Advertising

The advertisement that I found effective is one I saw while watching one of my favorite television shows. The ad was for XBOX. In it you see a teenager who has just opened a present. It is a plate with a gold Christmas design on it. He holds it up with a forced smile and says, "I love it.. how did you know?" The camera focuses on two grandmotherly women sitting on the couch across from him and one leans to the other and says, "Great job. Teens are so hard to buy for." 

The commercial changes to a picture of an XBOX. 

The commercial is effective because it incorporates humor into the advertisement, as well as being relatable to everyone. Who hasn't received a gift they would never have wanted or had no use for? In fact, it seems that the same people every year give us the same types of gifts and we always pretend we like it even when we don't. We learn to just accept things as they are and look elsewhere for the things we really want. After reminding the viewer of this feeling, it flashes to what the advertisers are trying to convince the viewer that what they do want is an XBOX. It also speaks to the older generation because right after saying that teens are hard to buy for, it shows what teenagers want, which tells them that it really isn't hard to buy for teenagers.

While I do not need an XBOX or have teenagers of my own, I feel that the advertisement was very affective for both the teenage and parent demographics.

The advertisement I felt was ineffective was about corn sugar. In the advertisement the speaker is a father who is carrying his daughter. He is not an expert, just the average parent. He says that he was a little confused about what he had been hearing about high fructose corn syrup, but that he learned from experts that whether its corn sugar or cane sugar, your body can't tell the difference. Sugar is sugar. Then it says learn more at cornsugar.com. 

The reason this seems ineffective is that for quite some time. The message that high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners are bad for you has been pounded into our heads over and over again, and from some highly reputable sources. It has been said that your body reacts differently to this kind of sugar due to how it is processed. So for a commercial to be refuting these claims, it would seem that the commercial is quite short. The claim is that sugar is sugar. It would have been more effective to include who the experts were or include statistics or reasons of proof. Most people are probably not going to go to the website to learn more, and the ad isn't all that convincing. An average person just says it is okay after all the expert research we have seen that says it isn't. A little more information should have been given for those who are unable or unwilling to delve further into the issue. The idea that corn sugar is bad has become part of our belief system, so to change that belief, the claim has to be strong in order to inspire a change. Now had the commercial shown a scientist making the same claim, perhaps the commercial would have felt a little more forceful.

I can't say it turned me off to the product altogether, I just feel that it was too weak of a commercial for the kind of claim it was trying to make. There has to be a very good reason for us to change our beliefs. This is why I feel it was ineffective.