Stereotypes of Gender

Today in class we looked at stereotypes in regards to gender. Safe to say, back in the 50’s woman and men were somewhat depicted in a different light than they are today.

Back in the day, it was okay for advertising firms to poke fun at women as it wasn't considered downright offensive. Nowadays, such a move would provoke quite a reaction and give companies a bad name.

For our next blog we were asked to choose two separate ads promoting a similar product - one ad from an early era such as the 50’s/60’s, and the other, a contemporary version.

For my first choice I went with a newspaper ad from 1964; the ad features a picture of a Volkswagen Bug. The ad has a photo from the front of a light coloured Bug that is sitting there with the driver side front fender crimpled and the headlight broken out with the glass lying in the front of the wheel. The ad headline warns you that “Sooner or later, your wife will drive home one of the best reasons for owning a Volkswagen”. The ad text talks about the fact that these cars were designed to be worked on, in a very easy manner. It explains that this gender can be removed by loosening ten bolts and the part could be purchased from $24.95.

Nowadays, this ad would be considered very sexist for making a poor remark about women’s driving abilities. It implies women are terrible drivers and are very likely to hit something while driving. Whereas the case today is that women are in fact safer drivers than men, although perhaps not as confident in their driving ability. This ad is aimed purely at men and only men. During the 60’s it was unlikely the wife would have much of a say in which car the family would drive - the husband paid the bills so it was up to him. The ad addresses men, saying that buying a Volkswagen Bug will save them big bucks in repairs. Further remarks about women’s driving abilities are mentioned in the middle of the text with lines such as “She can jab the hood. Graze the door. Or bump the bumper”. Further trying to instil this message into men’s minds that the wife is almost certain to damage the car at one point or another and there are many ways in which she can do so (-$$$$-)!

For my second ad, I chose a more contemporary version of another Volkswagen ad.

Nowadays car ads are very simplified. They focus more on the aesthetics of the car. Cars are very desirable (not necessarily purchased) by how they look, though it is just down to a matter of one’s own personal taste.  Although this ad isn't so much advertising the car but Volkswagen’s repair services, it follows a similar concept to the previous ad about car damages and repairs.

This ad makes no references to women or men. The ad is aimed at either males or females; it does not specifically address men as the previous ad did. Nowadays, it is common for both spouses of a household to have their own cars, with women having as much of a say in the purchase as much as the man. Women are more independent now than they were 50 years ago and are perfectly capable of affording a car of their own, so for this reason there is no separation of sexes in the consumer base for most car manufactures.

In fact, the model in the ad is a man who is acting in an over dramatic manner, hence the costume! It’s pointing fun at men rather than women. This somewhat suggests that a guy is just as capable of crashing a car as a women is.  Although the portrayal of this man is supposed to be silly - he is in tights and he looks as though he is on the verge of a traumatic breakdown - it is very different to what would be an acceptable portrayal of a man back in the 60’s when they were supposed to look confident and powerful.

I would imagine a 60’s reconstruction of this ad would have likely featured a suited man aggressively pointing and yelling at a blonde haired, ditzy woman for damaging the car. The idea following the same caption of the ad “Don’t let small damages turn into tragedy”.

Thanks for reading!

Semiotic Analysis of Advertising

LOOK! It's a Semiotic!

This week in class we learnt about semiotics. Proposed in the early 1900’s by Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Sanders Peirce; semiotics is the study of signs and symbols as elements of communicative behaviour. 

The intent of advertising is to associate desire for products and services and to arouse feelings of positivity towards brands.

To achieve this, advertisers must construct campaigns that are compelling enough that viewers are motivated to decipher them. Still, the ads cannot mean anything on their own, they must be interpreted by the viewers to give them meaning.

Semiotics within advertising can be analysed in two respects; Denotation and Connotation.

Denotation refers to the literal interpretation of the advertisement - what you see and hear.

While Connotation, refers to the associations that are connected to it such as symbolic meanings, socio-cultural and personal associations.

For our next blog, we were told apply semiotics analysis to three ads; one printed ad, one tv commercial and one outdoor related ad.

For the printed ad I choose the following Duracell advertisement. Developed by advertising agency Grey in Singapore, this is certainly a unique way to promote longer-lasting batteries.

Terrifying but brilliant, this is one of those print ads that shouldn't work but somehow does. The advertisement for Duracell batteries features a sinister-looking doll in the doorway of a little girl's playroom. The little girl is playing with a new, more pleasant looking toy doll, while the one in the doorway is reaching with its arms extended towards the girl as if to say ‘Play with me!’, accompanied by the tagline 'Some toys never die'. The lighting of the scene is quite dark and eerie, and the presence of the old doll is made more frightening with the long overcast shadow stretching along the floor.

It's a bit left-field, and completely terrifying, but it’s this twisted and sinister looking aspect of the ad which makes it stand out. I remember as a child I would go through more batteries for my toys than my parents would for the use of their cameras or the tv remote. I cannot say for a fact that toys are the most common use of electronic batteries within the typical family household, but the caption of ‘Some toys never die’ works so well for this purpose. The fact the doll is standing in the open doorway shows that it has long since been discarded and forgotten by the girl. And the message of the caption is supposed to reinforce that if the old doll was supported by Duracell batteries, then perhaps the toy would have never been discarded to begin with.

Sometimes you have to look backwards in order to move forward, and Radio Shack took this very literally when they revived a cast of classic 80s characters in their wacky Super Bowl commercial.

The commercial is set within one of Radio Shack’s stores being minded by a couple of employees. At first glance you can see the selection of store merchandise is very outdated, with old fashioned fax machines, boom boxes that sport cassettes players, and massive low resolution computer monitors that would take up half the space of your desk. Then after a quick phone call, a cast of classic 80s characters enter the store such as Kid and Play, Cheers‘ Cliff Clavin, 1984 Olympics Mary Lou Retton, Child’s Play‘s Chuckie, Hulk Hogan, the California Raisins, Q*Bert, to name just a few. The characters then continue to ransack the store completely of all its merchandise, ridding it of its VCR’s and fax machines.

After the mayhem we are given a shot of the entire store baring nothing but empty bracket shelves and torn up carpeting. The shot then changes are we are introduced to a new, surprisingly spacious and modern looking Radio Shack displaying sexy products from Samsung and Beats. 

It’s a funny, self-effacing ad, which confronts the electronics retailer’s reputation for being somewhat less than cutting-edge by depicting icons of the 1980s and the display of outdated merchandise. It shows that Radio Shack is able to laugh at itself and realises its need to change. The shot of the empty raided store contrasted with the, modern, tasteful store is a way of showcasing the message of “Out with the old, in with the new”. It’s a way for Radio Shack to reassure its consumers that there is a promise of good things to come and that they are ready to become a part of the 21^st century.

Placed at the opening of a tunnel, this creative billboard was launched by Oldtimer restaurants, a leading Austrian chain of motorway rest stops.  The billboard is a picture of a woman’s face with her mouth wide open. The idea is that the billboard promotes an “All you can eat rest stop” as you drive right into the open mouth!

The huge poster was placed at the entrance of a tunnel along a highway, giving the impression that vehicles going inside is disappearing into the woman’s mouth appearing on the poster. The cars going into the mouth symbolise food, which is reflective of the concept of all you can eat. This campaign is very effective as for one, it’s practically impossible to ignore when it is such a unique concept and because it is placed right in front to the drivers field of vision. What works towards making this ad so unique is the fact that it includes the driver of the car to become a part of the campaign’s symbolic meaning- they are the food that is going into the mouth. The ad is also strategically placed. The road, which appears to be alongside a mountain range, is likely quite a rural area with few towns nearby. So the idea of motorway rest stops, particularly after a long drive, would be quite ideal to many drivers.

If you wish to learn any further information about semiotics, watch the video below.

Thanks for reading!

Wieden+Kennedy

The Biggest Name in Advertising

After looking at a range of advertising agencies the one which I am most impressed by is Wieden+Kennedy.   W+K has been around since the 80s and has grown to global scale with offices in New York, Amsterdam, London and Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing Delhi and São Paulo. What drew my attention most towards W+K was is its impressive list of clients. As I skimmed through its page of clients with big names such as Nike, Coca Cola, Facebook, Old Spice, and Sony, my mind started wondering off, searching the back of my subconscious for images of ad campaigns and commercials I have previously been exposed to by such companies.

The name which aroused favoured thoughts and feelings most was Old Spice. Whenever I hear the name I instantly recall the commercial “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”. There is something very captivating about the commercial. Standing at almost 48million on YouTube, it also won the ad agency an Emmy for Outstanding Commercial.  There is much which is unique about this commercial, its zany, amusing, seamless, and actor Isaiah Mustafa – the debonair shirtless black guy on a white horse – is likely to make any girl swoon!

The commercials they have made since never fail to amuse. More recently, the commercials feature Terry Crews doing all manner of craziness including playing musical instruments with his pectorals.

Everything Wieden+Kennedy has managed to achieve is impressive; It has won a series of awards, earned an impressive list of clients, and expanded to a massive global scale. It is undeniable that Wieden+Kennedy is one of the biggest names in advertising. 

If you would like to find out more about Wieden+Kennedy yourselves, fell free to look at their website: http://www.wk.com/

Thanks for reading!

An Apple a Day Keeps Android @ Bay

An Apple a day keeps Android @ bay

Chances are if you live within the US you are a member of the 56% of the population that owns a smartphone. Otherwise you belong to the 35% that owns a mobile which isn’t smartphone or the 9% that don’t own a phone at all. Considering the population of the united states to date is roughly 314million, that means there are roughly 175,840,000 smartphone devices being carried around in people’s pockets.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2013/06/more-than-half-of-americans-own-smartphones/

So out of all those mobile phones which brands are the most popular amongst the consumers? There are so many manufactures out there, which one has the biggest bite of the market share? Well according to statistics the phone lying within arm’s reach of you at the moment is likely an iPhone.

Currently the Android OS have the highest market share, which is hardly a surprise as it supports a wide range of smartphone devices, with a market share of 51.5% since last December, dropping 0.3% over a quarterly period.

However the Apples share of the market is catching up with a share of 41.8% since last December and increasing at a faster rate, having increased 1.2% over the fourth quarter.

http://www.macrumors.com/2014/02/04/comscore-december-2013/

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/in-the-us-apple-took-market-share-from-every-competing-platform-in-the-fourth-quarter-2014-2

So what is it about the iPhone that makes Apple the new boss of the bloc?

There is a lot of choice in the smartphone market right now, and there is no right answer to the question of ‘which is the best phone to buy.’ It pretty much boils down to personal preference and what you look for in a phone. Phones can cover a wide array of features, and it’s practically impossible for a phone to meet every single one, especially seeming how technology is a constantly adapting.

People who like complete control over the customization of their phones, and want to be able to fiddle the lowest level functions, will prefer Android. However, Android customization can also require some complex technical skills that the average person, especially older generations, rarely has.

Taken as a comparison done on a features list, the distance between Android and iPhone doesn't seem that far--and it seems that Android is ahead in some areas. And while that's true, the experience of using a phone, a device that's with you all day long, doesn't boil down to what boxes get checked. The experience is driven by quality and attention to detail, how the device works and how you feel about it. There's a reason people feel passionately enough about the iPhone to wait hours to get one on the day of a new model's release.

Most people want a phone that works well, lets them run the apps they want, and is easy to use. On that front, the iPhone wins hands down. Apple’s intense focus on ease of use, quality experience, and things just working makes it the clear choice for most users.

(A wide range of smartphones, all designed to meet different user needs)

As of now, it’s unclear as to whether Apple will ever overtake Android’s market share. However, one thing is for sure, it’s continuing to increase and it shows no signs of slowing down.

Thanks for reading!

Super Bowl 2014 Commercials

Football and Beer!

Every year, the Super Bowl is the most watched American broadcast on television yearly. The game last week between the Seahawks and Broncos was no exception with reported numbers of 111.5 million viewers watching worldwide.

http://www.ibtimes.com/super-bowl-2014-ratings-how-many-people-watched-seattle-seahawks-vs-denver-broncos-1552989
Due to the critical mass of viewers, the Super Bowl is a valuable opportunity for advertisers to reach out to the mass public. As such, the network may charge an excessive premium on advertising during the game, with prices reaching $4 million for a mere 30 second slot.

As we all know, the game was a total flop! So I have no shame in admitting that I didn't bother watching it to the end. Even though I don’t support the Broncos I just couldn't bear to see them losing so badly to the Seahawks. So really, I sat in anguish during the game, anxiously awaiting the commercial breaks to distract me from the mental torment. More than that, we all look forward to the commercials each year. We are excited to see what brilliant ideas the brains sitting at the desks of multi billion global companies can conjure up. Ideas that justify the expenditure of millions of dollars for just a few mere seconds of broadcasting.

Out of all the commercials I saw the ones which stand out most in the back of my mind are the Budweiser ads. I imagine a lot of people were moved by the one with the puppy and horse. Although adorable, I was more engrossed by the one with the soldier’s homecoming parade titled “A Hero’s Welcome”. At present, it has been on YouTube for only 4 days and has accumulated over 8 million views. For those who haven’t seen it or need a reminder, the commercial can be found below.

So what is the message behind this commercial? What does it have to do with beer considering that not a single bottle is opened for the entire commercial? What is it that makes it so special that Budweiser paid millions to broadcast it? I'm no expert, but here is how I interpret it.

Everything about this commercial is real! This isn't just some random actors following a script, it is real life. It tells the story of Lt. Chuck Nadd returning from his tour in Afghanistan. We know the soldier’s name and we follow him from his arrival at the airport, falling into the embrace of his girlfriend. We see the surprise on his face the moment he arrives into his home town and finds everyone eagerly awaiting him. We also catch glimpses of the endearing signs people are holding above their heads as he rides through the ticker-tape parade held in his honour. This short, but emotional journey is actually quite personal. We are invited to watch a very sentimental moment of this individual’s life, which captures our hearts and captivates our attention by drawing us in. I am convinced of this simply by the fact that as this commercial aired, a couple of my friends began bawling their eyes out! It is very rare that a one minute ad can have such an emotional impact on people.

But what has all this got to do with Budweiser beer? Well Budweiser is an American beer, so what better way to promote an American beer than by playing a commercial which has a strong sense of patriotism about it. I don’t wish to point at stereotypes but when it comes to patriots America is definitely high in the ranks and this commercial is oozing with signs of patriotism. The story follows a soldier who has been fighting for his country in Afghanistan. Americans pride themselves on being a country of freedom, a right which many soldiers have laid their lives on the line for. Honouring Chucks return after his service to his country, with a parade filled with many star spangled banners and flags, alongside decorated soldiers and war veterans, would make most people feel proud of being an American citizen. The fact that Budweiser played a central role in putting the parade together will remind viewers that Budweiser beer is in essence a strong part of American culture, a country they too support. This message is very strongly empathised by the final caption of the commercial, when the Budweiser logo appears across the screen with the words “Salute a Hero” written underneath. So after viewing the commercial many viewers may feel the urge to drink Budweiser as it serves as a conscious reminder that Budweiser beer is a part of what makes America...America!

There is more about this commercial that can probably be broken down and analysed. Like the use of the colour red flooding many of the scenes. The colour of Budweiser’s red logo fits in nicely with the patriotic theme matching the coloured stripes of the American flag.

Furthermore, if we wish to focus on basic aspects of advertising; beer is known to go well with sports. Men typically like to drink it when they are watching sports on TV. So broadcasting a commercial during the Super Bowl (or any sport for that matter) is no doubt a prime time to promote beer.

If you wish to read any further information about Lt. Chuck or the commercial, I have provided a link below.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2014/02/fort_drum_soldier_chuck_nadd_budweiser_super_bowl_ad.html

Thanks for reading!