. I really enjoyed this class a lot and John, you were a great teacher. I still need a few upper division classes and if you have one that I can take I'd jump at the chance to take it.

Interruptive Advertising

Interruptive advertising is one of the most annoying types of advertising I have ever experienced.
I absolutely hate when commercials pop up in the middles of my music stream or while I am watching television. If anything it makes me less receptive to the product. Now that we have DVR though it is a lot easier to just bypass television commercials, but Pandora has commercials that get you when you least expect it. It's extremely frustrating that I can't skip it too. Does not make me very receptive to purchase. Generally I mute the speakers. 

Creativity in ads

Is creativity essential in advertising? Oh yes it is. The point of advertising is to get people to notice a brand or product, and what better way to do that then make a creative ad that catches the attention of the consumer. The more creative the ad the more memorable the ad. People tend to remember things that they like or are interested in, so why not make  an ad that will catch their attention in a fun or creative way. The ad I am posting is quite creative. Frontline flea treatment. This is a large ad placed on the floor and while people walk over they realize that they are in fact the flees the poor dog is trying so desperately to scratch off. Its ads like this that catch my attention and those are the ones that I tend to remember over any others. That is the point of creating creative advertisements.

Nostalgia Marketing?

Nostalgia is something quite interesting. It takes us back to a time in our lives where we remember the good times essentially. How great things were "back then." It's a good thing in some ways, especially advertising. If a company can grab what pulls at your heart strings or make you remember the good times as a child then they can essentially grab your eye to look at their products. There are a few good advantages to this, making your consumers feel happy because of their old memories is a very effective way of getting them to use the products. The best example I have found in the recent past was done by Nickelodeon. Now I am an 90s kid and I loved all the shows from the 90s. Nickelodeon has done something quite amazing in bringing back a lot of the cartoons from the 90s like: Doug, Rugrats, Angry Beavers, etc. The title of this little campaign is "The 90s are all that" playing off the title of the show All That. They did this by grabbing onto the nostalgia strings of 90s kids and playing these shows late at night when they know most of this generation is awake at.
Now, I actually watched some of these shows and I can't believe how dumb a lot of them are, but being a kid, they were simply amazing. Even still watching the trailer for this brings back a lot of old memories.

Some products may not be as effective for several different reason. The product just is not old enough to have any kind of real nostalgia, it may not have been a high selling item/product. The main problem with nostalgia marketing is that not everyone may share the same feelings. Some people may have had a bad experience and that would turn them off to the particular product. Not all companies can use nostalgia though. Let's take our beloved Apple for example. Yes, Apple has been around for generations, but nobody wants an Apple I or Apple II computer or anything that looks remotely like it. Apple relies on new sleek and fresh to market their products. They have to target the tech savvy world of today and that is a reason a company like apple would not be successful in using nostalgia marketing.

Funny Ads

I see these on YouTube because I'm too lazy to download an ad blocker and thought they were really funny. Enjoy.

Product Fail: Crystal Pepsi

Crystal Pepsi. I don't know what they were thinking when they made this. Crystal Pepsi was clear Pepsi... I think it was a new idea Pepsi had that people may want to drink more Pepsi if it looked more like water than sludge. People however had a different reaction to this, they wanted to drink the sludge looking soda over the clear. It tasted the same but its like when there was that green and purple ketchup. Some things just can't be changed. Soda has been around in its form for too long to be changed and people for the most part do not like change.

There are some people though that apparently liked Crystal Pepsi and want to see it back. I'm not sure why though.

Coke is better anyway.

Environmental Campaign: WWF

World Wildlife Federation or WWF (not wrestling haha) is known for tying to keep out rainforests alive and to stop people from cutting them down. This battle is a very difficult one with the population growth on this planet. Wood is always needed and the land is ever craved by developers. The main problem here is that rainforest soil is not good for farming. Plants can be planted for one season, two at most and then the ground is sucked of all its nutrients and the farmers move on to the next area. Rainforests supply the world with 20% of the oxygen we breathe and they are being cut down at one and a half acre per second, from 14% of the Earth's surface down to a mere 6%. WWF tries to raise awareness to prevent the rainforests from being wiped out completely. They do this by making very clever advertisements.

This ad is showing if we continue to chop down our rainforests then we won't have any oxygen left to breathe and we all know when that day comes, we are in for a big surprise. Oxygen being essential to, you know, OUR LIFE!

This ad was pretty clever too. Showing that we use so much paper on useless things in life like drying our hands when we can use air dryers or our pants. If we continue down this path of senseless usage of paper products that aren't necessary, then we are not going to have any rainforests or wonderful animals to enjoy for the future.

This last ad is pretty clever. Basically saying we only get one shot and there is no planet B. As far as we know there is nowhere else in the solar system we can colonize so as far as we know Earth is our only home and we really need to take care of it. If everyone works together then it can be saved but at the rate things are going we are in for a rude awakening.

Still Talking Stereotypes

Are stereotypes still around? Oh yes. Maybe not offensive stereotypes like women being in the kitchen and Asians not being able to drive, but in small subtle ways that you may not even realize because they add a little humor to distract you from it. My favorite example is The Big Bang Theory. One of my most favorite shows but it is so full of stereotypes it is quite amazing. The first and most obvious is the smart intellectual type are always cast as being socially awkward and have no idea how to talk to women without some form or stimulus like alcohol. Then there is the dumb blonde who didn't go to college and can't get any other job than being a waitress. The tiny Jewish guy who lives with his mother and often breaks the "rules" of being a Jew by eating things like bacon. Sheldon's mother who is from Texas and is a devout Catholic but is portrayed as ignorant and stupid. All very obvious stereotyping but it is masked with humor to distract the viewer from realizing these things. I would not say that this is a good excuse but it does exist and like most people say it is a necessary evil because it is what people know and they need to relate.

Racism In TV Shows: Power Rangers

The television show I chose to talk about is The Might Morphin Power Rangers. This was one of my all time favorite shows as a kid but unfortunately it is ripe with racial stereotyping. As a child, I was rather naive and did not realize there were things like that in the world. I just though they were all friends because I grew up thinking everyone was equal. That changed when I grew up.

This show does though have a pretty good range of racial diversity having people from a few different racial backgrounds. I feel that the show was meant to show that there is a broad range of people in the world and many of them interact and are friends. It showed that everyone can get along and even save the world no matter your ethnic background or color. A hero is still a hero no matter the color of skin or where you are from.

Does this show have racial stereotypes? Not in the way we think about them but specific actors were assigned to specific colors of the rangers. Walter Jones, an African American actor is cast as the black ranger, Thuy Trang, an Asian actor was cast as the yellow ranger, and in later episodes Jason David Frank is cast as the white ranger who then becomes the leader of the group. There is speculation that the red ranger played by Austin St. John was was of Native American Background. So many obvious racial overtones. This also playing into people over thinking things in the media. It could have been an accident, but probably not. As a child I only saw The Power Rangers, but as an adult I look back and am astonished that they were able to get away with this for a children's television show.

Few funny videos you might enjoy, but also shows how absolutely true this really is.

VH1 I love the 90s: Power Rangers.

College Humor: Zordon is a Racist

Racism and Stereotyping in Advertising

Even though we may not think it, and that people say it does not exist anymore, racism is definitely still around. Advertising is one place that it is easy to pin point racism and stereotyping. It is easy to make an ad based off stereotypes like how white people can't dance, African Americans are great sports players, Asians are great extremely smart, women, Asians, and old people can't drive and so on. It is definitely not a good thing to do but the fact still remains that racially stereotyping in advertising still exists whether or not people think otherwise. I want to say that advertisers do indeed have ethical responsibility to not create ads of this nature but they are ads that are easy to make because when people see them they automatically assume that what is being shown is the truth.

Couple examples:
First shows that this car is so simple even a woman can drive it. As if driving is a difficult task that only men are capable to do so. From my experience women are bad drivers, and so are men, and the elderly, and pretty much everyone of any national background, my list can go one and on. This ad shows that women are exclusively bad drivers and by purchasing this car they will be raised to the same level of a man and be able to drive perfectly well.

Second ad shows a young Asian boy who received an A+ on this test because he wrote on paper. What? he learned on paper so he got an A+? Stupidest ad I have ever seen, but the fact that a young Asian boy is type cast shows the typical stereotype of Asians being great at math and school. You can put any person of any national background and this would still be a stupid ad, but because there is an Asian boy as turned this stupid ad into a racially stereotypical ad pointing out that "Asians are good at math"

What We See

This first advertisement shows a cell phone that is opened up to show a beach party inside. To me this shows that having this phone is like being at a beach party with your friends. Fun and exciting and always in the loop of information. Buy this phone and you are hip and with it. Doubtful though, look at that stone age tool.

This second ad shows vegetables arranged into the form of some sort of animal, most likely a cow, given that it is a McDonald's advertisement. What is very interesting about this ad is that it leads us to believe the common saying "you are what you eat" in that the cows are fed the very best of vegetable to produce top quality meat. However, we all know that is a big fat lie. McDonald's meat is probably one of the worst "food" products you can consume.

This last advertisement shows this woman completely frozen over because she drank this Sprite. It leads us to believe that by drinking this soda, you will have a cool and refreshing experience because it is "Ice Blue"
I'm sure it tastes like normal sprite with a dash of some flavoring. Nothing exciting, but the way the ad is created leads us to believe that it is very refreshing.

History of Advertising

History of advertising lecture was quite interesting. I found the basic history points listed from the 1700s to today the most intriguing. It essentially showed how we have progressed advertising through the decades by means of growing technology in a nutshell. Talking brands was entertaining in that we really do live our lives in the world of brands. A lot of people, me being one of them, associate quality when we think of particular brands. However, just because a brand is popular, does not mean that it is a quality product. We associate quality with brands because they have lasted the test of time, but one thing I have noticed is that with time, things begin to get cheaper in quality because companies try to save money. Why make something for more, when it can be made cheaper. Almost every time I go to visit my grandmother she seems to mention how products of today are crap compared to fifty years ago. Her example is her beater (baking tool) she received as a wedding gift fifty-two years ago. Products today are made to break so the consumer will be forced to go and spend the money on a new product. It seems that is the way it is today, best we can do is to take care of what we have to save a little green.  

Dietmar Dahmen

Having a guest speaker the second day of class was not something I was expecting for the start of the semester, but like I tend to be from time to time, I was wrong. I'd like to start by saying that Dietmar Dahmen had an absolutely wonderful presentation and personality to match. Fun, exciting and energetic. Most of what he explained I have heard at some point in my life but never really gave it any thought and quickly dismissed it to the back burner of my mind, but hearing him with those large numbers on the board really makes you think at just how fast everything in the world today is moving. It's not exactly something we stop to think about because everything is moving so fast. Always the next computer, the next cell phone, the next iPod and we always have to have the newest product immediately. Even I make jokes about people I work with who have old phones, one of which has a flip phone! I always call him a caveman using a rock to make his calls and flip phones only really died out a couple years ago, but in the thinking of today it is ancient technology. Overall, I was extremely please with the presentation. It excites me for the semester to come.

Expectations

I am a graphic design major and I suppose what I am hoping to learn from this course is a bit about how advertising can relate to graphic design. I have a couple options to move into after I graduate and advertising is one of those options so it is a good idea to try to at least get a foundation in all aspects of the career, that way I do not feel like I'm drowning when I try out for a 'real' job. I'm not particularly excited about school this semester because I am just worn out, but forcing myself to finish so I can move on with my life and hopefully score a good job. I find it interesting that there are so many different ways to advertise. Most people would automatically think of TV commercials, but I have of late noticed it even being on YouTube, and that is annoying to say the least. Most people do not want to see ads when all they want to do it watch TV. Thank god for DVR, fast forward through those things! But all in all, advertising is the way in which we are informed about certain products or special events and that is what it's really about i n the end. I suppose I'm a little excited to learn how it's done.

As crude as this commercial is, I find it absolutely hilarious and that makes me always remember KYAK.