I am not a fan of this commercial and I don’t think it’s virtuous. The commercial starts out with a gas chamber which immediately made me feel uncomfortable. While nothing bad happens in the commercial and no real “gas” is used, the tagline is that “Bad breath kills”. The whole set-up of placing the man in the chair and locking him in the gas chamber is not effective to me, and personally, I think it is scary. I wonder if they are allowed to show this ad on TV. I think it would be extremely offensive to a variety of people. I think they pushed it a little too far with this commercial because they are really just trying to sell mouthwash.

Last night I saw “The Joneses” which is a new movie about a family that seems picture perfect on the outside. It turns out that they are actually a hired team of marketers who will go to great lengths to sell luxury items to an upscale neighborhood. I think everyone should go see this movie because of its relevance to our class. It is all about the power of word of mouth. The family literally wears the brands they need to sell, say a few words about what they are wearing to their potential or “target” audience, and before you know it, the whole town has whatever items the Joneses have. These marketers were spreading WOM and making their consumers unbelievably happy. One happy customer would run off and tell the other that they needed to buy a certain item. The movie did make me question the virtue of selling and advertising in general. It’s scary to think how far marketers could go to sell their product. To actually impersonate a rich family in order to sell brands was something I never even thought could happen. I know this was a movie, but it made me wonder if anyone in the real world has done something like this before. Anyway, everyone should go see the movie or read more about it online!

http://www.thejonesesmovie.com/gallery.html

Tim McGraw is now doing celebrity endorsements for Outback Steakhouse, but it’s for a great cause. In an effort to raise awareness and donate money for the troops, Outback is starting a program called Operation Homefront. They will offer a “special” menu that customers can order from if they would like and all of the money from those menu items will go straight to the troops. Their goal is to raise 1 million dollars. So far, Outback has had a history of serving meals to 150,000 troops. I t hink this is a great idea from Outback and having Tim McGraw strum his guitar along doesn’t hurt them either. Outback is using Tim in other ways too, however, such as with their rewards program. Customers can join this loyalty program and have the chance to win Tim McGraw merchandise. Outback’s website focuses on the fact that both Tim and Outback represent community stewardship. He’s also kicking off his Southern Voice Tour which Outback is helping to promote. I just hope that if Outback continues this, they remember the main goal of what they are doing which is helping the troops. I can imagine that it is easy to get caught up in the fame and buzz of Tim McGraw.

Diet Coke is set to launch their new campaign called “Stay Extraordinary” during the Academy Awards. I’m pretty excited about it because I am addicted to Diet Coke and supposedly these new commercials feature the “young” generation of Diet Coke drinkers talking about their accomplishments. I am guessing that Diet Coke will up their brand image with these commercials because they will probably feature sad/emotional stories a bout children’s lives while incorporating inspirations/achievements/successes for that perfect ending to their commercials. I look forward to seeing these new commercials soon especially since Diet Coke does not typically do a great deal of TV advertisements.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riTM9tcIzyA&feature=player_embedded

The Abrinq foundation has created a special type of vending machine that was placed in the Sao Paulo subway station. This vending machine gives people the chance to donate to the foundation in order to get children off the streets. The project is called “vending machines of good”.  The vending machine dispenses a picture of a child. On that picture is a certain dollar amount. The card reads “With your help we can get these children off the streets”.  The Abrinq foundation is a non-profit that works to raise awareness for underprivileged children and teenagers living on the streets. I think this is truly virtuous advertising. It stands out because it is a creative way to ask people to donate and the citizens that do donate can visually see that they are helping a child when they get the child’s card out of the vending machine. Placing the machine in the subway station is ideal because 3 million citizens transport themselves through it daily. Knowing that your one dollar can help a child is an important factor. I wish the United States would adopt this same type of idea to incorporate into our subway systems.  The proceeds could benefit any type of organization or charity and make a difference in hopefully thousands of children’s lives.

P&G continues to impress me. Their Olympic ad was the beginning and I just came across a P&G advertisement on MSNBC. I was reading an article and at the top of my screen a banner appears that says “P&G, Click here to send your mom a message of thanks”. I clicked the link and it directed me to this website http://www.thankyoumom.com/thanks-mom.jsp?utm_source=msn&utm_medium=imedia&utm_content=rich&utm_campaign=teamUSA

Here you can personally thank a mom by typing in a message that will be shown to Team USA and their families in Vancouver. They will in turn e-mail you a photo of your message which can be forwarded to your mom. P&G is really doing a great job of advertising to moms as well as supporting the Olympics. This would be a great campaign for right before Mother’s Day as well. I am interested to keep tracking the different ways P&G is getting their message across to support their brand as well as families.

\”To Their Moms, They\’ll Always Be Kids\”

I was watching the Opening Ceremonies for the Vancouver Olympics tonight and this commercial really stuck out to me as a special, heart-warming ad. These types of ads make me proud of good advertising. The ad featues young children performing in all the games of the Winter Olympics. At first it clearly seems like an advertisement promoting the Olympics, but Proctor & Gamble cleverly turns the message around and makes it an advertisement about Moms. It honors all Moms and P&G calls themselves the “Proud Sponsors of all Moms”. This brand now seems to me like a brand that really cares about their customers. While clearly the main goal is to support the Olympics (especially since it aired during the opening ceremony), P&G reached out to a special target audience of Moms. Even though I am not a mom, I loved the sentimentality seen in this commercial. This is virtuous advertising due to its non-violent, vicious, or vulgar context. P&G just moved up on my favorites list!