Author Archive
What is our responsibility?
Posted by: | CommentsI know we have talked a lot in class about virtuous advertising and how it is important to maintain high standards throughout advertising. I find it pretty frustrating that a single ad campaign can destroy the credibility of advertising itself. It takes a lot to gain back that credibility. I would suggest that every ad be required to maintain some level of virtuous advertising. Here the conflict always seems to arise regarding products that maybe are not inherently good. How do you go about virtuously advertising them. Take beer for instance. If the advertisement could be centered around honesty, dignity, class, and responsibility then I would suggest it is ok to advertise as long as it emphasizes responsibility. What are your thoughts about advertising for products that maybe have a negative connotation, but that when used appropriately aren’t necessarily negative? What virtues do you think need to be incorporated into all ads? How can individuals and ad agencies go about demonstrating virtuous advertising?
Foundation for a Better Life: Bethany Hamilton
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This is a really neat billboard ad from the Foundation for a Better Life. It shows surfer Bethany Hamilton “rising above” an obstacle to continue pursuing her passion for surfing. Not only is this ad inspiring, but it also symbolizes the values of hope, dedication, courage, and ambition.
Twouble with Twitters-How far can Social Media go?
Posted by: | CommentsWarning: This video contains minor profanity
This YouTube video is basically a mockery of the lengths at which social media and social networking sites have infiltrated our lives, and to an extent have consumed all aspects of our daily lives and interactions with others. The video enlists characters of every different personality and shows them twittering about extremely random and often irrelevant subjects. Even at the end of the video when the character is facing his death, he says “hold on I need to twitter about this.” So while I agree that social media is extremely helpful at relaying positive messages in an effective way, at the same time it produces a negative side effect: people being consumed by technology and casting off normal human interaction. This relates to the whole idea of cell phone usage. I often find myself guilty of giving into the power of cell phones and texting. It is my belief that when you are with someone and they are constantly on their phone, texting, making calls in a sense they are saying that that phone and the person on the other end is more valuable than their time with you. It is offensive. Same thing with social media to an extent. When people abuse the powers of social media networks and become addicts it destroys the natural communication between humans. In fact page 113 of our Secrets of Social Media book discusses how “adults cringe at that kind of talk, believing that it confirms their suspicion that kids are forsaking meaningful person-to-person contact in favor of idle online chatter.” So as social media marketing students, what would you say is our responsibility to promoting a healthy amount of social media. Do you agree with the fact that social networking sites can go to far? Additionally, what are some ways or approaches that social media can encourage healthy usage?
Retro is Back!
Posted by: | Commentshttp://adage.com/article?article_id=135015
So according to this article in Adage, General Mills has decided to bring back the retro look of their cereal boxes. Their goal is to make the box and the food appear comforting which will hopefully lead to an increase in sales. One of the most important things that stood out to me was that they are trying to create this as an “exclusive” event. It is also planned to last for a month. And as we learned in class a “good” topic is exclusive and buzzowrthy. Another interesting point is that they are steering away from advertising, and giving all of the power to the bloggers. It will be very interesting to see if the bloggers find this information buzzworthy and worth blogging about!
Power to the Bloggers
Posted by: | CommentsThe website listed below is an article from Advertising Age. It is talking about how Frito Lay is sponsoring 7 blogs and allowing the bloggers to produce creative content for the Cheeto Brand. The Bloggers create content that will appeal to their blogging community. It was really interesting to come across this because it deals directly with what we have been talking about in class. How important it is to appeal to your blogger community. It’s cool to see companies taking the first steps toward word of mouth marketing, and giving the power to the talkers, ie: the bloggers.
http://adage.com/madisonandvine/article?article_id=134558
Finally something FREE…It’s called LISTENING!
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This brief interview deals with the topic of listening. Richard Branson, the man in the interview discusses how important it is to listen to the ideas of your consumers. While he does not mention specific vehicles to listen to (ie: blogs…) he does state that listening is free and that some of the best ideas come from these “talkers.” He states that ” a lot of your customer’s are the best brains out there.” It’s kind of ironic that companies still reject what there consumers have to say when they are offering them not only free advice but also innovative ideas. I know we discussed this in our class readings, and I think Branson’s emphasis on this topic contributes to the importance of taking into consideration the “talkers.”
“Word of Mouth Marketing Isn’t Deception”-Andy Sernovitz
Posted by: | CommentsSo looking at the reading from Andy Sernovitz’s book Word of Mouth Marketing I found an interesting section called, Word of Mouth Marketing isn’t Deception. This passage below is taken from page 24:
“listen closely: deception, infiltration, dishonesty, and any attempt to manipulate consumers or the conversation are morally bankrupt practices. Plus they just don’t work in the long run. Honest marketers do not do this and will not do this. Dishonest marketers will get caught if they try. Sleazy behavior will be exposed by the public, who will turn on anyone who attempts it. Word of mouth marketing is not what is known as stealth marketing lying to people or shilling (a marketer pretending to be a regular customer to promote a product). It’s not going into chat rooms with fake identities. It’s not posting fake positive reviews on websites. It’s not sending employees out to bars disguised as eager fans…The power of the consumer voice will make dishonest companies pay a steep price.”
So considering all of this, it seems pretty annoying that there are companies and individuals out there that will both bribe and be bribed to engage in this dishonest marketing tactic. These strategies obviously do not promote the virtuous side of advertising. So as a result do you think there need to be tighter restrictions on Word of Mouth Marketing? Is this even possible? And what should the repercussions be for those who defy the high standards of advertising? (I bolded the last sentence of the passage because I wondered if perhaps this is a far greater punishment than any federation or law could have on an advertisers poor choice. Thanks for reading!
Advertising and the 7 Deadly Sins
Posted by: | CommentsThis website outlines a class assignment, ignore the bottom part but focus on the charts. It puts into tables the 7 deadly sins and the 7 virtues and shows how the media and “modern advertisements” have twisted all of these around and told us to do the opposite…it’s quite sad actually and a negative reflection on our society and the ad world today. Seeing these, however, I think is an eye opener and possibly a good place to start to take some action to change the way people view advertising. When you are looking at the charts look at the last column that says “modern advertisements” and try to identify ads that fit those modern sayings. Its no wonder that people have difficulty trusting advertising and believing in its claims, because the majority of it tends to contradict all of the values instilled in us from a young age. Anyway I think this is a simple but effective visual that calls for immediate and positive change.
