This is a tricky assignment? What do we consider "good" here? I mean, there is a divide between a morally good ad or an effective ad. I think that the best ad would be one that is both effective and ethical, but there is a problem with this. A well known and well exploited fact in the advertising world is that SEX SELLS. I would imagine that if you had just glanced at my blog right now, you would only remember the world sex in all caps. So there you have it.
I consider any ad that plays on this base instinct(either blatantly or indirectly)unethical. It's kind of like cheating. That being said, if I were in advertising, I would probably use this technique just like everybody else. For the ads I am looking for then, it is hard to know what to present. What might be a brilliantly effective ad may be immoral, so is it good? I am going to throw up some ads and say accept the traditional moral value of "good". So the "bad" ads are bad because I think that they are immoralish, nothing to do with effectiveness.
BAD ADS first:
This is EXACTLY what I was talking about with the sex sells. The PS3 is (pardon me here) an ugly fat chick, and the Wii is a hott blond chick. They are dressed accordingly, and the points differing the two are presented through innuendo. Especially when teh blond says that she all one has to do is touch her for a good time and that she is "cheap". I call this one effective, but bad.
Another example of a REALLY bad ad that I don't have a copy of(sadly) but that Prof Robinson mentioned in class is the Mr. Sparky's ad. I HATE this ad. It is poorly done, cheesy, and so *#%!ing annoying that I swore that I would NEVER use this service just to spite them. The voice of the lady is terrible, and the attempt at fixing a ceiling fan and the resulting problems were just to cheestastic to take.
Some other bad ads(morally speaking) are these whiskey ads. Avert your eyes if you aren't into looking at scantily clad chicks, and you shouldn't be.
Now the GOOD ADS:
I don't know about you folks, but I really don't want to smoke now. (not that I ever did). This is a simple, impacting ad. I will remember this one for a long time, and it conveys its message well, smoking hooks you. I call it a good one.
I gotta hand it to these people, they took a subject that relates entirely to sex and marketed it in a humorous and informative way. There were no scanty women or suggestive stuff, just a dude out there without protection in a situation that calls for it. What do condoms do? Protect. There you go. I think this was a good one for those reasons.
Here is a bonus. I just thought this was a sweet ad on a truck. I would look at this and mention it to people, and I suppose that is the real point of advertising. Their product, on my mind.
» Is advertising effective? Why? List some examples of where it did and did not influence one of your buying decision.
Advertising effective??? what an idiotic question. I'm sorry whoever ends up reading this, but it is a multi-BILLION dollar industry, so I am pretty sure there's something to it. Sure there are varying degrees of effectiveness, but that question is lame. I think that an ad becomes effective when it has shared meaning with it's audience. (An ads audience is everybody, but there are those they market to more than others). Lets take IPOD for example. They wish to present a cool, young feel to their products. They wish to present an individuality of each person that can be achieved through color and music.(also ipod type). I'd say that their marketing scheme is an effective one, in which a lot of what they wish the audience to receive is conveyed. Great shared meaning. An example of the ipod ad:
There is color, youth, vibrancy, movement, personality, and the product all in this simple ad. I don't doubt that the ipod ads had some influence in my decision to purchase one when I was shopping for mp3 players. There really isn't any other brand that springs to mind when I think of this type of product, and that is an advertising victory for Apple. Some ads just don't matter to me, like fast food. I have tried a product they push when they have them and I am there, but I go out to eat based on what I last had and what kind of food(mexican, chinese, burger, etc) more than on their ads. It serves a minor role in where I go out. Other things whose ads don't much grab me: housing, law firms, internet services. I just go to the internet or the phone book and pick the top one, I don't really care too much about what their ad looks like. Things where I can be suckered: movies, video games, snowboarding gear. Things of that nature are in my intrests, and whenever I see an ad where I say, "Wow, that's cool", it tends to stick in my mind and influence how I spend my money.
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