Innovative advertising

Ads are seen anywhere and everywhere. But usually, they aren't really noticed. Advertising strategies have to creatively evolve in order to catch hold of their audiences. Often times, I do not notice ads or take the time to read them because they don't automatically pull me in. Here are a couple ads that stood out to me that I  have found. These are probably some that would catch my attention if I were to walk by.

I like this one because it looks like the truck is empty and that there is an actual man just chilling on the hammock. Plus, I love kit kats!

I thought this one was cool because it reminded me of the ads shown in class at bus stops. 

This one I thought was pretty awesome because it looks like there's a man inside the gas pumping box. This is something I would probably walk by and be like "WHAT?" and goes up to it to try to see if there really is a man there.

I thought this was a good idea to advertise the Quiksilver brand. A lot of people who surf wear this brand. It's really eye-catching and I think it's cool that the bench is the Quiksilver brand surfboard.

Nostalgia market

Nostalgia is used a lot in advertising. It is a way for advertisers to bring back memories of the past, in their consumers.It tries to generate positive thoughts and memories for consumers to think back to. For example, when I was younger, my mom used to make me hamburger helper for dinner all the time. Recently, I have seen commercials advertising the hamburger helper. In their commercials, the mother would cook her family hamburger helper for dinner. I would see the little girl at the dinner table, in the commercial, and it would bring back memories from when I was a little one.

It also helps build trust between the brand and their consumers. Consumers will realize how long the brand has been around and trust that the brand has evolved and is doing something right. Nostalgia won't work for all cases and all products though. In some cases, it may bring back memories some consumers aren't fond of because they had a bad experience with the product or involving the product. Another disadvantage is that some consumers may not be able to relate to these nostalgic ads. There are definitely some products and brands that nostalgia won't work for because it may remind consumers of technology has evolved and been made simpler. For example, if it was used to relaunch a product like the old giant cell phones people used to carry, it wouldn't be very effective. Cell phones have been made to be smaller and more functional. Like really, would you wanna be lugging this around?

Failed product

Have you ever heard of "WOW" chips? Probably not because this product failed miserably. What made these chips special was that they were fried in an oil called olestra. This was an oil that our bodies could not absorb and would leave these chips fat free. I think the reason these chips failed was because they were weirdly advertised. Everyone had heard about the olestra oil that was used and it caused fear in people that it would have unwanted side effects. There were warning labels on all the bags of chips letting consumers know that the oil used might cause some side effects. It reminded me of the warning label on packs of cigarettes which would cause much alarm if found on products for consumption.

Bringing back the type writer

For our group, our target audience was retirees who travel, have grandchildren, and play golf. We decided on three media channels: commercial, a billboard, and radio ad.

The commercial-- it will be a black and white commercial based in the 50's. There will be a little kid in his room writing on his type writer about his day and latest adventures. He will have flashbacks of playing catch with his father, riding bikes with his friends, helping his mother prepare dinner, and other fond memories of a nice childhood. At the end of the commercial, it will say " Remember how simple life was?"

The billboard-- One billboard will have a picture of a typewriter with paper in it and the title on the page will say "My Autobiography" no hidden tricks or squiggly red lines telling you the word is spelt wrong.

Another billboard will have a picture of a type writer and say "Made for the OGs"

Radio Ad-- You will hear the sound of someone typing on a type writer and with background noise of children playing and bird chirping. At the end, the narrator who will have a charming smooth voice say "Now that's the sound of simplicity."

In the day of a new mother

Monica is woken up by her husband who tells her that the baby is crying. She gets up and picks up baby Johnny. Johnny cries for ten more minutes and then throws up on her shirt. She's too busy with baby Johnny to make her husband breakfast so he grabs a bagel and kisses her goodbye. She takes her shirt off and throws it into the washer. Finally, baby Johnny settles down and she puts him back in the crib. She goes into the bathroom and grabs a tube of Crest toothpaste to put some on her toothbrush to brush her teeth. She takes off her puke covered shirt and puts it in the washer. Monica hops into the shower where she uses Dove soap and Tresemme Shampoo and conditioner. She gets out of the shower and puts on yoga pants and a t-shirt that she purchased from Target. Monica then goes into the kitchen makes herself a bowl of milk,captain crunch cereal, and a banana. She goes into the living room after and reads a couple parenting books (since she's a new mother). It is lunch time now so she makes herself a ceasar salad and a turkey sandwich. The sandwich contained Kraft cheddar cheese, vegetables purchased from Foodmaxx, and oven roasted turkey breast from Oscar Meyer. After a couple hours of relaxing silence, baby Johnny wakes up and starts crying. She changes his diaper using Hampers diapers and up&up baby powder and wipes that she purchased from Target. After that, she brings baby Johnny into the living room with her and puts him in a baby rocker that was given to her, purchased from Babies R' Us. She plays with him for two hours. Baby Johnny reaches for the little toys hanging and then falls back asleep within half an hour later. Monica takes out the frozen steaks from Organic Ranchers to let thaw because her husband is coming home for dinner soon. Her husband comes home and she has dinner ready. They eat and then go to the living room to watch Wheel of Fortune.

Geenpeace USA

(Above is an ad for Greenpeace. It's a pretty "in your face" ad. In the bottom right it says, "Not only a tree is being cut down.")

The organization I decided to talk about was Greenpeace USA. Greenpeace focuses on environmental issues. They look for environmental crimes being committed, find out who is responsible, and then educate communities that are being affected on solutions that can fix these issues. They have rallies and debates where they discuss issues that are threatening our environment and what we can do to help aid these issues. Some large issues that Greenpeace is concerned about is global warming and what effects wildlife and sea life. To promote their cause, they also use social media. They have a blog where people can go to to learn more about the problems at hand. They also promote their cause through Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and many more social networking websites. This greatly benefits them because people can easily share their website with everyone by clicking a simple "share" button. I think this is a wonderful way to get their word out there and get people to care about their cause because it is reaching everyone worldwide.

Gender stereotypes.

Advertising today is not the same as it used to be. Gender stereotyping was quite obvious in ads of the past. Nowadays, it it still being used but somewhat subtle. It's not often that I come across an ad and it is completely stereotyping like the example shown in class. For example, this was one of the ads shown in class;

This is a vintage ad that is very demeaning towards women. It shows that the woman is treated like a child and also advocates domestic abuse. 

Now this ad below is quite a recent ad, I would say. It is one of those ads that would raise quite a lot of controversy. I know I said a lot of the ads show stereotypes in the more subtle way but this is one of the examples that is similar to the ads of the past. All the men are standing around her while a shirtless man is holding her down. This is showing men as the power figure and women as weak and helpless people. This is also trying to portray the woman as an object for men to take advantage of. 

Now this ad below kind of challenges the subduing stereotype in women.  Unlike some of the ads shown in class, the women is shown as being higher than the man. The man also has his eyes closed. To me it's saying, if the woman wears this perfume, she will have men praising her. In this ad, the man is the one caressing her instead of the woman caressing him. It's not as stereotypical as the other ads.

I definitely do not think it is okay to laugh at these stereotypes. Hiding behind the irony is just encouraging this behavior and that isn't okay. As long as we encourage this behavior, it will continue to exist and that is stepping away from what we all yearn for: equality.