Archive for Helping Others
A Virtuous Ad by a Virtuous Institution
Posted by: | CommentsI think that this “Miracles” ad by the United Methodist Church is really moving. Looking at the devastation and destruction in Haiti, hope is a hard thing to come by. While it comes as no surprise that churches are participating in raising funds and making a difference, it doesn’t matter what your religion or denomination is to be moved by this simple and inspiring advertisement. The copy as well as the simple imagery is moving. In addition to simply being impressed by the ad, the website that it directs you to is virtuous social media. It allows you to connect with people using whatever social media platform that you prefer in order to help make a difference for people in Haiti, environmental movements, the homeless, and many other projects.
Sidenote: I couldn’t get the ad to show up in the blog, so please hit the linked tag and it will take you to it.
Liberty Mutual: Responsible Advertising
Posted by: | CommentsInsurance is a bland product that usually competes by showing lower insurance rates and a wide variety of discount packages. Geckos and Cavemen are one thing, but Liberty Mutual takes a better more virtuous stance that really gives insight into what the company is all about. The two ads below are two of the best insurance ads that I have seen. The idea of seeing people doing good things and passing it on is virtuous and responsible. I think they do an excellent job.
Starbucks Love Project
Posted by: | CommentsIn 2009 Starbuck’s started the Starbucks Love Project, where you go online and add your voice to the global wall singing “All You Need is Love.” Starbuck’s donated 5 cents for every voice added to the site, which raised over 14 million days of medicine for people living with HIV in Africa. On December 7, at 1:30 GMT, 156 different countries participated in a worldwide singing event to raise awareness for their cause (above is a montage of that event). I had never even heard of this at all until I actually paid attention to what was written on one of my Starbucks cups. I only went to the website because of this class. This is truly a great cause that is refreshingly void of Starbucks product plugs, however I really think Starbucks could do a whole lot of good if they advertised this campaign a bit more. Other than that what congratulations Starbucks you truly are bettering the world, one overpriced latte and Beatles song at a time.
SMU’s Heart Beats for Haiti Initiative takes flight through social media
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After the destructive earthquakes in Haiti in January, SMU’s Student Senate began a program called SMU’s Heart Beats for Haiti. The idea is that donors pay money and get their name put on a heart, which is posted in Hughes Trigg. Your name is also posted on the SMU Website. For organizations the price is $1,000 for a heart. The money all goes to the Clinton-Bush Relief Fund. As far as advertising goes, I think that SMU students have really come together and put in a lot of time and effort to see this succeed. SMU’s Heart Beats for Haiti can be found on Facebook and many people have made comments about it on their twitter pages. Students volunteer to sell hearts everyday outside of Hughes Trigg. The campaign is unique, involved, and persuasive. It is a fine example of some local advertising here on campus.
Recipe for Joy
Posted by: | Commentshttp://www.americangreetings.com/channel/kraft/
Kraft Foods and American Greetings have teamed up to help provide meals for the hungry by donating 10 meals for every free e-card that is sent by users. Donations benefit Feeding America, the largest hunger relief charity in the US.The company had originally committed to donating at least one million meals, but the program has been so successful they are increasing their commitment by offering 3 million meals.
The e-cards include recipes, and entertaining tips for the holiday season. Users can create online recipe boxes, and share their favorites with other users or friends. Users who had shown interest in giving back to their communities inspired the program.Kraft has been a longtime supporter of Feeding America, donating $770 million over the past 25 years.Promotion for this program has been on online social networking sites twitter and facebook, as well as the kraftfoods.com site. The company has also sponsored a holiday movie on the hallmark channel.
I think the fact that Kraft and American Greetings have kept a relatively low profile on this promotion is great. Kraft is trying the help their site users feel like they are making an impact and giving food to the hungry this holiday season!
City Harvest: Bushels Beat Hunger in the Big Apple
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City Harvest, whose mission is to fight hunger in New York City, NY, is the only food rescue organization in the world. It links agencies, individuals, corporations, and foundations to unite in fighting NYC’s hunger. City Harvest provides free deliveries of food to nearly 600 emergency food agencies, and feeds 260,000 people suffering from hunger on a weekly basis. Its “Food Council,” made up of top chefs, restaurateurs, and food industry professionals, donate some of the city’s best food and raise funds for the organization.
The PSA City Harvest released raises awareness and interest in helping feed New York City’s hungry. The advertisement is well done in that it attracts the viewer’s attention (which is limited, selective, and divided), by making the issue personally relevant, surprising, concrete, and easy to process. The ad is framed by a realistic interaction by what seems to be a couple, with the man filming the woman with his iPhone (the PSA was actually filmed on the iPhone). They start to board the subway train, but as the doors open, thousands of green apples burst out. A voice informs us that “every day, 470,000 pounds of food is wasted in this city…Help City Harvest rescue food for New York’s hungry.” City Harvest used 500,000 CGI apples in the PSA to illustrate New York City’s daily food waste. By using the framework of a realistic couple in the NYC subway, the PSA is made personally relevant; moreover, it is surprising and unexpected, as the viewer does not expect hundreds of thousands of apples to come pouring out of the train. The green apples are a contrasting stimuli against the gray subway station. The abstract notion of the hunger and of food waste is made concrete with the sheer number of apples and the booming voice, making the message easy to process as well. Finally, the use of apples is fitting due to the association of apples with “The Big Apple,” i.e. New York. This could perhaps prevent the sleeper effect, as well as support the match-up hypothesis, as viewers will readily remember City Harvest, whose symbol is also the apple, and that its mission is to feed the hungry in The Big Apple.
GE – Today is a new day
Posted by: | Commentshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMGnbXayj2E
GE has been an established and trusted brand for over 100 years. Today, in a time where society is concerned with the economic crisis and war, GE brings us back to one of the most important things: people. GE reminds us how many wonderful things the company does for people around the world. Our most basic and valued essentials, electricity, water, transportation, health, are contributed to by GE. Even further, the commercial focuses on what wonderful contributions that have made to our world today and how they continue to work toward innovations for tomorrow.
I think GE has done a wonderful job taking consumers back to the basic human needs, and showing the vast scale on which GE directly contributes to these efforts. They got these massages across without any voice over or actors, (except when GE really wanted to pull at our heartstrings – while making their reference to saving lives, cue the image of the children running).
Also, after our class discussion about the effects that music can have the effectiveness of an advertisement, it was interesting to read the comments below this youtube post where people are taking about how great the song is in this commercial, and inquiring about the artist. Had this commercial been accompanied by a different song, I wonder if it would have been received differently.
Overall I think that GE did a great job appealing to our vaules and bringing personal relevance into their message. Their use of music and images were just the icing on the cake.
Daddy Dearest
Posted by: | CommentsThis is one of a series of media ads that encourages fathers to be a part of their children’s’ lives. Sponsored by the Advertising Council, the US Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families Office of Family Assistance, and the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse, these ads were launched coinciding with Father’s Day. The reason this campaign was launched is because millions of children live without their biological fathers and are more likely to be poor, use drugs, experience educational, heath, emotional, and behavioral problems, among other things.
The series of television spots created through this campaign applies to people through humor and depicting a diverse range of family types. I found this ad to be my favorite because the ad depicts a father helping his daughter in ways not many fathers would. The other spots can be seen at http://www.fatherhood.gov/media/tv/index.cfm.
The series shows a diverse range of relationships between father and daughter or father and son. With the popular belief that money equals happiness, this campaign serves to portray the value that family is happiness. The variety of the roles depicted through these television spots also serves to reverse gender stereotypes where the father practices cheerleading with his daughter (commonly believed to strictly be a girls’ activity) or the father makes lunch for his son (believed to be the mother’s job).
One of the main reasons I believe this campaign to be socially responsible is because it wants to fight community evils like theft, drug abuse, educational issues, and much more by showing how father child relationships can make people happier. Yes this campaign mainly endorses father children relationships, but it also serves to encourage healthy marriages. Culture, background, and life experiences all influence consumer behavior and buying decisions. The campaign for responsible fatherhood serves to promote the health and happiness of consumers and their life experiences.
“I’ll Be There” – State Farm
Posted by: | CommentsState Farm launched a great campaign this month in reflection of the season of thankfulness. Why not spend time thanking others for being there – State Farm offered a great way for consumers to do this, and it plays along really well with their tag line of “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.” They really play well with relating their tag line to the consumers.
I believe this ad really adds relevance to the consumer, and the song choice is really important (especially in this particular video) – I’ll Be There by Jackson Five.
I think there are very few companies who can do this well – and I applaud State Farm for their efforts. They are giving consumers the opportunity to send a thank you note to others thanking them to be there. The commercial doesn’t focus on anything about State Farm, just on others doing good deeds, and then at the end it offers their tag line. What is your input on companies utilizing holidays to help with their brand image?
Way to go, State Farm!
Macy’s: “Come Together” Around the Dinner Table
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Last month, Macy’s launched COME TOGETHER, a novel fundraising campaign that successfully raised enough funds to feed 10 million people suffering from hunger in the United States. In conjunction with FeedingAmerica, it used a multi-platform approach to reaching its goal: people could choose to HOST, GIVE, or SHOP to donate, either in its retail stores or online.
HOST: Across the country, people hosted dinner parties, and instead of bringing the traditional hostess gift, guests were asked to donate to FeedingAmeerica. The hosts could go to www.macys.com/cometogether to get ideas for themes from Martha Stewart, send out invitations, and find recipes from such celebrated chefs as Emeril Lagasse.
GIVE: People could donate $1 at any Macy’s register, which provides dinner for seven, any time they shopped.
SHOP: Food banks across the nation sold $5 tickets that enabled shoppers to get special in-store savings on October 17th, online and in retail stores; a portion of the $5 would benefit FeedingAmerica. Macy’s also hosted nationwide events such as VIP dinner parties with Martha Stewart and Emeril Lagasse to raise awareness and fundraise.
The “Come Together” commercial features a star-studded cast. Both the commercial and the campaign encouraged a return to values such as community, sharing meals at the dinner table, and facilitated simple ways we can give back to the community even as we are buying things for ourselves. I think Macy’s did a wonderful job of taking into account how people are not eating out as much due to the recession, and how they could use this to the advantage of this campaign by inviting people to host at-home dinner parties and donate to those less-fortunate at the same time. The website garners affective involvement from its viewers, as does the song “Come Together,” by the Beatles. The song and the commercial encompass the central message of the campaign: we must come together, whether a celebrity, employee, or anyone, and do our part to be socially responsible; moreover, in keeping with the classical liberalism mindset, it provides incentives to give because it benefits us as well in that as shoppers and hosts, we enjoy quality time with friends and family, throw parties, and shop discounted products at the retail stores. The commercial and website garners attention with the long list of celebrities that appear; for viewers today, they represent a reference group of people who are admired. These stars, such as Usher, Queen Latifah, and Jessica Simpson, are using their fame for good ends by helping Macy’s “Come Together” campaign. Furthermore, it is fitting as these celebrities are all Macy’s “Star” Designers, and the commercial shows them eating at Macy’s with employees of the store (all part of the Macy’s community). There is a clear association with all the elements of the commercial, from the food being offering to the “Star” Designers to the song clearly asking us to come together not only at the dinner table, but as a nation to help one another.
