Critical Debates in Design: Task 7 - Advertising

As seen in the "Czech Dream" movie advertising as a powerful tool.The main purpose of advertising is to inform the public for a certain product, event, service etc. It's role is to grab attention and agitate. Advertising companies use many platforms to reach out to the public - posters, newspapers, magazines, billboards, TV ads, Internet - all kind of media. There are many memorable ads, that do their purpose - either make you happy, sad, angry - the main idea is to move you and make you respond to their message. Nowadays we are literally flood with so many ads, that we cannot get out on the street, watch TV, browse the net without being hit in the face with at least 20 per day. That makes advertising competitive and more and more people are involved in making something really really creative to satisfy a capricious client. And there are some really great ones. Some ads even start to live their own life.


Of course there are some ethics to be considered while realizing an idea for a commercial. Many people in advertising spend much of their time dealing with ethical choices. In the past many campaigns were proclaimed as offensive to certain organizations, religious movements, people coming from different ethnicity etc. There are many regulatory authorities that seek if there are misleading or offensive adverts out in the media. For example in some countries it is not allowed to compare a product to another competitive company's product. But it is not so in the US. Such example is the Audi commercial,in wich their new model vehicle is compared to a Mercedez Benz model. 



A typical example of bad advertising in the past is tobacco. And not that the adverts are bad, but they are considered to be unethical, since we all know what harm tobacco can cause. Ronald Reagan once appeared in ads touting the health benefits of a cigarette brand. Times have changed. Now the space in which tobacco can be promoted in any form is growing more restricted every day. This tobacco ad is from the early 1950s when Philip Morris sponsored the then famous "I Love Lucy" show. Now we can only have a laugh on the inappropriate content, but back then cigar smoking was a matter of class.





About 80% of Americans say they feel better about companies that are aligned with social issues. Two thirds of us say we'd be inclined to switch to a brand that they identify with a good cause. It's why American Express put on the Tribeca Film Festival in lower Manhattan to help bring people back to the area after September 11th. Wal-Mart focuses on community efforts of their associates and stores. General Mills' "Spoonfuls of Hope" campaign features Lance Armstrong promoting cancer research. Johnson & Johnson - always at the top of polls as a socially responsible company -- has been running a campaign to help promote nursing as a career.


One of the best ads I have watched is a FedEx commercial from 1982, starring an actor - John Moschitta, who became famous with his impossibly fast speaking. It was directed by Joe Sedelmaier, who also created the famous Wendy’s "Where's the beef?" TV spots.

The Cold War made for some pretty entertaining pop culture. Like this Wendy's Commercials from sometime in the 1980s filmed again by Joe Sedelmaier.

A very successful way of advertising is using guerrilla marketing. As the market is flood with ads, designers are creating new and unconventional ways of promoting. Word out of mouth is the easiest and cheapest way of doing so. These tactics are very useful for companies with less budget, but in recent years we see major corporations using this method of advertising.



Reference:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/08/why-good-advertising-works-even-when-you-think-it-doesnt/244252/#slide4 
http://asa.org.uk/Advertising-Codes.aspx 
http://www.aef.com/on_campus/classroom/speaker_pres/data/3001 

http://www.wikipedia.org