Trojan Condom Commercial

Here is a preview of my Trojan Condom Commercial. Enjoy!

Trojan Logo came from the following site:
http://cuzoogle.com/2007/03/19/trojan-sales-drop-in-texas/

Analysis of Project in the Real World

I learned a lot in the course of this project. "Advertising has no rules" (Advertising by Design, Robin Landa, pg 136) and "design possibilities are open-ended" (Advertising by Design, Robin Landa, pg 142). Let your imagination and creativity run wild when developing a campaign. By doing an ad campaign, I was actually able to see things out of an agency’s perspective; put myself in their shoes. A lot of work is put into advertising products. Some work may be harder while some work may be easier. Sometimes ideas generate quicker than other ideas depending on your product and which way you want to advertise it. The steps I took to complete the project were steps agencies take in reality to advertise a product.

Advertising a product requires creativity and patience. In order to make a successful ad, is to add your own flavor of creativity to the mix. "Learning to think creatively is learning a way of thinking" (Advertising by Design, Robin Landa, pg 174). In order to become creative, you must have patience. You have to be patient to develop a concept, analyze your competition, figure out which way you want to take the ad, find out who the target audiences are, and much more. "The design is part and parcel of your concept, your idea, and helps communicate the idea" (Advertising by Design, Robin Landa, pg 125). The most effective way to reach out to the audience is to touch them emotionally. "Make them laugh. Or make them cry. Just make them feel something" (Advertising by Design, Robin Landa, pg 106). The audience remembers your ad if you can touch them internally, making the ad campaign more successful and effective.

Doing this project made me look at commercials, billboards, or any other media of advertisement, in a whole different perspective. When I flip through a magazine, I automatically know "which layouts break through and capture the viewer's interest" (Advertising by Design, Robin Landa, pg 148). The creator stopped me in my tracks to look at their ad and a successful ad is "something that stopped you" (Advertising by Design, Robin Landa, pg 150). I look at many different ads to see if I understand what the company is trying to tell me or sell to me. If I understand the concept of the ad then I know it’s a successful ad campaign and I should study it as much as possible.

Creative Content

The plan for the commercial isn’t too complicated. Honestly, I’m keeping the commercial quite simple. The design is a black background with white text fading in and out. "Designing an ad is key successful communication" (Advertising by Design, Robin Landa, pg 65) so I've decided to keep the design simple to communicate to the audience better. I’m going to utilize text and sounds to emotionally connect with the viewer. The background is going to be black and the text is going to be white to give the commercial a nice contrast; making it easy to read because of the dead space around the text. Who said "all blank space must be filled" (Advertising by Design, Robin Landa, pg 129)?

The commercial is going to present the viewer with factual information, also known as supports, about unplanned pregnancy and diseases. "A support backs up your claim" (Advertising by Design, Robin Landa, pg 64).The information is going to fade in with an evaporating effect on the letters and words. After the text has appeared, the text will remain there for a second or two then fade away. The first set of information is going to be targeted towards unplanned pregnancy. The next set of information is going to be targeted towards STD’s. The pregnancy and STD information are suppose to touch the viewer and emotionally scare them. Occurrences, such as these, "happen right under our noses" (Advertising by Design, Robin Landa, pg 72) but we don't know it. At this time, they would want to prevent themselves from being a victim of unplanned pregnancy and an STD. The message “STOP” and “before it’s too late” will then follow. This message is to confirm their thoughts on what they could do to prevent themselves. Lastly, the Trojan condom brand logo will appear, followed by the slogan (Be Smart).

After the viewer sees the information, he/she is going to think the obvious, which is use a condom. What directs the viewer to buy specifically a Trojan brand condom? According to other condom commercials, they offer pleasure but not safety. This Trojan commercial is going to offer the consumer safety when using Trojan products. Since the target audience is young adults/teenagers, their group’s population will definitely want pleasure before safety. The commercial doesn’t advertise pleasure because there’s already many Trojan commercials advertising that. But does anyone know how safe a Trojan condom is? The commercial does exactly what it’s supposed to do, which is advertise its safety.

Promotion

The way I plan to promote the advertisement is through a commercial. According to CSUN, 99% of households possess at least one television set, 49% of Americans claim they watch too much TV, and a TV is on six hours and forty-seven minutes per day in an average U.S. residence. Judging from these three statistics, utilizing visual media, such as a commercial, is the best way to promote any product. I’m aware that I’m not the only person who contains this knowledge. There are hundreds of thousands of commercials that come on daily so I plan to make my commercial stand out above the rest by "solving a problem" (Advertising by Design, Robin Landa, pg 174).

The Big Idea

My idea is to target the teenagers/young adults by using a scare tactic. The concept of my idea is going to be a commercial without using any images; just plain text. "Copy captures the viewer's attention first." (Advertising By Design, Robin Landa, pg 191). Many family members lost relatives because of AIDS and many families struggle with family members being infected with some sort of an STD. "People form mental connections between responses" (Advertising by Design, Robin Landa, pg 119). "Fear of contracting AIDS motivates condom use" (Advertising by Design, Robin Landa, pg 117). Aside from diseases, another problem the world is facing today is abortion. The feud between keeping abortion and making abortion illegal has been going on for quite some time now. Many people believe there should be a law against abortion so my plan is to utilize the commercial to help resolve the feud, reduce pregnancy/abortion rates, and reduce transfers of STD’s.

The scare tactic was to scare teenagers/young adults into staying safe. The slogan “be smart” is borderline disrespectful and offensive, but it also depends on how the consumer takes it. I’m technically not offending anybody by calling them dumb when the slogan is presented. Some people may think I’m saying they are not smart already, but that’s not the case. I’m reminding people about their decisions and to motivate them to remain making smart ones. "People want the ads to act like an inner voice, pushing them to do something" (Advertising by Design, Robin Landa, pg 84).

Competitive Analysis

After my research on different brands of condoms I came across something unique. Condom brands, such as Life Styles or any other branded of condoms, only advertise the pleasure and sensation you receive when using one of their condoms; they never clarified how protected and safe you are. Many Trojan condom commercials advertise pleasure as well as protection. If you ask me, not clarifying safety to your audience isn’t a bright thing to do. Wouldn’t you think safety comes before pleasure? That's a major factor that other companies are missing. Since other companies are ponging, I'm going to ping and "take the least traveled path" (Advertising by Design, Robin Landa, pg 182).

Comparing Trojan condoms to other company products "can be a strong premise" (Advertising by Design, Robin Landa, pg 79). By other companies displaying the pleasure side of the condoms and not the protection side, they draw more customers to buy their product. This is a great strategy to lure customers in but it’s also a flaw that can back fire against the company. Advertising the pleasure doesn’t assure safety and when consumers buy into that, they suffer the consequences.

There are a couple of similarities that companies use when advertising their product. All condom campaigns advertise the pleasure of having their brand of condoms. The ad agency either uses humor or a sexual emotion to reach out to their consumers. The way they put together the information about the product makes it easy to understand.

Trojan Condoms: Be Smart

I picked the slogan “be smart” because I wanted something that was straight, simple, to the point, and powerful. The slogan isn't lengthy because "...a few choice of words can be extremely effective"(Advertising by Design, Robin Landa, pg 193).Everyone knows that Trojan condoms are to protect people from any forms of an STD and pregnancy. A lot of people, old and young, doesn’t use condoms and suffer from the consequences. I developed a positive message that everyone can relate to and instantly know the meaning of. There isn’t any twist or turns to the slogan.

When advertising a product, you must "know your audience" (Advertising by Design, page 142). I know my audience are people who are sexually active and are seeking to stay safe; as well as people who want to stay protected during sexual encounters. The message is preferably to young adults/teenagers because during that specific time in their life, they like to experiment. It's a proven fact that we, as humans, are anxious to perform the acts that people tell us not to do. If someone told you to not touch something, then you're going to feel the need to touch it. Many parents tell their children to not have sex until marriage or until they're grown. Parents also tell they're children, after a certain age, to always wear a condom. As clarified earlier, we, as humans, are anxious to perform the acts that people tell us we shouldn't do. Many teenagers and young adults go against their parents and have unprotected sex and because of their rebelliousness, they pay the price when they have an STD or pregnancy occurs.