Time Flies When You Are Having Fun

Throughout the past 11 weeks we have covered many different topics. Even though I enjoyed all of them, stereotyping in advertising was my favorite. This is because our society is so used to stereotyping that even when we see it in a commercial it may not be that apparent to us. Also, I enjoyed this topic because I personally stereotype on a daily basis and I found that I could understand why they made the commercial they way did and what they were thinking when they making the commercial or ad. Another thing, I enjoyed the class discussion we had about this topic because I felt like more people got involved and had something to say since everyone reacts to stereotypes differently.

However, I do believe that advertising is changing the way they contact people because everyone is always on their cell phones or computers. Instead of just playing an ad during a commercial or having a billboard being seen, advertisers are having to work much harder. They now have it on the side of our browsers, and pretty soon we will experience it while we are on our cell phones once technology advances enough. Another thing to, with social media becoming so heavily used by our society, advertisers will continue to use those mediums as a form of getting their ads seen especially since they won't have to be paying millions for this. Overall, I think advertising is heading in the right direction since they are moving forward along with our technology and society.

Racial Stereotypes

Stereotyping is something that is done on an everyday basis. There are times where we don't even notice it since we experience stereotypes on a daily basis. I feel that it is right to stereotype in advertisements since people are more likely to respond it in and it will catch their attention. If things were always very general, it would make it hard to have your product stand out. However, I feel if they are stereotyping in a negative way than that is not okay. People would not respond to the negative ad in a good way and also your product will than be associated with a negative stereotype.
Racism in advertising is not very prominent these days. These companies know that if they are racist in anyways that it could affect their company and they could potentially fail because of this.
Advertisers do have ethical responsibilities because if they do something that is unethical the consumers may react in a negative way, or their ad may not be published. Advertisers do have to make their ads ethically correct and not racist in order to have a strong connection and good outcome.

A good example of this is Nike, they use different athletes to promote their brand whether the person is fat, skinny, tall, short, muscular, thin, black or white, they still have these athletes promote their brand because in the end someone who plays that sport may say "Since Serena Williams wears Nike than I will wear Nike."

The Comeback

Nostalgia can have its advantages and disadvantages. Some advantages are for those who experience the Michelin man as a child got to experience it again at an older age and could share that experience with their children if they have any. Also, it could bring back memories from their childhood and could even attract them into buying their product because they have that connection with a product icon. However, some disadvantages could be if you were scared of the icon or just did not like the icon as a kid, seeing it disappear was probably a positive thing for and having it return could make you uneasy again. Also, it could prevent you from buying that product because you hate the icon and therefore you will try to stay away from that product as long as you possibly can.

There are some brands and products that this could be unsuccessful since most companies these days use trends to sell their products and as soon as that trend goes out of style there is no point in bringing it back and if they did it could backfire since people wouldn't understand it. One example of this is the pistachio commercial having a pistachio doing the gangnam style. That is one commercial that could not ever witness nostalgia since this trend will most likely never come back or at least we hope it will not come back.

Smith and Wesson Mountain Bike: flop or success

Smith and Wesson is known and loved by many consumers these days. They are well known for their outdoor products, bikes, and other products. Smith and Wesson have been designing the mountain bike for the law enforcement, security, and emergency response since 1997. They decided in 2002, they should take their product a step further and make the mountain bike for the general public. Unfortunately though the public did not catch on to buying these mountain bikes and the launch ended up flopping. Even though the public service officials do love these bikes, the general public will never know why these bikes are so loved by them. 

Smith and Wesson ended up pulling the mountain bike from the general public since they were not making any money off of this product. They never expected this to happen since the public service officials do love have an immense love for these mountain bikes. 

Green Peace

I decided to do an Ad for Green Peace that was used in Romania.









In this ad, it shows a man chopping down a tree that is kind of a mushroom shape cloud. The Slogan is "stop the catastrophe" This message is conveying what will happen if we continue to cut down all the trees. It's trying to get our attention so we will stop ruining our environment.
For those who do not know, Green Peace is an organization that tries to bring awareness to people about our environment and how we are ruining it. They tell us way to prevent us from ruining our environment by bringing awareness to about it to us.

Semiotics in Advertising

Semiotics are used in adverting on a daily basis since it helps the viewers understand the ad much better.

For the first ad, it's an outside IKEA ad.


Denotation:IKEA sells furniture for your house. It's affordable, comfy, and nice looking according to this ad. You can personalize it however you want to match your house. They mostly use red since its a great attention getter. Also, by having people and furniture on this billboard it makes people do a double take.
Connotation: I see furniture on this billboard and a couple sitting. But when I look closer I see the word JOY. This makes me think of the holidays since you always hear joy to the world during Christmas time. Under that you see "decorate for the holidays"and then IKEA is directly next to that. By seeing those words you get the feeling of decorate your house to match the holidays and IKEA has the furniture that is needed to do this.

The second ad I will use is Advertising print. I decided to use a Nike Ad for this one.


Denotation: Lebron James dunking the basketball ball with a determined look on his face like he will do whatever he has to win. You can see fans in the background and a basketball hoop.

Connotation: Lebron James is determined win. He is giving it his all and even though he has an easy basket to make he's still focused to make every point count. The phase "Will To Win" means in order to win you have to have the want to do it and the will to make it happen. The colors are red which matches his uniform, black for the background,and white to make the phrase and the nike symbol pop out.

The last ad is the T.V ad. For this one I chose the GEICO Hump Day Commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWBhP0EQ1lA

Denotation: a camel walking around a company asking everyone what day it is. The commercial has an office feeling to it with a camel walking around.

Connotation: This camel is walking around asking everyone what day it is. They keep ignoring him even though he knows they hear him. Finally he gets someone to say its Wednesday in which he responds with HUMP DAY! They then show two people from Geico saying how happy are Geico customers in which they respond with happier than a camel on hump day.

Stereotyping: is it really necessary?

We have all seen those ads where the company stereotypes to get their message across. But is it really necessary to do this? I feel depending on the ad depends on whether its right or wrong to racially stereotype. This is because if it's doing it in a friendly way where they mean no harm than I don't see it as a bad thing especially since we do it on a daily basis. So why should the Ads be punished for doing something that almost everyone does? However, if it is doing it in a way where they mean it in a negative way than i feel that stereotyping isn't necessary to do since it will give your product a negative vibe.
I believe that racism in advertising is not a thing in the past. However, I think they are much smarter about it and so it doesn't stand out as much as it used to. in this ad of Beyonce she clearly gets whiter in each scene. As if Loreal is saying that in order to be beautiful you must be white. This is just one of many examples of racism in advertising.
I think that advertisers do have ethical responsibilities because if they didn't then i think more ads would be poking fun at everyone in a negative way. By having those ethical responsibilities, it makes it so they have to be careful with what they do or say. 

Bandujo

Last semester I got the opportunity to pitch my groups idea to Bandujo in New York City. Before pitching to this agency though, I did my research and even watched them on the show "The Pitch". While I did my research on this company, I came across most of their ads and i was very impressed with all of them. They were simple yet got conveyed the message instantly. Also, they have worked with a lot of big name companies such as J.P Morgan, The New York City Department of Health to WisdomTree Investments, the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts to Children’s Specialized Hospital.
While reading about this agency I saw that they like to use every possible form of media in their ads. I personally found that interesting since most people like to stick to 1-2 different forms. Also on their website http://bandujo.wordpress.com/ where they have their work listed. All of which is different yet still conveying the message. 

How effect is branding?

Everyday we see branding, whether its in places we never thought it would exist or in places where you expect it, branding is always there. The truth is brands aren't just known as being a shoe brand or a cleaning brand. Each brand promotes some type of identity and because of that it causes the brand to exceed in that specific category. Lululemon is known for those who want a fit lifestyle while lysol is known for those who like to kill germs. By branding, more customers can connect to that product and know even though there are many other types of products that establish the same thing, they are drawn to that one. Without branding, companies wouldn't be able to build their products to be as successful as they hope for it to be.

Also, by branding, companies can build a reputation that way. Whether these brands have a great reputation or none at all, these companies can continue to build that or start to build one through branding. Overall, branding is an important aspect for every company to do in order to succeed to continue to succeed. Without branding, these companies may not reach their full potential.

What excites me about advertisting

Advertising is something that we have grown up around and will judge the advertisement in a heartbeat when we first see it. What I find interesting about advertising is the fact that something so simple can have such a huge impact and even though you may think you ad may the most effective way to get your product out there the public may not respond to it in a positive manner. Also after taking adv 125, I learned how much hard work, thought, and time goes into making an ad that people will only look at for a few seconds. I find that makes advertising even more fascinating because if you could create an ad that that catches the public's attention and make them stare at that ad for even just a second longer and have them respond positively then you have succeeded in the business.