TV Ad 3

I came across this ad on a blog site somewhere, and was immediately disgusted. In the ad, an old man is ...milking his nipples, while eating sour Skittles, and another man is yelling at him for making his milk sour.

Seriously, ew.

I guess I can understand how Skittle was attempting to solidify I can't see how anyone at Skittles didn't stop for a moment and think, "Maybe this isn't a good idea." I just wanted to look away the whole time. Why would anyone in the world ever want to see, let alone think about, an old man milking his nipples for milk someone else would drink? Especially the target market for sour Skittles- kids, mainly males, around ages 9-16. While they might be into the current trend of "gross out" culture, this ad goes a little to far off the deep end to even hit that mark.

Viral Ad Campaign- Sopranos

While searching the internet for interesting ad campaigns, I came across this one from The Sopranos in 2006. It was a viral campaign throughout New York City in 2006 and I thought it was so clever. Yes, New Yorkers are known to be cynical and unaffected, I think this campaign definitely garnered attention. A fake arm was affixed underneath the trunk of cabs throughout the city, emulating the hit-man-mafia theme around which the show is based. A small bumper sticker advertising the HBO series is clearly underneath the arm, but definitely a sticker you wouldn't notice without that second glance.

This is the type of campaign that would make anyone do a double take and look again; how often does anyone see body parts hanging from a car's trunk? It totally appeals to the current fascination in American pop culture of all things crime related- from forensic shows like CSI, crime based like Law and Order, or even ones making heroes out of criminals ala the Sopranos. While watching these shows, everyone images what it would be like to be involved in the plot situations. What would I do if I found the dead body? What if I was a witness? Or even worse, what if I'm a victim? Then seeing the Sopranos sticker would clear up an misconceptions, but most likely garner a chuckle out of even the most cynical New Yorkers and make for a great work of mouth story; "Hey, guess what I saw today?"

Product Placement- ANTM

One of the most blatant examples I've noticed of product placement advertising in media today comes from one of my favorite shows, America's Next Top Model. The show has become saturated with them, and as a whole, I think many people don't even notice. There's the standard mention nearly every episode of a particular magazine brand photo shoot (ElleGirl, Elle, and Seventeen being recent examples) as a prize for the winning top model. There is also the constant CoverGirl promotions, especially in the second-to-last episode when the girls compete for an ad campaign as the next CoverGirl. But this isn't enough for Tyra, so more and more often while the models are getting ready for a shoot, you can hear the fake dialog about how much a contestant "loves" a certain product. One example that stands out in my mind comes from cycle 5, when the girls are doing a photo shoot in the desert but focusing on the new Olay Quench moisturizing lotion. As they are being made up, one girl is lathered up in the lotion by a makeup artist, and says "Oh, what is that awesome smell?" The artist goes on a short speech about how good the lotion is for your skin and all the product benefits. The whole conversation just screams FAKE.

I'm not against product placement as a whole, but when it is so obviously, blatant, and scripted, I really get turned off as a viewer. I almost wanted to just change the channel after this scene because I don't want to watch commercials within my TV shows between commercials. Don't people know when enough is enough?

TV Ad 2- Burger King

True story. After seeing this advertisement on TV for the first time, I thought that Burger King really was taking away the Whopper. I don't even like Burger King (ew, their fries), and on a normal basis would choose almost any other fast food restaurant, most often Wendy's. I had never even had a Whopper before. But in all honesty, that week, I went to Burger King for a Whopper just to see what all the fuss was about (it was alright, nothing out of this world); and after pulling away from the drive through I realized the extent to which the ad made me aware of the product and the brand. I was so intrigued by the Whopper's popularity and the freak-out on the commercial, that when I was hungry that day and passed a BK, I just had to stop and try one. To me, a Wendy's loyalist, that's an effective ad.

I think one of the driving successful points of the ad was that it appealed to more or less anyone- anyone old enough to know what a Whopper is. Therefore with one single series of ads (that had to be cheap to make as well, since there was little production cost while taping their own customers on hidden cameras), BK did a number of things: 1) reminded brand loyalists about why they love the Whopper in the first place, and how it would impact them if it was gone (the emotional and sentimental attachment) 2) arouse the curiosity in people who have never had a Whopper about what makes them so great 3) reassured their customers that the company would never take away their beloved burger by causing a faux freak out then rewarding them with their desire 4) cemented the relationship between Burger King and the Whopper even more ("Without the Whopper, what will they call it? Burger Queen?")

Radio Ad 1- SLOMing

TRANSCRIPT:

Radio Public Service Announcement
Slom

Teen girl:	I've been SLOMing, but it's not my thing. (somewhat sheepish, laughing) SLOMing means “Sticking Leeches On Myself”
Interviewer:	Leeches?
Teen girl:	During lunch you stick it here and there, and they leave their marks and do their things or whatever.
Guy one:	(to his friend) Hey dude, go on get that one, he looks hungry.
Guy two:	It kinda feels like half your blood has been drained out.
Guy one:	Yeah, 'cause it has.
Teen male:	My friend said he had some pretty good leeches. It wasn't as fun as people said it was, you know?
VO:	What could you be convinced to do? abovetheinfluence.com Sponsored by the ONDCP and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.
SFX - MUSICAL SFX AS VO FINISHES

Listen to the SLOMing ad

his is a PSA by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America that came out in 2006. The purpose of the ad is to show how teens can be influenced to do nearly anything, even if it's stupid -ie, do drugs- if they hear its the cool thing to do. It's easy to see that the target audience is teens from around 12-18. The ad attempts to speak to them by showing them how stupid following the crowd can be just to be cool. However, to me, it seems like the ad is more of a voice against peer pressure rather than just against drugs.

My biggest problem with the message they are trying to portray is that this notion of peer pressure can be applied to almost any type of stupid thing teens are talked into- from drugs and alcohol to things like shoplifting, going to parties, skipping class, or breaking curfew. The message is so ambiguous, and therefore the ad fails because one of the most essential elements of the communication model- the message- cannot be interpreted in the way it was intended. While yes, I can understand where they were trying to go with this advertisement, it ultimately fails. In a teenager's life, its more important to be well liked by the popular crowd, even if they're doing something stupid, because as long as it's not stupid to their peers they think they're doing something right.

Internet Ad- Smirinoff Tea Party

The biggest reason I really wanted discuss this Smrinoff advertisement is because I found it absolutely hilarious. I never saw it run on television, I actually found it on the the website www.firebrand.com, but I couldn't stop laughing at the whole thing. The spot is a rich, WASP-y version of a "gangsta" hip hop/rap video focusing on Smrinoff's new Raw Teas.

I would think that the target demographic for this ad would be women, ages 18-30. Men don't generally drink the pre-bottled mixed drinks, and would definitely be turned off by an ad that makes the men seem so un-masculine, snotty, preppy rich boys. I also don't think many younger men (or at least the ones I know) even know what a WASP is. But I showed this ad to four of my girlfriends in my apartment with me and we were all laughing at it, so it was successful with the humor in that respect. It's refreshing to see that instead of Smrinoff trying to make their product look cool, they actually accepted the geekiness of bottle drinks like this and use it to their advantage.

I did a little research about the spot and just found that the ad never actually ran on TV, but was a successful viral ad campaign launched by Smrinoff in 2006 that was incredibly popular on video sites like YouTube. I can't find any long term results, but some sources claim that when the product was launched there was a good reception.

TV Ad 1- Mac VS Pc

The whole series of Mac/PC ads currently running on television are some of my favorite. The campaign uses the same two actors and the same music, with the nerdy older-looking guy as the PC and the younger, good looking, "cool"guy as a Mac. This is a big part of Apple's brand identity as well, since they really target the younger, tech-savy, "cool" demographic. Even just the way the actors are dressed gives off this brand identity, showing the PC all dressed well in a suit and tie with glasses while Mac just wears jeans and a nice shirt to show that they're hip with the times.

Each of the spots then take the opportunity to have the PC guy do something wrong/be complaining about something/or be embaressed by a better feature of the Mac. Although advertising that puts down your competitor is generally looked down upon, I feel like in these commercials it doesn't come across that way since they are really the only two popular options for operating systems when buying a new computer. I think that Mac was very smart in the way they did this campaign, since they're kind of the "underdog" and not nearly as well known as a PC, so by pointing out the flaws in PCs, Apple is both informing their customers about their product's features while reminding them of the reasons they should switch to Mac.

I chose this ad in particular mostly because it made me laugh, since there are so many good Apple ads to chose from. I noticed in particular about that that despite the fact it's meant to put down PCs, they did it in a way that seems like Mac is being nice to PC by still giving him compliments and trying to make him not feel so bad.