EOC Week 3: Tobacco Advertisement

Interpret the problem: The ad is effective because Camel cigarettes are trying to correlate power and high-classiness with their cigarettes. They mentioned a president’s name, which is Franklin Roosevelt. America views a president as having the highest power because he’s in control of the nation. If the president smokes a specific brand of cigarettes, it signals to the community that it’s cool, high classified, and you’ll feel you’re not an average citizen because you smoke the same brand of cigarettes the president does.

Understanding the creative brief: Camel developed a tremendous strategy to get their point across to tobacco users. They used the president, someone with the highest power in the nation, as a consumer of their product to persuade your average Joe to buy Camel Cigarettes. Wouldn’t you find it incredible that you can actually afford and use the same the president uses?

Say it outright: This Camel advertisement kept its persuasive message. Camel was trying to display the message: “Camel Cigarettes. Even the president loves us.” Camel went as far as putting Franklin Roosevelt on the ad itself, as well as displaying the message with verbally. The message they were trying to get across was so outright to where they didn’t need a fancy twist to it. They kept the message simple and easy to understand.

Know your audience: Camel was aiming towards the tobacco-user community. They knew tobacco users wanted something good, dependable, and high quality to smoke. Would you buy a convertible vehicle for two hundred dollars? Camel displayed President Roosevelt to convey their audience that Camel Cigarettes aren’t your typical, neighborhood cigarettes because the president is smoking one. Since when does someone as classy and powerful as the president go cheap?

Write your objective: Successfully persuade tobacco users that you can’t get any better than Camel Cigarettes.

EOC Week 2: Ethics in Commercials

I found the above commercial to be highly unethical for two reasons. The part that was mainly unethical was how the message of the product was delivered. It starts off with a little kid, around seven years of age, and he’s doing all of this obnoxious things for a kid his age. He’s getting a tattoo, trying to fly a jet, getting pulled over by the cops for driving a car, has a chainsaw in class and cuts a desk, etc. At the end of the commercial, he runs up to his mom’s bedroom door and asks his mom a question while the door was closed. He asked his mom if he could put the cat in the washing machine and she said “Yes! Yes! Yes!” and the little kid ran off happy that he’s able to put the cat in the washing machine.

I found this highly unethical because they shouldn’t have incorporated a little kid into a commercial like that; especially in that manner. The company could’ve got the same message out with a more appropriate approach. The second reason was the chainsaw scene. I feel as if the chainsaw scene was a little too much. I know they’re trying to make it seem like the kid is dangerous because his mom keeps telling him that he can do things, but there’s a certain line companies shouldn’t crossed and they crossed it! Having that young of a kid with a chainsaw cutting a desk in half is almost as bad as a gun but worst than a knife. If you ask me, they should have found a better scene to shoot than that.

In conclusion, I feel as if this company could’ve taken a more professional and appropriate approach to convey the message: “Hansaplast Condoms are pure pleasure.”

BOC Week 1: About Me

When you think of the word design, what comes to mind? There are various fields under the design concept. There’s graphic design, interior design, fashion design, web design, and much more. I attend The Art Institute of Las Vegas for Web Design and Interactive Media. My knowledge towards, both, web designing and scripting are phenomenal. Not only am I an excellent web designer, but an above-average graphic designer as well. I’m knowledgeable in creating business cards, letterheads, various forms of web layouts, and more. The whole world revolves around technology and the Internet. I plan to keep up with the technological environment and utilize design to reach various types of people. I want to interact with different designers and combine our knowledge, experience, and talent to construct a strong design business. On my spare time, I research script and graphic tutorials to expand my knowledge in the web field. Mark Twain quoted, "You can't depend on your eyes, when your imagination is out of focus." I expand my imagination daily to achieve higher standards, which are usually higher than the previous one. As I was always taught, the most successful people are the best of people.

EOC Week 1: VW Lemon

Advertising a product wasn’t as broad and humorous back in the day as it is today. In early 1960’s, “ads were either information based on lacking in persuasiveness, more fantasy than reality, or relied on the medium’s ability to deliver a repeated exposure. Beetle ads, connected with consumers on an emotional level, also conveyed a product benefit in a way consumers could relate to.” (http://www.syl.com/bc/advertisingcampaignforvolkswagenbeetletheno1advertisingcampaignofthecentury.html). The Volkswagen Lemon Ad broke that trend in various ways. Americans refer to the word “lemon” as being ridiculously bad but they weren’t implying that the car was terrible; instead, they were saying the overall vehicle’s long-lasting value and the constructive engineering was phenomenal.

They had to break through the “big car” culture of Americans by issuing this smaller car that brings more benefits than the bigger cars. While conveying that message, they had to produce a unique way to get the point across through the advertisement. “The ad agency, Doyle Dane Bernbach, successfully caught the viewer’s attention by using self-effacing humor. With any luck, these ads drew you into the joke, and you would read the rest of the copy looking for the punch line.” (http://designhistorylab.com/?p=1755). “The ad featured a black and white photo of the Volkswagen Beetle with the word 'Lemon' in bold san serif font…that this particular car was rejected…because of a blemish on the chrome piece of the glove box. The ad goes on to describe the rigorous inspection process…” (http://www.writingfordesigners.com/?p=1731).

They interpreted the words “thinking small” through their design by making the ad fairly small with a lot of dead space making the viewer more interested. They compared a Volkswagen to a lemon to represent how small the vehicle actually is. By doing so, this ad successfully became one of the most famous ads ever.