Lost Blog ix - a reflection

I really wanted to take this class to see how it could apply to graphic design, as I am majoring in design studies. Unfortunately, life gave me a rough time and I didn’t handle it well at all. Much too late, I started to turn things around, and I was lucky enough to be allowed another chance to complete all my work. Not only has this class helped me analyze and understand advertising, even by my own independent studying, but the compassion showed to me by being allowed to finish the course helped me be more appreciative and thankful in life. Thank you so much, I’m positive the things I have learned will help me now and in my future career, and if I have the chance to take another advertising class after this current semester (as I am currently enrolled in ADV121) I would love to take another one of your classes, all the way through.

Thank you =)

Lost Blog viii

These are the most annoying ads out there. If you want to watch or hear something online, you will most likely be bombarded with these types of ads. Say you want to watch a youtube video, you shall be faced with an ad at the beginning of each video. Either you are forced to watch the entirety of the ad before viewing your intended video or forced to watch the first five seconds of the said ad before being able to skip it. Since the internet video ads allow you to skip them, they have to be eye-catching in the first 5 seconds so people can get interested enough to watch them with out skipping. They have to try their hardest to engage the audience from the start or risk being skipped and never seen.
A great example of the first five seconds being both terrifying and engaging is in this trailer for the movie, The Evil Dead.

Lost Blog vii

Creativity is essential in advertising. They are meant to catch the consumer's attention, and creativity is appreciated more and makes people consider a product more than they would with a generic advertisement. Here are a few bilboards that are interactive with the environment. Super creative. It's like the ads are breaking the 4th wall.
Advertisers only hope to engage an audience. These interactive ones force you to engage and be a part of it. 

Also, this commercial caught my attention from the beginning with its outstanding commercial, and made me look the up immediately. I would say this is advertising done right. 

Dollar Shave Club ad (video won't go in blog)

Lost Blog vi

I recently found myself frustrated with a lagging Galaxy S2. I’d try to remove preinstalled applications, photos, unused apps, but nothing would help. I don’t use my phone much, as I don’t particularly enjoy texting or phone calls and prefer face to face conversations. I mainly use my phones for the emergency aspect of the phone, and for entertainment when I’m just too bored. So, I started researching other phones, and I came across Samsung’s mini galaxy series. How cute! While these phones were adorable, and were marketed towards women (stereotypes!!), they lacked the specs most consumers look for in a smartphone. This camera was only 5 megapixels, and the screen’s resolution wasn’t amazing as the bigger Galaxy S3 and S4. While researching, I noticed I didn’t care as much, as long as the phone functioned and the battery didn’t drain. And, as I realized this, I noticed that the only reason I ever wanted the nicer phones was because I had been encouraged to want these phones being advertised to me.

Furthermore, what I found interesting was a review on the phone that kind of touched on what I felt, discussing how maybe simpler is really better, and how the nostalgia of a phone that doesn’t focus on the specs, but rather function, could make us appreciate things more, and this review totally had me sold.

But, since I didn’t have money, I just switched my sim card to my Dad’s old functioning iPhone4. Hey. As long as it works.

Lost Blog v

One product that seemed to show a lot of promise, but was destined to fail, was the facebook phone, or, the HTC First. This phone had an interactive interface that revolved around the user’s facebook page and friend’s. The lock screen showed a live feed, and basically, the whole entire reality of the smartphone was that, if you liked privacy, this certainly wasn’t promoting it. But also, how involved with facebook do you have to be to want a phone that REVOLVES around the app? That’s what it is. An app, not an operating system. Other smart phones support innovative interfaces with a downloadable and functional facebook app. Why would anyone want to get a phone dedicated to something that is downloadable on other platforms? Not only that, but the actually “home” interface could be downloaded onto most android devices. Really, there is no reason to go out and buy this phone. Furthermore, the lack of advertising was limited mostly to actual ads on facebook, and one of their ads featured a commercial of a girl sitting at the family table during dinner, getting lost in her facebook phone as she disrespectfully ignores her family members sharing stories with one another.

One of the comments for this commercial even says, “facebook_ home. fuck your family. fuck your manners. fuck you.”

Lost Blog iv

Rethink-campaign Science World’s “We Can Explain” ads have become a hit all over the internet. Created by Rethink Communications, they have already won several awards for their ads. They are very clever and leave you feeling inspired as well as disheartened. The concept of their ads is to provide you with interesting random facts and present them to the viewer in witty illustration or portrayal. Followed by the phrase “We Can Explain” encouraging the viewers to see what Science World is all about.

Lost Blog iii

While racism and stereotyping are prevalent in society, they are also present in TV shows. A lot of the time, people find a show to be racist just by having a less diverse cast or excluding African Americans all together. Yet, there are many shows and even networks that do the opposite. Shows like The Boondocks and Martin have exclusively black casts. There is even a network just for “Black Entertainment” [BET].

The Boondocks is an animated show that plays on the idea of stereotypes in black culture. They show how horribly the black community is treated, how horribly they treat each other, and the rough lives they face, no matter their level of education. The show is filled with poor decisions, drugs, prostitution, and crime as if these are things that should be related to black culture. It is making a mockery of the stereotypes and issues associated with the community.

Martin has virtually no diversity in its cast. That doesn’t necessarily make it a racist show, but it can be viewed that way. While shows that don’t have a dominant African American cast member – such as the cast of Friends which inspired a boycott in 2003 for its lack of diversity – are often criticized and given a hard time, shows like Martin receive little to no criticism for have an exclusively racial cast.

Lost Blog ii

Racism and stereotypes are still prevalent in today’s society. It is especially evident in advertising. Stereotypes are commonly recognized and provide an advertiser with an easy way to speak to their audience. Racial and gender stereotyping are created by society, not the advertiser. But the advertiser does take these ideas and uses them to advertise their product either positively, or sometimes negatively.

In this commercial, we see a common housewife pay for her things with a sponge. Had a man offered to pay with a sponge, the audience would not seem to believe that this product is as great as it claims to be. After all, what does a man know of cleaning supplies?

Advertisers have the opportunity to take racial and gender stereotyping out of their ads, but will it hurt them in turn? So long as a stereotype is not used to put down a race or gender, I see no issue using these stereotypes that are so recognizable in society. However, it is hard to veer away from commonly recognized ideas, such as the domesticated woman, among others.

Lost Blog i

Semiotic analysis can be broken down into three parts: denotation, connotation, and myth. The denotation conveys the literal, obvious aspects we see in the advertisement upon viewing. Connotation determines the socio-cultural and personal associations. When we bring the two together, the myth is created.

Virgin Mobile is a pay-as-you-go phone service that asks no contracts. In this advertisement, we see people living on the edge, not tied down to anything. The ad offers unlimited services, which allows people to “live fearlessly” because they do not have to worry about going over their limit. They have a freedom that allows them to do whatever they please without fear of consequence.

Here we see a magazine ad for the Palm Centro. Shown on the left is someone’s palm with handwritten notes, reminders, & phone numbers in an attempt to stay organized. On the right, we see the Palm Centro that has the capability of storing all this information and more, in a much more organized and sleek manner. The ad shows that we can organize our lives with Palm and bring order, rather than chaos which results from using one’s actual palm.

When it comes to television packages, I have no interest or knowledge in what offers are the best. But I do know that DirecTV has the most memorable ad of any provider. They present us with a foreign man who seems to be the embodiment of wealth and will stop at nothing to get what is best. That is why, naturally, he has DirecTV. Also, the ad has been constructed in a way that many people will quote it and make references to this DirecTV commercial, which provides the company with more exposure beyond the commercial.

The lecture on Monday proved the importance of branding in terms of advertising. When a brand becomes well known and relevant to a consumer's needs and values, the product begins to sell itself. However, this doesn't exactly apply to the quality of the product. For example, Forever 21 is recognized as being a popular destination for most women (and men. Lets be real.) to purchase apparel and accessories. The main attraction to this place is the stylish fashion at low prices. 
But.
Those low prices don't only allow the consumer to be able to afford style. 
Those low prices allow the consumer's clothes to fall apart pretty damn quickly. Some of the accessories on display to be sold are already broken. 
Come on, F21. Step yo game up. 
Yes, with low prices, comes low quality. But, that also works for F21, because the consumer will go back to buy more inexpensive clothing and jewelry when they find the need.  
This is a popular theme with a lot of companies. They build their products to break, so their targeted consumer will go out and purchase a new one. Gotta make dat money, yo. $.
Now that I think of it, I don't recall ever seeing a commercial or any ad for F21. They were established through word of mouth. Come on! Talk about the importance of branding! Eh? EH? Shh. 

advertising just got sexy. 

But wait! You (student) should probably stop reading at this point, because the rest of this is the blog entry I was supposed to do LAST week. Oh oops.

So, we had a guest speaker. 
And he was great. Dietmar Dahmen tried to sell us his view on what advertising is and how it has and always will change. I believe him, man. He was incredibly convincing. 
Something I found interesting...he got our attention as soon as he began. And then, he told us that the fastest companies are the best. Fast gets your attention and fast sells a product. And might I say, he proved his point by running through his presentation quite quickly. There was a lot of information to take in, and I absorbed all of it. He sold it. 
He introduced the idea of now-ism, which leads me to wonder...where else do we go from there? I don't think I have quite reached the point of now-ism (although, I think I'm definitely tuned in to me-ism), but if I ever do...what comes next? Do we cycle through and go back to enjoying everything, no matter the timestamp? Hm. Interesting. 

So.
I don't find advertising particularly annoying. I find commercials annoying when I'm watching a show on hulu or viki and it suddenly cuts to commercial with no warning. But commercials aren't limited to television or online streaming. 

Bilboards are clever. (Most of the time) 
The posters hanging on the wall are cute. (Sometimes) 
That little half inch drop-down ad on the top of my mobile screen caught my attention. (But, no, I would not like to try that app.)

Commercials, and other advertising outlets, are fun when they're done right. 

I even advertise, in a way, the things I love, with the amount of graphic tees I own that express what I'm into, like shows or games. I am a walking advertisement. I even promote SJSU with my (cute) sweater. 

So, uh....no, I actually have no beef with advertisements. And as a Graphic Design major, I think taking this class will only help me down the line. 

What do I expect from this class?
I expect advertising to get sexy. 

xoxo