We all know what goes on during Black Friday, all-nighters, shopping, long lines, angry customers and a few injuries here and there. Personally I have never been shopping on black Friday because of the disturbing, sometimes horrific stories I hear and I’m sure that there are some people who feel the same.
Every year on the days leading up to Black Friday different stores begin airing commercial getting people ready for the special deals and savings available on Black Friday. Some of the commercial ads that air poke fun at all of the chaos that comes along with Black Friday shopping.
Every year Target begins airing their chain of “the crazy woman” commercial ads starring a “crazy” woman who’s anxious for the great items she will buy on sale during Black Friday. These commercials bring the fun and joy back to the holidays and holiday shopping. While people are thinking about the huge head ache that awaits them with holiday shopping they will be reminded of the great deals that await them; people will have the opportunity to get their holiday shopping done for about half the price. A 42 inch flat screen TV for $200, how can you beat that?
These Target ads are funny to watch and they remind shoppers that Black Friday can be chaotic, but there’s still beauty in the experience and the Target commercials bring this to life.
Have you ever been flipping through a magazine and you come across an ad with a female model that makes you ask yourself this question: Is she a real woman or is that a mannequin? Sometimes female models look so perfect that it only seems that their perfection was created rather than natural. Seldom do advertisers use mannequins as models in print ads, but there is a lot of retouching, but why? If we all accept that no one is perfect why does advertising continue to create perfect images when we live in an imperfect world? I also noticed that the question of real .vs. mannequin is one that is more so an issue for women than men.
In general, women become objects of men’s sexual desire; advertising focuses on the female body. Women are placed in awkward positions to “show off the product”, but the exaggerated position the model gives more attention to her body than to the product. The world of modeling has set the standard for the ways female models pose, so the images we see aren’t new.
The question I ask is why can’t we be real? Models aren’t the only people buying the product; there are normal people, with normal jobs who buy Gucci clothing and Michael Kors perfume so why can’t the models be real people doing real activities with the product. People who buy Gucci aren’t usually at parties striking ridiculous poses or laying across couches with every inch of their hair in place lacking any emotion or expression in their faces. The absence of expression in a woman’s face takes away the realness and lifelines of the woman, which is how a mannequin looks.
The next time you’re flipping through a magazine and you come across an ad with a female model ask yourself, real or fake, woman or mannequin.
Men don’t like the idea of girls becoming women. Our fathers want us to be their “little girls” forever, our brothers, younger and older, feel like they have to protect us from the world for forever and our boyfriends and husbands eventually take the place of our fathers and brothers. Imagine growing up in a world where you are constantly growing and maturing, but all of the men around you continue to treat you like you’re still 5 years old. Now imagine that women receive the same treatment from advertising; this should all be easy to imagine since it occurs on a daily.
In advertisements women, in their adult bodies, are often shown in situations or partaking in child-like activities. For example:
This is a perfume ad for Miss Daisy perfume. Nice ad, but the first thing I noticed was the bow in Natalie Portman’s hair. While studying this ad I realized that the bow was probably put in her hair to repeat the design of the perfume bottle, but I still have an issue with the ad. Portman is made to seem sweet and innocent like a young girl and the bow is just the icing on the cake.
Here’s another example:
This ad for Harajuku Lovers perfume is another great example of women being portrayed as little girls in advertisements. The make-up, the hair style the perfume being in a doll shaped bottle all point to this theme of women being seen as little girls. This ad is probably a reflection of the Harajuku culture, but the perfume is sold in the United States as well and a lot of people don’t know about that culture or their style.
These are only two examples, but I could go on for days! We need to show our women in another light and women need to step into that light and stop allowing such images to continue.
Is this a brilliant ad campaign or what? The vibrant colors, the reversed type, and the white IPod with the infamous white headphones are striking and immediately demands attention from the audience. Each ad from this campaign is a little different, but still presents the same theme. When this ad campaign started I was drawn to it immediately. These ads were everywhere and when people saw them they automatically knew that it was an ad for Apple IPods.
One thing that I think makes this a stellar ad campaign is the presence of the brand’s identity. IPods and IPhones are associated with the white headphones that come with them, so without mentioning IPod or Apple anywhere on the ad viewers would know what the product is and which brand it came from just by seeing the white headphones. The neon colors that serve as the background for each ad represent the different colors of the IPOD nano and the black figure strips the identity from the “person” showing that IPods are for everyone. (Even though it’s almost impossible to target everyone they’re doing it!)
Knowing the U.S. has an increasingly high obesity rate, I think it’s create that each ad from this campaign shows movement, whether it’s dance, martial arts or simply walking. It seems that the campaign is encouraging people to not only buy the product, but get more active. Most people listen to music when they’re being active anyways so I think that was brilliant.
These ads are simple, yet striking and fun. Apple 100, everyone else 0!
While doing some research on the Levi brand I came across a few ads that were filled with sexual references, which doesn’t surprise me. What did surprise me was the how far some of the ads went with their sexual references. The sex sells technique in this commercial, much like others was too much.
Just because it’s done backwards, in slow motion doesn’t mean it’s not sex. Levis have some of the raciest ads that I’ve seen and take the “sex sells strategy” to a whole new level.
This Levis twisted commercial is a sexual encounter rewound. The models in the commercial and their positions are very sexual and take the focus away from the product. Our focus is more focused on trying to understand the commercial and what’s going on in it than on the actual product, which we only see for about 10seconds.
It seems to me that if a brand focuses so much on sex to sell a product instead of just letting the product speak for itself, that they don’t have much faith in their product. People will want to buy Levi products because of the quality and appearance not because people who wear them have sex and that’s what I get from this ad.
Another failed attempt on my quest to find ads that don’t use the sex sells strategy to sell their product.
Never Forgotten. Forever Grateful. September 11, 2001 will be a day that we remember for the rest of our lives; it changed our lives forever. In a matter of seconds people lost loved one, monumental buildings were destroyed and New York became a place once associated with historical beauty and incredible fashion now known as the place where tragedy occurred. Those planes that crashed into the Twin Towers took the lives of many innocent people inside those building, claimed the lives of many soldiers who fought the war on terrorists to protect their country and loved ones now having to deal with life without the people they loved.
9/11 was a tragic day that we will never forget; we’ve lost so many people because of it. My little cousin and I were talking when he mentioned that on 9/11 a State Farm commercial aired before the first NFL game of the season and it was a tribute to the state of New York and in remembrance of 9/11 and all those we lost. I expected the typical tribute with 9/11 victims or loved ones of victims telling their story and how they have since moved on; those commercials never get old because 9/11 affected us all. When I walked over to the computer and saw that the commercial I expected to see was not there instead there was this masterpiece:
This commercial is epic and I LOVE it! The emotion this commercial creates is remarkable. This commercial could bring a tear to the eye of the toughest man with the highest testosterone level. This commercial is so beautiful because it shows the beauty that still exists in New York years later. With this commercial New York reclaims what New York stands for; they don’t want people to forget the tragedy of 9/11, but people still need to remember all of the beauty that still exists there.
The children singing the chorus of Alicia Keys and Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” and walking through the streets of New York gives me a sense of empowerment and an effort to “take back the city”. Here is the chorus:
[Chorus: Alicia Keys] New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of
There's nothin' you can't do
Now you're in New York
These streets will make you feel brand new
Big lights will inspire you
Let's hear it for New York, New York,
New York
I must admit that whenever I thought about New York I would automatically associate 9/11 with it and after watching this commercial I think my mind will take a different path; now I will think about this commercial and what it means. On 9/11/2001 New York was a place filled sadness facing tragedy and we are still putting our lives back together after that day. In order for us to continue moving forward we have to take our lives back from that day and making commercials like this is a good way to help. We will never forget the day, but always be grateful that we are still here and have developed an amount of strength to help us get through such a devastating time in history.
A lot of my posts have dealt with the presence of sex and sexual images in advertising to sell a particular product and yet here we are again with another. I know this is a popular strategy because it grabs the audience’s attention, but I still feel think it’s over used and there needs to be a new way to connect with our audience.
I found this Dorito ad from the 2011 Super Bowl and the concept was, in my opinion terrible. The name of the ad is Boys Night In, which makes sense because it’s a Super Bowl ad during the Super Bow when guys are together being macho and eating junk food; I thought that was excellent and a nice start up to the ad. One of the guys enters with a bag of Doritos and is trying to get his friend’s attention and heremains unsuccessful until he eats a Dorito and a sexy woman appears and begins to make out with him. Wanting a little “girl action” of his own the friend, who was previously too busy playing a video game to give his friend a seconf look, takes the bag of Doritos and ate oneand got the same result. The third friend takes the whole bag and pour it in his mouth which ends up creating an orgy. Hmmmm…. Here is where my problem lies.
I think the commercial would have totally still worked if the girls weren’t used, but just the sound of his friend crunching on a Dorito and the presense of the bag stole the guy’s attention away from the game. If the girls were completely necessary for the ad maybe they could have just appeared and not start making out with random guys because they are eating Doritos.
This ad caught my attention because I felt like it was so over the top. The sexual references in this commercial actually took away from the product, in my opinion. Instead of showing the power of Doritos to capture ones attention it shows the power of sexy women to grab male attention, which we have all accepted as true for decades.
