Nike draws interconnections with their product and various popular sports, that relate to individual athletic success with prominent athletes constructing a convincing world of symbols, ideas, and values harnessing the desires of individuals to the consumption. From Lance Armstrong on his bike, to a six-year-old in China learning martial arts, movement is the universal language that connects us all. It’s a language of beauty, drama, tragedy and triumph. And the road to athletic greatness is not marked by perfection, but the ability to constantly overcome adversity and failure.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Commercial Analysis by Julianna Salman
Commercial Analysis
Now the action happens. The music comes in strongly and suddenly there are models coming out of helicopters, hanging out on motorcycles, walking through fire, and throwing knives. It is all very entertaining and exciting, and nobody even questions why these women are all in lingerie since that is typical of the kind of movies the commercial is emulating anyway.
Of course there are also random shots thrown in of the models just posing in the lingerie and looking at the camera in their seductive and slightly pouty way. No Victoria’s Secret commercial would be complete without them. The typical “fierce walking shots” are included as well. The commercial seems to be more concerned with featuring the models than the actual lingerie, since in some of these shots you cannot even really see what the model is wearing and may just see a close-up of her face.
Various “movie set” props are shown so that it appears that we are watching the models as they star in a movie. Intertextuality is used in the ad to refer to action movies. The entire commercial is really just a condensed version of an action thriller. Basically it is Victoria’s Secret meets Transformers, which is fitting since the commercial is directed by the explosion-loving Michael Bay.
The commercial is done in typical Michael Bay style, complete with helicopters and explosions. Even though these things may not be what people normally associate with lingerie, an association is created for the theme and product through the story of the commercial and its focus on fantasy. This association portrays Victoria’s Secret as a brand that is exciting and their product as something that will fulfill the consumer’s wildest fantasies.
This Victoria’s Secret commercial explores the theme of fantasy fulfillment. It features the models in various larger-than-life, straight out of a movie scenes that are meant to represent the fantasies of the audience. The fantasy fulfillment theme appeals to the consumer’s sense of lack by interpellating that they are unsatisfied with their normal lives and wish that they could be hanging out with Marisa Miller in her underwear on a pool table (or that they could be Marisa Miller.) Since that is not a realistic goal for most people, why not buy the lingerie she is seen in for yourself or your special lady friend so that you can feel a little bit like you’re a part of that fantasy scenario? Buying the lingerie is probably as close as you’re ever going to get to that particular fantasy. The fact that the commercial is set up to look like the models are filming a movie adds another dimension to the fantasy aspect. Wearing Victoria’s Secret lingerie is not only enough to make you feel like a supermodel; you get to feel like a supermodel filming a high budget action flick. Who knew buying a bra could make all of someone’s wildest dreams come true?
This commercial utilizes a soft sell approach to sell the product. Even though the product is featured prominently (though not as prominently as the models themselves), very little information about the product is actually given other than what it looks like on a supermodel and where it can be purchased. Emotional appeals are used to hook consumers. The whole premise of the commercial is that you should fulfill your fantasies, which presumably consist of being with or actually being a Victoria’s Secret model, by purchasing lingerie from Victoria’s Secret. The company uses beautiful models in the ad because seeing them wearing the product creates a desire for the consumer to want to emulate them, which they can accomplish somewhat by buying the product.
No matter how outlandish the fantasies portrayed in the commercial may actually be, the exciting feel of it is likely to make people associate the lingerie with the way they felt when they were watching the commercial. Even people who do not necessarily want purchase lingerie to emulate a Victoria’s Secret model are likely to be entertained by the commercial, so the positive associations the commercial makes on an entertainment level are effective. After all, the great majority of people have to buy underwear, even the ones that don’t really care about underwear models. The commercial is memorable and this action movie strategy must have paid off, since Michael Bay has directed other commercials with similar themes for the company since this one.
Here is the full commercial:
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Commercial Analysis
Here is the commercial I chose to critique for our commercial analysis. The product is Carlton Draught beer and is made in Australia.
Old & New Coke Commercial
Monday, April 18, 2011
Intertextuality in T-Mobile ad
This is part of a series of ads by T-Mobile that features a representative of T-Mobile (cute girl in pink dress) as well as one guy to represent AT&T (older traditional business suit guy) and another to represent iPhone (young dude). This entire campaign is a reference to the older "I'm a Mac; I'm a PC" ads that Apple used to do, which was then referenced by Windows in their "I'm a PC" ads, and now we have these ads comparing T-Mobile to AT&T. Slightly confusing, but it's been shoved in our faces so much by now that surely everyone gets the reference and is "in on the joke," thus the T-Mobile ad accomplishes what it wants.
Nostalgia in Orville Redenbacher ad
Orville Redenbacher (the company, not the man) wanted to evoke a sense of nostalgia so badly that they decided to use CGI to bring the man himself back from the grave to sell popcorn. Despite the fact that his image has been used on packaging for the products in the past even after his death, he hasn't been alive to endorse them in speaking ads for several years. I suppose they wanted us to see the kindly old man and think back fondly to an innocent time long ago... But actually it's just creepy. Public response wasn't great either and the ads didn't last long.
Diet Coke
I feel like this Diet Coke ad creates a sense of irony. A diet coke can appears with a Starbucks like warmer around the can and the text above the diet coke can says "Good Morning." This ad is implying that Diet Coke in the morning is as good as coffee is to start your day. But I mean it's kind of ironic to show this can with a warmer on it because a diet coke that is so hot to burn your hand would not taste great at all. Diet coke is best enjoyed cold. And I know it's to create the coffee vs diet coke idea but its funny and ironic at the same time. It should have had a koozie around it.
Nostalgia in Coke Ads
T-Mobile Commercial Dwyane Wade & Charles Barkley Nostalgic
This ad for T-Mobile is a good example of nostalgia as it appeals to a sense of lack. Here, we see retired basketball player Charles Barkley watching old footage of his days playing basketball in the 80s. He is making current basketball star Dwayne Wade watch this in order to be in his “top 5”. The style of the ad creates a sense of nostalgia because you see Dwayne Wade, a young up and coming basketball player, with a lollipop, almost child- like, being forced to watch Charles Barkley’s old games. Charles Barkley does this because he sees a lot of himself in Wade when he was in the NBA and by making him watch his old videos it fills that void of lack for Barkley that he misses from being a basketball star in the past.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
AT&T Childhood Memory
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Werther's Nostalgic Ad
When we started talking about nostalgic ads in class I immediately thought of this old Welcher’s butterscotch commercial that features a young kid talking to his grandpa about imitation butterscotches and the surprising feeling they had over people actually buying them. At the end the put up the text the original and I feel like this commercial tries to take people back to an original moment in their childhood and talking to an elder like a grandparent having some type of knowledge imparted on them. Of course, they were probably talking about something more important than not buying imitation butterscotch candy, but this ad tries to play off of those kind of moments.
Trojan Irony
This Trojan condom ad displays irony because the groom passes his father-in-law’s test by seemingly passing on hooking up with his other daughter after she proposes hooking up to him. However, as the ad shows, the father-in-law was a little bit too quick to commend his future son-in-law because he wasn’t going to his car to get away from the other, very attractive sister. He was actually going in there to grab some condoms but comes out looking like a hero anyway because everyone in the family thinks he was dissing the other sister. The only thing that puts even a little bit of a damper on the groom’s stroke of luck is that the hot sister gives him a look of disappointment as if she really was wanting to hook up, not just set him up for failure.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Pepperidge Farm Remembers
Postmodern Blog Assignment
Score: 10 points for Ad and Description (Choose either nostalgia, irony, or intextuality)
BONUS: Get another 10 points by doing another ad and description for one of the terms not used for the first post. For example, if your first ad is about nostalgia, your second must be either irony or intertextuality.
DUE MONDAY BY 2 PM
Monday, April 11, 2011
Sample Ad Online Critique
One of the most famous television advertisements of all time only ran once--the Apple Macintosh ad from 1984. Here you would give a little more detail about the ad and why it was famous, or what it was for, such as how this was the way Apple introduced a new computer for the first time, or how the ad agency tried to get rid of both spots. Since you will be writing about a contemporary ad, you could describe other similar brands, or other strategies the brand has used. It is up to you. After your introduction to the ad, you should embed the ad like this.
Then you get on to general discussion of the ad, tacking whichever elements of it you think are the most important as discussed in the paper assignment. Rather than writing a shot chart, you should provide frame grabs of appropriate shots from the ad. The easiest way to get these is to hit pause while watching the video on YouTube, then do a screengrab. You can do this for all the shots you want, then open the screengrab files in a basic photo editing program to crop and resize them. You will also need to save them in the jpg format. You should provide 5-10 screen grabs to illustrate the visual techniques in the ad, and place them at appropriate points in your online essay.
This commercial begins with a very gloomy scene, faceless humans in drab clothes marching in unison in a hallway past monitors. Although we see some closeups on their faces, they seem undistinguishable. The editing and photography emphasizes how they march in step.
This is contrasted with a lone woman runner who is striking in red shorts. She has what looks like the outline of a computer on her shirt, but it is very hard to see without the ability to pause to view the frame. She carries a hammer and is running forward with much intention. You should do a better job of describing what you see. I am writing off the top of my head just to show how to put things together.
Apple - Lemmings
Infamous "Lemmings" ad from Apple. Too far?
Mac Ad - think different - apple
Here's a Mac "Think Different ad from the late 90s or so. Simple aesthetics, appropriation.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Follow Up - Direct TV Commercial
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Axe Deodarant Spray
This ad displays coolness to me because in my opinion as a male being cool is directly correlated with being able to impress women and here this guy is just taking off one shirt after another after spraying himself with this spray and watching women faint because of it.This ad is definitely for men and to me the attitude showed is just one of confidence and being capable of getting girls as a man.
Belvedere Vodka Commercial
I can't stand vodka of any kind, and I think Vincent Gallo is a jerk but I like the appeal of the ad. I looked at the responses to this video to see how it appealed to people and this response stuck out to me:
"i LOVE this commercial! so much that i sought it out on youtube! i think its so great because when i watch it, i get that feel good mood like i am at a fun party. it definetly makes ME want to go out and get some Belvedere!"
Bam. I believe that the quote above is what the advertisers were going for. The song and the way it was shot appealed to me, the individuals gave off that "cool" nonchalant vibe so popular with the younger generations today. What is cool? Celebrities, partying and Belvedere. This ad creates the feeling of high society but with a modern and youthful twist.... "Luxury Reborn". A tornado lifestyle of excess and fun.
Domino's Pizza Turnaround
Look Cool Smoking Camel Lights
This paper advertisement, from a 1993 magazine, is for R.J Reynolds Tobacco Co. and highlights Camel Cigarettes with the infamous Joe Camel. Ad shows Joe standing by his red convertible with a pack of smokes rolled in his sleeve.TORNADO.It's suggesting that you will look as cool as Joe Camel while smoking Camel Lights. This ad is suggesting the look of being cool as Joe Camel posted up by his car in a tight black t-shirt and sunglasses with a confident pose
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Colgate Palmolive Ajax House Cleaner
Contemporary Ads for housewives
These are four contemporary magazine ads that are directed towards housewives trying to impose the feeling of being an efficient housewife who is also appealing to her husband at the same time. The one at the top right really displays that as it says the harder a wife works the cuter she looks, trying to encourage them to use their product.
Febreze
Swiffer Ad
This ad reveals the importance of having a clean house and how to maintain one. When you read the text, it shows how fast and simple it is to use the product and get the outcome you desire. The female is also happy to see that her job has gotten done in a timely manner.
Armstrong Flooring
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Electrolux makes it easy
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
The Unreal Liberation
This video shows an ad for a shampoo that will leave you with the best hair no matter the tough conditions...Because you are worth it.
This video shows hair coloring as the most luxurious thing to do. Beautiful, long lasting color all possible if you buy this product
What other cosmetics ads used today give the impression of "liberation" through these products?
Do you feel that the products for women today are advertised with a sense of false freedom with a never ending goal?
Monday, March 21, 2011
Life Magazine Archive (with ads!)
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Andy Warhol Cell Phone
Warhol Soup
Coca-Cola as Pop Art
Andy Warhol Knives
Andy Warhol, Brillo Box
The Brillo Box was originally designed to give a new look to the product. Andy Warhol then took this new look to the cleaning product and incorporated this design into the art world. Warhol took this design and turned it into a recognizable work which he was associated with. Even though Warhol originally didn't create the design he was such an icon that the box was instantly Warhol's work of art.
Diamond Dust Shoes
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Coca Cola by Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol's approach to making artwork of iconic American products such as Coca-Cola, evolved the phenomenon of popular culture through mass production. He reflected popular culture by incorporating images of consumer products, which gave each of his paintings a psuedoindvidualistic quality. In his Coca-Cola paintings, he gave the brand the appeal of instant accessibility to every type of consumer. He even states that "You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca-Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca-Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca-Cola, too."