INSPIRATION

I found a great website/blog! The inspiration room is website created to inspire all the creatives out there.

Check it out:


WWW.THEINSPIRATIONROOM.COM

LESSON EIGHT: APPEALS II

Advertising appeals aren't always categorized as informational or emotional. There are other appeals that are different and don't always fit these categories. Sometimes appeals can overlap in an ad.

Here's a list of different appeals:


Fantasy

Love

Self-importance

Humor

Nature

Glamour

Childhood



There are even more appeals that are used in advertising, and a many more ways to use them. Next time you spot an ad, think about the appeals that are used.

LESSON SEVEN: APPEALS I

Another aspect to consider when talking about advertising is APPEALS.

Appeals are similar to "messages/images" used in ads, but keep in mind the difference. Appeals specifically influence the way consumers think  of a product or service.


Some advertisers categorize appeals according to 2 main categories: informational/rational appeals and emotional appeals.


Examples of ads using informational/rational appeals:

Examples of ads using emotional appeals:

                                                               Emotion: self-esteem & pride

                                                          Emotion: joy, sentiment, & pleasure


Some ads incorprate BOTH informational and emotional appeals:



LESSON SIX: The World of Luxury Advertising

In the last post, we talked about images and messages used in advertising. These messages are what is generally used. Specific products require specific types of messages.

We will now look at advertising in the luxury market. I attended a talk by Mac McClelland, who is president and CEO of the Luxury Marketing Council in the Middle East.

He talked about how luxury brands advertise themselves through stories (i.e. messages).




I've compiled a list of some of  the different stories McClleland talked about in his presentation:



1- STORY OF SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE

Rolex ad

2-  STORY OF SOPHISTICATION

                                                             Patek Phillipe Generations ad




3-  STORY OF COLLABORATION

Lacoste & Zaha Hadid ad

5- STORY OF INNOVATION

Swarovski crystallized elements ad

6- STORY OF HERITAGE

                                                                 Breguet Napoleon ad




7- STORY OF PROVENANCE

Dunhill ad - Great Britain

LESSON FIVE: The Truth about advertising....

What does advertising ultimately seek to achieve?

PERSUASION

Yes! That's it. The true function of advertising is to persuade us that that product/service is the best, and we should pay money to have it!

Since saying that clear and out loud has become old and does not work on consumers today, advertisers are challenged everyday to create new means that will attract consumers.

Ads disguise themselves as:
Art
Cultural Jams
Entertainment

What kind of messages or images ads try to convey?
Desire
Envey
A better life
Prestige
Tradition
Authenticity
Wealth
Family
Belonging
Exotcism

If we look at envy in ads. This type of advertising takes an average person who is most likely dissatisfied with his/her life. Then comes the product that will change that person's life. That person is transformed into a more glamorous self. This will stir envy in consumers who are also dissatisfied with their lives, who then will try to emulate the transformation seen in the ad.

Fair and Lovely ad

This ad is trageted towards women (or men) who suffer from brown spots or skin discoloration. Envy is a major part of this ad. First, we see Lama (girl in the ad) graduating from college on her way to start a career. HOWEVER, she is faced with difficulties. As she says "The obstacle to obtaining my dream job was my skin." After using the product, Lama gets ahead in her career PLUS she gets the guy!!

Al Wataniya (telecommunication company) ad

This ad was one of my personal favorites the past Ramadan. It played on a number of messages/images. First was tradition, most Arab families get together regualarly with their extended families during Ramadan. The second image was of family. The song accompanying the ad was like narrative of a person talking about his different family members and what made them special. Those family members and images can be found in almost any family: the little neice who suddenly is all grown up, the aunt who is happy playing hostess, the cousin whose plate is always piled with food... The final message of the video os the message of belonging. Those 3 message/images overlap and come together to create a unique message aimed at the average Arab consumer. We might relate to the ad, but that doesn't mean there isn't chaos, problems, or misunderstandings when families get together. Ads idealize the family setting, and present them as an image of security and harmony. In the world of ads families have NO problems that cannot be solved by a product or service.

LESSON FOUR: MEANING

In the previous blog post, I mentioned how you might decode an ad differently than I would have. This is because it is not the producer of the ad (or any other media) who decides the meaning. Meaning is decided by the viewer.

We all go through the process of socialization. Socialization is what we learn from the people around us and our environment. Socialization decided who we are, what we wear, and how things are supposed to be done. A child raised in family who value honesty and reinforce it daily is less likely to lie than child whose parents lie to him/her frequently.

Every viewer individually assigns meaning to media texts. The meaning a viewer assigns to a media text is less likely to be the exact same meaning the producer intended for it to be.

Different people assign different meaning to a text. Is there a dominant meaning? No one really knows! We can say that they are many possible meanings. Even within the same country or social group meaning will vary.

This idea can be really tried and tested with ads. Have you ever seen an ad that everyone thought was funny but you just didn’t get it? A great example here in the UAE is that many ads are imported from different countries. The Emirati viewer was not considered in the making of these ads, hence the meaning the Emirati assigned is more likely to be extremely different than the intended meaning.

Here are some western ads that were transplanted in the UAE media:

  Pizza Hut Dot Commercial dubbed in Arabic

             Pepsi commercial - In the Arabic version Amr Diab (Egyptian singer) played the role of the roman emperor while in the western version it was played by Enrique Iglesias

Questions to ask yourself:

- What was the meaning YOU assigned to each ad?

- Do you believe it is different from the meaning intended by PRODUCER of the ads?

- How might a WESTERN audience decode this ad differently?

LESSON THREE: MEDIA TEXTS & SEMIOTICS

Media text is any form of media; print, audio, and/or video. It can be a photo in ad, the written words in an ad, an article in a newspaper....

Since we are focusing on ads, the media texts we will be talking about will be the words in an ad, the photo, the video, and sounds.

Media texts are used for purpose of analyzing the media. A way to better understand the messages sent to us through the media. How do we do that? We understand the semiotics and codes present in the text. Another way to put this, imagine media as a language with its own set of signs and codes just like any other language. To understand the language you must learn its signs and codes.

One thing to keep in mind though, is that the signs and symbols in media texts are not uniform messages. They depend on the culture of the person deciphering them. The way I might decode an ad is different from how someone else from another country might.