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":

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

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:

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

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.

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.


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:



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.

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.

Race

1. Is it ever right to racially stereotype for advertising purposes?

This question gets a little tricky. On one end of the spectrum, no, it's ethically and morally wrong to racially stereotype against anyone in order to get a product/service sold. On the other end of the spectrum, advertisements have to appeal to a target audience in order for that product/service to be sold. However, I think advertisements can appeal to a specific audience without having to racially stereotype.
For example:

The ad below is clearly not okay. This ad for Hershey's chocolate racially stereotypes African American people.


The ad below is much better at appealing towards specific (racial) target audience without being racist.
   

2. Is racism in ad's a thing of the past?

Unfortunately no, racist advertisements still exist in today's society. For example, the Mountain Dew commercial by Tyler the creator (that was shown in class) was released not too long ago. With that being said, I think viewers are very quick to react to a racially inappropriate ad which results in that ad being pulled quickly. Although their are still racist ad's being released in today's society, our tolerance for them is non-existent unlike back in the day.

3. Do advertisers have ethical responsibilities?

Absolutely! Advertisers that lack ethical responsibilities should not exist. In fact, I believe that if an ad agency continuously produces and releases unethical ad's, no one will buy their product/service and that ad agency will run themselves out of business. 

Semiotics

Print Ad: 

Signifier: Foot and nose
Signified: Smelly feet.
This ad tells me that if I buy this product then I won't have smelly feet. This ad also tells me that if I buy this product then other people won't have to smell the odor from my feet.

Click it or ticket/Save a life outdoor ad:
Signifier: Smashed car with the words "They buckled up and lived"
Signified: Even if you get in a car crash you're chances of living are higher if you buckle your seat belt.

Mountain Dew KickStart SuperBowl Ad:
Signifier: Three male young adult's hanging out drinking Mountain Dew KickStart. After drinking Mountain Dew KickStart the males start dancing along with everything else in the room.
Signified: Mountain Dew KickStart gives you energy

SuperBowl Commercials 2015

The Doritos commercials were my favorite commercials that aired during the 2015 SuperBowl. I especially liked the Doritos commercial with the father driving his car and his two kids are in the backseat asking for some of his Doritos. The father tells the kids he can't give them some of his Doritos because he can't reach the backseat of his car (which he clearly can.) As he is telling his kids this lie, a cop pulls up with their sirens on indicating that he needs to pull over. Both the kids look at each other and come up with the master plan of writing a note saying "HELP this is not our father" and holding it up to the window so that the cop sees it. Once the cop sees the kids note, the cop takes the father out of his car to arrest him, while the kids take their fathers Doritos and start snacking on them. While the kids are snacking on the Doritos, they call their mom and say "Mom, I think Dad is going to be a little late tonight." I thought this commercial was funny, cute, and effective. The brand story is communicated through this piece of storytelling by appealing to all genders and ages. This commercial told me that no matter what age or gender, everyone loves Doritos and will do whatever it takes to get their hands on a bag. It was crucial that this ad was played during the SuperBowl because 114.4 million viewers were watching. The 114.4 million viewers that were watching varied in age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc making it critical that each ad focus on reaching the largest target audience possible. The Doritos ad did a great job at doing this throughout their series of different ad's in the SuperBowl. As far as the Doritos ad I discussed before, the creators did a great job at reaching fathers and children. It is also important for businesses to be a SuperBowl commercial because it shows other businesses how successful they are and what their competition is. It costs a great deal of money to have a 30 second ad in the SuperBowl. Therefore, the businesses that are able to be in the SuperBowl commercials shows everyone that they are one of the top businesses around.

Havas Worldwide

Havas Worldwide is an ad agency that caught my eye while researching the wide array of different agencies that are available in today's society. One of the intriguing features of Havas Worldwide is that they "create meaningful connections between people and brands through creativity, media, and innovation." Havas Worldwide's technique on reaching out and making product-consumer connections is efficient, effective, and smart. Their technique is efficient and effective because they know that "advertising is no longer about ads. It's about brilliantly integrating creative ideas" through media. Havas Worldwide's technique is also smart because in today's society, media is the only way to get consumers to even look at what they are pitching. Havas Worldwide combines creative ideas and the media resulting in successful consumer-product connections. Some of Havas Worldwide successful work consists of: Durex, Lacoste, Disneyland Paris, Evian, Sauza Tequila, IKEA, Virgin Mobile, McDonald's, and my favorite Dos Equi's. Havas Worldwide "made Dos Equi's the #1 brand on Facebook across both beer and spirits 9now with 2 million+ fans) setting a category record." Now if that's not powerful, successful, and a creative ad agency, I'm not sure what is.