Is Online Advertising More Effective Than T.V. Advertising?

Is online advertising taking over? It seems so. Most companies are going forward and reducing their television ad campaigns and increasing their online ads with videos on YouTube. Take Evian, for example, their Evian Roller Babies video was a campaign used strictly for the internet. The video was longer than the usual television commercial and yet captivated the viewers. There are enormous amounts of comments and hits on the YouTube video for Evian Roller Babies. Evian’s website has a link to the Roller Babies. There, you can find behind the scene shots, teasers, the making, and much more. The reliance on online advertising has grown over the last few years.

The explosion in Consumer Generated Media over the last couple of years means consumers’ reliance on word of mouth in the decision-making process, either from people they know or online consumers they don’t has increased significantly. -Jonathan Carson

The trust consumers put in each other these days is enough for companies to stop and re-think their advertising strategies. They are moving towards online advertising all over the world. According to experts at Direct Traffic Media, a survey was completed that used 25,000 people in 50 countries to study the effects of online advertising.

It is clear from the survey that online is a medium on the move and the trust levels in it as a category are building momentum. -Tahir Khali, a Nielsen spokesman for the Middle East

I believe that as this online obsession grows, so will online advertising. I, myself, am more likely to watch an ad online then on television, where I usually mute during commercials. Perhaps Evian has got the ball rolling, and soon, we will see more advertisements specified just for the internet.

2 Girls, 1 Sub

It’s Quiznos’ new tasty torpedo sub brought to you by Playboy. This viral ad was inspired by the ever-popular and disturbing ’2 girls 1 cup’ video which was banned from the internet last year. We all remember it. If you haven’t seen it, you’re going to have to watch it, and I apologize in advance. The video basically consists of two girls, vomit, feces, and well, a cup, all set in a disturbingly intimate setting. The late pornographic film was produced by MFX media and became well-known by bloggers and those on YouTube as everyone sought to record their reactions for others to see. Besides thousands of reactions, hundreds of parodies to this video were also created. The media and it’s channels recognized the video’s popularity and used it to it’s benefit, despite the obvious moral decline.

The ad ’2 girls 1 sub’ is a bit more humorous but equally unsettling. It speaks for itself mirroring its predecessor, while managing to advertise for two companies at once. Playboy and Quiznos manage to use the advertising technique that we have discussed in previous blogs. They take a viral video, or something widely familiar in the public, and use it in their campaign.

The goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to identify individuals with high Social Networking Potential (SNP) and create Viral Messages that appeal to this segment of the population and have a high probability of being passed along. – Mark Hughes, Buzzmarketing: Get People to Talk About your Stuff, 2005

There isn’t much else to add, other then the fact that we have reached an era where advertisers take desperate measures to catch viewers’ attention. I thought the video was funny, but it also reminded me why I never eat at Quiznos.

Craig’s Anti-Advertising

I was finding it difficult to discover a new topic to blog about. As I continued my research into the world of advertising I began to grow tired of my concentration on erotica, consumer generated content, and YouTube. I needed a new outlet to describe how the mass media operates throughout our society. I started going over lecture notes and a particular quote stuck out in my mind from last class.

Now we have a means for producing culture meanings and a way of doing it outside of the corporate content system. This process is of free of advertising but often advertising can latch on to it. We now have the potential to produce culture like one folk or local culture. -Dr. Strangelove

Last class had me wondering if our World could ever escape Capitalism. Being a fan of folk culture and at the same time a slave to consumerism I sought to find the instrument where I could satisfy both appetites. I wondered if there was in fact a tool that we can use that is free of advertisements. I have learnt that the goal of advertising is to provide us with something. It tells us what we want before the need for it is present. Meanings found in our everyday life are given to us through the mass media system which offer a small range of manners to which we can follow. So how do individuals get what they want without conforming to mass society?

Craigslist is a new type of network that I find to be anti-advertising. If you have ever looked at the classifieds in the newspaper, you will find Craigslist to be a similar tool found over the internet. The site holds information about job postings, houses for rent, and the ability to buy and sell goods. Visitors to the site can spend hours finding what they are looking for while being in the comfort of their own home. Unlike media channels such as television or magazines, Craigslist gives the opportunity for the individual to decide what it is they are seeking. This online shopping centre is categorized so that those with specific intentions can find what they are looking for at a price that is negotiable. Those who are simply there to browse will find it to be a network with no pressures or brackets to abide by. Craigslist has no specific demand.

Will Craigslist and other internet trade posts like Kijiji be the killer of capitalism? Although uniqueness determined by the individual is now allowed, consumption still occurs. Products of all shapes, sizes, and brand names are bought and sold throughout this network with no specific producer. So to me, it seems we aren’t really being suckers to the market because we don’t have limited choices. Well, really we do, but we aren’t necessarily being pushed into what we should like. When people make postings, they most often use pictures and describe the minor details of the product, then you are able to decide. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a posting on Craigslist where someone has provided the image of a donkeypunch to get me to buy their old sofa. So in the time we live in today, maybe Craigslist is a form of folk culture because it is the simple sharing of our basic desire to consume.

Where Do You Stand As A Decoder?

As discussed in this week’s lecture, there are a number of different types of responses in regards to textual analysis. This is important to understand, of course, when looking at various advertisements and aiming to convey the right message to the audience. The meaning that each one of us takes from the media can differ tremendously from person to person, or group to group, etc. The media may have a planned meaning or message they want to express, through codes, but we all may end up taking the meaning into our own hands.

The audience may choose to adopt various social identities from mass media codes, but they are not obligated to accept them directly. Decoding will differ among people who do not occupy similar social positions or share the same codes. This will result in decoding that is inconsistent with the intended meaning of the encoder.

Dr. Strangelove discussed this topic in terms of Stuart Hall’s model of mass communication. His model signified the importance of “active interpretation within relevant codes.”

Stuart Hall stressed the role of social positioning in the interpretation of mass media texts by different social groups.  –Daniel Chandler

Hall proposed that the audience/readers can stand in one of three different positions of interpretative codes and meanings:

The first type of decoding is known as the dominant-hegemonic reading. This is the main one, which represents the mass audience. The audience, in this case, would share the text codes and accept and reproduce the preferred meaning. This type of decoding also creates the brand personality. For example, many young women who follow different shows such as the Hills or Beverly Hills 90210, would fit into one type of group or style tribe. The picture below depicts the style of dressing, for instance, that this group would share.

Sometimes, however, the text’s codes are not fully shared and the readers take their own spin on the meaning. This would be referred to as the negotiated reading. The preferred reading would be broadly accepted in this position with their own modification and twist to it as a result of their varying social position or stance. This allows them to agree while disagree with some points. An example Dr. Strangelove mentioned in class on this type of decoding is how two opposing politicians, for example Republicans and Liberals, can watch the same political movie, both enjoy it, but each take their own view of its meanings.

The last type of reading is known as oppositional. This position states that the reader would hold an opposing view on the text’s codes and reject the dominant-hegemonic meaning. The preferred reading would not be accepted in this case. An example of this would be feminism because they will outright dismiss any idea that would suggest women as powerless, etc. A feminist looking at the following ad would most definitely have an oppositional position against the reading.

This decoding model developed by Stuart Hall can be very useful when the mass media is communicating a specific idea. Depending on their target audience, they may be able to anticipate where most of the readers will fall. As mentioned in class by Dr. Strangelove, the masses will stand between the first and second position.

It is interesting to think about the different positions you may take when watching an advertisement or even a TV show during different segments. The media is out there attempting to instill an idea or belief in us, but it is up to us to decide if we agree to support the idea, reject it, or even negotiate its acceptance.

The Corporate American Dream

It’s called the American Dream ’cause you have to be asleep to believe it. -George Carlin

A few simple words by the great late George Carlin really puts into perspective how many non-Americans see the American Dream. The idea and ideal that keeping your head down, working hard, and following the rules will bring you to the top of the economic chain, is plain devious.

Immigrants come to America because it is free and a greta place to make a fresh start to become rich. Unfortunately, the reality is that social mobility within a capitalistic economic system is marginal. The only real changes are that the wealthy become richer and the disadvantaged become poorer. We have all heard about President Barack Obama’s rise from the middle class to the most powerful position in the free world. His story, however, is one in a million and considering race, has only occurred about once so far in this lifetime.

The American Dream instills in people a hope that someday they too can be like the wealthy. Once again the reality is that they are not a classless society and they do not rise together during times of prosperity. This dream is essentially the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. By instilling this hope into the American people, it attempts to remove the impulse for radical change (such as revolutions) and encourages people to be good citizens and to work hard.

Production systems disguise the origin of goods. -Karl Marx

The American Dream also covers up the true intentions that the upper class hold. The idea is that if we are constantly striding to become like the wealthy (great consumers of material items), then we too will be highly regarded. However, this desire to consume excessive amounts of good is crucial in ensuring that the middle class occupants will remain there. They are told by advertisers that this product or that product needs to be bought to make you happy. As long as these individuals keep attempting to make themselves happy, often with items which they cannot afford, the economic disparity between the rich and the poor will continue to expand.

The American Dream is just that- a dream. The citizens of the American middle class need to realize that dreams are fictional. They may reflect deep desires but they are not realistic. Yes, striving to accomplish these dreams is great but it is the personal well-being which is greater.

Shockingly Moving Towards Shockvertising

Shock advertising or “shockvertising” is the use of fightening (sic), offensive, taboo, and emotion-provoking words, images, or concepts to sell a product or an idea. – Justine P. Castellon, consumer strategist

Dr. Strangelove went through a number of ads with us in this week’s lecture on the new method of advertising and grabbing audience attention, through the use of “shockvertising.” As stated in the above quote, this method aims to use controversial and obscene ways to “shock” the consumers, and in turn, capture their attention. Some of the ways different companies have done this include children with company logos tattooed on their forehead, and using inmates to sell clothing. These ads are meant to stick into the consciousness of the audience due to their shocking nature.

Since we are subject to ads more then ever today, companies are going to extreme lengths to stand out next to other ads and leave an impact on the audience. In my opinion, it is working quite well with its intention to get people’s attention, as it has sparked controversy in the press and received tremendous coverage. It has also, however, angered some of its audience members who are not so fond of this new form of advertising.

An informative article from the AIGA Journal of Design suggests that there are numerous reasons for this move towards shockvertising. There is an over-abundance of media that we encounter everyday and technological changes that have triggered this new era of advertising. The increased forms of communication systems puts more pressure for increased advertising and to take advantage of the variety of connections to get their messages across. Furthermore, the media has also built a stronger “tolerance” towards controversial and stronger content, giving advertisers greater leeway in “acceptable” ads. The publicity that companies receive from their ads is also quite beneficial to them. They are getting their name and brand out there and receiving the attention they need, bad or good. What’s the limit to the amount of “bad” attention companies receive? Well, that’s the important question advertisers need to ask themselves to they don’t end up deterring their consumers away.

Whether this “shocking” way of advertising works depends on how it is used. Marylin Baxter, the chairman of Hall & Partners, a brand and communications research consultancy in London states:

If it is strategically sound to use it–like if you are radically re-positioning the brand–it may be important to shock people from what they are thinking now into thinking something else. It is a very contemporary way of doing advertising and something that agencies like HHCL or St. Luke’s are good at. They try to make people’s heads turn and start what they call ‘a dialogue.’

A well-known clothing company that is making full use of shockvertising is Benetton. It has used a variety of institutions that many choose to stay away from to shock its audience such as churches, sex, and even prisons. For this company, it has allowed them to gain criticism from the public which led to an increase in popularity and curiosity for their products. In addition, this later translated into increased sales for Benetton. Below are some examples, also shown in class, of the Benetton ads produced through the use of shockvertising. Whether some agree with this new form of advertising or not, it’s clearly doing what it intends to do and that’s to catch our attention.

GMC (Great Marketing Content)

We expect this to be a completely reciprocal relationship because what we expect to learn from them is how to create messages that truly resinate with their peer group. -General Motors

When General Motors posted this video it really showed that the company understands that the future of advertising (or at  least part of it) is in the hands of the consumers and young people. They opened the competition to college kids which is a good idea because already they know these people will be better educated than just some “Joe” on average. They also see the potential growth in the individual as well as possible future marketeers for themself.

Now don’t get me wrong but a business is a business and even though a company is giving away a car or even a $1,000,000, the company is still saving a lot of time, money and even embarrassment by getting someone else to create the video for them.

The more competitions that are created will create  more buzz and eventually the traditional mode of production of advertising will cease to exist.

 

Outta Sight Clothing

Well after 3 long hours, 2 different ideas and 1 almost naked boy, here is the 60 second masterpiece. -Jordan Laurin

Well, the first part of our video is officially completed. We created a brand as well as a product which we thought would be suitable for our project. Our project is directed at showing how corporations are using their consumers to sell their products. A company will post a competition which asks the consumers to create their own video advertisements. There are usually websites or YouTube that keep track of the hits and comments. From the advertisers point of view, this is essentially a data mine of information. Our video looks at the cost and benefits of doing internet advertising with YouTube. But for now, here is our ad on YouTube for Outta Sight Clothing. 

 

Wigged Out

In early 2007, “Bride Has Massive Hair Wig Out” was uploaded onto Youtube. The six-minute clip features a bride (Jodi Behan) who is so unhappy with her hairstyle on her wedding day that she starts to cut her own hair. Within two weeks, the clip had been viewed over two million times and had reached the news media. A lot of debate erupted on whether this clip was real or in fact staged. After a month, the origins of the film were revealed. The whole thing had been produced by Toronto’s Capital C advertising agency to promote Unilever’s Sunsilk haircare prodcuts. Several more fake films had been planned but with the success of the first bridezilla, Sunsilk was able to use the phrase ‘wig out’ in their ad campaign.

This was an extremely successful use of YouTube to promote a product to customers. The term used is viral video. A viral video consists of a video clip that gains popularity through the process of internet sharing. This particular ‘wigged out’ video was initially only sent out to approximately twelve people. Internet celebrities are also created and promotion for products or music found in the clip is also found to gain popularity. John Griffith of Capital C advertising agency in Toronto stated,

It didn’t matter to us whether people believed it or didn’t believe it – just as long as they were watching it, sharing it with their friends and talking about it,

in regards to the Sunsilk viral video. However, promoting the Sunsilk product didn’t prove to be nearly as popular as the six minute video itself.

Ads Lie

Advertising affects each and everyone one of us, whether we choose to admit it or not. It creates a system of desires and persuades us that we “need” something, even though we really don’t. This fits really well with our world of capitalism, as we have become obsessed with acquisition. We have moved into a lifestyle that involves over-consumption that we view as being normal because of the messages we get from advertisements. This has led us to become over-stressed and also creates mass anxiety, because simply put, we are never good enough. We are put through this psychological process to induce us to purchase this product or service so that we can “become better.” An interesting quote Dr. Strangelove had on the board stated:

Advertising is distorted communication that normalizes mass obsession with goods. – Dr. Strangelove

This statement is unfortunately very true. Our increased acquisition with goods has led us to an unhealthy lifestyle that will never be good enough for us, because there will always be something better. Not only are these ads embedding us with a desire to “need” something, but the context in which we are persuaded is disturbing. The majority of the ads we see everyday are built around an upper-class society. These ads rarely portray a lower-class family or lifestyle, rather, the symbols represent a higher and elite lifestyle.  Smoking ads, for example like an older Camel ad seen below, portray smoking as legitimate by using upper-class people in them.

This is seen also in movies, where the context revolves around a higher class society, usually. For example, a movie involving a university/college would typically use an ivy-leaque type of school aimed more at an elite group. These uneven flow of symbols that we get from advertisements speak of the life we live, which is actually far from reality in which most of us really live. This lifestyle that is being portrayed is too large and not attainable to most of the population. We are constantly being flooded with symbols of “everyday life” that show a disconnect in how we are actually living. This is what creates the mass anxiety I mentioned before, and the increased debt Americans have. I came upon this quote which I found funny but also very true.

I do not read advertisements – I would spend all my time wanting things.

This quote, by Franz Kafka, is simple and I completely agree with it, even though I must admit I am very easily drawn in and manipulated by ads. As I stated before, they create needs that were never present before coming upon the ad. This best describes why we have shifted into a world where we over-consume and still believe that we are living a “normal” life. Thats what advertisers and advocates of capitalism want us to believe. Eventually, our biosphere will not be able to survive if this lifestyle continues.