All Good Things Must Come to an End . . . My Reflection

Friday, June 7, 2013

I find it sad that I catch myself daily mentioning ads that I have seen on television.  I make comments about certain ads while I am sitting with my friends, and talking.  Although I try not to make them seem as though they make a large impact on my life, subconsciously, they do make an impact on me. Since I have taken this class, I have been able to cut down on the amount that advertisements that make a difference in my life.  Learning about the techniques used in advertising, I have been able to see through the curtain that ads have, and see the true meaning of why I find ads interesting.  When my family members talk about the ads that we are watching, I am able to enlighten them and make them more aware of why that ad is capturing their attention.

After taking this class, I feel more literate when it comes to advertising and the media.  Since I don't watch television that much, I have been able to look at the Internet ads and see them in a different light.  Since the ads on the Internet are directed at me, I am able to decipher the message that the a ds are trying to send me.  Mainly that message is that I should buy something because it will make my life better.  I can now see the ad and look at the message they are sending as well as the messenger that is sending me the message.

Some media consumption habits that have changed because of this course is that I can now slow
myself from looking at ads because I can realize that he ad is trying to get me to look at thm.  It is important to be media literate because with all the ads and media that we are exposed to on a daily basis, it is easy to get bogged down in all the media.  Being media literate allows us to shelter ourselves from all the stuff that is being thrown at us through media.

Being an educated consumer is important because we are able to understand the ads hat we see and, being educated, we are able to know more than the average consumer and see through the curtain that is the media.  Since I kept this log, I have become more able to look through the fog and see what ads are actually saying, not what they want us to see.  I am now able to look at all the ads I see with a critical thinking view, not a consumer's view.

I know now that ads are a puzzle that critical thinkers are able to figure out and learn to have a filter that will keep ads from making an impression on us.

The Reality of the Ad World is Sad, When it Comes to Women

Sunday, June 2, 2013

I don't like how, when I searched Google images for "vodka ad," in the first seven rows of images contained fourteen ads like this, which make women seem like sex objects.  After watching the "missrepresentation" video, i have seen many ads that objectify women to the point of being only useful for sex.

This ad makes it seem that women are only good for looking pretty and serving the men, they get nothing out of the relationship.  The woman in this ad flaunts her sexuality by wearing a revealing dress with slits going up both sides.  The man in this situation, although sitting down, is given authority over the woman because he is able to control what the woman does even though you can't even see him.  From his seated position, he is using the woman as a waitress, to fill up his martini glass.  Although the woman is standing and is looking down at the man, the man still has power over the woman in this ad.  Although the woman could walk away and say "serve yourself," she is made to look like she is waiting on the man.

The colors in this ad serve one purpose; to connect this scene to Skyy Vodka.  The bottle is blue and silver, so everything in the scene is blue and silver, as well as white.  The color silver gives this ad a sense of prominence which brings up the snob appeal which I will address next.

The two common advertising techniques that I found in this ad were Transfer/Association and Snob Appeal. The Transfer/Association is used to say to men that if you buy this product, you will have a beautiful woman serving you the drink or that the drink itself will give you the feeling that you are being served by a beautiful woman.  This brand could also be transferring the beautiful woman to the vodka by herself.  They are hoping that if you see this product at the supermarket, you will think beautiful woman and want to buy it.  As I mentioned earlier, the Snob Appeal is used by suggesting that if you drink this vodka, you will be part of an elite group of people that are able to afford flats that are in a tall building and have a view of the city.  I mean, who wouldn't want that??  Something that also could suggest the Snob Appeal is the fact that the man is wearing a suit.  We assume that he is of a high class, wearing as suit in his home.  Who would wear a suit around their house??  

The two appeals that I found in this ad were the need for prominence and aesthetic sensations.  The need for prominence goes with the Snob Appeal because if you are of this elite group that drinks Skyy vodka, you will be prominent and everyone will want to know you.  The flat with a view definitely fits under the prominent category, not many people have apartments like that.  The need for aesthetic sensations is satisfied because the whole ad is very sleek and stylish.  From the white table to the egg chair, this apartment is pretty stylish but if it was me, I would take out the egg chair.  The whole living space is stylish and this brings up the need for aesthetic sensations.

All in all, this ad objectifies women as sex objects and makes the man superior to the woman.

We need to change this by getting some women in the heads of these corporations.  If we can accomplish this, it will be a huge leap forward for man, and womankind.

There Once Was a Man with DirecTV Who Lived in a Shoe . . .

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

This ad mainly uses a sequence of rapid-fire images that grab your attention because they are extremely weird.  Using the old man who lives in a shoe as the main character in this ad is also weird but fits with what the theme of the ad is.  This ad is one that entertains you and then slaps you with the brand at the end.
Although the product is used in the ad, it plays only a minor part in the plot of the commercial.  This ad is near to the top of my weird-ad spectrum because of the scenes in it.

From the very first scene, you are confronted with the weirdness of the ad because there are so many kids in it.  What I thought was interesting about the first scene was the timing when the music began to play.  Directly after the little girl says "I want to watch cartoons," the children's cries for cartoons fade into the background and the music fades up.  It is a peaceful piece of music that is mostly piano.  The effect of the music is that it connects DirecTV with peacefulness and serenity that is needed in the crowded situation depicted in the ad.  Whenever you watch any show on TV with DirecTV, you will go into this little bubble that makes you feel at peace, just like the roof of the shoe is where the man goes to find peace.

As the man walks through the house, there are scenes of kids doing crazy things but with DirecTV, he is in his own universe and so he doesn't pay any attention to them.  What a great dad!  *Sarcasm*  This ad depicts young children as little things that annoy the heck out of you, which is unfair to the kids.  Although this might be true in some situations, I feel sad for the children who are minding their own business yet are portrayed badly in this commercial.

In this ad, which is very short, I found only two needs that were satisfied; the need for autonomy and the need to escape.  The need for autonomy is used in this ad because the man is in a very crowded environment and he is able to escape into his little bubble if he has DirecTV.  The crowded space that he is living in, which looks to be between a size 9 or 10, makes him feel constricted.  In order to be free from the cramped space, he uses his pad.  Going right along with the need for autonomy, is the need for escape.  Since the crowded environment in which he lives doesn't allow for much freedom, the need for escape is showcased.  This need is connected to the product, showing that you can escape from your sad, cramped life and got to another place; one filled with sports and your favorite TV shows, for 29.99 a month.

There are three common advertising techniques that I found in this ad; simple solutions, wit/humor and the gestalt principle.  Simple solutions are used because if you watch television, as portrayed in the ad, the children that you are supposed to look after, will be taken care of once you leave the room with your tablet.  Although I might be stretching it a little, this technique is in there, I think.  The wit and humor appeal is very evident in this ad because it is funny that there are so many kids in one house...er...shoe.  This ad is also humorous because the kids are doing crazy things that make you chuckle.  Some thing that is also witty about this ad is that it uses the old nursery rhyme as its base; the old lady who lived in a shoe.  The gestalt principle is also used because this ad is really weird and catches your attention well.

All in all, this is one of those ads that catches your attention as you glance at the television.  

Hold Onto Your Hats. . . And Pants.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

This ad is one of those ads that you see on TV and makes you say "What?"  For most people, the first time you see this ad, it takes about halfway through the commercial before you fully realize what is happening.  Since this ad is only thirty-three seconds long, it goes by really fast and you will most likely miss what the ad is about in the first run-through.  

In this ad, the colors and the music play a more major part than the voice-over.  The music is upbeat which goes with the theme of springtime that this ad tries to convey.  The music starts simply with a beat then becomes more lively with the ukulele strumming in the background.  The colors in this ad are very vibrant.  From the strings being pulled by the car to the colors that are behind the people, this scenery looks very springy.  Since the whole idea behind this commercial is that the car sale is because we are throwing off winter and it is turning spring, which is connected to Infiniti.  One last thing that connects to the spring theme is the sign in the beginning of the ad.  The sign is the one that you watch to see if you can walk across the street.  The sign goes from "stop" to "go," which symbolizes how we stop being happy in winter and in spring, we can begin to be happy in the spring, if that makes any sense whatsoever. 

In this ad, I was able to identify three needs that were satisfied; the need for aesthetic sensations, the need for attention and the need for affiliation.  With all the colors in this ad and the creative idea of having people's clothes unravel, this ad satisfied our need for aesthetic sensations.  The stylish people who are in this ad might also satisfy our need for aesthetic sensations by wearing some thing new that we haven't seen already.  The need for attention is used in this ad because everyone looks at the car and if you had that car, you would get that attention because this car draws people's attention like moths to a light bulb.  The strings that are attached to the car show how many people are attracted to it, which is a lot.  The last need is the need for affiliation which is used to show that this car is like you.  The ad shows that this car is like you by having the strings of your clothing being attached to it.  The car is like a hub for people to find affiliation.  Everyone is affiliated with this car because their clothes are all being unwound by the car.  Although an abstract take on this ad, I think that these three needs are fulfilled by this ad.

There were only two common advertising techniques that I could find in this ad; the humor appeal and the gestalt principle.  I thought that this ad was a little humorous because of the premise that every one's clothes were being unraveled by a car.  Even if you didn't think that this ad was funny, please try to go with the flow and agree with me on this one thing.  The gestalt principle is more pronounced in this ad because the oddity of people's clothes being unraveled by a car is both the "what's wrong with this picture?" and oddness of color.  This ad tries to catch your attention through the gestalt principle and once they have your attention, they slap you with a product.

The only thing this ad does is attach springtime to Infiniti and hopes that, come spring, you will think "Infiniti" and go spend forty to fifty grand on a car.  I'm sure many people are going to do that.  In fact, I'm gonna go out to my dealer right now, to see of my Infiniti of choice can unravel my clothes too.

A Crazy Crazyquick ad

Thursday, May 23, 2013

This ad popped up while I was using Pandora and although simple, it does use some techniques that we have discussed in class.  The main purpose of this ad is to catch your eye and to quickly associate Adidas with winning.  Most companies that make equipment for sports use the connection of their product to winning in order to sell their product.

One thing I was confused about was what Adidas was trying to sell here.  All the ad says is "Adidas Crazyquick" and nothing about what is "Crazyquick."  With some web searching, I found out that they are selling shoes with this ad.  This might be a big issue because usually ads want to connect themselves to a product and this ad fails to do so.  Maybe this ad is like a Tagg essay that they left to the last minute to make, and came up with this.

In this ad, I was able to find three needs that are satisfied by this ad; the need to dominate, to achieve and the need for prominence. The need to dominate is the most obvious in this ad because it is an ad geared toward sports.  In every sport, the object of the game is to dominate and to win the game.  Since this ad uses basketball, it says that with Adidas Crazyquick, you will be able to dominate in basketball and leave everyone behind, as illustrated in the picture.  The need to achieve is also tied in with the need to dominate because with the Adidas shoes, you are able to achieve great things.  The basketball player in this ad is leaving his opponent in the dust as he runs up the court.  Finally, the need for prominence is used with regard to the colors used in the ad.  This satisfies your need for prominence because the basketball player is the only person in the whole ad who is dressed in bright colored clothing.  His opponent is dressed in black while everyone in the stands is a blurry brownish color.  All in all, the needs used in this ad are supposed to associate Adidas with winning.

There were only two common advertising techniques that were used in this ad, that I could find.  Those two techniques were patriotism and simple solutions.  Although there is only a little patriotism used in the ad, I thought that the colors the player is wearing was more than a coincidence.  He is wearing red, white and blue which happens to be the three colors on our American flag.  I don't know if Adidas is appealing to our subconscious liking of these three colors or if they wanted to use the colors of our flag because they are quintessential together.  The other technique used, simple solutions, is used to show that if you buy these shoes, then you will automatically become a great basketball player.  With red, white and blue shoes that will make you fantastic at basketball, what could possibly go wrong?

One final note about this ad goes back to what I said was the main purpose of this ad; associate winning with Adidas.  Since this was a pop-up ad, Adidas doesn't have much time to make an impression on you before you close the ad.  With this ad, they quickly try to give you a picture of a good basketball player and say that they are good because they are wearing Adidas shoes that are "Crazyquick."

Its Lightning Fast...

Sunday, May 19, 2013

This ad, just like the Grey Goose® vodka, is meant to catch your eye as you are flipping through a magazine.  I found this ad in a National Geographic magazine, which I thought was a little weird.  I thought that it was out of place but maybe this ad is appealing to the younger readers of Atonal Geographic.  I found this ad on the last page of the magazine, and I could have easily missed it.  Obviously, Toyota wanted to spend the least amount of money possible on this ad because it was placed on the last page.

In this ad, Toyota wants you to do nothing more except hold onto the image of lightning hitting a car and thinking Toyota = cool and cutting edge.  The image in this ad isn't representing anything new about the car, unless the new Avalon has a built-in lightning rod.  The text on the top of the ad; Lightning Unbottled, means absolutely nothing.  Toyota is trying to give you a sense that their new Avalon is amazing.  What they want you to do when you see this ad is the following; see the car being hit by lightning, you think "Awesome," then you look at "Lightning Unbottled," and you think "Cool! a car with lightning powers," then you look at "The Radically New Avalon," and you put the "Awesome" and the lightning together with a brand and all-of-a-sudden, Toyota becomes a really awesome brand.

There are three ad techniques used in this ad; Diversion, Weasel words, and Gestalt.  The diversion used in this ad is caused by the picture.  Since the picture is really cool, people's attention is automatically drawn toward the picture of a car being hit by lighting.  With the lightning in mind, when you look at the text below the car, it makes absolutely no sense.  The text reads; "An absolute breakthrough in high-end driving, and a bold new direction for the road ahead."  Unless they are talking about a breakthrough where your car attracts lightning, the text makes no sense.  What Toyota is banking on, is that you take the feeling you get from the picture and impose that onto the text.  The feeling of awe that you get from the picture is what they want you to feel when you read the text.

This ad uses Weasel words in order to maintain that sense of awe that you get from the picture.  In the text below the picture, Toyota uses the weasel words "absolute breakthrough."  These are weasel words because there is nothing talking about what "absolute breakthrough" they have made in "high-end driving."  Again, Toyota is hoping that you will think of the sense of awe that you got from the picture.  When you read the text with this in mind, you read the text in a way that connects with the picture, continuing the sense of awe in the overall advertisement.

The last technique they use, is the Gestalt technique.  If you don't think that a car being hit by lightning and partially dissolving isn't weird, I don't know what to tell you.  Having a car dissolve when it is hit by lightning is very odd, and this catches your eye.  In this ad, the Gestalt technique of oddness of color is used because there are lots of colors in the picture of the car.

Lastly, there are only two main needs that are satisfied with this advertisement; the need for prominence and the need for aesthetic sensations.  The need for prominence is satisfied because of how advanced this car is.  Since the text reads "The Radically New Avalon," you assume that it is better than the last Avalon.  If it is better than the last Avalon, then if you have this car, you will be more prominent than the people who have the old Avalons.  Since you are going to stand out more with this car, this satisfies your need for prominence.  How cool the car looks in picture satisfies your need for aesthetic sensations because the car is very pretty and aesthetically pleasing.  It is because of this aesthetic sensation that this ad catches your eye pretty well.  

To conclude, Toyota is using this ad to get a sense of awe from the audience and to make them feel that the new Avalon is the coolest car on the block.

Puppet Love Story

Friday, May 17, 2013

This ad is all about finding you true love and appealing to our love of aesthetic sensations.

The main characters in this ad are mechanical puppets that puppeteers are maneuvering in different ways in order to make them seem human.  The two puppets are male and female.  The male one is a chrome color and the woman is a golden color.  The entire ad is centered around the male character finding his mate in a sea of humans, who aren't his type.  

For the first minute of this ad, it is only the man walking around, feeling lonely.  The feeling of loneliness is transmitted in a few different ways.  One of those ways is him being alone.  For the majority of the scenes that he is in, he is alone looking in the pond, sitting on a bench or just walking around.  Although in some scenes that he is in, there are people walking with him, he is still alone because no one is paying attention to him.  They are only minding their own business, walking by him and not noticing him at all.  It brought a tear to my eye.  Another way he was shone to be alone,is through the color scheme.  Throughout the whole ad, the color scheme is black and white, with the exception of the chrome puppet.  the absence of color gives the ad a sad feeling no matter where he is walking, the black and white gives a sense of sadness.  There is only one other way in which the feeling of being alone is shown; through the time lapse.  When the puppet is sitting on top of a building, the traffic beneath him is sped up, giving the sense of a time lapse.  since a long time has passed and the puppet is still alone, the feeling of loneliness is transmitted.

Although the feeling of being alone can be good, in this ad it is the need for affiliation that is used.  By presenting a lonely puppet walking around, the solution they present him is a friend in his life.  With the bittersweet music playing in the background, the puppet walking around the city seems alone in the world.  Then, at last, he finds his soul mate; a female puppet!  Once they see each other, it is love at first sight.  The need for affiliation is used here because when you are alone, apparently Lexus can make you feel affiliated with something.

Another need that is satisfied is the need for aesthetic sensations.  The look of the puppet is so clean and nice-looking that the beauty of it catches your eye.  The designs on the robot are geometric and are not symmetrical and give your eye something to look at that is beautiful.

Some ad techniques used in this ad are the wit and humor technique as well as the Gestalt technique.  This ad uses humor because it is funny when the male puppet is looking for his soul mate and he takes off his head to look into an office building.  He holds his head up and looks into someone's office and sees a man working on the computer.  Although this might not be a rolling-on-the-floor laughter, it is a little humorous.  This ad makes use of the Gestalt technique by being odd.  It isn't every day that you see an eleven-foot puppet walking down the street.  The oddness of it catches your eye.

After you watch this ad, one question comes to mind; "How do puppets running around connect to Lexus?"  With this ad, Lexus only wanted to make a visually-pleasing ad to watch.  Since the majority of this ad has nothing advertised, we viewers watch it because we think we aren't being marketed to.  After the ad ends; however, we get slapped with the Lexus logo.  Although there is no connection between the ad and the product, Lexus is only trying to catch your attention.  I think that Lexus is trying to say that their car is  the female robot.  The female robot is the only colorful thing in a world of black and white.  Lexus is a beautiful car brand in the middle of OK car brands.  Since they are the ones that stand out, they are better.

The only connection to Lexus that this ad has is how beautiful the robots are while gracefully walking or flying.  The last words you see are Lexus, Amazing in Motion.  The connection they try to make is that their cars are as beautiful in motion as the puppets were.