Sexuality in Advertising...when is it appropriate?

On Monday we had a discussion in class about sexuality being used in advertisements. I think maybe a little subtle sexuality is okay, but here is a video of a ridiculous use of it:



This video has nothing to do with a hamburger from Carls Jr, except that Paris Hilton is eating one. We can tell the marketers were trying to use a popular celebrity to promote their spicy burger, but the entire video is quite distasteful and inappropriate, therefore ineffective! Most women would not appreciate this type of advertising. The setting is dark and looks like a car garage. First impression would be that this was an import car commercial, almost pornographic! To tell the truth, I'm not craving a Carl's Jr burger right now.


I don't completely disagree with the use of sexuality in advertising, I just have opinions of the levels of it. For example, we all remember Britney Spears' Superbowl Pepsi commercial. In this ad, Pepsi used a very popular music star and incorporated some Hip-Hop dance to it. They are appealing to the younger generation through music and dance; this commercial is attractive to both men and women. I actually think this ad is more effective because its fun and not sexually degrading in any way.

Sprint is Getting Rid of 4,000 jobs in the US!

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sprint is eliminating 4000 jobs largely due to its inability to attract and retain customers. Consider these numbers from the article-

In Q4, 2007, the company-
1- Lost 683,000 customers who had signed annual contracts.
2- Lost 202,000 pre-paid customers.
3- At the same time, they were able to attract 776,000 customers through partners.
4- Importantly, the company has been losing high-value customers.

Why is this happening? Sprint attracted too many low-end customers with bad credit. These people are now having a tough time keeping up with their phone bills.

Ouch!

Most Popular Vehicles of 2007

Despite the record gas prices, Americans still prefer their trucks with Ford’s F-series taking the #1 spot for the 26th straight year.

1. Ford F-series – 650,589

2. Chevy Silverado – 618,257

3. Toyota Camry – 473,108

4. Honda Accord – 388,826

5. Toyota Matrix – 371,390

6. Dodge Ram – 358,295

7. Chevrolet Impala – 311,128

8. Honda Civic – 298,520

9. Nissan Altima – 276,362

10. Honda CR-V – 219,160

With the exception of their trucks, Americans still prefer Asian-designed vehicles over domestic designs.

Source: The Detroit News
Also posted on Ethereal Madness

The file drawer effect

"Researchers call it the "file drawer effect" — the quiet filing away of disappointing medical experiments"

I came across this article earlier "Many unfavorable drug studies aren’t published" ( Jan 16th 2007, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22690043/) which is certainly not the first I have heard of this topic. All the way back in 2000 the USA today wrote Filed under F (for forgotten) (May 17th 2001 http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2001-05-17-drug-companies.htm) which basically describes the scenario where unfavorable drug studies are simply discarded.

In the second article Sidney Wolfe of the Public Citizen Health Research Group asks "How can the public believe drug companies if they only release data from studies with results palatable to company executives, stockholders or potential stockholders?" I think that is a very valid question to ask.

Another question is "if a drug doesn't work why do people take it?" Is it possible that if a company spends enough money marketing their drug people will believe it works regardless of its clinical efficacy?

The United States is one of only two countries that allows direct to consumer advertising of prescription drugs. (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Direct-to-consumer_advertising_in_the_United_States)

In the article "Creating Demand for Prescription Drugs: A Content Analysis of Television Direct-to-Consumer Advertising" when doctors considered the controversy surrounding this practice for the Annals of Family Medicine, they concluded "Despite claims that ads serve an educational purpose, they provide limited information about the causes of a disease or who may be at risk; they show characters that have lost control over their social, emotional, or physical lives without the medication; and they minimize the value of health promotion through lifestyle changes. The ads have limited educational value and may oversell the benefits of drugs in ways that might conflict with promoting population health. "

Marketing is a power tool that can directly influence consumer behavior and choice. In my opinion there should be specific limits on what can be advertised and if information is gather and published, it should be published in its entirety not selectively to promote the companies financial interests.

If a system was created whereby scientifically conducted double blind studies were recorded by a government agency before and after completion this would create a process to authenticate successful studies and would prevent the destruction of studies which were unfavorable to the companies interest. I think this is especially important when safety or efficacy studies are paid for by the company that stands to gain from their success or approval.

"Don't Fight Mondays" from Monster.com

This ad takes a new slant on one of the oldest problems for any employee, hating your job. The ad is attention grabbing by keeping the product withheld until the final moments of the one minute spot.

Microsoft Responds to Customer After 10 Years!

Fascinating post about how Microsoft responded to a customer request after 10 years!

Zabasearch.com

So I recall being prompted in class to find out where Zaba gets its information, and post it to the blog, however nobody has done so, so for safety's sake I'm going to throw down what Brian and I found...

"The company claims that all of the information accessible on the site is/was already extant on the Internet on many government or corporate databases the likes of which could (usually) already be accessed piecemeal by the general public. As such, they claim that the site fosters nothing new except the convenience of gathering the data automatically and is not suited for use by potential identity thieves."

This is as close as I could come to finding out where they get their info from, although it's not concrete...

Do you buy wine just because it has an expensive label?

Researchers at California Institute of Technology have shown that a person's enjoyment of wine can be heightened if they are simply told that it is an expensive one...What do you think? Do you buy wine just because it has an expensive label? Do you buy anything else just because it has an expensive label?
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By Kathryn Westcott
BBC News 14/January/2008

Twenty-one volunteers were asked to sample different bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon and rate the ones they preferred.

The only information they were given was the price of the wine - but in a number of cases, they were not told the real price. In one case, the volunteers were given two identical red wines to drink and were told that one cost much less than the other.

Most described the "higher priced" wine as much more enjoyable.

Researchers also managed to pass off a $90 (£46) bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon as a $10 bottle and presented a $5 as one worth $45.

The volunteers' brains were scanned to monitor the neural activity in the medial orbitofrontal cortex - the area of the brain associated with decision-making and pleasure in terms of flavour. Higher ratings were given to the more "expensive" wines.

Antonio Rangel, who led the research team, told the BBC News website that the experiment showed how "expectation can affect the actual encoding of the pleasantness of the experience."

Oliver Johnson, CEO of the UK-based Wine Society, says this response was common with certain prestige products such as clothing, cars and, nowadays, handbags.

"In this case, the volunteers appeared to have been associating the price of the wine with prestige - they were expecting it to be a good vintage, with a good label, even though they didn't have that information," said Mr Johnson.

He told the BBC News website that while for most people wine is not normally a luxury item - more of a "grocery product" - there are people who would happily pay over the odds for a bottle with a cult label.

"There are top clarets, for example, where the price is out of line with the quality. The quality is fabulous but we are not sure that this is reflected in the pricing."

He says this indicates that for many people wine is now a status symbol. "It's premium brand time in some places."

In October 2001, a number of City dealers paid up to £12,300 for a bottle for wine at a top London restaurant.

But Mr Johnson says that not everyone is going to enjoy a bottle of wine just because it has an expensive price tag.

"It can work two ways," he says. "On the one hand some people will enjoy the wine simply because they know it is expensive, on the other, there are those who will be disappointed. They could get their hopes up by being told that the wine is expensive, only to have it dashed when it didn't match their expectations."

He says that no wine expert would have been fooled by the experiment.

"It's not difficult to get the price of wine about right. Less expensive wine is less interesting, the more money you pay, the more things are going on. Most people would have been able to tell the difference," he says.

Wine expert Jancis Robinson says she was not surprised to see that the research was carried out in California.

She argues that American attitudes to wine can be very different to those of the British wine-buying public.

"At least seven years ago, I was told by a sommelier at a top restaurant in California that he couldn't sell wine that was priced at under $100 at bottle," she says. "He was able to sell the same wine when he raised the price to more than $100."

She says that while the Americans love to spend and expensive wine is seen as a regular "reward" purchase, the British are always looking for a bargain.

"We have an innate fear of being fleeced," she says.

Dr Martin Yeomans, a reader in experimental psychology at the University of Sussex told the BBC that what the experiment appeared to show was how expectation can drive the sensory experience, to generate pleasure.

"Expectation is a huge part of wine appreciation," he says. "This shows how expectation can be set up by everything that happens before the wine is put in the mouth - the characteristics, the price, the vintage.

"And if this is congruent, then the experience is better than if you had not been given any information."

He says that it also shows how we can be "kind of fooled". And, he says, it demonstrates how, by heightening people's expectation, they could be seduced into spending more than they need to on a product such as wine.

Marketing with Bluetooth technology

I was looking at different types of marketing strategies and found Proximity Media. It uses Bluetooth technology to direct advertisements to cell phones and laptops. Relevant information is sent within 100 meters. Coca Cola and Adidas are also using Proximity Media to help with advertising!! This can be an investment and very useful.

Grocery Coupons Go Digital

This is pretty interesting. Rather than using the traditional paper coupons, some grocery stores are now using paperless digital coupons to build customer loyalty.

How CDs died.

The Economist has a great article on how CDs are dying. Here is an excerpt-

IN 2006 EMI, the world's fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free. “That was the moment we realised the game was completely up,” says a person who was there.

---

The full story is here.

Geek Graffiti?

Weburbanist showcases seven rather "geeky" graffiti projects. Varying from geek content to more technology-driven methods, the projects are rather unique and show a different aspect to your traditional graffiti.

Taken from WebUrban.com

World's Cheapest Car- $2500!

India's Tata Motors has launched the world's cheapest car- the Tata Nano. A lot of people are impressed by its mileage- 54 miles per gallon. Here are some links to news stories covering this event-

Tata Nano: the World's Cheapest Car (New York Times, registration required)

$2500 car unveiled in India (Slashdot.org, tech community)

Google News Summary

Whopper Freakout Analysis

Visit the web pages for Whopper Freakout and Burger King.

Based on what you see there and any other analysis address these questions by commenting to this post-

1- How would you evaluate the success of this initiative on the part of Burger King?

2- Do you think this helps Burger King gain a competitive edge over McDonalds and Wendy's? How?

3- How do you think the market will perceive Burger King differently as a result of this promotion?

4- Will this change the behavior of target consumers?

Great Tivo Ad

Here is a link to one of my more recent favorite ads...simple but funny.

New Classes

Never posted a BLOG before but what better time then now. Hope this class is fun and exciting. See you all on Wednesday.

Matt

Wired Magazine Picks Top 10 Best Gadget Ads for 2007.

Here are the top few. The full article is here.

The Generational Divide in Copyright Morality

***The examples posed to an audience of kids were astounding. You have to glance at the audience reaction. Pogue starts off by saying: "I'm going to describe some scenarios to you. Raise your hand if you think what I'm describing is wrong." Read on to see what happened. ***

By David Pogue
Dec. 20, 2007

I've been doing a good deal of speaking recently. And in one of my talks, I tell an anecdote about a lesson I learned from my own readers.

It was early in 2005, and a little hackware program called PyMusique was making the rounds of the Internet. PyMusique was written for one reason only: to strip the copy protection off of songs from the iTunes music store... more

The Whispering Billboard.

A&E just used Holosonic technology to create a whispering billboard in Manhattan. The video is here. Read about it here.

Funny Ad for Heinz Ketchup from India.

The next advertising medium? School report cards!

McDonalds has started to advertise on school report cards. What's next? Full story here.

Search Engine Marketing Quiz.

This is for those of you follow Search Engine Optimization. You will find this quiz somewhat corny- but generally hilarious.

Must See Parody of Web 2.0 Investing Bubble

Must-See Lawnmover Commercial.

Egregious ads are aimed at dupes, creeps

Interesting article about ads that cross the line-

Egregious ads are aimed at dupes, creeps Posted: Sept. 23, 2007 By: Mike Nichols
Link to
the full story is here .


There comes a point in life, I guess, when you're no longer defined by what you are so much as what you are not.

One thing I've recently realized I am most definitely not: the target demographic. But then I wonder - given some of the advertising campaigns I've seen of late - who is? Chumps, slackers and creeps?

I feel a bit like a chump many days, I have to admit, when the mail arrives and I open - for the umpteenth time - something that is disguised to look like a bill but turns out, when you open it, to be the old bait-and-switch: somebody trying, of course, to sell you something.

But Columbia St. Mary's took it to a whole new level.

Saturday morning we received a very official looking, 9-by-12 envelope in the mail with the hospital's name in the upper left hand corner and the words "X-RAY ENCLOSED" plastered across it.
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I happen to have had an X-ray taken in an office building attached to the Columbia St. Mary's Hospital Ozaukee in Mequon recently, and - although the envelope was addressed to my wife - thought it might be a copy. Another part of me thought maybe she'd had a recent exam I didn't know about - which left me somewhere between curious and concerned.

I don't usually open her mail, but I did and found a sheet of plastic designed to merely look like an X-ray.

"Be First To See What's Inside," it said. It was, I finally realized, a faux "X-ray" touting the latest expansion of the Mequon hospital and inviting us to a grand opening.

Director of Communications Kathy Schmitz told me that the hospital wants to "celebrate with the community." And I'm told there's a lot to celebrate. It's just that I didn't feel much like it after opening the envelope.

I felt like I'd, once again, been duped.

On the positive side, I suppose there are worse ways of getting people's attention - like telling people you know what they think. That's the premise of a Time Warner campaign that tells us we think, for instance, barbecue ought to be a food group, or that we'd rather be stuck in traffic than stuck at work.

Hey, aren't people, half the time, stuck in traffic because they're trying to get to work? I can forgive somebody for thinking me a dupe or a dope, I guess. But I draw the line at being assumed a creep, especially while reading "Sports Illustrated."

Five pages after their little "Sign of the Apocalypse" feature - "A man in Guangzhou, China, died of exhaustion in an Internet café after playing an online game nonstop for three days" - I came across a full-page ad for the match.com dating service with a picture of what looked to me to be a very young girl.

Although she had some grown-up features, she also had chubby cheeks that made it look like she hadn't lost her baby fat, plus a little-girl jumper that was cut low and an oversized flower in her hair - the sort a little girl might wear while playing dress-up.

Underneath was an Internet username "Twobits12," and a quote: "I make a mean casserole," all of which, of course, was meant to make you wonder if you were looking at a child or a woman, an innocent 12-year-old or a mature casserole-baker.

She's probably a woman, since no company is whacked-out enough to use a real little girl. But it was creepy - especially the tagline at the bottom that played on the whole Lolita-thing and said, "It's okay to look." It's also apparently OK to do just about anything to sell stuff nowadays. What's less clear to me is how making people feel duped, telling them what they think, or spreading around creepiness, accomplishes that exactly.