Relay for Life Work

During the past few weeks my public relations group has been working on coming up with fun and unique ways to get people excited about Relay for Life.  Our three proposed themes for Relay for Life are pirates, “Rockin’ Relay”, and super heroes.  I am personally a big fan of the Rockin’ Relay, as I think that will have the widest appeal and will be the easiest to facilitate.  Anyways, my group developed some great ideas for ways to get people excited about relay.  For example, for the pirate theme, we have fundraisers like taking a photo with a real parrot.  People could really get excited about something like that, and I think it would do really well.  We also had fundraisers specific to the pirate theme such as selling pirate “grog” (something like sparkling lemonade or whatever) in a fun pirate-esque mug.  To raise awareness, we can things like allow survivors to wear a pirate cap and feather at Relay and we could show Pirates of the Caribbean at the Opera House.  For the super heroes theme, we have some more specific fundraisers.  For example, we can get life-sized cut-outs that people can put their faces in and take photos with for a donation.  Another fundraiser could be a Spiderman web-shooting (silly string) contest, and a giant q-tip fighting ring.  At relay survivors could wear a cape.  For the “Rockin’ Relay” theme, we could have Guitar Hero contests and we could rent a jukebox people could donate to play a song on.  We could get actual musicians to play at Relay, and we could have a costume contest for the various eras of rock and roll.  For every theme, we will make a Facebook page and do various other fundraisers like spaghetti dinners and bake sales.  Relay for Life advertising is very different than Ad Council advertising like we see here.  The Ad Council advertising is very military-inspired and uses raw emotion to gain attention for its "product".  In that manner, Relay advertising is similar.  The print and audio groups, for example, use cold-hard-facts about cancer to gain an emotional ploy over viewer/listeners.  Much like how Rosie the Rivetor was used to empower women for the war efforts, Relay advertising is used to inspire individuals about how they can help make a difference in the world.  Perhaps eventually the ACS will gain enough attention that Relay for Life will earn a PSA campaign from the Ad Council.  Until then, we, the students, survivors and peers, will work hard to make Relay the best it can be.  Our entire Comm class has given a great seed of ideas to our Relay Committee on campus, and our PR group worked hard to come up with some great ideas to raise both awareness and money.  Here is to next year's Relay for Life!

The Dove "Campaign for Real Beauty"

Today in class we discussed a campaign launched by Dove in 2004 which was aimed at increasing the self-esteem of all persons (women in specific) and re-defining the image of mainstream media "beauty".  We also learned that Dove is owned by Unilever, who also owns Axe.  Axe products use overtly sexual women who are the "idealized" stereotype of beauty to market its products to younger men.  This stark hypocrisy, to me, proves that Unilever was simply lending a sympathetic ear to make money.  Just as young boys spend money on the fantasy of meeting "beautiful" women, Dove's consumers purchased the product because of its advertising -- even though the marketing messages are not and have not necessarily been realized.

One signifier in this ad is the use of cascading Dove logos.  To me, it signifies that the use of Dove product will help you to grow (self-esteem, beauty, etc) over time, and the fact that it is moving left to right shows a movement towards the future.

I am not a big fan of this campaign.  Call me cynical, but to me it seems like Dove just did this to make money off of its target market.  Just as they use a completely different marketing technique for its Axe products.  Unilever is a business, and at the end of the day, I think they care more about their bottom line than about empowering those who purchase their product.  That is just my opinion, of course.

Semiotics from a Newbie's Perspective

Recently in class we were tasked with finding five semiotic characteristics of an advertisement.  I chose an ad for the Hummer H3 that I thought was visually stimulating.  Let us see how we can break it into semiotics.

Can't you just hear Erkel squawking "Did I do that?"

1.  The signifier is the orange background.  It signifies a bright or fresh idea in the form of the Hummer.
2.  The signifier is the brush guard on the front of the truck.  It signifies strength and invincibility.
3.  The signifier is the bold font.  It represents boldness and masculinity.
4.  The signifiers are the periods at the end of the short sentences.  They represent a powerful statement worthy of absorbing one thought at a time.
5.  The signifier is the appearance of zero-gravity as the truck breaks through.  This represents the shock-value of seeing such an interesting new truck.

Alright, I hope that this is an appropriate basic analysis of some signified/signifier semiotics.  (Say that five times fast!)  Thanks for reading!

Improving Our Ad Campaign

Recently in class, we were tasked with creating an ad campaign for a fictitious phone called the "Gotcha".  Our ads are the following:

I would like to simply make the ads a little more age-appropriate through the use of contrasting line colors.  For example, green lines on the red background, and so on.  The black lines are a sort of sophisticated and older style.  After doing this, I think our ads will be more appealing to our target market.  

Finally, a music video sans "hip-shaking" women!

On Wednesday, after watching a short documentary on gender roles in music videos, we were tasked with finding a music video that offered a different perspective on gender roles than mainstream media allows.  The common media viewpoint is that women are simply objects at mens' disposal.  This demeaning role creates a gap in gender equality, and is simply a ridiculous notion.  I thought hard about finding a music video that shows women in a different role than simply a sexual entity, and came up with Hot Chip's I Feel Better.

This music video starts with a bunch of women screaming with excitement as attractive male "musicians" dance and sing on stage.  (These men are not actual members of Hot Chip, they are just for effect in the video.)  Soon thereafter, an unattractive man floats in and disrupts the concert.  The women look at him in horror as he floats onto the stage and proceeds to "laser-breathe" the band members in the face.  I don't know the symbolism of this, but if I were to guess, I would assume it represents Hot Chip's distaste for pop-music from bands like N*Sync, Jonas Brothers, Justin Beiber, etc -- not because they are attractive to women, but because their music is more about appealing to women physically than it is about the actual music.  The uniqueness of this video is that the men are the objects of lust, as opposed to scantily-clad women.

Regardless of the deeper meaning of the video, the video is shot from a perspective of women simply enjoying a concert as opposed to stripping and shaking their hips.  The result is a satirical piece that is nothing like any music video that I have ever seen.  I believe it effectively portrays a different perspective on gender roles, and the song is catchy to boot!

Thanks for reading!

Effective Social Media Campaigning

I recently read an article from Forbes with regards to viral marketing and some of the best social media campaigns.  I must be behind the curve, as I was unfamiliar with all of the cited winners--including Old Spice's spokesman, Isiah Mustafa, answering real-time questions about the campaign from "fans" of the humorous "advertainment" put out by the brand.  Another successful ad campaign through social media was the use of a Facebook game, Farmville, to promote the use of Microsoft's Bing search engine, offering in-game rewards for doing so.  I am not a heavy Facebook user, so unfortunately these ads never reached me, but I would say that they are very successful, because I know a great deal of people who play Farmville and were likely enticed to use Bing for the in-game incentives.



The Nitto Trail Grappler
Complements of postrelease.com



One social media ad campaign that I have been effected by personally was a recent give-away by a tire company Nitto Tires.  Facebook recognized my affinity for off-road vehicles, and suggested I like the tire company on Facebok.  Once I went to the company's page, I was informed that if I "liked" the page, I would be entered to win a set of tires of my choosing.  This chance of free tires prompted me to investigate thier actual website, where I glanced over the entire selection of tires they offered.  This relatively simple campaign effectively drew me in, and I familiarized myself with the product.  I would admit that even if I don't win the tires, I would consider Nitto Tire brand tires when my tires need replacing.

My Favorite Ad Campaign

There are a good many ad campaigns that have been successful over the years.  Some are so successful that they have stuck with us since our youth.  I can still remember the commercial for board games like Guess Who? and CROSSFIRE from my youth.  I mean, when you see two kids hoverboard into an arena of fire and lightening and battle for supreme dominance, it's not really something you can ever forget.

Yes, I've seen my fair share of what I would say were successful commercials in my time.  I'll be honest, they're half of the reason I have watched the Super Bowl with as much diligence as I have over the years.  (The other half can be accredited to the food.)

I can say with all certainty, however, that the Capitol One "Vikings" ad campaign has been my favorite over the years.  The commercials are short and sweet, offering up the humorous combination of ancient vikings trying to exist in a modern world.  It doesn't sound nearly as funny in text, but I can assure you that a smile will creep across your face when watching these.  If it doesn't, than you obviously have no appreciation of viking culture...or a funny bone.  I don't think I'm the only fan.

The above is one of my favorite spots.  These ads are effective because they provide the audience with useful information on the product while entertaining them with humor.  The campaign has had great legs, and is still funny after approximately five years of ads.  Keep it up, Capital One.