After an awesome Sunday filled with homework, homework, and more homework, my family sat down to eat dinner, then carried out the tradition that we have held for as long as I can remember. My mom makes hot chocolate and we get to work decorating our Christmas tree while watching a Christmas movie. My brother begged to watch the movie Elf as we had done last year, so my dad put the dvd in and pressed play. As we watched the movie, with the help of my media knowledge, I noticed a piece of product placement done by the Coca Cola Company. while "Buddy the Elf" eats dinner with his new family in New York City, he begins to drink a full 2 liter bottle of Coca Cola. The whole family stares at him wide eyed as they have never seen any person drink so much soda in their lives. this creates emphasis on the product in the movie, and draws our attention to the product. As this is one of the most popular Christmas movies these days, the product placement proves to be a wise choice for the Coca Cola Company. After this scene comes the next which is completely filled with "Buddy" burping, a scene most popular for most of the young children I babysit! The timing of the product placement mixed with the comedic aspects of the scenes make for an awesome ad with great publicity for the Coca Cola Company.

Out of the thousands of print ads I see every week, one that I saw today really sparked my interest and reminded me of my super fun sophomore zero period media adventure. The ad depicts a woman rowing in a racing single shell at the world famous Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston Massachusetts. The regatta has competitors from all over the country, and is a regatta many rowers spend their careers dreaming of  attending. This year marked the 50th anniversary of the regatta, and therefor was widely celebrated, viewed, and attended. The winner of the lightweight women's singles race was Caitlin Pauls. On the print ad page, she is depicted rowing her single which was built by a company called Fluidesign. By placing their advertisement in a rowing magazine, the advertisers show that they are targeting people who share the interest in rowing as well as possibly women as depicted in the picture. The advertisement appeals to our need to achieve. The consumer's need to achieve is strongly associated with winning, which is directly shown in the advertisement that depicts a woman who won her division of the Head of the Charles regatta while rowing their product. This ad, as well as many in the magazine sparks a feeling in the rowers who read the magazine that they will possibly be inferior to other rowers or crews if they don't own the top equipment or row the top brands. This is directly mirrored in the modern, every day media seen on the streets today.

 

The advertisement that I chose to analyze this week differed from all others I have seen and left me with a strong desire to own the product. The ad was for the GoPro HERO3: a small, removable camera with multiple features that can travel virtually anywhere. the short, five minute advertisement  showed multiple different people with multiple different interests. some were canyon rock climbers, some were surfers, others were motorcyclists, bikers, animal trainers, and cliff jumpers.

 These people, though each doing very different things, shared a common bond. The bond of their similar adventurous spirits. This is the type of bond that the advertiser hopes that we as consumers see and want to be a part of. This is their attempt at appealing to our need for affiliation. I also believe that the ad appeals to our need to escape. When we see these amazing people doing amazing things all around the world, we wish that we could do these things. We assume that by simply buying this product that we will automatically be these people and master their crafts. What we don't see is that  many of these people were working on these amazing skills and passions since before the product company itself existed. Obtaining this product does not make us any closer to obtaining what they have than we are right now. Unfortunately, $350.00 later, many consumers realize this, and mainly use their GoPro camera to videotape their cats from under their couches, or their milk from the bottom of their glasses as they drink it. Some have even resorted to licking or attempting to eat their GoPros simply, I believe, out of boredom. However the ad was effective in persuading me to feel the need to own the product. I personally would love to use it while skiing, surfing, rowing or simply playing with my dog. The people in the commercial made me want to get out into the world and do exactly what they are doing.

 

For this Week's post I decided to analyze the commercial for Coca-Cola that was released about a month ago by the Coca-Cola company and Taylor Swift. Coca-Cola partnered with the pop star in order to sell both Diet Coke, and Taylor's new album, 1989. The ad features three things everyone seems to love; Diet Coke, Taylor Swift, and kittens! It started with Taylor playing with a small, fluffy kitten. after she takes a sip of her Diet Coke, she find another kitten standing next to the first one. The pattern continues until her home is completely full of adorable fluffy kittens, and she is almost finished with her Diet Coke that has brought her endless happiness and joy. The slogan for the ad is "What would life be like if it tasted as good as Diet Coke?". This is where they get us. We will never know how good life could taste unless we taste it for ourselves with a Diet Coke. We also will never know how good Taylor's album is unless we buy it on October 27. In reality, the commercial had nothing to do with the drink itself. there was nothing about the taste, or the texture, or even the low cost. The ad basically sold us a pretty girl and kittens with a bottle of Coke on the side. However no one wants to hear about how great Coke is because they have already tried it. In my opinion the ad serves only as a reminder that you can still get the great taste of Diet Coke, along with Taylor's new album, and a bunch of cats from the animal shelter.

 

Recently, before I watched a movie on YouTube, I was prompted to watch an advertisement for Beats, the overpriced headphones that are sweeping the nation. The video was not any different from other advertisements, it had the superstars sporting the colorful headphones, it had the pretty girls with small tops, and the cool boys with the hottest fashions, but one thing in particular struck me as a very interesting yet often used advertising technique. The music that played in the background was a song called "Something New" by Axwell and Ingrosso. it is a song that is about belonging to something new. it goes along perfectly with the ad slogan "#SoloSelfie—a new movement of self-expression". The company is seemingly selling you a way to finally express yourself and belong to a world of people who want to express themselves too. not to mention you get to belong to an elite group of cool celebrities. And you get all this simply by buying a pair of Beats headphones in your favorite color (as long as the store has that color in stock). Do we really buy into this? According to the success of Beats, we definitely do. So go ahead, express yourself America.