Before I took this class i thought i was relatively aware of advertising. Boy was i wrong! I learned a lot of new things in the first few weeks of class then i have ever learned in my whole life. To expand one of the new things we learned was the media 'language' used by marketers to get you to buy there products. This blew my mind and made me wonder why i never thought of it before, but most times the media just gives you something that does not require you to think about it very much. For example we all have seen ads that advertise that their products are the 'best' well that just means its EQUAL to the other products out there! This really blew my mind since i always assumed that if it said best it meant best not equal to, i can actually just see all the products i have that claimedwhen i bought them that they are the 'best' and to think they are just as good as the ones that are cheaper. If you want something that works better then you have to have to look for ads that claim that they are 'better' but you have to prove that they do. Just recently Reebok was charged for claiming their Easytone shoes tone 'better' then the any others out there, well now they are getting sued for their false claim.
Here is the link to the story i read on it: http://cocoperez.com/2011-09-28-reebok-25-million-refund-federal-trade-commission-easytone-runtone-false-advertising
Another thing we learned which had me asking myself why did i not think of that before too, was advertising claims. First off i didn't even know there could be that many but again, i was wrong. The main claim is the weasel claims which are words that are used to advertise products. The biggest weasel word is 'help' which got me thinking "Hey, ads never ACTUALLY state that they get rid of acne or dandruff or anything like that." Wow this really opened my eyes wide and clear.
Here is an ad for head and shoulders shampoo for dandruff control, now i use one because i have a scalp condition and i obviously want to get it under control. When i look at the ad now after my teacher has explained the various ways in which marketers advertise to us i am able to piece it apart to better understand it. First it stakes that it "takes care" of dandruff not removes or gets rid of it, so i immediately know i am not gonna run out and buy it thinking its a miracle and is gonna get ride of dandruff. It also states that it "smells gorgeous" now i don't know about you but how can something smell gorgeous? Gorgeous is used to describe something visual not a shampoo, they could have used words like heavenly or wonderful, but do they? No. When i really think about it does it matter if your shampoo smells like a perfume should? After i take a shower i cant even detect the smell of the shampoo i used, neither could my sister or mom when i asked them. I want to buy i shampoo that is supposed to work for what it says it does not for its smell of roses and flowers. If you want to smell nice buy perfume or body spray, shampoo is to clean your hair not fragrance it. Now if we took this ad and put it in magazine, which gender do you think is more likely to take a second look at the ad while skimming the ad? If you guessed men you are correct! Why? Because it uses a women in a sexy nurse like outfit to advertise a shampoo which plays on men's hormones since it is referencing one of the most commonly used sexual fantasies. Does it not make you wonder why they would use a sexy nurse to advertise shampoo? This helps me to better understand the ads target audience which definitely involves men since most women when they see this just see shampoo and don't care too much for the women in it.
There are many other different other types of ad claims out there that more people should know. Next time you pass an ad really take a good look at it and question it, are they stating something obvious to all other products out there, are they best or better, it gives you more what, can they prove their claim? This course has already opened my eyes to advertising, now saying that it does not mean that that i will never buy anything advertised, and all advertising is fake, it means i will think about what they are selling me and if after that whether the product is worth me buying it. Knowing more can save you money.
All things mentioned in my blog are not to be taken as bashing or offencive, this is merely supposed to reveal what i have learned and how it can be applied. Thanks for reading and i will be posting again soon.
Copyright and all rights reserved: Head and shoulders ad http://www.jillgreenberg.com/Commissions/photos/advertising-one#/1
Some interesting ideas here... it's true that one of the things that ads often do is they SEEM to be saying something, when in reality, they are not. I'd guess that most people you talk to would insist that certain brands of toothpaste promise to get rid of cavities, but the ads (of course) cannot claim that.
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