Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Day In the Life of: Stella Artois




For this blog post I will analyze the Stella Artois print advertisement below and figure out who the target audience is by writing a narrative of their typical "day in the life":
Image result for stella artois la vie print ad

I will do this by answering the following questions: 

1. Gender split: Appeals towards males that drink beer and like women 
2. Age: 21-35
3. Marital Status: Single 
4. Job: Decent paying job, above minimum wage considering that this ad takes place in a tropical/beach location 
5. Car: Decent to upscale car 
6. Urban/Rural: Urban because of the Stella Artois can display
7. Grocery Store: Maybe shops at Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Sprouts, or any super market chain 
8. Favorite Clothing Brands: Express, Macy's, Banana Republic, J Crew  
9. Favorite Music: Classic rock 
10. Favorite Movies: Blow, American Gangster 
11. TV Shows: Sports center
12. Alcoholic Drink: STELLA ARTOIS of course! Most likely beer or dark liquors 
13. Non-Alcoholic Drink: Sparkling water, ginger ale, arnold palmers 
14. Favorite Type of Eatery: Steakhouse 
15. Fragrance: Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, 
16. Sporting Activity: Anything! Probably football, hockey, soccer, basketball, etc 
17. Vacation Destination: Tropical 
18. Dog or cat: Dog 
19. Kid's Name: No kids yet but probably a Kyle, Chris, Marcus 
20. Mac or PC: Mac 



Gucci & Pelligrino Ad

Here is the link to the semiotic analysis of the Gucci & Pelligrino ad we looked at in class:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iiTdZAxdeoSSzHaCAyMy-2oBbzT1Ou-FKlxan_oH9ss/edit?usp=sharing

Monday, March 16, 2015

Consumer Behavior: Air France

Last week we looked at consumer behavior: definition and influences. I learned that consumers are influenced by external influences, internal processes, and post-decision processes. External influences refers to the consumers culture, the ideas, customs and social behavior of a particular people or society. External influences can be religious/ethnic influences, age, gender, reference groups, and/or social class. Internal processes refers to consumers motivation, perception, attitude, knowledge, judgement, and decision making. Consumers are also influenced by their post purchase. If the the consumer was satisfied with their product or service they will most likely be back for more and vice versa. After learning all the information above, we then had to take that knowledge and apply it to the AirFrance advertisement below:

Image result for air france ad

I thought this AirFrance advertisement appealed both towards single males and females ages 25-37. The target audience for this advertisement probably has a well-paying job considering that they are thinking of traveling to France. The target audience probably has a expensive fancy car. The target audience most likely shops at high-end grocery stores such as Whole Foods or Sprouts. Their choice in clothing is probably upscale while their taste in music is classical. 
 For the female target audience: She probably watch soap operas, reality TV, cheesy love movies. She most likely drink a martini or white wine. Her favorite fragrance is something upscale like Dolce & Gabbana or Chanel. Her favorite sporting activity is tennis or badminton. She is definitely a cat person. She probably has a child named William or Henry.  

As far as the male target audience goes: He probably watch Wolf of Wallstreet or some type of sleazy movie or TV shows where the guy gets away with cheating or stealing. His favorite drink is probably scotch or whiskey on the rocks...Something very masculine. He probably likes watching football, basketball, rugby, or soccer. He most likely upscale fragrances. He is a dog kind of person with no kids and chooses Mac over PC. 

I think this ad appeals more towards males because it seems like the women in the ad could be his mistress. The type of guy that this ad appeals to probably left his wife at home with the impression that he is going on a business trip for the weekend when in reality he is taking another women to France. 

However, this ad could appeal towards women as it could be a business women flying to France for a business trip. Although she is all business, AirFrance makes her feel like she is flying to a vacation spot rather than going to France on a business trip.  

Political Manifesto

Here is the link to my group's political manifesto for Net Neutrality:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1VGe9H3IUK3165h1R9Y9mbMsTGwKcxClif1WN83HEKDA/edit?usp=sharing

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Enviromental Campaign

For this weeks environmental campaign blog post I checked out the Surfrider Foundation. The Surfrider Foundation's "core activities and campaigns are used to protect our oceans, waves, and beaches." They are able to accomplish this task by placing each environmental issue that they strive to fix into categories such as: Clean Water, Beach Access, Beach Preservation, and Protecting Special Places. The Surfrider Foundation has had 305 victories since 1/1/2006. One of those victories was the Oahu Smoking Ban which is part of the beach preservation category. The Surfrider Foundation's goal for this particular campaign was to ban smoking on Oahu's South Shore beaches and parks. This bill was unanimously passes and are now pushing for an island-wide ban. Amazingly, Oahu "will become the second county in Hawaii to ban smoking in all of its public parks and beaches." The Oahu smoking ban was successful due to the Hold Onto Your Butt's campaign "which offers an onramp to help people to understand some of the above-mentioned issues and why why they should not litter." The Hold Onto Your Butt's campaign gained awareness with the public through social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Flickr. From what I gathered, the Surfrider Foundation really utilized Twitter , Facebook, and Youtube as their main sources of reaching out to raise awareness. The Surfrider Foundation's Twitter exploited specific hashtags, Twitter handles, lists, tweets, staff members, stats, piggybacking tactics, and much more.  Their Facebook page "reflected their brand" by "creating a landing page for fans/non fans, creating a cause, allowing Facebook friends to post [on their page], integrated channels, events, Facebook questions, video uploads, discussions, and contests." Through Facebook the Surfrider foundation was able to gain insights about thoughts, opinions, demographics, and any other question, thought, issue that followers had. As far as their Youtube goes, they decided to make a funny or compelling video instead of a sad one, build stewardship with video, hold contests, and encourage supporters to upload their own videos. The campaign tactics that the Surfrider Foundation has in place are efficient and effective as (like I said before) they have had 305 victories and those numbers are still growing. Personally, I really like the way they campaign on Youtube. I think it's really effective to have funny videos rather than talking about how terrible we are with the way we treat our planet. I also like how they have people upload their own video showing what their fans are doing to save the planet. I also think its effective to hold contests because it gets their fans involved and excited to be apart of the Surfrider Foundation team.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Gender Sterotypes

For this week's blog I looked into homosexual advertisements. I wanted to know if homosexuals were advertised in the media and how they were portrayed. I was pleasantly surprised to see that homosexuals ads exist and for the most part are portrayed positively. In 1945 two ads were released that had unintentional homosexual connotations in them:

For Example: This ad for Camel cigarettes shows two male sailors getting ready together. One male is tying his sailors tie with a Camel cigarette in his mouth while the half naked (just got out of the shower) male is reaching over trying to take one of his cigarettes from his "brother" (sailing mate.) The sailor that is tying his tie tells his "brother" that he can borrow the jumper but not his Camels! Although this ad wasn't meant to target homosexuals, it comes off that way because just the simple concept of two men getting ready together is stereotyped as gay.










The ad below was also misrepresented as a homosexual ads as it shows three men waking up in their Nobelt Super Shorts together. One man is on the bed yawning with his pajama shirt open. The other two men are in the background. One is combing his hair back while the other one is dressing him. This ad is often misrepresented as a homosexual ad because to society three men waking up together is homosexual.
Homosexuality wasn't a part of mainstream media, so potentially homoerotic scenes were published in entirely innocent contexts.

Although the ads above were not meant to represent homosexuals, society viewed them as homosexual ads because of the actions being done in them. As later years followed, homosexual ads were released on purpose and represented the LGBT community in a positive light. For example:

1989: The gay community was essentially ignored by Madison Avenue for decades. Absolut made headlines when it began advertising in gay magazines The Advocate and After Dark.

Absolut released their Absolut rainbow bottle in 1989 because "the gay community was essentially ignored by Madison Avenue. Absolut made headlines when it began advertising in gay magazines The Advocate and After Dark" (businessinsider.com.)

In 1995 Guinness beer created "Men and women should never live together" video ad that featured a gay male couple. According to buisnessinsider.com, "Society was certainly evolving around the issues of gay rights, but we still had a long way to go. Even though it only showed a small peck on the cheek, the ad was never aired as a result of an aggressive backlash by anti-gay groups." 

In today's day homosexual ads are being released by big name companies such as Virgin America, Ray Ban, Chevy, Calvin Klein, Amtrac, JC Penny. I think it's great that big name companies are being fearless and releasing homosexual ads. Homosexuals have not fully reached the equality that is deserved but these big name companies are helping them get there by releasing homosexual ads. Doing this shows society that homosexuals are in this world and their sexuality is just as important and equal as any heterosexual person. Big name companies that release homosexual ads are also familiarizing society by showing them in your everyday ad.


Thursday, February 19, 2015

Gender & Race

Modern Family

1. The TV show, Modern Family absolutely reflects racial and gender diversity. For example, Cam and Mitch play a gay couple on the show and reflect gender diversity. Cam and Mitch also have an adopted Asian baby together. Gloria and Jay are an interracial couple that reflect racial diversity on the show. These diversities are important to show in the media because it shows other people that may or may not understand or accept these diversities, that they are absolutely normal and should not be looked down upon.

2. Their are absolutely race and gender stereotypes present in Modern Family. For example, Cam acts as the stereotypical flamboyant gay man while Mitch portrays his character as a bit more masculine. Gloria is portrayed as a stereotypical hot-tempered, loud, sassy, and sexy latin woman. Her husband, Jay, is portrayed as the stereotypical older white gentleman that is stubborn, wise, and rich.