Media Blog #10: Daisy by Marc Jacobs

             I don't know why i am so attracted to perfume ads. They are the only magazine advertisement that i stop and look at before flipping to the next page. Because it is so hard to advertise perfumes and colognes, i am curious as to how the company tried to sell their product. I personally really like this perfume ad. It's pretty, simple, and the color scheme is very refreshing. It reminds me of warm and breezy spring days, with nature at its finest. The ad makes me want to be one of these girls. They look like they have no worries, free, and relaxed. If this is what the Daisy perfume does for you then i would buy it instantly. 

           I think the product placement was somewhat effective. I like how the company chose to put their brand name at the top of the advertisement, in bold letters. I think the girl who is holding the perfume plays a big part of the significance of what this fragrance has to offer. Her facial expression tells a lot about what she is feeling and since she is holding the bottle, it must affect her somehow. She is connected to the fragrance in her hands and her face is telling us that she is in complete paradise at that moment. It's as though she is closing her eyes, taking in the scent of the perfume. The only problem i have with the product placement is how big the bottle is. It looks like it is as big as the girl's head. I don't think they should blow the product up when it is unproportionate to someone who is a lot bigger.

          This advertisement most likely won't catch the reader's attention but the reason i like it, is that it's so simple. Everything about it is so careless but still pretty and put together. I think this advertisement shows the "need to escape." The two girls in the ad look happy, carefree, and beautiful, standing in the middle of nowhere. 

Media Blog #9: The Secret Life

            I'm so sorry if i offend you by what i am about to say. The ABC Family original series, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, makes me cringe every time i watch it. Maybe i just don't see what is so great about this ever so famous teen drama. But some people seem to disagree with me. This show has become one of ABC Family's biggest hit and one of the most popular shows on cable, drawing an average 3.8 million viewers an episode. I usually fall in love with any show that has some sort of dramatic story line that catches my attention but this is just bad. This show primarily follows the life of Amy Juergens, her husband-to-be, Ricky Underwood, and the chaotic lives of their family and friends.

            To keep it short and simple, this girl got pregnant at 15 years old, at band camp. I understand how the story line catches many viewers attention but i hate how the producers of Secret Life depicts the life of Amy Juergens. We all know that raising a child is hard - and it must be ten times harder doing it as a teenager. Everything about Amy Juergens' life is so unreal. It doesn't show the sacrifices she would face that normal teen moms are accustomed to. In the show, Amy focuses more on her relationship with her boyfriend and other guys that she may or may not have feelings for. Real mothers don't have time for that. This television show is basically telling teenage girls that it is okay to get pregnant at 15 years old, that everything will eventually be fine and dandy when in reality, there are harsh consequences. 

            Recently, Amy Juergens is having doubts about marrying her boyfriend, Ricky Underwood. To be honest, it's quite annoying how her mind keeps changing as feelings for other boys arise. The show shouldn't be dragged out into this long, dramatic, 900 page book. What's worse is that Amy's two friends, Adrian and Grace are also engaged and they haven't even graduated high school yet. The viewers get this idea in their head that it is normal to be engaged before they graduate, but nothing like that ever happens in our day to day life. The more they see it in out media, the more they start to believe it is okay. It also gets many teen's hopes up that they will find their love of their life when they are still very young. What makes me really angry, is that the parents of the show don't do ANYTHING. It seems like they don't care how many people their child has slept with, if they get pregnant, or if they get married at 18 years old. It's as though they encourage it. 

            I also have a problem with Secret Life being on the television channel, ABC family. Why is a show about a teen pregnancy on a television channel who's target audience is for the whole family? You got me on this one. With several scenes of young teens rolling out of bed with unknown people, a father openly asking his daughters about their sex lives at the dinner table, and a troubled boy revealing that he had been molested by his father, it just doesn't seem fit for the entire family. Overall, i think this show is a terrible influence on any teenager who watches it. The acting is horrendous, the subplots are pointless, and i just want to pull my hair out when i watch it. 

Go watch One Tree Hill.

Wait... I'm totally contradicting myself...

Media Blog #8: For Exercising Not Socializing

             For exercising, not socializing. I need to put my running shoes into use. Starting now.

             I think the target audience for this Oakley advertisement is for women who are in their late teens to mid thirties. This Oakley ad is  specifically targeted for women because there are several women placed specifically on the ad and it is a women's collection. The target audience could be women who enjoy exercising and are starting to commit to a healthy lifestyle. I think mostly women connect with this ad because Oakley breaks the generality that women only socialize instead of doing something a man would do in his spare time, like exercising. 

            This advertisement caught my attention because of the color use that Oakley chose to utilize. The entire advertisement is black and white, except for the products. The clothing she is wearing, including the sunglasses all pop from the simple background. The words "women's collection" also pops out because it is the only words written in pink. I thought it was interesting how they used a pink color consistently throughout the ad. The advertisers make it very easy for the reader to identify the product and who the product is for. 

            The most noticeable advertising appeals are the "need for autonomy." The three girls in the right side of the advertisement are grouped together, and it seems as though they are staring at the girl who is going running. Within a crowded environment, the girl who is about to exercise is being looked at and singled out because some girls don't exercise very often. I also saw the "need to dominate" because girls who work out are proud of what they can do. They feel good about themselves and feel like they are more capable and have a bigger advantage than other girls who aren't as fit. 

            Overall, i thought this advertisement was very attention grabbing and effective. I appreciate the little story line and the eye catching product placement. 

Media Blog #7: Acqua Di Gio

             Hmm, where to start with this advertisement... First off, i love the smell of the Giorgio Armani cologne. My mom takes forever to shop. She can stay in Nordstroms forever, and when there's nothing better for me to do, i go straight to the cologne section for men. Yeah i know, i'm pretty lame. I go to the mall with my mother and smell men's cologne.

             I think the target audience for this magazine ad is for all men and teenage girls to their mid twenties. On the advertisement, there is a young, handsome man placed in the center of the page. Teenage boys would connect to this ad because they think, "Wow, that guy is handsome. If i wear this cologne maybe i will be too." It's kind of ridiculous but that's how advertisers suck their customers in. And sadly, it works. The magazine ad can be appealing to older men because they think that if they wear this cologne, they will feel young again. Teenage girls are crazy. When they see this ad, the first thought that comes up is, "I want my boyfriend to look like THAT." So they buy the cologne for their special someone, hoping that he will spritz some Acqua Di Gio on himself, go to sleep, and wake up looking like a hot Abercrombie model.

             The biggest, and most notable advertisement appeals is the "need for attention". This is quite prominent because there is a very handsome man, who is of course shirtless, staring off in the distance. Many people are attracted to this and it seems as though many advertisers use this technique. There is also the "need for autonomy" present in this ad. This ad tells the reader that if they want to be singled out within a group of people, they should wear this cologne. The man in the magazine ad is at the center of attention and he is thrown in out faces because he takes up most of the ad. People want to be this man, and that is exactly what advertisers want. I also saw the "need for aesthetic sensations" because the man's beauty attracts most people.

             Overall, i thought the Giorgio Armani Acqua Di Gio advertisement was not very effective. Because they used only grey, white, and silver colors, it made the ad extremely drab and i don't think it would grab anyone's attention. The product placement was not very efficient because it is placed randomly at the corner of the page. It blends in with the rest of the ad and it's not very noticeable as well. I know it is probably very hard to advertise a fragrance because we don't know how it smells on television or a magazine but, a shirtless man has nothing to do with cologne.

             

Media Blog #6: The Lip Balm That Makes You Smile

 

               Yes, before I start, I do own several of these EOS lip balms. Putting that aside, I will just be analyzing the ad of the ever so famous "egg lip balms." I am pretty much addicted to chap stick. I have so many empty tubes of different kinds of lip balms and I find a new one that I want every time I go to Target. But I still have chapped lips. When I saw this magazine ad, I didn't know that these were lip balms. I've never seen chap stick shaped like balls and that definitely caught me off guard. The concept sucked me in and I bought several of these... chap balls.

 

               I thought the EOS lip balm ad was quite interesting. It definitely appeals to girls in their teens because not many little girls care about chapped lips and I can't envision older women using this instead of a lip stick. The colors made it more appealing to girls because of the blurred grassy area in the background which went along nicely with the product placement. In my opinion, the product placement is very clever. There are a few strawberries scattered on the table which was replaced by the pink EOS lip balms in a glass bowl. It makes it particularly appetizing with the generous helping of whipped cream melting on the lip balms. This makes it seem like the strawberry flavored lip balms are as good as strawberries and crème.

 

             It's the lip balm that makes you smile. Where did they get that from? This statement is extremely vague and makes me wonder if any lip balm made me smile. The little paragraph in the top right corner is packed with Weasel Words. It refers to the EOS lip balms as "all natural" and it will make your lips "soft, smooth, and perfectly moisturized". There is no guarantee that this is true but they include this to make the reader buy this product. There is also a technique of Magic Ingredience present. The ad says that the EOS lip balms is "paraben-free and packed with shea butter and jojoba oil". At the bottom right hand corner, it is stamped with the words "95% Organic, All Natural." 

 

             Words played a big part in this ad because this company has become largely successful. Good thing they used all those magic ingredients.

 

           

 

 

              

Media Blog #5: Viva Young

      
              Nosotros somos jovenes. Yes i agree, we are young! Us teenagers like to party, break the rules, and commit outrageous stuts in public. At least some of us do. It's that feeling of living wild and free that sets us apart from adults and little children. I'm not saying that all teens drink, take drugs, or have sex but we do like to have our fun while trying our best to make the right decision. This commercial partically caught my attention with the crazy cool story line and the perfect music that went along.

              Taco Bell is the master mind behind this commercial full of madness. This commercial starts off with Mr. Goldblatt and his old school buddies sneaking out of The Glencobrooke Retirement Home to have a wild night out. The group of young-at-heart grandpas and grannies has a night they will always remember, when they party at night clubs, sneak into private pools and drive crazily around town. The night still isn't complete without getting your last name tattooed on your back and of course, stopping for a quick bite to eat at Taco Bell.

              The target audience is teenagers and older people as well. You can tell this is the target audience because they used the elderly people as the main characters who do crazy things that teenagers normally do. The music also helps supports the idea that the target audience is for teenagers. The band Fun. sings a comically bad Spanish rendition of "We Are Young" in the background, which is a song loved by millions of teens. The music catches the teenager's attention while to outrageous stunts pulled by the elderly catches the older age groups off guard.

             The need for affiliation seems to be the number one basic appeal in Taco Bell's advertisment. Taco Bell is trying to imply that if you eat at our resturants, you will feel young again. Now do you know any elderly people who still eat at Taco Bell? I certainly don't. This commercial could also apply to the Simple Solutions advertisement technique. If you want to feel young again, eat at Taco Bell. It's really just that simple.

              This Taco Bell commercial is extremely memorable and successful in my opinion. The storyline is clever and i love how it speaks to such a wide variety of age groups. Not many commercials focus on the elderly community but this also caught many teenager's attention as well. And that seems like a pretty difficult thing to do. The music choice is perfect. The famous pop song is sang in Spanish so that personally made like this commercial even more and provides as an attention grabber. The producers incorporated the product very well at the end. After a busy night out, you can't go wrong with Taco Bell.

             This is truly midnight madness.

Media Blog #4: Connecting Flights

 

               I hate commercials. There's nothing worse than watching the season finale of your favorite television show and right when Spencer is finally about to discover who "A" is the scene instantly switches to a commercial. It is pretty normal to hear me screaming at the TV when this happens. But this Sears commercial made me do something that no other commercial has made me do before. I am a sucker for any romantic movie. Even if the actors and actresses are terrible, if its cheesy or cliché, my eyes are still glued onto the screen. So when I saw this commercial, I actually looked up from my phone screen and watched the entire thing. Way to go, Sydney Chan.

 

             This Sears commercial starts off as a romantic comedy trailer about two lost souls who have reconnected at the airport. The flights have been canceled due to the weather and these two people have some time to kill. The man is on a laptop, sitting next to the girl who is using an iPad. And whad'ya know, they introduce themselves as bloggers. They start to bond again, having endless amounts of fun at the airport and evidently falling for each other again. It was time to go their separate ways but the man goes after the girl, running towards her. She sees him coming and starts to run his way too. And then all of a sudden, BUHBAM they both run into a ginormous fridge. Wow you tricked me Sears, thanks a lot! Because love is a lot like hurtling headfirst into a giant stainless steel fridge. Sarcasm is my second language.

 

               To be honest, I love this commercial. It achieves diversion, one of the common advertising techniques. The tale about the two lovers had nothing to do with refrigerators but Sears included it anyways. The company was extremely clever to start the commercial off as a trailer because it will automatically grasp the viewer's attention for all those movie fanatics. It was the perfect spoof of a perfect love story with a twist at the end.

 

               The use of words are also present in this commercial. A statement pops up after they show a couple scenes from the trailer. "This holiday season, love goes viral." These words made it seem even more like a real trailer. The director of this commercial establishes some serious credibility because I haven't seen anything like it. The satire on the romantic comedy and the high level of cheesiness made it even better. The sappy quote that the couple says in unison, when the man says, "She was just like, perfect, you know?" and an airport worker telling him to "Go get her." It was just right. The product placement was spot on too. When you're watching the "trailer" and the couple runs into the fridge, its like it came out of nowhere. Your eyes are instantly drawn to the huge, shiny refrigerator towering over the couple and their suitcases. All in all, this commercial is exceptionally successful with the help of these clever ideas.

 

Totes weird that is cray, cause I'm a blogger too.

   

             

 

               

   

Media Blog #3: NEVER HIDE

 



              This guy is my roll model. If I wear Ray Bans can I run naked through the stage The Killers is performing on? If I wear Ray Bans will it matter if the body guards arrest me? If I wear Ray Bans will I have absolutely no shame? Excuse me while I look online for some crazy cool shades. Yeah, its pretty extreme but look at that guy! He's having the time of his life.

             "Never hide." Wait what? This statement is pretty vague but we can make assumptions on what the Ray Ban campaign is implying. I'm always hidden somewhere. I sit in the back of every class, I stare at the ground while walking to avoid eye contact and I just never want to be seen. Maybe this is why this ad caught my eye. There were several "Never Hide" Ray Ban campaign ads in the magazine I was reading. Maybe it was speaking to me.

            This ad successfully uses one of advertising's basic appeals, the need for autonomy. The statement "Never hide" is basically telling us to embrace what we have and encourages the viewer to become their own person. If you buy a pair of Ray Bans you will be labeled as an individual and it will give you that confidence booster everyone needs. This advertisement also uses the need for attention. We want people to notice us and the naked man is obviously yearning for that.

             The colors and words play a big part in this ad. The whole background is black, even the hair of the audience is coincidentally a dark color. The band members are all wearing black gothic clothing, black makeup and playing black musical instruments. And then BAM, a naked guy is strutting his stuff down that runway. This man grabbed my attention immediately. Not that I like crazy naked men, but his milky white skin popped out from the black background. And of course, he is sporting a pair of Ray Bans. Now on to the words placed in this ad. The second thing that instantly caught my eye were those two words, "Never Hide" at the very top in all caps. Its a no-brainer that they used white for the words to contrast the black. Stamped in the right hand corner of the ad, there lies Ray Ban's logo in a bright red color. The name of the brand is what they want you to see and it was victorious with doing so.

             The Ray Bans "Never Hide" ad is very successful in my opinion. Lets put on our shades, go to a concert, and take a walk on the wild side.