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.