Reflection of the Past

The past 11 weeks of this class have been interesting to say the least. When I signed up for this class I was not expecting the setup that had been setup for the class. To start I was expecting to go into a normal class where we did notes and take tests like every other class I have been in, but I got something different. I am very pleased with what the first half of this semester turned out to be, I got a lot more than what i was prepared for in terms of information on advertising. I learned so much more than i thought i was going to in terms of what goes into each ad that is published, how much time is taken to just be able to communicate to the consumer about a product or service. Another big help to me was being able to get into groups and applied what we had learned last class to a real life ad that we were trying to dissect or make.

I am looking forward to the next part of the semester where we get to apply the last 11 weeks of class to a large scale project. I think i will learn a to just like the past 11 weeks with being able to apply the information directly to a project and seeing what comes out. Also another part of the class that made it worth taking to me was the professor who was very into what he was teaching. He was able to apply real life knowledge to what he was teaching while also helping give the base of the part of advertising technique he was teaching.

Modern Ads- Advertising of the Future

As technology becomes more and more active in the day of the everyday citizen things will begin to change more and more to technology based advertising. A few years ago America was still based on TV ads and published ads in newspapers or on billboards, now looking at advertising it is becoming more and more about technology. The use of technology is a huge advantage for the modern day advertising agency. with the use apps like Instagram and Facebook companies are now able to feed advertising into the everyday person rather effortlessly. Looking at the picture below companies like Pepsi are able to take a modern app like Instagram and advertise their product with using things like hash tags to get you to participate in there competition. They company is using a rather cost free aspect of there advertising to get to the phone of hundreds of thousands of people with this new found technique. In the 20th century advertising like this would of never been possible because first off phones were not as advanced and people were not as attached to there phones as modern day people are now. Modern day advertising like this is only going to become more and more common in our lives.

Another common technology we see being used is the digital billboard. Recently these billboards are taking over most billboards we are seeing on the highway, these billboards with the use of modern technology allow the advertisers to get the attention of drivers with the use of moving ads or bright lights that catches the driver when he/she is driving at night. There is huge benefits to these new billboards compared to the print old ones and are going to give the modern advertising agents utilizing this new technology the ability to make people watch ads without them realizing it while doing the everyday task for most called commuting. 

The use of remembering

Nostalgia marketing is very common today in the advertising scene. We see the use of nostalgia marketing on the constant when advertising to the younger generations. Nostalgia marketing can have some positive and negative effects though. First looking at the positive effects we can see the use of emotion in advertising when we use things like seeing a dog in the SPCA commercials, the use of sad dogs bring us the nostalgia maybe of a dog we have seen on the side of the road and help bring emotion into the ad. Also with the use of nostalgia we can see the use of events in marketing like a BBQ where the ad is showing the people drinking coke or another product. Seeing this your mind brings you to a happy time you had at a BBQ and may connect the product with happiness in your mind and will want to try to replicate that event. But there can also be negative effects of nostalgia marketing, giving a example of something like Lectric Shave after shave cream. You see this ad and remember the smell of some time that you had to be in a elevator or small space wearing this cream and remember the terrible smell that haunted your nostrils, you then change the channel in hope that you forget everything about the product and miss the ad completely.

Nostalgia Marketing can definitely have products that just don't work with it. Products that have really changed over the years like Old Spice or other products that have made recent turn around in business. With the use of nostalgia marketing you might be trying to avoid the companies past in the ad so you do not want the consumer to remember the old smells or anything they associate with the product.

Harley Davidson and the hogs

Harley Davidson has a huge following when it comes to motorcycle riders. People are die hard fans for the brand name Harley.
1. With the creation of the brand communities that we have seen Harley Davidson create, we see a whole new level of brand dedication and following when it comes to consumers. People are able to join into these big meetings of fellow followers of the brand and discuss a passion of theirs, Harley Davidson Motorcycles. I think that these meetings bring the consumers much closer to the brand because they see dedication from the brand to appreciate and help gather there followers and have a good time. Looking at the video you see what Harley is really about.
2. Elements that enhance the brand meaning for the rider are things like first it being called the "Posse Ride" that gives the riders the sense of togetherness that they all can look around and see people with the same passions. Other elements would be the passport that lets the riders feel special about the ride in the sense that they are truly apart of it, they have something to show there passion of Harley Davidson because they have rode the tough long miles on there bike for the name of Harley.
3. I think Harley could get more involved in the ride but the people are going to want to be able to make the decisions they want for the events. I don't think Harley should take over and begin to create Harley events that are just there products everywhere promoting like crazy, let there followers make some decisions and create a fun environment with Harley at all there hearts. Harley has set something up perfectly when it comes to brand dedication, Harley fans are some of the most die hard fans out there.
4 Harley could also create involvement in the brand maybe by adding something for the more dedicated fans. A rewards system for there attendance at the events that Harley is supporting. This rewards program might add some more dedication from the fans that only like to attend the events once in a while. Also Harley has done a great job at it already but merchandise like basic clothing lets the followers of the brand put there favorite motorcycle logo on there body and help promote the brand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKR_1tlGfTs

Shepards of the Sea

A group who calls themselves the "Sea Shepherds" has been seen all over the world trying to campaign against the killing of certain species including Sea Shepherds most popular Enviromental battle the hunting of whales. The group uses modern technology everyday to help promote there actions as people against the harm of animals. Looking at there whale hunting campaign we see first the use of a TV show that was watched by millions and millions. This TV show was there base to a huge campaign from the Sea Shepard against the slaughtering of whales. The TV show was a great use of media and modern technology to really show what they are doing out in the Arctic where laws do not apply to everyone.

Another technique with the use of media that the Sea Shepherds used was quite extreme. The Sea Shepherds actually boarded a whaling ship that was on there tail and managed to get 3 of there crew men on board the ship. Once they were on, the Sea Shepherds called up the media and told them the circumstances and put a lot of pressure onto the whalers to allow them to leave and help create a media stir in favor of the Sea Shepherds to help create some backup for there campaign. The other approach that the Sea Shepards used was the use of emotions to help create some backup for the group, pictures like this one sprung up all over the web once they were taken and helped them to get the pathos of the audience that will help support there fight.

Yeezy and the most basic

Kayne West, hip hop icon and collaborator of many fashion extremes. Recently Kayne West collaborated with a company called A.P.C. and came out with the shirt pictured below. This shirt has no logo or any sort of print anywhere on the shirt. This shirt was a basic white tee shirt that sold for 120$.  Now you would think that this is a little overpriced for a white tee shirt but to many this shirt was something that was a must have. It was a product with more hype behind it because of the name behind it, Yeezy.

The shirt was released and put up for a sale on the A.P.C. website and sold out in a matter of minutes. The hype behind the shirt was huge, people were crazy to get there hands onto this plain shirt that most people would have absolutely no clue you paid over 100 dollars for. So the real question we ask is why? As we look at this icon of the media we see a person that can create a product and have it sell out in a matter of minutes. His previous hyped products include the Yeezy shoe line with Nike which were sold for 200$ new and go for 2000 dollars now. Also the shoe line with the infamous Louis Vuitton we see a pair of shoes that retailed for over 1000 dollars. People go wild to hold a product from the legendary Yeezy and his creative mind that creates some of the most popular products ever created by a celebrity.                     

The black men and a goat

           Recently in the media this ad was pulled by Mountain Dew  for obvious reasons. The ad was created by the group of Odd Future who are included in the ad but the racial profiling in this ad is pretty obvious. Obviously racial profiling in advertising is still prevalent with ads like this being aired on television to the public. I don't think racial profiling in advertising is a thing of the past and probably will never be because someone somehow will analyze an ad to be racial profiling somehow.  
         As for advertisers having ethical responsibilities, there is a toss up between them having the responsibility to turn down racially profiling ads and the idea that if they don't do it someone else will and make money from it. So i believe they should keep there ethical responsibilities first if that's what they wanna be about, but there is always going to be ad agencies that are willing to drop the ethical part and do the ad to make money not gain respect.