Our brains lay between the hands of the advertising companies

Hey there,

Have you been keeping up with the Kardashian waist trainer advertisements, or Ronaldo’s dandruff shampoo advertisements? I sure have NOT, they never end!

We live in a world rife of advertisements, the ‘NEW!’ and ‘Ultra Cool!’ products are constantly shoved in our face and whether we like it or not, they certainly do resonate with our subconscious mind. Advertisements have the capability to shape the individual's mind and impact people’s view of the world on a large scale. Advertisements that latently portray sexism and racism are incredibly egregious, they slyly import fallacious views of the world into the audience’s mind and make them a cultural norm. 

White slender women, tall fit white men, babies with blue eyes and blonde hair, hairless bodies and perfect pearly teeth that is what is normal! The media tells us that this is normal and that we MUST strive to attain these fastidious standards. I feel nothing but antipathy towards companies that seek economic success at the cost of other people's well being. This is an exigent issue that we must be aware of!

Speaking of awareness, advertising companies are aware of the immense power they posses over the minds of the individuals, yet they do not respect that there is sensitivity to the information they put into the world. I think that all advertising companies should be held responsible for all their ignominious advertisements.  Due to that fact that they have proven themselves unworthy of our trust, the law must reinforce this upon all advertising companies and abrogate any advertisements that may harm a certain group in society.

If you still find yourself hesitant towards this issue, have a look at just one of the million unethical advertisements that flood the Internet:

Now I must go cook dinner for my husband, I've spent far too long on the internet and I certainly would not want to get slapped tonight. 

See you later,

Dana (A house wife who tries her best to look white and skinny for her husband, despite her Arab genes.)

Print Ad Analysis

Nivea Advertisement Blog Post

Nivea India celebrates a 100 years with Anushka Sharma as the face of their advertisement campaign. Despite the core purpose of this advertisement being to sell Nivea’s body lotion, the appeals chosen, in conjunction with the visual language and persuasive devices, reveals the cultural context of the product whereby the Indian beauty standards have been exposed. It is evident through Nivea’s choice of celebrity endorsement that fairness of skin is something that is valued. Despite the abundance of darker skinned Bollywood actresses, Nivea chose Sharma due to the fact that her physical appearance attains to the ideal Indian beauty standards.  

The appeals chosen create the foundation and the basis of development for the persuasive techniques. The appeals chosen are: the need for intimacy, the need to achieve, the need for aesthetic sensations and the need for prominence. The need for intimacy is evident in between the two models of the advertisement; Nivea wants you to believe that this product can help you get a life partner or an intimate relationship. This can be linked to the cultural context whereby, marriage is important for young women in Indian culture, it is something they aspire to achieve. Women are raised and taught to always maintain a socially acceptable physical appearance that would not hinder their chances of finding a suitable husband. The need to achieve is another appeal used. This is easily seen in the text of the advertisement “for visibly smooth and touchable soft skin”. The audience would find that they need to achieve and attain to the Indian beauty standards, and this product is the simple solution to their struggles. The need for aesthetic sensations is the third and final appeal used whereby the viewer will want to be as physically/ aesthetically appealing as Anushka Sharma, and with this product they will begin that they can.

The visual language of this advertisement is used in order to enhance the cultural context of the advertisement.  The advertisement is not rife of text in order to avoid having the audience spend their time reading and have them focused on the celebrity endorsement, thus it is safe to deduce that this advertisement is focused towards ethos more than it is logos.  The visual techniques, such as: layout, the subject, the interaction with the viewer, and the function of the image have been used in order to portray the cultural context of the image. The models are both beautiful and so the audience associates the Nivea body cream with beauty. The lighting is artificial in order to eliminate anything that could possibly mitigate the beauty of Sharma’s skin. The models are intimate; this is expressed through the body language and the hand positioning. This relates to the need for intimacy appeal. The focus and the perspective are quite close to the models, again this also relates to the intimacy appeal. In order to enhance the intimacy appeal, Sharma maintains interaction with the audience through eye contact. The visual language in this advertisement is mostly based around the intimacy appeal, as is in most advertisements because sex sells in all cultures and all areas of the world.

The persuasive devices have been strategically chosen in order to enhance the portrayal of the cultural context of the advertisement. The persuasive techniques chosen fall under the basic and the intermediate techniques category. The basic persuasive techniques are: product association, use of beautiful people, use of celebrities, testimonial and the ‘warm and fuzzy’. As for the intermediate persuasion techniques, they are: using ‘New!’ as a means of persuasion, and the simple solution. The association technique has been used whereby Nivea have associated their body cream with the Bollywood actress Anushka  Sharma whom is considered to be the pinnacle of beauty. Nivea inexplicably claims that through the use of this product you will be just as beautiful and just as desired as this Bollywood actress. Beautiful models are rarely not used in advertisements because the association of beauty with a product makes it more desirable and thus makes the advertisement more effective.  The beautiful Bollywood actress is associated with the skin care product to attract the attention of the audience. Nivea implies that if you use this product you will be beautiful too. Celebrity testimonials are another frequent and effective use of persuasive devices in advertisements. Sharma’s testimonial is important to the audience (Indian society). The celebrity's presence attracts the audience’s attention. The Sharma’s testimony (indirect) can be inferred from her presence in the advertisement. The warm and fuzzy technique was used: this persuasion technique is somewhat relevant to this advertisement due to the intimacy of the two models. The intimacy of the models stimulates feelings of comfort and delight in the audience’s perspective.  You may associate the words “cozy” and “cuddly” with this advertisement, which clarifies the use of the warm and fuzzy technique in this advertisement. An incredibly frequent worldwide persuasion technique consists of three letters yet it is incredibly effective; it is ‘NEW!’ Consumers have appreciation for new products and they tend to believe new are better than old products. Consumers often find that owning new products can give them a sense of worth and self-confidence. New products make them feel as though we are better than others and they can get that sense of dominance by purchasing these new products. Finally, the simple solution persuasion technique. Nivea convinces the audience that through purchasing their product, they will get soft skin, they will be more desirable, they will be beautiful and thus they will find their significant other just as Anushka Sharma did! Nivea crafts this train of thought in the audience’s mind through the use of appeals, persuasion techniques and persuasive devices.

Slender Indian women with fair skin are empowered in this advertisement. Anushka’s presence and dominance of the majority of the positive space in the advertisement leads me to think so. However, curvy darker skinned women have been marginalized due to their inept physical appearance that does not attain to the ideal Indian beauty standards. The product being advertised is a beauty product, thus the physical representation of this product have been strategically chosen in order to avoid any hindrance to the audience’s perception of the product. Nivea wanted their audience to view this exclusive product as  the simple solution that will help them achieve beauty and intimacy, not as a mass produced product used by regular people.

Advertising Pitch: Presentation Reflection

Yesterday I presented my pitch for the ‘Affordable and Easy to Assemble Conflict Zone Shelter’. I am relieved that the presentation went well seeing as I was incredibly timorous of the exceedingly abstract task that was at hand. Rather than seeking further clarification on the precise meaning of a ‘pitch’ my group and I decided we would avoid resolving our nebulous state of mind and simply follow the format of the ‘Mad Men Pitch’. Had there been enough time allocated to planning the task, had the presentation been more trenchant.

The persuasion techniques I incorporated into the pitch (more of an advertisement) were:

·      Basic persuasion technique- warm and fuzzy: A presentation rife of images displaying the sad lives refugees live and images of children left without a home will cause the audience to think of their own families and thus they will be struck by a wave of empathy that will benefit the seller (me) and make it easier to sell our product.

·      Intermediate persuasion technique- Charisma: The presenters had to maintain confidence and a winsome attitude. The audience will be inexorable if the presenters did not display their confidence.   With confidence comes trust from the audience. The moment your audience trusts your credibility, consider your product SOLD! This is incredibly important when you are striving to convince an audience of a charity case/ product.

·      Intermediate persuasion technique - rhetorical question: Rhetorical questions were used in order to emphasize the exceedingly egregious global refugee crisis: this helped me subtly (yet effectively) convince the audience that there is an exigent need for donations (that can be done through our company) in order to make an impact on the world as we strive to make the world a better place.

·      Intermediate persuasion technique - simple solution: Our product is the simple solution to help improve the lives of the refugees and and save the world!  

o   Dominance appeal: The audience gain a sense of power and self worth through hearing that they can make a change in the world and that they have the power to help those whom have been enervated due to poverty.  

·      Advanced- persuasion technique: timing- The current global events and the international refugee crisis have caused this ad to be relevant. Due to the Syrian refugee crisis and all the morose news of anguish that has accompanied this event, the audience would naturally experience a moment of hindsight that would ultimately lead to a wave of sad emotions. Thus, this would reduce the barriers between the presenters and the audience, which would then lead to an abundance of products being sold.

Audience and context:

My audience was directed towards adults whom had a stable life and a job, thus they had the financial capacity of providing donations to help those in need.

The context I was provided with was the Global Market.

Knowing my audience and context enabled me to effectively craft my pitch in order to maximize its efficiency and its rate of success.

Points of improvement:

·      Clarity of voice: I kept vacillating between the paper in my hand and trying to maintain eye contact with the audience. As our presentation pried on empathy, it would have been best if I had memorized my lines. Having the paper in front of my face and not knowing my lines sprouted a great deal of insecurity in my mind, this was evident in the tone of my voice.

·      Script: the script was poorly written. The content of the script was inaccurate. The structure of the script was poorly assembled. 

·      Vapid tone: I could not present at my full potential as my insecurity held me back, thus my presenting voice was undeniably vapid.

·      Inaccurate presentation: My presentation was inaccurate as my group approached the task in a different manner to what was asked. A pitch is not an advertisement; it is merely the mechanics of creating an advertisement.

Through approaching my past presentation’s faults, I have learnt a valuable lesion that will benefit my FOA: I must be meticulously read the task in in order to be able to create a diligent and coherent presentation.

  

Watching the other groups present had truly kindled many presentation ideas for my FOA’s and it gave me insight into what I could do to maximize the success of my FOA presentation. 

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Hey there,

It’s been quite a while since we last spoke, the good news is I am back and I have so much to share with you!

This blog post will be a special treat; we shall discuss a new topic that will surely fill your heart with ebullience. This topic is what eats at every second of our wasted time. No matter where we go, it is ubiquitous and quite frankly it would be impossible to eschew from it. Tiered of guessing? Well, our topic revolves around media and advertisements.

As I am a novice at analyzing media, we shall embark this journey together and we will come out of it with a mind rife of media analysis skills.  To start off out journey with slow and steady waves, I will analyze an advertisement; break it down to its core to find its pathos, egos, and logos.

When I think of advertisements, I think of Cristiano Ronaldo. Upon retrospection, I remembered that my favorite adds of his were the ironic KFC advertisements. I always though to myself  “How on earth could and athlete, whom should be advocating a health lifestyle, do a fast food advertisement?”

Click on the video below to watch the advertisement, which I have selected for analysis.

As a spotlight shines on Ronaldo’s perfectly built face, a game suddenly takes place on the pitch. The camera attempts be just and equally display Ronaldo’s toned legs as well as his perfect jaw. Ronaldo runs across the pitch, it appears as though he is in the lead. As he gets closer to the goal he falls, what a tragedy. Worry no more ladies and gentlemen, Ronaldo, our modern day Hercules, gets back up and the crowds go wild. The multiethnic crowds anxiously watch the game as they enjoy delicious meals from KFC. Towards the end, Ronaldo scores and the crowds go wild! Forget a trophy, Ronaldo grabs a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken, bites out of the chicken and says ‘So Good!’.

It is clear that the advertisement is directed towards their audience: the football fans. This is evident due to the story line of the advertisement, and the celebrity figure they chose for this advertisement. This was a economically strategic move due to the abundance of football fans in the world. Even if the viewer was not interested in football, they may choose to continue watching due to Ronaldos attractive physical appearance. This advertisement would convince its audience in many different ways: firstly because Ronaldo is an important figure in football, secondly because of the viewers physiological needs and the food on display, thirdly because it associates fitness with fast food and thus eradicates the obstacle of winning over the healthy audiences, and four simply because of how cool Ronaldo looks, and the need and desire to be cool is common in today’s youth.

The element of ethos is found in the celebrity endorsement of the products, in this specific advertisement the celebrity is Cristiano Ronaldo. The audience would most likely interpret the ad in this way “If Cristiano Ronaldo, arguably he best football player in the world, eats KFC, surely it must be good!”

Pathos can be inferred from the frequently displayed KFC food products. This is done in attempts to persuade the audience to purchase the product through utilizing their sense of desire and making them think that they need to eat this 'delicious' food.

However, it appears as logos was not used in this advertisement.

Coming up next, Cristiano Ronaldo’s Clear Men shampoo advertisement.