Taco Bell Does Breakfast, Big

Taco Bell recently announced that they would begin serving breakfast with an entirely new breakfast menu. In order to compete with other fast food places like Burger King and McDonalds, Taco Bell came up with a new menu that includes a waffle taco, an A.M. crunch wrap supreme, cinnamon bites, as well as other items. In an effort to establish themselves as a fast food place with a respectable breakfast menu, Taco Bell gathered some very interesting testimonials…

Everyone knows the name Ronald McDonald is synonymous with fast food and has been since McDonalds was founded in 1940. Upon hearing the name said out loud a certain image comes to audiences minds:

In this commercial for Taco Bell's breakfast, they found people across the United States with the name Ronald McDonald and had them do a testimonial about what they think of the new breakfast items. Taco Bell helped create the idea that even McDonalds enjoys the delicious new breakfast items that Taco Bell will be offering, starting at 7 am. Although Taco Bell is a little late to join the fast food breakfast scene, this advertisement does a great job of catching audiences attention, while also legitimizing their new Breakfast Menu.

We all know him, but where did Mr. Clean come from?

As one of the longest running brands in history, one might think Mr. Clean has just always been a figure of cleanliness for customers around the world, but no one ever took the time to really think about where this brand character came from until last year. Mr. Clean's creators at Procter and Gamble ran a campaign showcasing where "America's Favorite Cleaning Man'' really came from.

Mr. Clean's Past

 The video shows a timeline of Mr. Clean's life, starting as a baby that was orphaned in a basket and cleaning the front porch on which he was left. From there, Mr. Clean was raised in a country setting until he wanted to learn more about cleaning and set off for college and finally to study with monks to learn everything he could about his hobby. From there, Mr. Clean set out to live a life of cleaning the dirty world and teaching those around him what he knew about being cleanly.

The ad got mixed reviews as some fans thought the animation of the well known mascot was "creepy." Similarly, several reviews thought the character was just too uptight and rigid seeming, however that is what one would expect from a mascot of this type. Check out this blog about cartoons and mascots that does not agree with the ad Mr. Clean does not impress

The Origins trailer resembled superman so closely that people ran with the story, adding their own bits and pieces. Sam Theilman, a contributor to Ad Weekly, comments, "[They] also leaves out the crippling obsessive-compulsive disorder with which the great P&G mascot has struggled since childhood—it's true that he "will clean your whole house and everything that's in it," but it's also true that he has to touch the doorknob three times before he leaves a room and has developed a skin condition from washing his hands so often." [Read the Ad Weekly Article]
Although the Mr. Clean campaign may have turned some people away from the long-standing character, P&G definitely got people talking about the character.

What do you think? Creepy or not?

-Sherie

Samsung: Pros in Placement

There was an interesting form of advertising displayed at this year's Oscars, which were hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. Throughout the show Ellen was interacting with the crowd while also interacting with her Samsung Galaxy Note 3. At one point Ellen even went as far as to take a selfie of some of the more notable faces of the night:

Quite the cast. Afterwards Ellen used the tablet to go on Twitter to tweet the picture that would crash the popular social networking site, as it became the most favorited and retweeted picture of all time. The picture received over 3 million retweets and nearly 2 million favorites. This becomes the most retweeted tweet since President Obama's twitter post after winning his second term in 2012.

It wasn't until later that it was revealed that this "spontaneous" tweet was revealed as perhaps one of the largest product placements of all time. In the days following it came out that Samsung had paid to have their product used to take selfless throughout the night in attempt to get their product some exposure and notoriety. Samsung got just that with articles like this one, from the Los Angeles Times, popping up all over the internet. It's apparent that Samsung scored big by making an executive decision in product placement, on one of the biggest nights in entertainment. 

Pepsi Aiming to Revolutionize Interactive Ads

We've all seen bus stop poster ads, and rarely give them more than a glance unless they are truly eye-catching. A new interactive campaign for Pepsi Max has people doing double takes as they think meteors are crashing down and UFOs are flying over the streets, when really all they are doing is looking at a projection of the street through a bus stop window.
It's an interesting (and pricy) concept that's been done few times, and although it may not be as realistic as they make it seem in the YouTube video, it's still entertaining to watch. It is successful in making people interact with the brand and it is much more appealing than a simple poster. Pepsi makes an interesting step towards the future of advertisements, and it makes you wonder how realistic these interactive ads will become.
Watch the video of the ad below:

You're on Diet Coke

Diet Coke released a new advertising campaign with a slogan that is starting to catch a lot of attention, but not necessarily for the right reasons. As many know, the connection between Coca-Cola and cocaine was at one point very prevalent due to the fact that this soda actually contained cocaine. As the years went by it is clear that Coca-Cola has stopped that practice and has thrived as a global brand. This new advertising campaign seems to be taking a step backwards, with the slogan "You're on Diet Coke."

An article in Bloomsburg Businessweek suggests that customers may get this slogan confused with a drug reference about being on cocaine. Some may think this is far fetched but when you put this slogan on a billboard as shown above it has a much different meaning than the first advertisement to introduce this slogan during the Sochi Olympics that featured Taylor Swift.

Seeing the television advertisement puts things into perspective. Some people think that these advertisements are not suggestive at all, while others have made homemade videos of what they think the commercial really means. Some people have even raised the question "Why does a company as big as Coca-Cola advertise?" Regardless of whether or not people will take this the wrong way this is a clear example of why advertising concept testing is so important. After showing this to a small focus group or audience before releasing the advertisement may have prevented this type of mistake.

A new type of advertising

As most of us know, social media is becoming one of the top ways to advertise for several reasons. Not only is it typically more cost efficient, but also has the ability to reach people like never before. Recently, some of the most commonly referred to social media sites for advertising include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. However, Twitter is making a big splash with their newest form of social media, Vine. For those who haven't experienced the creativity of Vine yet, it is an app that plays a video for 6 seconds on a loop. You might be thinking that 6 seconds would be insignificant in terms of advertising, but that's not the case at all. In fact, several "Vine stars" have been approached by large companies such as Trident, General Mills, Ford and Virgin Mobile in order to appeal to audiences in new ways. Vine has several strengths even though the clips are so short. For instance, one Vine star, Nicholas Megalis comments that users are forced to be more creative simply because of the time constraints. Similarly, most vines play upon humor, which is a great way to gain the attention of younger audiences.
One of Vine's most prominent posters is Brittany Furlan, who like all Vine posters, finds random things to do in her 6 seconds of fame. She has over 650 vines and 5. 4 million followers. With a following of this size, companies should be trying to use Vine more often.
Here is a link to her Vine page: https://vine.co/brittanyfurlan
One of Brittany's vines

There are several YouTube channels that have long playlists of Vines to showcase some of "the best of." Each month new Vine "best of February," for example, are released and get hundreds of thousands of views.  Similarly, "Magic Vines" are becoming popular. One of the most well known Vine "magicians" is Zach King. View some of his Vine magic here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP5bTDqMQKA. Vines are spreading like wildfire and should definitely be considered a good outlet for companies because they are inexpensive and the message is repeated several times.




-Sherie

Source: Kantrowitz, A. (2014). Vine comedians emerge as latest hot property for brands. AdAge, Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/digital/vine-comedians-emerge-latest-hot-property-brands/292096/

Boys Town: Saving Children, Healing Families.

Boys Town is an organization that has a mission to help children across America that need guidance, compassion and have been living in fear. With the support of donors, Boys Town reunites kids with their family, helps find fosters homes for kids and even provides shelter for those that have nowhere else to turn. Boys Town operates under the belief that every child and family has the potential to get better. They provide the right care, at the right time and in the right way. Each case is important and unique, and they use are many methods to find peace and healing.

This video showcases kids of different ethnic backgrounds and generally the same age. The voice over asks you to decide which child has been abused and abandoned. The ambient music is uplifting and gives you the feeling that all of these kids are happy and healthy. The final line is “every child’s story deserves a happy ending” and they reveal which child came from the broken home. The message here is that Boys Town really saves these kids and turns their lives around. So much that you couldn’t pick them out from a line up of kids that grew up in loving homes.

If you have not seen the other commercials from this campaign, this is a spoiler alert. I have seen three commercials as part of this campaign but cannot find the others posted online. What I’ve found out is two more of these kids are showcased at the end and are revealed as the child helped by Boys Town. You can hear their stories on YouTube.

I had not heard of Boys Town before these advertisements but it’s clear by their website and advertisements that they are making a difference. I feel testimonials are so strong for emotional and hard subjects such as these. This encourages donations because the public sees the good work done. A big part of my support for this organization is that they consider healing families as much as taking children out of bad situations. There really are different levels of severity in these situations and it’s important to help parents that want to get better and mend their families. It’s not a one fits all solution.

Resources:

 Another great commercial produced by Boys Town: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMmXV6RhLIg&list=TLJPkZK6FIq7HKYQ6WwsL_HwNtVrrU5pGV