Street Advertisement

Ive been noticing lately that there are companies that are starting to pay for advertising on public and private buildings.  This street advertising is something that really stands out because when you notice a huge advertisement painted on someone's house in very bright colors its difficult to not pay attention to it.  Its possible to sell your private home as ad space now by allowing a company to paint their ad's on it for a limited time.  I think this is a very good concept because it gives home owners an incentive with a cheaper mortgage or paying them upfront.  Its interesting because although it may not be so appealing to the neighbors, anyone who passes by the house will have to notice the advertising on it.  We also are seeing this a lot with buildings in cities.  Owners are allowing advertising on their store fronts and buildings and receiving money for their ad space.  This is just reason to show how advertising is completely consuming our culture and becoming much more enthralled into our lives.

Hand Stamp Advertising

So I stumbled upon this type of advertising and I thought that it was an innovative new way advertisers are trying to reach a more local market.  This type of advertising is literally what it sounds like, for people entering night clubs aswell as concerts they are now beginning to put advertisements on the stamps that show you paid to get in.  Im not exactly sure how you can buy advertising this way but most likely a company would just pay to use there stamp for the event.  Although hand stamps arent a huge and significant advertisement, its something that everyone notices because you always look at the stamp someone is putting on your hand.  And if it is an advertisement they have gained your attention by publishing it on your body.  This will stay with you throughout the night and its likely you wont forget the ad that was placed on your hand, since its directly fixed onto you.  I think this is just another creative way advertisers are getting closer to consumers.

Newspaper Advertising

Is this still a viable medium for advertisers to be using to reach the masses?

Honestly I believe that newspaper advertising is not worth the effort and money.  If you are advertising to a specific market that you know reads that paper I believe its viable, but for the most part newspapers are becoming less and less viable as a medium.  People get there news from the TV and internet a lot more now then ever and buying a newspaper is becoming unnecessary in mainstream America.  With news much more accessible other sources and places I feel like newspapers are only for those who have bonded a readership with the writers of their favorite papers and Its not really mainstream anymore.  I think newspapers are turning downhill with less readership but more avid and dedicated readers.  So unless you have a target market for these papers i don't think you can advertise to a mass audience its more of a segmented readership.

Leaning Towards Visual Copy

So after today's lecture I thought it was really interesting how little text some advertisements are starting to have and I began to think more about why this is happening.  I think that text isnt a bad thing at all, in fact if people are really interested i think the best way to get to them is to provide that information that inspires people to seek more information about the product being advertised.  I think that the reason we are turning towards more visual ads is because it has a much more powerful impact on the viewer.  We can understand language but to see the visual is completely different.  With a visual the company can show exactly what they want viewers to get out of it.  Another strong feature of visuals is that they can fool our eyes.  With visuals some amazingly creative ads can be created such as the amnesty ads i talked about earlier.  I think that as text fades more and more visuals will definitly be there to pick up the slack.

Reflective Advertising

I was stumbling around the internet today and I found this video by mcdonalds which I think is a really innovating new type of billboard ad that should be implemented everywhere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAKPaDcq0_E&feature=player_embedded

This would allow both day and nighttime advertising anywhere.  Twice the time exposure for a billboard I think that's a really awesome Idea they used and although I don't think mcdonalds needs to keep advertising haha that's a creative new way.  I think more companies should work to do this even if they are not open late, it still provides more opportunity for exposure

Walking Billboards

I was asked to do an assignment to attempt to avoid advertising for a day for my persuasion class.  Its obvious that this was an impossible task but it helped me to think about what the hardest advertising to avoid is.  You would think its internet ad's since they are on every page you go on, but honestly I believe that people are the hardest advertisers to avoid.  What people wear, what logos, what clothes and what people want to buy I think is a huge drive on the advertising front.  When people chose to wear logo'd clothing like nike they are advertising for them.  Social proof between people increases this even more and people themselves become a walking billboard for these major companies.

Advertisings Influence

Advertising is helping to mold our society.  The way that it is accomplishing this is that it is reaffirming the beliefs that our society sets on itself.  It does such a great job at reaffirming this and advertising is so involved in our lives that it also has the ability to mold society into whatever it desires.  Advertising like other media has such a strong impact on our lives that I believe good advertising can be a driving force behind important issues in today's world.  Advertising is about getting the word out, and it works well in some circumstances, but I believe that many of the same tactics of this business could be taken and used to better society as a whole.  Unfortunately this is a long forgotten thing in the minds of the owners of these media outlets and advertisement agency's.  In a world that revolves around money, its not about what is best for society it is about whats best for the pockets of owners.  Why change something when they profit so much off how it works?  In their eyes there is no bigger picture and that is a loss for our society, when right now is the time we need to correct the direction our society is heading in.

Social Media Advertising

Everyone sees the ad's on the side bar of Facebook and other social media websites, and if you take a good look most of the time they are about topics you may be interested in.  The reason behind this is because everywhere you go and everything you do is tracked by the websites you use.  This information is then sold to advertisers who tailor the messages on these social media websites so that they are more appealing and interesting.  This market segmentation of advertising i think is a very very strong development on the end of the advertisement industry.  But on the same time the internet is a open source not really monitored by anyone.  And i think that this sort of tracking and breach of privacy is a very unethical one.  I think that advertising should not be shoved in your face and invading your life.  Good advertising doesn't have be shoved in your face, it should catch your eye and intrigue you.

Direct Mail?

Honestly before last weekend I was completely against direct mail advertisement.  I went home over break and my family wanted to take me out to dinner.  They had heard about a new restaurant through direct mail advertising and coupons that had been sent to them.  I was skeptical but honestly the food was great, the atmosphere was a little misleading it turned out to be a small Chinese restaurant with mostly take out, but the food there was of a much higher quality then Ive had at other similar establishments.  I'm still skeptical because direct mail advertising is misleading and the tactics used i believe play mostly on emotional flaws that we have as humans.  A lot of advertisements try to appeal to our emotions without really giving us any information and I don't think I would have every visited that restaurant knowing how i feel about direct mail.  But I think it is appealing to an older generation who is more used to hard copy information.

Pop Ups

I really wonder if pop up advertisement & other online advertisement actually works.  I personally don't find anything that interesting where i would click on a sidebar ad.  So i really wonder how this system that is in place continues to sustain itself.  I guess people have too much faith in what that advertisement is going to bring them too, but in reality i don't think that these advertisements are even worth the effort.  They are bothersome and annoying and that's a turn off to people, that would then lead to a turn off in your product.  Advertising is supposed to catch your eye and deliver you the message, not annoy you to death.  Online ad's are everywhere and they are what run many websites and small online companies.  The system is working for the website owners, but i struggle to understand how it helps people who pay for these ads.

Creativity For Cheap

So to continue on with the advertising like amnesty I posted last week, I began to look into more creative types of adverting that relativity does not cost more money, but I think the message and impact are on a far greater scale if the advertisement is interactive and is relative to your actual life.  As I was looking I cam across a website that shows exactly what I mean. 

http://www.graphicmania.net/40-mind-blowing-creative-advertising-ideas/

 I think that this type of creative advertising has so much more potential, and that it should be tapped into by these big corporations.  Not only does it get involved with the world around you, it makes you stop and stare and understand the message.  Its an ad that sticks out and catches your attention, that's what good advertising is isn't it?

Amnesty International

After completing a presentation for my public relations class I realized how effective some of the ads were for this company my presentation was on.  My presentation was on Amnesty International which was an organization to help stop world injustices.  Their ads are very unique because they use very bold, and straight forward messages.  They aren't fond of much text and focus on the meaning behind the picture they show.  They also use the environment around them to help portray their message.  I encourage you to google images them and see what I mean

The Superbowl

After watching the Superbowl and the advertisements that everyone has come to expect, I have noticed how much advertising has changed over the years with the ever-growing popularity of the super bowl.  Compared to advertising every other normal day of the year, super bowl advertising is in a entire league of its own.  It has transformed into a competition for entertainment.  Each commercial is not really an advertisement, its a story.  Every company is trying to win the hearts of viewers, but I believe that it has taken away from the product itself. Its not about the product now, but about which story will provide the most entertainment.  I enjoy them myself they are very entertaining, but I think they have been getting way more over the top searching for that "shock" value people will remember, just for the sake of becoming the best ad.