Interruptive Advertising

I detest watching shows on television sometimes. Commercials are okay and allow for bathroom breaks or to grab a quick snack in between. But when there's only ten minutes left on the episode, and you're about to find out who was the murder –– bam –– commercial time!

Interruptive advertising, I feel, is mostly useless unless the pitch is captivating. Below are two of my favorite commercials that All state broadcasted and has cut in between one of my shows. No matter what I am watching, I do not mind these commercials because they are entertaining and make me laugh. Also, they are relatively short and use a humorous approach to get their point across.

Television and radio wise, I think interruptive advertising has greatly decreased. Now radio stations have hour long segments of plain music. But now, with the rise in technology and reliance on the Internet, there are now more commercials online than there was ever before. Now, if you want to watch your show online, or hear a song on Youtube, you must first watch an ad you can not skip. Sometimes the only way to avoid those ads are by paying a fee.

Advertising overall is helpful and useful for a company. The problem is when the content s irrelevant or boring. If the ad has something you would not expect –– like a grown man acting like a baby or woman  in labor –– it can capture your audience right off the bat. Other elements that contribute to the success of an ad would be the music, originality, recognizable people and an interesting story.

Ethics Symposium

The fifth annual Spuler Ethics Symposium speakers Ivonne Montes de Oca, John DeLa Cruz, Timothy Hendrick and Michael Llewellyn- Williams gave their opinions and expertise on advertising ethics on April 16.

The panel opened the discussion by each individual making an opening statement on where they stand with advertising ethics.

“Ethics and advertising is not a black and white issue, its about varied shades of grey,” said John DeLa Cruz, assistant professor of advertising at SJSU.

Many speakers agreed with the general idea that there are many layers of ethics in advertising. 

“My view an ad cant be unethical. An ad is a tool,” said Dr. Michael Llewellyn-Williams, founder and principal of BrandMechanics Inc. “I think maybe the clients behind that ad may have shown unethical things.”

I found this panel discussion very interesting as each speaker had a different background in advertising. For the major of the questions, they agreed with each other in what they considered unethical or appropriate but lacking professional taste. 

Having example videos of advertising that was taking down and allowing the panel to address some questions was educational. One point made was perhaps sex no longer really sells in the industry, and sometimes implies desperate for attention of the product. Another point made with the commercial of Jack in the box was –– although poor in taste ––some ads are allowed because they are directed towards a certain audience. 

Although I would normally attend these type of events, having heard this panel intrigued me enough to push me to possible attend future discussions. 

Here are two sections of the discussion. The first is a video of an example commercial that Jack in the Box broadcasted. The second video is the panel's response

Bug Vacuum: The perfect Housewarming gift!

The product our group decided to make an advertisement for a housewarming gift was the bug vacuum.

We developed two separate scenarios for our radio and television ads.

For our radio, we decided to have a scene of Mitch and Tiffany talking about throwing a party. Then, Tiffany decides to use the bathroom when she sees a spider. We then proceed to play sounds of shoes banging, screams, thumping, newspapers hitting the wall and at the end advertise the product.

For our television ad, we have also a party scene where the girls decide t o go into the kitchen to see the cake and there is a man in a spider suit. The only way to get rid of the spider is through the bug vacuum.

These pictures are of our radio script.

This is a picture of our television storyboard. 

Creative Billboard Ads

As time goes on the portrayal of advertising has changed. Now, you can occasionally see a billboard that goes beyond normal creative means.

I liked this billboard because I thought it was a unique way to advertise IKEA furniture. I liked how they used their own furniture to form the "joy" and used specific colors to signify the holidays. Not only is it a pop up ad, but it is a refreshing and modern way to sell furniture. 

This billboard portrays perfectly how an iPod can be filled with a mixture of music that just explodes in your ears when you want it to. I like how it has multiple layers to the ad –– from the black background with colorful pop up albums, to the variety of titles it shows. I also thought it was interesting how it builds up the amount of music. 

This billboard uses creative ways to portray the pain a headache can cause. It is interesting how Tylenol used to billboards next to each other –– one with the picture of than man holding his head with the wrecking ball on his forehead, and the other with the phrase "TYLENOL, Get back to normal." It is normally hard to convey a feeling through one still, but demonstrating how having a headache is similar to a wrecking ball in your head was a creative way to portray it.

I thought this ad was very humorous and used its surroundings perfectly to sell its product. Honestly, this is one of my favorite billboards that I have seen. I liked how imaginative the creators of this ad were, by using the wires as nose hair. 

I believe that the more creative and original an ad is, the more memorable and mentioned it will be by viewers. The ads above definitely did the job and remained in my memory by how interesting their designs were.

Bringing back the Typewriter

The target audience my group had were the young tech- hungry –– yet poor –– college students.

Our group came up with two main advertising ideas, one for a billboard and one general commercial that could be created in different environments.

Our ads would promote two main ideas: the typewriter's long- lasting ability and it's low cost all around.

For our billboard ad, we wanted to have someone famous that is known for being a hipster. We decided that we would put Johnny Depp with a typewriter and a slogan such as "bringing it back in style."

The reason why we wanted someone like Johnny Depp to be the face of the billboard was because hipsters are known for going retro and using things of the past. Because he is well-known we believed he would be able to set the trend again and promote the use of typewriters.

For our commercials, we wanted to incorporate nostalgia and the sense of what would you do in an emergency.
For one commercial, we would have a person through out different stages in his/her life with technology.
An example would be a child trying to playing nintendo, but not knowing which screen to look at. The mother would come in, and instead, give her child a ball and take her child to play outside. The child would happily follow the mother outside and play.
The next scene would be the same child, grown up now to early teens, bored, would take out a gameboy for entertainment, but the batteries would die and he/she would be left stumped on what to do. The mother would come again, to the rescue, and propose something better to do. The person eagerly complies and joins the mother in whatever activity she proposes.
The last scene in the commercial would be the person, now in college, trying to type up a paper that he/she must turn in an hr. But then the student realizes there is no ink in the printer, and then suddenly, the lights go out and the laptop isn't charged. In dismay and stress, the student doesn't know what to do, but long behold, the mother appears again. This time, the mother comes in with a typewriter and says "sometimes the old ways are better." The scene with the student being able to finish the paper and turn it in.

The idea behind this commercial is that the typewriter is a low cost investment. It does not need electricity to run on, so your electricity bill will be lowered and you won't have to worry about blackouts. Also, because the typewriter automatically has whatever you are writing on a paper, there is no need to buy a printer plus ink. Another plus is that a typewriter does not get viruses or bugs, making you not have to waste money getting it fixed.
We would also emphasize how durable typewriters are and how it improvs your writing by forcing you to pay more attention to your writing.

Nostalgia

1. Nostalgia –– a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal association. Many advertisers use nostalgia as a method to sell their products. Some advantages of thinking of the past, is people normally associate the past with better or easier times. Easy slogans that accompany this idea is "re- living" a moment. Another advantage is that nostalgic commercials evoke a lot of emotions and can cause a brand name to be retained better. Also, by having past connections, this marketing also promotes familiarity such as stating "from the brand you trust," which can make the product sell better. 
Although nostalgia marketing has many advantages, there are also disadvantages. Due to the many emotions the past brings, it can also evoke negative thoughts. By also recycling old ideas, this type of marketing can alienate different groups of people that are unfamiliar with the idea. 



2.
Nostalgia may not be successful when trying to sell the latest technological advance product. In the past, we did not have laptops, or iPads, so if the advertising producer used nostalgia, there isn't really anything to compare it to.

Jeep

During our workshop class, our group decided to go with the Grand Cherokee 2013 4 x 4 Laredo Jeep.  

We believed this Jeep would work for an older audience for the simple elements it would consist of. The features in this jeep would be a simple GPS, spacial in the back for grand kids to fit, a rear-view camera to make it easier for them to check their back surroundings. It would also have anti- lock brakes and auto bright headlights so that they will be able to see when driving at night. It would be 4 doors so that they will not have the difficulty of getting in the car, as well as short enough to not have to strain their legs. These extra features will increase the sense of safety in the car for them, as well as for future grand kids while still being at a moderate price. 

For advertisement purposes, we had a general idea of what we wanted to demonstrate. Here is the picture that our group member Kyla drew to portray the main idea. Our slogan idea was "Jeep: Standing the Test of Time." Our ad would play on the sense of nostalgia and patriotism. One ad would be a person reflecting on their past adventures. While driving in the Jeep through the wilderness, listening to the music of that time, and then you hear a child say "Grampa, can we change the station?" The scene changes back to the present, with the man smiling into his rearview mirror, now in his 70s, driving a Jeep into the same wilderness for a camping trip with his grandkids. After this our slogan would appear in the sky.