Sex & DORITOS

          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 he  remains 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.

          TRY AGAIN ADVERTISERS!

Why are TAMPON ads so RIDICULOUS?!?!?!

         Why are tampon ads so ridiculous? I wish I knew. Like any other product there are different brands of tampons competing for profit. Commercial ads for tampons argue that one’s better than the other, one is more absorbent, others are more comfortable and so forth.

          Commercial ads typically refer to a woman’s time of the month as her “monthly curse”, “mother nature’s unwanted gift”, “an unwanted visitor” and other phrases to express how much women dread this particular time. During a woman’s menstrual cycle or "time of the month" she is said to be moody, vulnerable and on edge; a common theme present in tampon ads is the relationship between a woman’s “unwanted visitor” and her emotions. Most commercial ads have a similar story line, a woman plans on enjoying a particular event until "Mother Nature" comes and delivers her “monthly gift”. Although the woman may seem upset at first the commercial is supposed to show that with the right “protection”, even "Mother Nature" can’t ruin a woman's fun.

            I came across this UbyKotex commercial ad that approached tampon products in a different. This commercial was poking fun at the typical tampon ad and the recurring themes and misconceptions about a woman’s time of the month. I didn’t understand the purpose of the commercial until I watched the entire thing and then I picked up on the sarcasm present in the ad.

         This ad caught my attention because it went against typical concepts for tampon ads and actually poked fun at them, but still managed to convey a message and sell a product. One of the reasons I think this commercial and its sarcasm worked is because it addresses many of the issues that I’m sure many people have with tampon ads. For example, there’s almost always a demonstration in the commercial that uses a blue liquid as a representation of the actual menstrual flow. I understand that it may be difficult to use the actual substance in the demonstration, but a blue watery liquid doesn’t do justice to the actual substance, so consumer don’t see the full affect. This ad shows consumers how ridiculous tampon ads are and then just showed their product and allows consumer to make their own decisions. Now consumers won't be fooled by other tampon ads and will choose the product that suitsd them best

RIP STEVE JOBS

One of the major issues with advertising is the audience’s ability to decode a message properly. People may assume that with all the research done before the advertising process even begins that the message behind the ad will be clear, but sometimes that’s not the case. There have been a lot of ads over the years that had to be pulled because the audience got the wrong message from the ad and were outraged; companies never mean to have a negative message in an ad, but sometimes the possibility flies right over their heads. The question is, is this an acceptable excuse?

I came across a few ads that had to be pulled because audiences decoded the message incorrectly and were upset at the message they thought the company was sending. One of those ads was the 2007 ad for the new look of Apple desktop computer.  At first glance, I actually thought the ad was a good ad, but after reading the text my opinion changed immediately.  The ad says: “The new Mac. You can never be too thin. Or too powerful”. The ad was trying to express  to the viewers that the new look for  Apple desktops is very thin and fun, but instead it seems like the ad is encouraging weight loss and saying that weight and power go together “hand in hand”.

Of course this ad made people angry, especially organizations like National Organization for Women (Now) that deal with body images issues a lot. The ad was eventually pulled and Apple released a statement apologizing and explaining that the message was not intended to be about body image/weight, but was this enough?

            It’s true that we all make mistake in our professional careers at time, but when is it not acceptable. Personally I think that companies like Apple make too much money to make mistakes like this.  The fact that Apple is not the only company to have made mistakes like this is startling. We need to do better!

SLAP Me to Prove a Point

            When I think of a public service announcement (PSA) I think of those calling attention to impoverished countries or people suffering from HIV/AIDS and asking for our “friendly donations”. When I went to my Communications Research course last week Thursday and was told that we were going to watch a PSA, by Women’s Aids organization, on domestic violence I imagined that it would look somewhat similar to the PSAs I’ve seen in the past, boy was I wrong.

            When the PSA about domestic violence began it looked like a clip taken from a movie. The clip was centered around what was supposed to be a “regular working woman” who comes home to an apartment that looks like the setting of a home invasion or kidnapping scene. A man emerges and I thought it was an intruder, but it turned out to be the woman’s upset boyfriend who proceeds to slap and punch her in the face until she falls to the ground and then kicks her.

At the end of the clip a screen pops up and it says: “2 women die from domestic violence every week. Help save lives. Donate $2 a month”. If I wasn’t confused before I was definitely confused now. How will donating $2 a month stop domestic violence? I understand that there are shelters and different programs to help women dealing with domestic violence and the money will go to that in some form or another, but I don’t think this was the correct platform to express a need for donations. Now I was questioning the reason behind this Women’s Aid PSA. I thought the purpose of the PSA was to bring about awareness on the issue. I know that public service announcements ask for donations all the time, but I don’t think this one got the point across to the audience so when donations are asked for at the end it seems out of place.

When I think of a PSA I think of real people, dealing with real issues and needing help; this PSA was a skit, so it lacked the realness of other PSAs that would make people want to help or donate money.