Ok, well I haven't written on this blog since my advertising and promotions management class, which was not the best, since I originally planned on keeping this up, but things happen. But now my internet marketing class needs me to use blogs, so I get to start using this again, hopefully it will remind me to post regularly this time. If anyone wants to see the class blog, its http://e-marketingclass.blogspot.com/

Ok, so this is my last post, and i hope this one isn't too late to be included, I'm going to try and get it done before class so hopefully it will be countable.

Next let me say that I started this semester hoping to learn a lot about advertising by keeping this diary and some of the things that motivates companies to create the ads they use, and maybe start paying attention to advertisements. And i'd like to say that i feel it was successful. I don't look at ads all the time, but at least I don't just change the channel as soon as one comes on T.V., or just dismiss them in magazines as often as i used to anymore. I also feel that keeping my diary online helped me to do this because it forced me to actually pay attention and try to keep up with it since i knew other people could see it and because of this i didn't wait until the night before to do the assignments like i would have with a regular book. I actually made my plans wait on some nights so i could keep up with this and had a lot of fun finding commercials and advertisements to use. But i really do think this diary was a great way to learn outside the classroom and made me realize how much advertising really was around me.

I also think commercials have more of an effect on people than they even realize. If you look just on Youtube.com and type in the word commercials many actual commercials will come up, but also many commercials were remade by people, that had to have been inspired by those commercials in some way or other, or else they wouldn't have felt the need to remake them for whatever purpose.

And other companies also look at commercials and advertisements from their competitors and see what they are doing in a way to figure out their own advertising strategy and campaigns. for example the Mac and PC commercials for Microsoft were spoofed for other companies and they turned out slightly similar ads.

Then there are the people who don't really pay attention to a commercial but end up buying the product over a competitor, just because they now recognize it because of the advertisement they saw.

Which goes to show something I didn't really realize before this class and doing the participation diary: the magnitude of, many many people who do pay attention to advertising and how effective it really is for businesses whether people think so or not.

In order to compete with popular coffee shops such as Starbucks, McDonald's is working with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. to incorporate its Newman's Own Organics coffee into their morning breakfast menu. I feel this is a smart move by McDonald's because they had to do something to compete with the popular coffee houses, and they could not make the process of making a burger too much faster, if I remember right their record is about 10 seconds, or allow people to pick, choose, and watch like they do at subway. First of all, I don't think people would like to see their food being cooked in all that grease, that up close and personal. Secondly, it probably wouldn't be the safest thing to do , having the customers that close to the grease, there would probably be a lawsuit or two. But by incorporating the new type of coffee into their menu, it can help bring business because people are already in their cars driving to work and probably hungry, since a lot of people don't have time to eat breakfast like they should every morning. This way they can just stop for their meal and have something good to drink, since McDonald's was not previously known for having good coffee at all. But by doing this while having the convenience of not having to get out of your car, like at competitor's Starbucks, it may also help them to get some of their business back. Another change that McDonald's has made to its morning coffee is that you no longer have to worry about spilling our coffee all over yourself and car while trying to put in your cream and sugar. All you have to do is tell the drive through worker how much you would like and they do it for you. This also makes stopping at McDonald's much more convenient, since all you have to do is drive up get your coffee and continue on your way to work, no fuss.

Yea, I know, I've been really bad with posting these last few weeks. I've had a lot of good ideas, but life's been getting in the way (this week especially with Spring Into Success, everyone should come, its really interesting and there is free food and prizes) and I haven't had the time to sit down and write. Believe me, my cell is full of mini notes I've written to myself about topics to write on. So I've decided to make this a giant post of a few ads that I'm going to try to work on extremely hard today between my classes. Hopefully this will make up for the ones I've missed.

The first series of ads that I want to talk about is Starbucks.



Personally, I love this ad. I find it comical that a guy would have his own set of cheering fans and a mascot ready to cheer him on throughout the day. I think Starbucks did a good job with this commercial publicizing its double shot espresso drinks in the can. They speak to a target market of younger people who have a lot to do during the day and may need that extra kick of caffeine to get them through it. Also, everybody in the commercial cheering Hank on through his day, which is a thought that would boost most people's spirits to think that there is at least one person out there who wants them to do well. Plus I also thought it was creative how they changed the "hey" to "Hank" because not many names would have worked too well with that song. But the only thing I don't like about this commercial is it kind of displays vampire creativity, because I remembered the commercial, but until I saw it again, I couldn't remember what the ad was for. This tends to be a big problem with funny commercials, but I think they could have helped people remember it a little bit better by putting the Starbucks' name and logo on more things than just his can, because even when they showed it, it still didn't seem to be a main focus of the commercial.


The next series of ads that I found interesting is Target's. Target has gone through many commercial changes. One of my favorites in terms of creativity is this one:



I love how in this commercial they took normal people doing normal summer things, such as getting a haircut, surfing, and playing volleyball, and turned them into products. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before this one. Also, it is easy to figure out and remember that it is a Target commercial because they consistently use the Target red and white colors for a background, and mix it with music that tends to fit Target, kind of an out there mix of songs that wouldn't go right with just any commercial. I also like how they use some products in the commercial that you wouldn't normally associate with Target, to show that they do have a little bit of everything there. Some of these items include the grill and tools, normally when I think of those items I think of places like Sears, which sells the same types of things as Target, just at a bit of a higher price, which most people would associate with a higher quality, even when that's not always the case . Honestly, until this commercial, I had walked past those items while there, but never thought of them being there. So I think that this commercial also did a good job of informing people that they do sell more than just the basic clothes and games and things while making sure that you don't forget it is a Target commercial.

A third type of ads that I want to discuss has to do with brand imaging and labeling. The company I think does epically well with this is Apple. Apple started as a computer manufacture, and now makes I-pods, I-macs, I-phones....and all of these items carry its brand logo. This is really good for Apple because as long as they keep associating the logo with all of their items, and they use the letter "I" before all of their products, I feel people will never forget who makes the product. And when talking about the ipod, you can't help but mention all the accessories Apple makes for it. There is the Ipod Hi-Fi, which is a "compact sound system with an integrated Universal Dock for iPod that fills the room with rich, audiophile-quality sound." Then there is the I-dream, a pillow for your Ipod, complete with speakers. But you need more that just places to dock it, you also need accessories when your on the go, such as cases made out of everything from sock material to silicone, so your Ipod can be both stylish, as well as somewhat protected. And the Ipod wouldn't be complete without a place to save and load the music and videos you want on it without Itunes. Then with the Imacs, you now have the I life, which is a software program that consolidates all of your digital media into one easy to access set of files. I think this has done wonders for the Apple company because they were able to take a computer company that had to compete with many others doing the same exact thing, and expand it with one easy to remember letter, that even though is targeted at the young, appeals to most people. And because they did use one basic for for everything, people don't easily confuse Apple products with others made by its competitors. Also by keeping things simple, Apple has been able to expand much further than anyone would have thought possible ten or twenty years ago and attach its name to many types of technologies, allowing them to branch their company and make a much larger profit.


The final ad I'd like to talk about is this Nike ad that was banned in the USA.



I like how it shows the times. This ad was definitely made in the 1980's during the big slasher movie craze, and was unfortunately banned because it apparently played too much on women's fears. I however thought it was a good commercial. I think it reflects the times and what was popular, and what's better for a commercial for a women's running shoes than a situation that would make you have to run? Plus, it obviously pokes a little fun at the big, bad Michael Myers and says that even this supposed devil man can't even keep up. And I think it shows women in a positive light, she's stronger and faster than her adversary, because of this she is able to get away. A good advertiser must know how to capitalize on the time and I feel this one really did. I think it would have appealed to many women, especially those concerned with safety. but i also think it would appeal to the average women runners, who want a shoe that they feel might make them run faster. And even though I personally don't think it should have been banned, I can understand how it might make some women feel less safe, especially if they are easily scared by these movies, or just have a fear of a similar situation happening to them. The commercial was even pointed it out that by having false advertising in it, which is unethical, by saying that you will live longer by wearing Nike shoes. But, like i said before, I think this commercial was harmless and the only people offended would be the ones looking to be offended by it.

let me start this week's blog by saying with a disclaimer, i am a pacifist and therefore do not believe in war, so this will shape my review of the commercial, just slightly. but dont worry all of you military supporters, there will be a good point or two made in their favor.

personally i feel the america's army video is the army's newest way to recruit poor innocent teenagers to signing years of their lives away to an unsure fate. to them the commercials werent enough, and now they have come up with a much more underhanded way to do their recruiting. the first america's army games was released in 2002 and has since released quite a few more games aimed at teenage boys ages 16+. in order to make these games, the army had real soldiers mimic the moves that they would make in combat so people get a realer feel for what its like. the game even takes the player through boot camp. so with all that training that theyre getting just from the game, it makes more sense that they would eventually join the army. a week ago i saw the army recruiting video that is inspiring this blog, but unfortunately i couldnt find it anywhere, believe me i looked for multiple hours, it made me that mad. in the commercial, a teenage boy is playing his army video game, and his friend walks in and says "you know you can play that for real." i find that an immoral way of recruiting, because the army is deliberately trying to blur line between fiction and reality in order to send more people to the slaughter.

but alas, as i said before that commercial was not available online, so i found another one that disturbed me. this one is a mix of the america's soldiers game blurred with a recruitment video. this one made me mad because its set to the song toy soldiers, which is a peace song. how can you use a peace song to promote war? its just not right. you cant use peace to promote war.

sadly as promised though here are the good points i have to make about the commercial, it was very creative, i would have never thought of them using video games for recruitment. and them using the real soldiers and probably real missions they went on was also a creative basis to create the game. i read something on how they used real snipers and put them on a green screen to capture the movements they make to move, fire, and reload, it was actually an interesting article. its amazing how far technology has come in the last 20 years. in the days of nintendo and sega, this would not have been remotely possible because the technology was not there to support such life like graphics. but now, graphics are getting so good that it wont be long until a person wont be able to distinguish the video games from actual tv. and i fear to see what that will really do for army recruiting. they're already doing a pretty good job manipulating people with all these war games, and as graphics get better and better, that fine line will become more and more blurred. and it just might backfire and create an army of people who have just gone crazy and think they do live in the game and their family, friends, and innocent bi-standards are the enemy and they might take action against them, and this could lead to a very scary terrorist situation in our own backyards.

In Tuesday's class, we talked about how society puts a lot of pressure on girls to look thin, and how this is depicted in media. It is most notably shown with runway models, these girls who are often teenagers are pressured to be so thin that they harm themselves to do so. But this may soon be a practice of the past. In Spain, they no longer allow models to be below a certain BMI, because of the negative self image this can instill in children. I feel that this is a step in the right direction, it is very scary that young women are dieing because of their jobs. As much as many many women refuse to admit that the thin people shown in advertisements has an effect on them, I believe it does. I actually know a 52 year old woman, who is still very obsessed with being thin. she is 5'6" and 130 lbs wears a size 4-6 and complains that this is the heaviest she has ever been. and sadly there are many more instances of this. But to help combat this, Hanes has launched a campaign of more realistic looking women in their ads, and I hope more companies will follow this.

on tuesday, grimm talked about how advertisers are directing their advertising at the stereotypes of a generation. i dont know if i exactly agree with those stereotypes, however. they say that the baby boomers are obsessed with youth, generation x are slackers, and generation y is narcissistic. personally i dont agree with any of this. i think that every adult in the united states is at least a little bit worried about getting older, its how society shapes us. all the focus is on the young and the beautiful, there's no room for the reality that we're all going to get old and die some day. generation x wasn't really slackers, they just didnt want to be like their parents and spend theyre whole lives working in a job they hate until retirement. they actually seem to be the generation with the most small business owners. and i dont think we of generation y are as narcissistic, like generation x, we dont want to follow in the footsteps of our parents, but create our own paths on our own terms. we are also perceived as more fickle consumers, but i also do not agree with that because the growth of the internet has made it easier for us to find what we need at the lowest price. its not fickle, its smart, why should we spend the extra income that we could be using for other things. we can still be brand loyal, especially for low involvement goods, but when it comes to spending a little bit more, we would rather spend a little bit of time shopping around on the net to get the deals.

these untrue stereotypes, however, are a big basis on how advertisers market their products to us. for example, these mac commercials.

theyre using the stereotypical young guy to represent the mac because they are trying to update theyre image to a younger audience. the mac guy goes along with the younger population because we're on the go more than our parents and the computer is also on the go, its even ready out of the box. we also want more stuff from our products, such as its ipod compatibility and the magnetic power cord. this ties into our supposed narcissism because we want the computers to be up to date with our terms, and we don't want to wait for someone to say we're allowed to have it. but this, like many things is not just for the young, most people want the latest, greatest products with more things on it than they could ever need. look at all the middle aged men who buy sports cars and motorcycles, they don't need them, but they want them so they go out and get them.





















so it shouldn't be the types of stereotypes associated to a generation that the advertisers should market to, but the general demand of the population because most of the population wants the same items and many times for similar reasons, to look cool to all of their friends.

Today in Advertising and Promotions Management, we spent some time talking about the got milk ads and how they've changed over the last 20 years, but have still managed to stay the same. Doctor Grimm even brought in one of her books with some of the ads in them. I found this very interesting, because even though i had been seeing them all my life, I never really noticed them, especially how much they all had in common. This is probably because over my 21 years, I have become very good at tuning out a lot of ads, and the ones I do pay attention too, I mostly take worth a grain of salt, which has become the norm in America. The only time I would even notice an ad like this would be if it had a celebrity I thought was cool at the time, or something that was really cute, like this one for Pikachu. But beyond that, they have other things in common, such as the celebrity or character being the main focus of the ad, with little if any background color, a little quote, and the most obvious similarity, the words "got milk" written at the bottom. This was actually a very smart move by the milk industry. Having something so simple allows them to constantly be able to update the ads with the newest, hottest "it" people. By doing this, they are able to keep up their image as a trendy industry that everyone can relate to.

Valentine's Day. It's start is unknown, though there are various theories on it. It is most commonly linked to St. Valentine, a priest during the time of Claudius II. it is said that Claudius banned soldiers from getting married and Valentine married them anyways. he was later martered. another legend says that he was a prisoner who fell in love with his jailer's daughter, since he didnt want anyone to know would sign his letters "your Valentine." but no matter how it started, Valentine's day has become a very big holiday to couples, and especially to stores. almost every store tries to get their name the most recognized, and change their brand image to make their products the most positive in the consumer's mind, so that is the one they will buy. two of the most common of these are candy and jewelry stores. they try to adapt all year to the changing holidays, easter and halloween candy for kids and diamonds for christmas, but their biggest is by far Valentine's day. this is the most common holiday for giving both. because of this, advertisers must work extra hard. there end up being so many of these ads, however, that the consumer may get confused as to which jewelry store the ad belongs to. this over-exposure can lead to two things that company's do not want to happen, people completely tuning out the ad or vampire advertising. in both situations, the customer can be driven away and the store may lose money. it is understandable why especially jewelry stores do this though. with so many stores to choose from, and all offering pretty much the same items, they need to differenciate their brand in some way, and the easiest way to do this is through advertising. but as i have stated before, when too many of the same kind of company runs too many of the same type of ad, consumers get confused as to which item belongs to which store. in order to fix this, some companies may have to reposition themselves in order to become more effective and take a larger space in the consumer's minds.

well, i have to say i was surprised that professor grimm did not bring up the aqua teen hunger force "bomb threat" last week when it happened, and that she waited til tuesday. after i found out about it wednesday night i began reading about it because even though many people were offened, i actually found it a little funny. yes, i do realize that after 9-11 and the bomb scares in england people are more afraid, but the signs had been sitting there for weeks without any problems. and if you think about it, the artists and a few people in turner broadcasting, think it's a big joke. because of this, turner is getting millions in free pr and the artists, Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens, are getting their 15 minutes of fame as shown in this mini video.



if they weren't allowed to talk about the case then why even call the press conference? despite what they're lawyer says about them taking it seriously, i think they are kind of taking it as a joke, and enjoying all of the attention they are getting because of it. personally, i don't think that the artists should be in trouble like they are. they were hired to do a job and they did it. its turner's fault that no one checked with the city of boston to make sure that it was ok for them to do this, and they're the ones looking at jail time. all turner has to do is pay two million, which is nothing compared to the money they received from the threat. now more people are probably turning into cartoon network and the adult swim website to see what all the hype is about.
personally, i think it was a brilliant stunt, and it took a lot of creativity to think of something like this. but now that i've said that, i will mention that even though i do find parts of this funny, i think that it was also unethical of them to do this. first of all, they scared a lot of people, which is a horrible way to get attention, no matter how it works. and second, now that they have done this, what's to stop someone else from actually making a bomb that looks like one of the lite brights. to me, they just gave some sick people a whole new way to cause real panic. i also think, that because of these types of publicity stunts, that new restraints are going to be created, and a lot of creativity is going to go to waste. ill use the justin timberlake and janet jackson performance as an example. it started out as a good performance, but because of the stunt they pulled at the end, halftime performances from now on are pretty much ruined. no offense to anyone who might have liked them, but personally i found both the rolling stones and prince performances boring. they went from this:


to this:



and the sad thing is now that theyve already butchered the halftime preformances, they probably will more now because apparently there were hidden sex messages in the prince video. i feel that in order for everything to return to normal, not just with superbowl halftime shows, but also with all advertising two things have to happen. 1. the people in change need to pay attention to what's going on in their companies and have a system in place to check and make sure that things are running smoothly and they go through all the proper channels in order to present their advertising. 2. people have to lighten up a little and not get so offended over everything they see, and stop looking for the "hidden messages" in everything. to me its just people being perverted and ruing things for everybody.

Technology has come a long way. We've gone from starting a fire by rubbing two sticks together to flicking a Bic. From a horse and buggy to cars and jets. From letters to e-mail. And as technology has changed, so has advertising. It went from being word of mouth, to signs, to posters, to radio and t.v. commercials, and since the popularity of the internet has grown, we are seeing a rise in its use for advertising. These old t.v. commercials from the 1950's and 1970's are proof of that. Watching them is cute and comical, especially the old game ones at the end. Back then too, i believe people saw fewer ads per day, i tried to verify this, but had trouble finding anything on ohiolink and the ask a librarian was closed. But now people are exposed to about 250 ads per day, which i thought was a really big number until it was brought up how no one really even pays attention to them, because we've gotten so accustomed to tuning them out. and with the invention of the remote control and Tvo a person can miss the commercials or fast forward them. and with the changes in technology they have gotten a lot better quality wise. for example:



also since I'm using toys for all of my examples, their technology has also come a long way. I'll use the Barbie doll in this last commercial. In the beginning, she was a doll who could barely move her arms and legs, and now she's done everything from having a boyfriend, to a career woman, to her "sisters" to even having a kid, i remember pregnant Barbie from when i was little her stomach opened and you could see the baby in her belly. and now you can get a Barbie doll who can move her elbows and knees and has a dog that poops, which to me is a little weird, but why not. so with all these advances in technology it makes sense that advertising has also moved forward, especially to the internet. Toyota isn't even making t.v. commercials for its new line of cars, the scion. Instead they're putting them online because that's where they're target market, young people, is spending most of they're time. also, just being on a webpage you see advertisements somewhere on them. Especially sites like myspace and facebook, and some of them even come with games you can play just to get you to click on the advertisement. A few of these include a version of duck hunt, through the sumo wrestler out of the ring, and a car wash. I find it interesting the more I see these advances in technology and advertising from how it first started, if you had told the people in the past what advertising is like now , they would think you were crazy. And we have no where to go but forward with it, and as new technologies become available, who knows how advertising will be done. maybe one day they'll beam ads directly into our brains and those people will think things like television and internet ads would be a silly idea for their world, like people today laugh at the idea of sending a messenger on foot.

Well since I used the introductory blog last week, I guess i should start with the real ones now. Until class yesterday, I never realized how much risk went into my everyday purchases. Like most people, I would go to the store and pick up what I either needed or liked depending on what I wanted at the time. When most people buy things like cars, they pay attention to the risk because it takes a lot of time and money to buy a car, and no one wants a lemon. But risk can be evident in simple purchases, such as
clothes and food too. For most people, buying clothes does not seem like a big deal. I am one of those people. I like my clothes to be comfortable, and its not uncommon to see me wearing a black band t-shirt of some sort, I own quite a few, but there really is a lot of possible risk that goes into it. Besides being comfortable, I want a shirt that does not cost too much, and will not tear or get holes in it after the first wash. Also, its nice not to get made fun of by my friends, family, or coworkers for my taste in clothing. I think this goes for everyone. For example, which of these two shirts would you rather be wearing in public? (appropriateness wise, I do not mean which guys would actually want to be seen in a girl's shirt).














I'm willing to bet that most people would pick the first. For most people this would be the more socially and psychologically accepted piece of clothing. And you were probably thinking that you were past all that high school clothing drama, weren't you? But like I said in the beginning, its something I never really thought about until yesterday's class. And I'm hoping that this blog may have opened your eyes a little to the risk involved in the seemingly trivial purchases.

Hi, my name is Megan Phillips, and im a senior at Kent State University. I'm persuing a major in Marketing and a minor in Psychology. I have been employeed in the KSU Mail Services department as a student worker for three and a half years. This makes me the senior student employee, since i have been there longer than all the other students and two of the fulltimers. During this time, I have learned not only the different jobs, but also discipline, work ethic, and leadership. http://www.kent.edu/mailservices/

I have created this blog for my Advertising and Promotions Management class and will be updating it at least once a week. By doing this I hope to learn more about the ever changing world of technology and the impact of advertising in my everyday life.