Have you ever asked a Subaru owner what they think about their car? Or if they like their Subaru? I swear every Subaru owner that I've ever known loves their car and would stand by their word that a Subaru is the best car ever built! With their powerful "love" ads, they do a pretty good job of making you believe that yourself. Subaru does a powerful job of really connecting to people emotionally through a few very simple, yet powerful, concepts. Love, loyalty, family, and nostalgia are just a few that they have been known to use to connect with people.
They use commercials like these to make people remember the "good times." Here they use the scenario of a high school reunion bringing up feelings about the a man's first love. We see him there with his current girlfriend or wife but as soon as another woman(with her new beau) enter the room, the man automatically flashes back to his high school years, spending the time with her. All the flashbacks bringing up the "good times" but at the end we realize it was his first Subaru that was his first love...not the woman, she was just the trigger. The commercial transitions to the man and his lover arriving at home, happy as can be and in love, and in his driveway is parked his "first love," his first Subaru. A brilliant combination of love, family, comedy and nostalgia.
This is probably my favorite Subaru commercial ever. As a owner of two dogs, I am a sucker for anything with dogs in it, especially puppies. The one problem with dogs, is they never last as long as we do. They truly do become your best friend and it is more than heart breaking when you lose them, but they journey and the life you spend with them, make it all more than worth it. Subaru does an excellent job of showing this and pulling on these heart strings. They show a man pull up in his Subaru with his brand new chocolate lab puppy, just him and his dog. Cut to the next scene, and he pulls up in the same Subaru, to the same spot, but this time he has met a woman and the dog has gotten a little older. Cut away to the final scene and the man pulls up in the same Subaru, with the same woman, to the same spot but this time with a baby and the same dog but a lot older and with a lot more grey. The dog exits the Subaru and runs to the house the same way as always. Once again a great job of tying in family and love. They make you feel like a Subaru will be around forever, just like a part of the family. Your Subaru will always be there for you, will always remind of your dog, family, and all the good times that come with it.
We all know the classic Golden Arches of McDonald's...in fact, according to Fast Food Nation, more people in the world can recognize the Golden Arches than the "Christian Cross."
The arches have been part of the restaurants design since it first opened, and the current arches that form a "M" have been part of the logo since 1968. When it comes to advertising and branding yourself, Mcdonald's obviously struck gold with the arches(yes, the pun was intended), and are still used today. However, as the rest of the world evolves, so must logos, brands and advertising techniques, but somethings never change. I will be dissecting these next three advertisements from newer McDonald's campaigns, using semiotics...you can bet on one thing right now though, that you can find those Golden Arches on them somewhere...
The first ad is in the form of a print ad. It's a very simple ad, with few denotations. We see a raw potato that has been carved to the shape of french fries and have the McDonald's "M"(or arches) carved into the front of it, with part of the peel still hanging on. There is some text in the bottom right corner and that's really it. So, what does this all say?
Well, to me, it's obvious that McDonald's is trying to play off the ideology of healthy eating and "real food". As someone who currently makes a living off the health and fitness industry, I am happy to announce that people in this country are finally starting to care about food rather than calories. People are starting to become aware of all processed food pumped full of chemicals and ingredients that we can barely pronounce. We realize that we need to eat real food, that either walks on the Earth or grows from Earth. People are wanting simple. McDonald's uses this to their advantage, by showing their fries being carved out of a simple, plain, raw, white potato. What's more simple than that? Then, just to really hit the nail in the coffin, they put the words "real good" on the bottom, providing us with two meanings. 1) Their fries are really good. 2) "Real" food is good, and our fries are made from real food.
The next ad is an outdoor ad in the form of a billboard. The denotations that we get from this are, once again, very simple. There is one billboard cut down the middle(vertically) with an add on attachment on the top(connecting both), each section containing 1/3 of a "Big Mac" along with some text on both billboards. With this simplicity, McDonald's is able to tell us so much...and size is the main thing. First of all, the text on the left just says "big mac" which is the name of the burger being displayed here, so automatically, the word "big" is instilled into our brains. Then by splitting the board, they make the board itself seem larger, which means when they place the burger on it, it too will seem larger. They take it a step further though and make the burger so LARGE, that not only does it not fit on one board, but it doesn't fit on both boards and is overflowing out of the top of both billboards. They are really pushing the idea, and playing off the consumer behavior of, "BIGGER IS BETTER!"
The third and final ad, is again from McDonald's but this time it's a television commercial. Once again, the fast food giant likes to keep it simple. The whole ad is shot in one scene of a group of younger, fit people sitting in a meditative pose(practicing yoga) on a green lawn in what looks like a public park. The people are shown practicing meditative deep breaths and hums every so often, as birds chirp and a lady passes on her bike. There's a man on a bench reading a newspaper, who seems to be adjusting himself and paper every time the group takes their deep breaths. The scene eventually pulls back and reveals an advertisement for McDonald's "chicken mcnuggets" on the back page. At the end we see the golden arches with a green background.
McDonald's is once again going back to people's every evolving interest in health and the environment. By showing happy, healthy people exercising they automatically get you thinking about being healthy, in end connecting McDonald's with being healthy. This idea is really reinforced once we find out that the people were not actually practicing the "yoga deep breath" but rather doing a "hunger hum" every time they saw a little more and more of that chicken nugget revealed. You know that hum, "HMMMM, that looks good, I want that...HMMMMMM." The fact that they are outside on a beautiful day, with birds chirping on green grass makes us feel good about the environment. Makes us believe that McDonald's does care about the environment. As the ad ends, we see the arches but this time with a green background, once again really pushing the idea of environmentalism into your head(it may have even been an Earth Day ad).
"A picture is worth a thousand words" and judging from these past three advertisements, no one knows that better than McDonald's.
Before when I would think of advertising I would think of
radio ads, billboards, television commercials, maybe the side of a bus…but now,
in the 21st century, it means so much more. Advertising was very two dimensional but now
as the world evolves and technology advances, so must advertising.
If you were to compare the average person of the 2013 to
that of 1953, you would think that the days have gotten shorter. People today are always on the go, and seem
to never stop. A prime example is
television commercials. Today most
people(I know I do) are either using their TiVo or DVR system to record their
favorite programs and fast forward through the commercials. It seems that people are too busy to give you
their time of day, and always need to speed through things or be occupied with
something. Just look at the couples
around you next time you go to dinner and count how many of them are on their
phones rather than engaging in each other’s time. If people won’t give their own friends and
significant others their time, how do advertising companies get a piece of
their time? Simple, they steal it back.
When people are spending an average of 22 hours a week on
social media websites(Marketing Charts link), the answer is
simple. Advertise on social media. For all of us that have a face book, we’ve
all seen the “timeline” and format changes that have come over the years. With every one of them, has come a new space
or section from advertisements
This has become a new route for companies to
advertise, and the great part about it is that it is reasonably priced. Really any company can run an advertisement
of some sort, reaching out to a certain amount of people, and have it up there
for an agreed amount of time. But bigger
than that, is just social media in general…
Social media has become such a large part of everyone’s life
for a few simple reasons. It’s
easy. It’s fast. It’s free.
Anyone who has access to the Internet, now has access to social
media. According to ABC News’ Good
Morning America, more than half of Americans have a smartphoneso
access to the Internet is becoming less and less of a problem. Any company between small, local “ma and pa”
shops to global conglomerates can have a face book page, twitter account and so
much more where people can go to connect not only with the company, but with
other people who are supporters of that company. As a small and local business owner myself,
it really is a great way to build an audience and get your message across
Yes, I threw in a cheap plug for myself...
Still, social media is so much more than even that. Social media, and just online advertising in
general, is like giving another rock to David to use in his slingshot against
Goliath. Since the Citizens case
in 2010, large companies have had the same 1st amendment rights as
individual citizens. What does this
mean? This means that big time
politicians who have big time fundraisers have found a way to cheat the system
once again. Politicians can not
advertise or market themselves within 30(sometimes 60, depending on what
position the election is for) days within an election. However, now companies who either want or don’t
want a bill to be passed can back a candidate and advertise for them(just as
long as the candidate does what the company wants of course…) This makes victory nearly impossible for the
local citizens who have no backing but want to run for election. But now with the help of social media, even
the average Joe has a little better shot of winning than before.
I think as long as technology, social networking and mass
media in general keep evolving and growing, so will the world of
advertising. And with that growth,
comes more and more opportunities for normal people with an idea or a company
to become one of the “big guys” which, in my eyes, helps restore the concept of
“the American Dream” just a little more.
Out of control. Loud. Street gangs. Criminals. Organized crime.
When many of us think of Harley Davidson, we think of words like the ones listed above, and most of that is due to the way Harley riders are portrayed on TV. Hit shows like Sons of Anarchy(which is great and I am in no way taking that away from the show) portray main characters like Jax Teller and Clay Morrow as your stereotypical, "bad-ass", clad in leather vests with gang patches, born in America, Harley riding criminals.
The fact of the matter in real life, I know plenty of Harley riders, and none of them fit the stereotypes that we normally of associated with Harley Davidson(other than the loud part). One stereotype that I do find in Harley owners that seems to be consistent to real life and on screen, is that of brotherhood. For any of us that grew up playing sports, or associated with any type of club or group, know that the words brother and sister can mean a lot more than sharing the same blood line. Whenever you spend extended amounts of time together with someone who shares the same passions and/or goals as you, you start to form a special bond that can be deeper than blood sometimes. You definitely seen this in shows like Sons of Anarchy, but this was apparent in Harley Davidson owners and riders long before the show. In fact, Harley Davidson has known this for at least close to 30 years now and that is why in 1983 they formed the "Harley Owners Group(H.O.G.)." H.O.G. was organized originally by Harley Davidson who was going to host a bunch of destination rallies, but once they realized how expensive this was, they changed it to several traveling rallies. Not only is it cheaper for the company to endorse but it also embodies the "brotherhood" of being a Harley owner and rider. These riders get together and they ride different routes together, passing through several checkpoints where they get "passports" stamped and are able to hang out and tell stories with other Harley owners.
In my opinion, brand communities like H.O.G. are a great way to market. Everyone wants to be accepted and part of something, and with HOG and other brand communities, it has become easier to be part of a brotherhood. The only real requirement to be part of HOG is that you need to own a Harley Davidson motorcycle, and you need to show up. So not only are you making your current customers feel like a family who want to return to your event year after year(forcing them to buy a newer bike eventually), but you are also reaching out to a whole new market. These members of HOG come home from their journey with stories and photos and tales of good times, and eventually, their non Harley owner friends are going to want to check it out themselves. First, they have to meet the prerequisites. So, they go and buy a new Harley, and BAM a new member and customer is born. Once they're in, they can go on these "Posse Rides" and begin to make their own Harley adventures and stories. Everyone involved in the Posse Ride, first must take an oath (that promises "no whining" among other things) and this really seals the deal for me. Once you take an oath with a club, you really feel apart of that group and the family feeling is born. The fact that the oath includes no whining is brilliant in my eyes. Not only does it embrace that brotherhood but it also reconfirms that "hard-core, bad-assery" that comes with being a Harley owner.
I think Harley Davidson has done a great job with just laying the ground work for these rides, but at the same time keeping their hands out of it. Originally, I think they did this because it was cheaper for them but in the long run it helped them out in my eyes. Once again, they are reiterating those good stereotypes and schema that come with the words Harley Davidson. It makes members of HOG feel like they are doing it on their own and being "independent" and a "rebel" which is a main focus point of Harley Davidson. If Harley Davidson were to get more involved in these Posse Rides, I think they should do so only in little matters. Work with the towns and cities that the riders go through and stay in and make a handful of bars, the official "watering holes" of the Posse Ride. Maybe offer little gifts to HOG members like gas cards, gift cards to Harley products, etc. These are the little improvements I would recommend to Harley Davidson, but for the most part I would continue to be a little more hands off just as they have been.
Harley Davidson owners, "Live to Ride, and Ride to Live" and they are going to continue to do so with or without Harley Davidson getting more involved or not.
Remember those guys from the movie, Harold and Kumar? The "extreme" guys...for those who have never seen it, they are basically just a group of guys who claim to be "EXTREME" and terrorizing everyone and everything in their way. The audience later finds out that they were nothing but a bunch of phonies and were not "extreme" in any way. That's the problem with trying to be too extreme and over the top, if you don't live up to the hype than you've already lost.
There definitely is a target audience of extreme adrenaline junkies out there, just look at companies like "Red Bull" and "Go Pro". These companies were smart about how they went about it though. They took the advertising route of relating extreme to living life to the fullest. To traveling, and to adventure. By breaking barriers and records like this record for the longest free fall:
Not only does Red Bull claim to be extreme, but with stunts like this and many others, they more than back it up. Unfortunately, not everyone has figured out exactly how to play to this extreme audience...just ask Vince McMahon.
In 2001, owner and CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, Vincent Kennedy McMahon, teamed up with NBC and tried out their own football league, the XFL. The XFL was marketed as a league with less rules and barriers on the players. Teams were usually associated with names and/or images of insanity or lawless acts(i.e. The Hitmen, the Demons, the Maxniax, and one even name Xtreme). Players were able to choose what name they wore, and stars such as "HE HATE ME" and "YO Murphy" were born. It was never confirmed what the "X" stood for but it was obvious they wanted to be known as the eXtreme Football League, but by replacing coin tosses with 20 yard sprints to the ball and getting rid of fair catches, it was obvious they wanted to be extreme(in fact, in 1999 that was the original idea but the name was taken) The problem was that they failed their own extreme test. Kick returners were still granted their "5 yard halo" and those 20 yard dash rarely(if ever) turned into the scuffles and tussles that they promised us. They even has believing that their cheerleaders would somehow be more scandalous or better than regular NFL cheerleaders with some of their commercials, but sadly they were no more extreme than your average cheerleader. I went to the San Francisco Demons homeopener, and even as a 15 year old boy, I was able to realize that there really was nothing extreme about the XFL, and once all those bells and whistles were gone, it was just a less talented/athletic NFL, or some even related it to the CFL(Canadian Football League) but with a lot of money backing. Well unfortunately for Vince McMahon and the rest of the investors, the fans caught on to this quick and after the opening weekend, the numbers and viewer ratings plummeted dramatically.
Some could argue the XFL had a good game plan and was just poorly executed, and some would argue that it was a terrible idea for the get go. Personally, I think they could have made something out of the XFL if it was marketed different. I actually had season tickets with three of my other friends and the games were "extremely" fun to attend, but than again we were 15 year old boys, who I might add, loved WWE television! And this is where I think they messed up. They tried to connect to wrestling and wrestling fans too much:
People in the 21st century already make fun of wrestling for being "phony" and pre determined(you can thank Vince K McMahon for that too, but that's a different rant for a different day), so now you take one of the nation's biggest money making sports that people love, support and watch religiously; and in fan's eyes, you make a mockery of it. They tried to get NFL fans to switch over but saying that the NFL=the NO FUN LEAGUE, as well as get wrestling fans to watch football, by being a type of EXTREME!
The problem, they didn't commit to one audience, and instead ended up with this phony "extreme" mentality trying to play to both audiences. It was soon after opening weekend that wresting fans realized it was too similar to the NFL, and most wrestling fans watched Monday Night Raw over Monday Night Football for a reason. And on the opposite side of the spectrum, it was to similar to the NFL(but with lesser elite athletes) to get NFL fans to switch over to the XFL. This was the bigger hit for the XFL in my opinion because not only did they fail at getting NFL fans to be XFL fans, but they also failed at getting these NFL fans to become WWE(Vince's true money making baby) fans as well. Not only did the league help reiterate these people's thoughts that wrestling was phony and "cheesy" but now they believed the XFL to be phony, cheesy and some even believed it to be pre-determined.
The XFL failed because rather than concentrate on a new target audience and play to this audience's consumer behavior, they tried to play to the consumer behavior of wrestling fans, who the whole time(for the majority) never cared about football. They would rather see chair shots, ladder matches, and the Rock verbally lashing his opponent and when none of that was delivered, they quickly turned off the XFL.
It was a good attempt by Mr. McMahon, but poorly executed. Next time you try to make a more "extreme" football league, make sure you know your audience and what they want.
What happened to the future? When I was a kid, we used to think 2013 would be so advanced and superior than the society of 1990. I mean according to the movie "Back to the Future Part II" we were supposed to have flying cars and hover boards by 2015!
Now we may not have flying cars just yet, but we have made some extreme advances in technology from the evolution of the internet to Google's "driverless" cars, but along with technology comes consequence. In almost all of Hollywood's depiction, positive technology usually leads to some negative effect on society and/or the planet. In movies such as "the Matrix" and the "Terminator" series, technology actually advances so far that it threatens humankind's existence. In other movies like the animated hit "Wall-E", technology eventually turns all of society into useless, obese people(which we know isn't far from the truth, as heart disease and stroke have moved to the #1 and #4 causes of death in America. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lcod.htm), but that's a discussion for a different time. I want to talk about the other "moral story" of "Wall-E", the one where we let technology destroy our planet, forcing us into space...
Cus this right here, is not far away if we don't do something.
Luckily, a group of young people in Colorado, has decided to start a movement. A movement to make a change, and a movement that will hopefully spread. With radioactive waste dumping into the Pacific Ocean everyday because of the nuclear reactor, Fukushima(couple interesting read Fukushima-a Global Threat) and the polar caps melting and temperatures rising across the world every year, it's nice to see the little guy stand up.
New Era Colorado is a foundation that is trying to reinvent politics. A group that is trying to fight corporate greed. In 2011, Boulder, Colorado voted to localize their power supply for the sole purpose of reducing their impact on the planet, and the first city in the country to do so. This allowed them to make their own energy decisions within their community. Once they realized how bad their coal-fire based energy sources were, they tried to work with their local monoplized energy company(XCel), but this is when they realized how crooked things really were. Once they decided to run their power off renewable energy grids(such as windmills) XCel than decided to fight back and spend $1 million fighting the campaign of renewable energy. It was New Era Colorado who stepped in, and did what they do best. They got young people involved, interested, and educated in politics. And they won, for now. It is now that XCel is truly fighting back and spending massive amounts of money in advertising. They realize that Boulder, Colorado makes them $35 million a year. More than that, they realize the chain effect this could have on neighboring cities and communities. They don't care about the planet, they care about their wallets, and it's this thought that is going to lead to the death of our planet.
New Era Colorado continues to fight back but without the funding that Big Oil has, they have to fight with people and social media. They need all of our help. It's up to us to to take back our planet and save it from the big wigs and their deep pockets. Please go to .http://neweracolorado.org/ to learn more about what you can do to help.
One of the viral videos that New Era Colorado is using to help get the word spread...if you've got 6 minutes to spare, please watch it, it's well worth it.
It's the 21st century, and for the most part, we all know that racism is bad. That doesn't mean that racism and ethnic stereotypes don't exist. But if we "know" that these stereotypes are wrong, then why do they exist? How do they get started? Some would make the argument that they have been around since the dawn of time, others would say that they were instilled into us as a society. But what tool would be powerful enough to brainwash billions of people into believing a certain stereotype about a specific ethnic group? Well if you refer to my first blog Advertising: A Real Life Superpower? I talk about advertising being a powerful weapon, or tool, that has the ability "inspire people". Some people think that the world of advertising can use this power to inspire evil; asking the question, does advertising set the standard of racial and ethnic stereotypes? Or does it simply mirror society? A question almost as tough to answer as "what came first, the chicken or the egg?" I've always said the chicken came first, and in my opinion the chicken, in this case, is racial stereotypes...making advertising the egg.
Now don't get me wrong, advertising is definitely not innocent, and never has been. The advertising world has been(and still is) using racism and ethnic stereotypes to their advantage since the beginning of advertising.
This a print ad from Pears' Soap in 1886. Not too racist upfront, but if you look at the text "produces soft, WHITE, and beautiful hands" we can see a slight racial tone. Throughout their history, Pears' Soap has made the point that "white is right", which is even more apparent in many of their later ads...
The history of advertising can be traced back to the early 19th century, which seems like a long time ago but in the grand spectrum of things, advertising is still pretty young. Whereas racial and ethnic stereotypes have no true history or beginning, but I think it's safe to say that they have been around longer than 200 years. So fast forward over 200 years later, and we are still getting ads like this one from Australia...
This ad is pretty straightforward. Japanese people are whale slaughtering, selfish people who don't care about marine life whatsoever...but we do, so come drink our beer.
Many of us know that whaling is a real thing, and quite a problem for our marine wildlife. We also know that most of this gruesome act happens in the Pacific Ocean and more times than not it is near Japan. But if you were to base your judgment on the Japanese people solely on this ad, you would think that every Japanese person is an evil, whale hating, sushi lover. So how do advertisement agencies get away with this? Well, most of the time they aren't as blunt and straight forward as the previous ad(and when they are, they usually get pulled...like this advertisement from SONY), but that doesn't mean that they still don't exist. For example, I have a roommate(who is black) that stopped eating McDonald's altogether solely on the fact that their ads were so racist. As a white male, I never really noticed it until he pointed it out to me, but now every time I see a McDonald's ad(or any fast food ad really) I can't help pick out the little underlying racist tones, such as this...
Part of me gets it. I understand the concept of target audiences and playing to them. But at what point, if any, does it cross the line? Look at this McDonald's ad. Obviously playing to the african american community, by using stereotypes that black people are all "smooth" R&B singers who are "hip" to the new "hot" thing...even if it is a dipping sauce. Well, apparently, ads like this past McDonald's one and this one here Hot n Spicy, have already crossed the line for some people, such as my roommate. But does the advertising world have a moral obligation to stay away from these stereotypes? As a whole, I don't think the advertising world has any obligation to do anything, except sell their product.
The people in the advertisement business have one job; make people want to buy their product. In order to do this, you first must establish who you want to sell your product to. Once that is established, you than must figure out how to connect to that group of people. Obviously, in this case, McDonald's is playing to the African American(and all ethnic groups in the "hot n spicy" ad), and in order to do this they felt that they must connect with these groups. So they did the only way they knew how, and that's by fulfilling as many stereotypes as possible in a 30 second commercial. It's not their fault that these stereotypes have been set by society. But is it their fault that they are still alive in our society today? Some would argue that it's a merry go round that will never stop. As long as we(society) keep thinking these thoughts and placing these stereotypes on specific groups of people, the advertising world is going to keep using them as ammo...and as long as they use that "ammo"our brains are going to continue to be "pumped full of lead"(lead of course being racial slurs and thoughts in this case). So once again, we sit here asking ourselves, what came first? The chicken or the egg? Will society be the "chicken" and wise up? Start thinking for themselves and deleting these stereotypes from society, forcing advertising to change it's game. Or will the advertising community take the higher ground and stray away from these stereotypes, being the "chicken" that lays the egg to erase these thoughts from our society? Or do we simply stick with the chicken we know, and all the eggs that come with it?
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