If you are in my on-line MKTG4650 class, then this entry is for you!
I could not find a way to embed videos in a GaView post, so I am putting the commercials here for your viewing pleasure.
Friday, April 5, 2013
Print Ads for Critique!
If you are in my MKTG 4650 on-line class, this blog post is to put the print ads for your critique posts in one easily accessible place.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Support Media, Branded Entertainment and Social Media Colide
The term support media is used to describe a wide variety of ways that marketers can reach a target audience. Often, support media is used to supplement broadcast and print media by increasing impressions or reaching target audiences that are hard to reach with more traditional media. Outdoor advertising - including billboards, and branded entertainment are two of the categories found in support media that I want to talk about today.
Also included in branded entertainment is advertainment. Mike Weise at Forbes wrote a good article last year about the evolution of branded entertainment. He suggested that the revival of this type of promotion started with BMW's The Hire films. They starred Clive Owen as a James Bondish character and highlighted the performance of BMW within the context of a short film plot. Recognizable directors (Ang Lee, Guy Ritchie) and actors (Madonna, Gary Owen, Marilyn Manson) participated in the films. BMW took the films down when they changed ad campaigns and agencies. You can watch them on YouTube - because someone ripped them for us :) - abmwfan. One of my favorites is Hostage directed by John Woo. You may remember we've watched one before in another panopto.
Some current examples of advertainment include the websites of Crayola and Doritos. These two brands have integrated their advertainment into their IMC.
Direct Marketing is another part of the promotion mix that extensively utilizes integration. Let's take a look at Empire Today. In their commercials, they integrate tv advertising with a direct marketing component (call -1-800-588-2300). Once you call the 1-800 number they will connect you with a sales person to learn more about their products in your home. It's easy to measure success of direct marketing by the number of responses you receive from a particular direct marketing effort.
Super Bowl commercials true impact extends beyond broadcast during the game on TV. Many people will watch the commercials on-line again after the game. At over $2 million dollars for a 30-second spot, the true value is in how much are you talked about after the game. Is your commercial mentioned in social media and linked? The internet provides a way for advertisers to get potentially exponential bang-for-their buck. GoDaddy does a particularly good job of integrating its commercial creation process into its blogs and website. For a commentary on how Steve Jobs and Apple changed Super Bowl advertising, read this FoxNews article.
"How the Internet is Changing Advertising" by Epipheo Studios.
There were many importance changes between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. In Web 1.0 we were consumers of information that companies put on the web, but by the time Web 2.0 came around, we were no longer passive informations receivers. Collaboration and creation are the forces behind Web 2.0 and consumers new interactions with brands. Let's return to the Doritos' website and look at their 'Crash the Super Bowl' campaign. Here consumers are asked to create ads for Doritos - and this isn't their first time with this concept.
Doritos has a YouTube site that integrates its Crash the Super Bowl campaign into its YouTube channel. YouTube offers marketers a place for consumers to see commercial advertisements as well as how-to videos and behind-the-scenes content. Zyrtec used YouTube as a channel for its Parks Unleashed campaign. The campaign included games and contests. Kia has also run a consumer created content promotion through YouTube.
Collaboration and consumer creation of content isn't always a bed of roses for a company. When something goes wrong into today's social media driven world, it can go viral very quickly. Tamara discussed how Delta's baggage charges of returning soldiers quickly went viral. Here's the original YouTube video:
11Alive reported on the incident, and AirTran used it as a way to get good publicity by its policy. The link has several videos connected to the article and how social media effected the spread of the news.
I'll leave you with a video about social media and how it is changing our world - marketing and otherwise:
Billboards - we all see them. They are geographic-targeting at its best. As local newspaper and radio consumption falls, billboards still offer marketers a local audience. Women's marketing Inc.'s website, billboards.com, not only showcases billboards, but has extensive examples of other out-of-home media encompassing everything from transit advertising to aerials. They highlight their work on the Yellow Tail wines billboard campaign that utilized color and spectaculars as the means to gain consumer attention. In 2011 in Canada, Yellow Tail ran a series of interactive projection and digital billboards that encouraged consumer engagement and content creation. The Blue Blots blog also highlighted some creative billboards.
Branded entertainment includes product placement, branded integration and advertainment. Product placement occurs when a brand is placed in any entertainment media including tv shows, movies, music videos and video games. Typically product placement is paid or barter for by the brand company, but sometimes it is a happy shout-out from the creators to a favorite brand. A recent example of the later was The Bark's mention on NCIS: Los Angeles that the magazine didn't know about until the show aired.
The new James Bond film, Skyfall, has extensive product placement and co-branding. This isn't new territory for Bond films, as products from watches to cars to liquor have featured prominently in the films through out the decades. The Business Insider has a great article complete with videos (the page takes a bit to load - so be patient) about the evolution of product placement in the films. Heineken's deal with 007 is worth $45 million (a good chunk of the production budget and most likely how fans are getting a new Bond film given the financial crisis of several of the firms involved), and includes TV commercials, product placement in the films, in store point-of-purchase displays (see a photograph of one from our local Kroger), YouTube and Facebook experience.
Also included in branded entertainment is advertainment. Mike Weise at Forbes wrote a good article last year about the evolution of branded entertainment. He suggested that the revival of this type of promotion started with BMW's The Hire films. They starred Clive Owen as a James Bondish character and highlighted the performance of BMW within the context of a short film plot. Recognizable directors (Ang Lee, Guy Ritchie) and actors (Madonna, Gary Owen, Marilyn Manson) participated in the films. BMW took the films down when they changed ad campaigns and agencies. You can watch them on YouTube - because someone ripped them for us :) - abmwfan. One of my favorites is Hostage directed by John Woo. You may remember we've watched one before in another panopto.
Some current examples of advertainment include the websites of Crayola and Doritos. These two brands have integrated their advertainment into their IMC.
Direct Marketing is another part of the promotion mix that extensively utilizes integration. Let's take a look at Empire Today. In their commercials, they integrate tv advertising with a direct marketing component (call -1-800-588-2300). Once you call the 1-800 number they will connect you with a sales person to learn more about their products in your home. It's easy to measure success of direct marketing by the number of responses you receive from a particular direct marketing effort.
Super Bowl commercials true impact extends beyond broadcast during the game on TV. Many people will watch the commercials on-line again after the game. At over $2 million dollars for a 30-second spot, the true value is in how much are you talked about after the game. Is your commercial mentioned in social media and linked? The internet provides a way for advertisers to get potentially exponential bang-for-their buck. GoDaddy does a particularly good job of integrating its commercial creation process into its blogs and website. For a commentary on how Steve Jobs and Apple changed Super Bowl advertising, read this FoxNews article.
"How the Internet is Changing Advertising" by Epipheo Studios.
There were many importance changes between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. In Web 1.0 we were consumers of information that companies put on the web, but by the time Web 2.0 came around, we were no longer passive informations receivers. Collaboration and creation are the forces behind Web 2.0 and consumers new interactions with brands. Let's return to the Doritos' website and look at their 'Crash the Super Bowl' campaign. Here consumers are asked to create ads for Doritos - and this isn't their first time with this concept.
Doritos has a YouTube site that integrates its Crash the Super Bowl campaign into its YouTube channel. YouTube offers marketers a place for consumers to see commercial advertisements as well as how-to videos and behind-the-scenes content. Zyrtec used YouTube as a channel for its Parks Unleashed campaign. The campaign included games and contests. Kia has also run a consumer created content promotion through YouTube.
Collaboration and consumer creation of content isn't always a bed of roses for a company. When something goes wrong into today's social media driven world, it can go viral very quickly. Tamara discussed how Delta's baggage charges of returning soldiers quickly went viral. Here's the original YouTube video:
11Alive reported on the incident, and AirTran used it as a way to get good publicity by its policy. The link has several videos connected to the article and how social media effected the spread of the news.
I'll leave you with a video about social media and how it is changing our world - marketing and otherwise:
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Chapter 7-Objective time
Chapter 7 is concerned with objectives and how we measure advertising and promotions effectiveness. Objectives help keep a promotional campaign focused to help with planning and decision making. Marketing objectives are established which helps to set your IMC objectives which are developed into objectives for each portion of the promotion mix. Sales and communication objectives are established from these. All objectives should be specific, measurable, quantifiable, realistic and attainable.
Sales objectives are good to use when the primary goal of a promotional activity is to increase sales or produce a quantifiable result that is easily traced. Sales objectives are often sought after by management because of the quantified results tied to the bottom-line, but they aren’t always appropriate. Several problems are associated with using sales objectives. The promotion of a brand does not happen in isolation and particularly with advertising’s effectiveness can happen over a long period of time. This is related to the carry-over effect and can be very important to the long-term strategy. Sales can also be influenced by a variety of environmental factors including technology, the general economic climate, competition as well as the production quality and price.
Sales objectives are most appropriate when using promotional activities like sales promotions or direct marketing. Any promotion where you are trying to generate a sale or response. Let’s take a look at this progressive commercial.
There are several aspects of this advertisements which makes it a good choice for a sales objective. You can measure the increase in request for the snapshot, number of calls to the 1-800-progressive and to progressive.com. There's a definite call to action in the commercial - to hook-up snapshot to your car. Where's the problem? A consumer may see this commercial and days later check out progressive after seeing a banner ad with Flo on a website that reminds them of their initial interest in snapshot.
Let’s take a look at BMW Films - a classic web-based, advertising campaign. BMW wanted to establish itself in its future target market’s mind - so they wanted to appeal to 18-50 year-old men in this campaign. This large age range includes a younger target that they wanted to build the BMW brand over time to be the brand they would buy when they had achieved success. Before the BMW Films were discontinued, they also released comic books specifically targeting this younger demographic. Sales objectives would be inappropriate for this campaign, but communication objectives would be a great fit. You can measure the increase in brand awareness among the younger demographic as well as attitude toward the brand and future purchase intention across the demographic groups.
Communication objectives are best when your goal is to increase brand knowledge or awareness, interest, favorable attitudes or create a brand image in the mind of the consumer. Immediate response is not expected and instead a long-term strategy of creating favorable predispositions related to your brand. You do need to establish who you are communicating too (target market!). Let's take a look at Lancomé's latest perfume ad with Julia Roberts.
This main objective of this ad is to establish awareness of the new perfume from Lancomé. In order for a consumer to consider a brand for purchase it has to be in their awareness set. Advertisements that focus on awareness do just that. A good objective would a % of awareness within their primary target market. Don't forget good objectives are concrete and connected to a measurable task that has a well-defined audience and specifies a time period for evaluation.
Sales objectives are good to use when the primary goal of a promotional activity is to increase sales or produce a quantifiable result that is easily traced. Sales objectives are often sought after by management because of the quantified results tied to the bottom-line, but they aren’t always appropriate. Several problems are associated with using sales objectives. The promotion of a brand does not happen in isolation and particularly with advertising’s effectiveness can happen over a long period of time. This is related to the carry-over effect and can be very important to the long-term strategy. Sales can also be influenced by a variety of environmental factors including technology, the general economic climate, competition as well as the production quality and price.
Sales objectives are most appropriate when using promotional activities like sales promotions or direct marketing. Any promotion where you are trying to generate a sale or response. Let’s take a look at this progressive commercial.
There are several aspects of this advertisements which makes it a good choice for a sales objective. You can measure the increase in request for the snapshot, number of calls to the 1-800-progressive and to progressive.com. There's a definite call to action in the commercial - to hook-up snapshot to your car. Where's the problem? A consumer may see this commercial and days later check out progressive after seeing a banner ad with Flo on a website that reminds them of their initial interest in snapshot.
Let’s take a look at BMW Films - a classic web-based, advertising campaign. BMW wanted to establish itself in its future target market’s mind - so they wanted to appeal to 18-50 year-old men in this campaign. This large age range includes a younger target that they wanted to build the BMW brand over time to be the brand they would buy when they had achieved success. Before the BMW Films were discontinued, they also released comic books specifically targeting this younger demographic. Sales objectives would be inappropriate for this campaign, but communication objectives would be a great fit. You can measure the increase in brand awareness among the younger demographic as well as attitude toward the brand and future purchase intention across the demographic groups.
Communication objectives are best when your goal is to increase brand knowledge or awareness, interest, favorable attitudes or create a brand image in the mind of the consumer. Immediate response is not expected and instead a long-term strategy of creating favorable predispositions related to your brand. You do need to establish who you are communicating too (target market!). Let's take a look at Lancomé's latest perfume ad with Julia Roberts.
This main objective of this ad is to establish awareness of the new perfume from Lancomé. In order for a consumer to consider a brand for purchase it has to be in their awareness set. Advertisements that focus on awareness do just that. A good objective would a % of awareness within their primary target market. Don't forget good objectives are concrete and connected to a measurable task that has a well-defined audience and specifies a time period for evaluation.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Consumer Behavior - in a nutshell
Chapter 4 of MKTG 4650 (Advertising and Promotion) tries to cram an entire course in a chapter... so in an effort to hit the high points, I've put together a prezi and panopto for my class.
The big problem when doing summary chapters about fields of study is what do you leave out - what do you keep, and the same was true for me trying to decide on the highlights for a 20 minute video/podcast. For me that meant focusing on key concepts that are crucial in advertising and promotion. The first of these is problem recognition and motivation. Problem recognition is where the consumer decision making process starts - and if as advertisers we don't understand the start we have little hope of satisfying a consumer in the end.
Next, I talk about Motivation and drag out Maslow's hierarchy of needs - one of my favorite things. I really think it is a simple way to understand the needs behind consumer purchases that we can use in creating advertising and promotional media. We take a look at some flyers/ads created to encourage vaccinations. The CDC's Vaccination campaign for 2012 has some great source material for you. The Media Relations PDF download on the linked page has great examples of media deliverables for a campaign. The Social Media Toolkit pdf can be found on the Web and E-tools page. It also has some great information and examples. Both are these are examples of how to educate multiple people across many offices about how to interact with the media and public using advertising and promotional tools. We'll be revisiting both of these pdfs in the future as we cover different topics.
When we look at ads for the class - it is a good idea to start asking yourself four things:
The big problem when doing summary chapters about fields of study is what do you leave out - what do you keep, and the same was true for me trying to decide on the highlights for a 20 minute video/podcast. For me that meant focusing on key concepts that are crucial in advertising and promotion. The first of these is problem recognition and motivation. Problem recognition is where the consumer decision making process starts - and if as advertisers we don't understand the start we have little hope of satisfying a consumer in the end.
Next, I talk about Motivation and drag out Maslow's hierarchy of needs - one of my favorite things. I really think it is a simple way to understand the needs behind consumer purchases that we can use in creating advertising and promotional media. We take a look at some flyers/ads created to encourage vaccinations. The CDC's Vaccination campaign for 2012 has some great source material for you. The Media Relations PDF download on the linked page has great examples of media deliverables for a campaign. The Social Media Toolkit pdf can be found on the Web and E-tools page. It also has some great information and examples. Both are these are examples of how to educate multiple people across many offices about how to interact with the media and public using advertising and promotional tools. We'll be revisiting both of these pdfs in the future as we cover different topics.
When we look at ads for the class - it is a good idea to start asking yourself four things:
- Who is the Target Market?
- What positioning strategy is being used?
- What is the Motivation that is being appealed to in the ad for the consumer?
- Is the ad effective in communicating with their target market? (in other words - critique it!)
Information search is a key part of the decision making process for consumers. In today's technology driven society, information is at our fingertips. With the increase use of smartphones, consumers can easily look up reviews on the internet to find out more information about a product. Also, with the use if QRC codes (those codes you can scan) a brand can tell a consumer more about its product. If anything, consumers are overloaded with information and learning when to say 'Stop, I can make a decision' can be difficult.
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| The Sony "blogger" camera we first bought |
You can ask my husband about my information overload while trying to decide on a video camera for us. We purchased a cheap one at TigerDirect on a whim for our then upcoming trip to Ireland. TigerDirect has a brick-and-mortar outlet on the way to his parents' house in Elberton, GA. We frequently stop there to stretch our legs and get our tech geek on. After we got back on the road, I was about to open our impulse video camera purchase when I thought - wait - I know nothing about this except the marketing information that was at the store. Out comes my iPhone and I start doing google, Amazon and BestBuy searches for consumer and independent news reviews. Ends up, the camera we bought had several flaws (can't add memory being the biggest). I then search the internet and TigerDirect's website for different options. On the way back home, we stopped at TigerDirect to return our first purchase and get a different video camera. We ended up spending more (sadface!), but I was much happier and satisfied with our purchase. It worked great on our trip and it not only takes video but pretty decent digital photos too!
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| The Toshiba 1080P we kept |
Millenium Media releases reports quarterly about the use of smartphones and tablet devices. Smartphones have deeply penetrated the mobile market as have tablets. Ladies - good news for us - we make up about 45% (and climbing) of the tablet market now. This means more apps/ads/etc.. targeted to women on tablets coming soon. Social media is one of the big things we can access on our smartphones with ease and several studies have shown that consumers consult social media before making purchases. With smartphones, the ability to do that is at our fingertips in the store. If I'd been smart, I would've posted on Facebook or Twitter about looking for video camera suggestions. I found a cool graphic illustrating social media using Maslow's hierarchy - I just had to share it.
At the top of Maslow's pyramid is self-actualization. This is when you start to be motivated by making the world a better place - and understanding your place in and effect on the world. Values.com is one of my favorite sites and advertising campaigns. They focus on communicating to their target market that good exists in the world and you can make a difference. They also work at breaking stereotypes. Two of my favorite ads are about a purse 'snatcher' and a prom queen. Take a look at their site to see behind the scenes footage and more great ads.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Starting Up - 4650 takes flight
The semester has finished it's first full week of classes, and believe it or not, I'm still trying to get access to all the websites and services that I need. My netid/email was changed - and it has been amazing to find the places where I do and do not have access. Hopefully, everything is turned on now and there will be no more surprises!
My 4650 class is going to get four videos quickly catching us up for the semester. I thought I would summarize the first two here - and have a bit longer post on Chapters 3 & 4.
Chapter 1 introduces us to the idea of IMC - integrated marketing communications - where we tie together all the aspects of advertising and promotion that help develop a brand in a consumer's mind. Advertising is one part of this picture - but so is Public Relations & Publicity, Internet/Interactive, Sales Promotion, Direct Marketing, and Personal Selling.
The driving force behind IMC is the idea of 'one look, one voice' at every touchpoint with the consumer. Starbucks has a great example of this in their Refreshers campaign that ran during the Summer Olympics. The colors used in their IMC campaign for Refreshers is the same regardless of the medium that is being used. McDonald's is another example that we can look at for creating brand identity and one look, one voice.
In Chapter 2, we take a look at how we can segment our markets as well as how we can position our brand/product in the consumer's mind. Take a look at the prezi to get a better feel for the chapter.
Now, for Chapter 3, where we take a look into the world of Advertising Agencies. I wanted to look at a few of the big agencies, but also a smaller non-traditional agency and a local B2B agency.
Leo Burnett Worldwide, a 77-year-old agency, is our first stop. Leo Burnett stresses their culture that started with their founder - Leo Burnett. You will often see big black pencils on their site which Burnett was known for - the big idea. By the way, Burnett is the gentleman who brought us The Marlboro Man.
They developed the ads Kellogg's ran talking about celebrating the start of an athlete's career. Here's a behind-the-scenes look:
Another exciting thing at Leo Burnett is their idea of the social shopper - we'll take another look at this in Chapter 4, when we talk about Consumer Behavior. You'll need to scroll up and down on the image to see all the social shopper types.
In Chapter 2, we take a look at how we can segment our markets as well as how we can position our brand/product in the consumer's mind. Take a look at the prezi to get a better feel for the chapter.
Now, for Chapter 3, where we take a look into the world of Advertising Agencies. I wanted to look at a few of the big agencies, but also a smaller non-traditional agency and a local B2B agency.
Leo Burnett Worldwide, a 77-year-old agency, is our first stop. Leo Burnett stresses their culture that started with their founder - Leo Burnett. You will often see big black pencils on their site which Burnett was known for - the big idea. By the way, Burnett is the gentleman who brought us The Marlboro Man.
They developed the ads Kellogg's ran talking about celebrating the start of an athlete's career. Here's a behind-the-scenes look:
Another exciting thing at Leo Burnett is their idea of the social shopper - we'll take another look at this in Chapter 4, when we talk about Consumer Behavior. You'll need to scroll up and down on the image to see all the social shopper types.
Social Shopping Archetypes from Leo Burnett Worldwide
Next we look at Ogilvy and Mather ad agency. David Oglivy started this agency about the same time as Leo Burnett. If you have ever watched the TV show Mad Men, you have seen a dramatization of the time in which Burnett and Ogilvy were blazing trails in advertising. His book - Ogilvy on Advertising - is one of the main reasons I fell in love of advertising and marketing. Their website is an interesting one and starts off with "Why choose Oglivy and Mather" - this takes you to a video Miles Young the current CEO and President talking about the foundation and culture of the company. Oglivy believed in research and being creative - but he would have said it wasn't creative if it didn't bring results.
Saatchi and Saatchi is the last full-service worldwide agency we will take a look at. Here you can see their point of differentiation as being the 'lovemarks company.' A lovemark is "a product, service or entity that inspires Loyalty Beyond Reason."
These agencies may very well compete against each other for clients if an account goes up 'for review.' This means the brand/product company is looking for a new agency to develop their next campaign. There is a variety of reasons for a brand deciding it needs a new agency from bad results from its current agency to conflicts with personnel and changes in personnel. Barkley US, an employee owned agency, explains on their website:
Lastly, let's take a trip to downtown Atlanta and look at the local ModoModo agency. KSU graduate, Jennifer Beech, works at ModoModo - matter-of-fact - she did her internship there while she was a senior and has yet to leave. Jennifer will hopefully be one of our speakers at KMA this semester. (If you haven't already heard, KMA - the Kennesaw Marketing Association - is the student marketing organization at KSU. I'm the faculty advisor and you can find out more on our website!)
Next we look at Ogilvy and Mather ad agency. David Oglivy started this agency about the same time as Leo Burnett. If you have ever watched the TV show Mad Men, you have seen a dramatization of the time in which Burnett and Ogilvy were blazing trails in advertising. His book - Ogilvy on Advertising - is one of the main reasons I fell in love of advertising and marketing. Their website is an interesting one and starts off with "Why choose Oglivy and Mather" - this takes you to a video Miles Young the current CEO and President talking about the foundation and culture of the company. Oglivy believed in research and being creative - but he would have said it wasn't creative if it didn't bring results.
Saatchi and Saatchi is the last full-service worldwide agency we will take a look at. Here you can see their point of differentiation as being the 'lovemarks company.' A lovemark is "a product, service or entity that inspires Loyalty Beyond Reason."
These agencies may very well compete against each other for clients if an account goes up 'for review.' This means the brand/product company is looking for a new agency to develop their next campaign. There is a variety of reasons for a brand deciding it needs a new agency from bad results from its current agency to conflicts with personnel and changes in personnel. Barkley US, an employee owned agency, explains on their website:
"When the review is over and you start a relationship with a new agency, what you get is people. Week in, week out. Their ideas. Their experiences. Their ability to listen. Their resolve. In the end, your new agency is not going to solve your problems. Its people are. We believe we've got the best people in the business."Barkley is stressing the idea that it is people that work together. In many agencies it is the account executive who is the go-between the client and the agency. Communication, patience and organizational skills are important for people who fill this roll. While you are on the Barkley website, take a chance to click on the "Good" video in their header. It will tell you a little bit more about them, and how they differentiate themselves - by being an ad agency that wants to do go.
Lastly, let's take a trip to downtown Atlanta and look at the local ModoModo agency. KSU graduate, Jennifer Beech, works at ModoModo - matter-of-fact - she did her internship there while she was a senior and has yet to leave. Jennifer will hopefully be one of our speakers at KMA this semester. (If you haven't already heard, KMA - the Kennesaw Marketing Association - is the student marketing organization at KSU. I'm the faculty advisor and you can find out more on our website!)
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Culture - it actually changes
I'm teaching Consumer Behavior this summer and yesterday we talked about culture. The University of Minnesota defines culture in its research of language acquisition as "the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization." I like this definition of culture because if focuses on the fact that we learn it through socialization - culture is a way of understanding our surroundings or society. It is a reflection of the beliefs, values, knowledge, art, etc... of a society. Through culture we establish norms (expected behavior) and sanctions (how we are punished when we break the norms).
Advertisements, imho, are a great barometer of a society's culture and how it is changing. By looking at mass-marketed or main-stream products and media vehicles we can get a sense of what are the norms. If we study advertisements over a period of time, we can see shifts and changes in culture/norms based on the images/copy, etc... that are used. Notice that I said main stream products and media. Every society has sub-cultures as a part of it, and those sub-cultures have different norms - some of which may be in direct conflict with the majority/society Culture. You can look to publications that target very specific subcultures to see these differences.
Times have changed drastically from when my grandmother who was born in 1902 and divorced by the time the 1940s rolled around was in her youth. A divorced female was looked upon much differently by society in 1940 than she would be today in 2012. Today, we most likely don't think differently of a person if they say they are divorced, but in the 1940s it was scandalous. You can see the same changes with single-mothers and stay-at-home-dads. The images of both of these in advertising has become acceptable, part of our media and part of our culture. The sanctions have been removed (in the greater culture, there are still sub-cultures that would have sanctions in place).
I often tell my students that I remember standing in WalMart staring at a pop display for Budweiser. I would show you a picture from my smartphone - but this was in pre-camera-phone days, so I don't have one, but I can't forget what it depicted - a white man dancing with a black woman. This was a mainstream retailer that markets to the masses and a display for the 'American" of beers...to me it indicated as sure as anything that mainstream culture had changed, and that acceptance of interracial couples was going to increasingly become more prevalent. I also knew that more couples in ads and in media would be interracial - reflecting what was already happening in our society. Culture had finally caught up with reality and many of the norms/sanctions had changed.
Right now, I believe that we are seeing a change in culture depicted in the advertisements that are appearing in mainstream media and for mass marketed products or brands. Here's an ad for Macy's that illustrates the shift in motion:
Now, I'll be honest with you. I read about this advertisement before I ever saw it. The article said Macy's had come out for gay marriage and this was the advertisement that proved it. I found the ad - and I stared at it. I thought I had the wrong one, so I found an article about it with the ad depicted - with the blown-up cake, and finally I got it. It says a lot about how perception works that I didn't 'get' what was 'gay' about the ad - I saw a wedding cake and in my heterosexual girl universe, I just assumed there was a groom and bride on it and paid it no mind. I also found out that since 2008, Macy's has actively supported gay marriage in their advertisements in certain sections of the country (think sub-cultures that are accepting of what in the mainstream culture is still sanctioned by many). Has there been backlash from this ad - absolutely, MyNorthwest.com reported about several groups that were upset at the advertisement.
JCPenney's is also taking a very public stand - and for a company that is trying desperately to re-brand it may be seen as risky or attention grabbing. First, JCP chose Ellen Degeneres, 54, to be their spokesperson for their rebranding as a price conscious retailer - no sales, no coupons, just plain pricing. Several groups objected to the use of Degeneres as a spokesperson because of her sexual orientation. The objections grew when the following appeared in their May catalog - focused on Mother's Day:
I thought it was a group of women enjoying themselves - boy was I off base. It seems if you read the copy you discover that grandma, on the left, is being photographed with her daughter, her daughter's lover and their two kids. One Million Moms called for a boycott of JCP:
“It’s obvious that JCP would rather take sides than remain neutral in the culture war,” OMM writes. “JCP will hear from the other side, so they need to hear from us as well. Our persistence will pay off! One day we will answer for our actions or lack of them. We must remain diligent and stand up for Biblical values and truth. Scripture says multiple times that homosexuality is wrong, and God will not tolerate this sinful nature.”
JCP answered the boycott in their June catalog with the following ad:
Now, here is the big question for all the marketers out there - does JCP's continued use of gay couples indicate a shift in what is culturally accepted by the majority of Americans (the mass market) or is it a publicity stunt? My guess, for what it is worth, is JCP is trying to appeal to a younger demographic, of which, the majority does not have issues with gay/lesbian couples. In an email to ABC News, JC Penney spokesman Joseph Thomas said that "In celebration of Father's Day, we're proud that our June book honors men of diverse backgrounds who share the joy of fatherhood." American culture is amazingly diverse, and what JCP's comment points to is a shift in culture to accepting another form of diversity.
If we continue to see more and more gay/lesbian couples depicted in advertisements and in entertainment media, I believe what we'll be watching is the change from something being sanctioned by a culture to acceptance being the norm for the majority culture and the groups that disagree with this will be sub-cultures - not the majority of the society - and have norms/sanctions that are against this behavior.
There are more examples out there of this cultural shift both in advertisements, Gap's Be One billboard, and entertainment media, DC and Marvel comics introducing gay superheroes and story lines. It seems, that back in 1992 Marvel introduced Northstar, a Canadian superhero who was gay. This June he ties the knot with his boyfriend in The Astonishing X-men #51. The times and culture are changing - before our very eyes. If you are a marketer, you better pay attention to where your target market's values fall in regard to these changing norms.
Advertisements, imho, are a great barometer of a society's culture and how it is changing. By looking at mass-marketed or main-stream products and media vehicles we can get a sense of what are the norms. If we study advertisements over a period of time, we can see shifts and changes in culture/norms based on the images/copy, etc... that are used. Notice that I said main stream products and media. Every society has sub-cultures as a part of it, and those sub-cultures have different norms - some of which may be in direct conflict with the majority/society Culture. You can look to publications that target very specific subcultures to see these differences.
Times have changed drastically from when my grandmother who was born in 1902 and divorced by the time the 1940s rolled around was in her youth. A divorced female was looked upon much differently by society in 1940 than she would be today in 2012. Today, we most likely don't think differently of a person if they say they are divorced, but in the 1940s it was scandalous. You can see the same changes with single-mothers and stay-at-home-dads. The images of both of these in advertising has become acceptable, part of our media and part of our culture. The sanctions have been removed (in the greater culture, there are still sub-cultures that would have sanctions in place).
I often tell my students that I remember standing in WalMart staring at a pop display for Budweiser. I would show you a picture from my smartphone - but this was in pre-camera-phone days, so I don't have one, but I can't forget what it depicted - a white man dancing with a black woman. This was a mainstream retailer that markets to the masses and a display for the 'American" of beers...to me it indicated as sure as anything that mainstream culture had changed, and that acceptance of interracial couples was going to increasingly become more prevalent. I also knew that more couples in ads and in media would be interracial - reflecting what was already happening in our society. Culture had finally caught up with reality and many of the norms/sanctions had changed.
Right now, I believe that we are seeing a change in culture depicted in the advertisements that are appearing in mainstream media and for mass marketed products or brands. Here's an ad for Macy's that illustrates the shift in motion:
JCPenney's is also taking a very public stand - and for a company that is trying desperately to re-brand it may be seen as risky or attention grabbing. First, JCP chose Ellen Degeneres, 54, to be their spokesperson for their rebranding as a price conscious retailer - no sales, no coupons, just plain pricing. Several groups objected to the use of Degeneres as a spokesperson because of her sexual orientation. The objections grew when the following appeared in their May catalog - focused on Mother's Day:
I thought it was a group of women enjoying themselves - boy was I off base. It seems if you read the copy you discover that grandma, on the left, is being photographed with her daughter, her daughter's lover and their two kids. One Million Moms called for a boycott of JCP:
“It’s obvious that JCP would rather take sides than remain neutral in the culture war,” OMM writes. “JCP will hear from the other side, so they need to hear from us as well. Our persistence will pay off! One day we will answer for our actions or lack of them. We must remain diligent and stand up for Biblical values and truth. Scripture says multiple times that homosexuality is wrong, and God will not tolerate this sinful nature.”
JCP answered the boycott in their June catalog with the following ad:
Now, here is the big question for all the marketers out there - does JCP's continued use of gay couples indicate a shift in what is culturally accepted by the majority of Americans (the mass market) or is it a publicity stunt? My guess, for what it is worth, is JCP is trying to appeal to a younger demographic, of which, the majority does not have issues with gay/lesbian couples. In an email to ABC News, JC Penney spokesman Joseph Thomas said that "In celebration of Father's Day, we're proud that our June book honors men of diverse backgrounds who share the joy of fatherhood." American culture is amazingly diverse, and what JCP's comment points to is a shift in culture to accepting another form of diversity.
If we continue to see more and more gay/lesbian couples depicted in advertisements and in entertainment media, I believe what we'll be watching is the change from something being sanctioned by a culture to acceptance being the norm for the majority culture and the groups that disagree with this will be sub-cultures - not the majority of the society - and have norms/sanctions that are against this behavior.There are more examples out there of this cultural shift both in advertisements, Gap's Be One billboard, and entertainment media, DC and Marvel comics introducing gay superheroes and story lines. It seems, that back in 1992 Marvel introduced Northstar, a Canadian superhero who was gay. This June he ties the knot with his boyfriend in The Astonishing X-men #51. The times and culture are changing - before our very eyes. If you are a marketer, you better pay attention to where your target market's values fall in regard to these changing norms.
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