Toyota's 2018 Olympic Campaign

Toyota sponsored both the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and the 2018 Paralympics as part of their first ever global campaign, 'Freedom of Movement'. During the 52nd Superbowl, Toyota kick-started this campaign with their first three commercials in a series of ten, one of which is linked below. All of their commercials call upon viewers to check out the website for the campaign, www.mobilityforall.com , which elaborates on their efforts to 'improve movement for everyone'.

This commercial, entitled "Good Odds" features Paralympic gold medalist Lauren Woolstencroft, a disabled skier. Though odds may have been against her from birth, she never stopped working hard and went on to win eight gold Paralympic medals. Despite having to work harder than most, she kept going, and seizes her freedom to move. An inspiring, feel-good first step into the campaign, Toyota immediately captured audiences' attention and inspired them to pursue their messages further. 

Like any good advertising campaign, this one also includes social media efforts, highlighting the hashtags '#teamtoyota', '#startyourimpossible', and '#letsgoplaces' across Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. They also recruited and sponsored several of the world's top athletes, including Olympic gold medalist Chloe Kim and figure skater Ashley Wagner to be brand ambassadors at the actual games. Wagner came to extreme popularity this year after her reaction to just barely not making the US Olympic team this year. The ultimate message behind the campaign is that everyone has the 'freedom of movement'. Wagner's commercial touches upon her struggle and relates to audience members who may not have experienced such successes, but have experienced extreme disappointments. They can be encouraged knowing that some of the world's most talented people still fail sometimes, but they never give up. The slogan featured at the end of the commercial, "start your impossible" echos this sentiment. 

Other commercials from this campaign feature more inspiring stories, such as the 'mobility anthem' which features a vast array of people from different cultures, ages and gender identities and how they move through their lives, as well as technological advances meant to aid mobility and garner more accessibility for disabled people, such as artificial intelligence driving. 

As this is Toyota's first global campaign, it comes as no surprise that it is so content heavy. The messaging of this campaign is overall 'movement', which is logical for a transportation, specifically car company. Even the 'start your impossible' slogan is reminiscent of a car, as you start cars, as well. While this messaging relates to cars which audiences familiarize Toyota with, this campaign also aims to raise awareness of Toyota's expansion as a mobility brand, more than just automobiles. 

The real key feature of this campaign, however, appears to be the inclusion and acknowledgement of a such a wide target audiences. With a global campaign, it is extremely difficult to narrow your message down to encompass and relate to everyone in meaningful ways that can cross cultural boundaries. However, Toyota has surpassed those boundaries by focusing on such a basic human experience and by having such a diverse range of representation throughout their commercials. Families can relate, hard workers can relate, disabled people can relate, even though most of us are not professional athletes, let alone the 'best of the best' at whatever particular thing it is we may do. Despite that though, we are all inspired by the potential we all have as human beings, all created equal. We all have that same freedom to move, and Toyota has really built a solid campaign based around that core message of motion. 

It will be interesting to see the results once this campaign has finished its run, because it is anticipated to be highly successful, particularly if their goals were to improve brand attitudes towards Toyota, as not just an automobile producer, but a mobility company. This campaign is clearly geared more towards awareness and PR, rather than directly increasing sales or profits, however, with major success, Toyota should expect to see higher sales numbers as a result of this strongly resonating with so much of their wide consumer base. 

Is Snapchat on the outs?

Since Snapchat started in 2012, it has easily been one of the most used social media sites. However, their most recent update was by far their least popular. Earlier this year, Snapchat's latest update had users outraged with an entirely new layout.

It started with users taking to other sites to complain, such as Twitter and Facebook. People were mainly trying to get information on how to use the new layout. Then, once it became a general consensus, it turned into a joke. People were creating memes and funny tweets about the Snapchat news. Users even began petitions to send Snapchat back to its old looks, which did not eventually lead to anything. 

Even with all of the complaints and bad publicity for Snapchat, they still wanted to keep their look as they had it. They knew that even if people do not love their app at first, they'll come around because in the end, it is still one of the most used social media platform. However, they were unexpectedly incorrect. Kylie Jenner, one of the most famous celebrities on social media, declared she did not even open the Snapchat app anymore on Twitter. 

sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me... ugh this is so sad.

— Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) February 21, 2018

As soon as she tweeted this, Snapchat's stock dropped 6% and their market value dropped $1.3 billion. With no signs of a rewind update for Snapchat, are people done with it completely? Or will the app save itself?

"Cavemen can do it!"

Geico’s most notable commercials, next to the Geico gecko, are the Cavemen. This advertisement was first aired in 2004 and contained the slogan, “So easy, a caveman could do it”. This would lead the company to making over twenty separate commercials over the decade. Some were about bowling, while others were about cavemen being on the jumbotron at a basket ball game. But in all of them, the slogan and characters have remained the same. This illustrates the use of repetition constantly by having the same slogan used throughout the years. 

Now there are few people who cannot remember the Geico Cavemen. This also uses humor to keep the viewers entertained. I personally have always been very entertained by these commercials. They were simple, funny, and very creative. It even spawned a short-lived sitcom on ABC. So short-lived, in fact, as it became the shortest lived sitcom in ABC history. 

A History of Apple Advertising Styles

Apple Inc. got started as a company, back in 1976, but they weren't really known for having memorable, signature ads until a couple years after they first released their iPods, back in 2001. Along with the release of the popularization of the iPod came their 'Silhouette' campaign, which lasted from 2003 to 2011. 

The campaign featured commercials, print ads, and billboards alike, featured below. Apple even used this imagery on their gift cards for several years as well. 

http://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/ipod-silhouettes-2000-2011/

The ads are fairly simple, consisting of only a black silhouette, a white iPod, and various colored backgrounds. In the print advertisements, they intentionally lacked copy for a number of years, though the slogan for the campaign, as well as the iPod in general, was '1,000 songs in your pocket'. Despite the simplicity, the ads spoke volumes and created an iconic imagery that when now used in popular culture, people associate with iPods. The commercials for this campaign were upbeat, indie pop hits, generally, new releases from the year the commercials aired during, which captured the attention of their core demographic -- young, trendy, fun-loving adults who love music -- which is exactly who were buying iPods at the time, to replace their beloved CD players and Walkmans. These advertisements almost serve as a demonstration, a reflection of Apple's core users, speaking to the right side of the brain, more so than listing off features, pricing details, or where it's available. None of those details are ever really important for Apple to list, because more than anything, Apple has always sold users a lifestyle and sort of status, rather than the latest and greatest in technology, even when they were the latest and greatest innovators. 

By 2011, everyone was familiar with the silhouetted iPod advertisements, and they started to ad more copy to change up the messaging of the advertisements. Rather than building awareness of the iPod, the silhouette could then stand for itself, along with the easily recognizable Apple apple logo, and the copy exists to make note of the lifestyle of iPod users. "It's only rock and roll, but we like it" is a simple phrase, consistent with the Apple style, but also makes a casual statement all music lovers can understand. Maybe it's just music, but maybe just music is a lifestyle. When you have over 1,000 songs in your pocket, music certainly is important enough to keep that close to you, at all times, no matter where you are, which is precisely what the beauty of the iPod is. These ads are quintessentially Apple and will be remembered for years to come. 

With the dominance of iPhones declining iPod sales, Apple took the advertising focus off the iPods and made all of their later advertising imagery match their existing style for Macbooks, iPads, and iPhones alike. Similar to the silhouette style, the styling is still minimalistic, consistent to speak to the lifestyles of their trendy, younger, technologically advanced demographic (see the 'maximum funness' copy below). Even the colors of the later iPods still reflect those original advertisements, the bright colors having become such a core part of the iPod branding. Though some of the more modern advertisements featured below appear stylistically different from those iPod ads, a distinct pattern can still be picked out -- as previously noted, not just the minimalism, but the cute, fun one liner of copy, the pop of color are all reminiscent. Featuring only actual product itself and the product name, in addition to showing specifically the side of a product to represent how thin it is appears to be their latest course of advertising style. 

Source: Apple

Source: Apple

Source: Apple

At this point, it almost doesn't matter what style changes Apple makes. As previously stated, Apple has always been about selling status and a lifestyle, and now, they have an extremely loyal almost cult-like customer base that will buy the products no matter what messaging strategy Apple employs. The products always speak for themselves and that is why Apple's current strategy centers around just a picture of the new release. They always sell, even when they lack favorable features, like headphone ports or universal charging cables. All Apple has to do is remind customers that hey, they're Apple, and they have a new product you will buy to keep up with your Apple lifestyle, because everyone uses Apple, you've always used Apple, your old iPhone was getting old anyway, wasn't it? 

Knowing Your Product

One of the most important parts of branding and running a successful advertising campaign is knowing your product or intellectual property. If you don't know all of the details about what your selling to the public, then one small error can be the difference between a hit or a miss. When a product is branded correctly, it can wildly successful.

No one knew this more than Fox Entertainment, when they were creating the hit Deadpool in 2016. Taking a chance and producing a movie with this character was a major risk at the time. the only other time the character Deadpool was featured in a film was in 2009 when he was severely missed in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. For of you that don't know, Deadpool is a wise cracking, explicit comic book character that is aware that he's not real, and that he exist inside a comic book/movie. Deadpool is also a mercenary trained in weapons combat, has super healing and strength, and depending on who you talk to, teleportation.

When Fox began to produce this movie, they decided to take a major risk and run the marketing campaign like deadpan would. Most of the produced material consists of viral videos of Deadpool talking about different things such as Australia Day and Halloween.

This major risk that the studio took in choosing to market this content, paid off in spades when Deadpool grossed over 783 million dollars in its run in theaters, making over thirteen times its budget for the film. Having faith in your properties and knowing exactly what your selling proves that risks can pay off when hey are excited correctly

Here are some of the promotion videos Fox put out ahead of Deadpool's release:

Hockey in the South?

When you think of hockey, you don't necessarily think of the beach, barbecue, or the desert. Logistically hockey does not make sense in southern markets such as Dallas, Arizona, or Florida, but the NHL has found some success in those cities. This is due to the teams marketing and advertising themselves well enough to generate real interest in the teams. In fact St. Louis, Dallas, San Jose, and Tampa Bay all operate between 98%-100% capacity throughout the 41 games each team plays at home.

The Dallas Stars are one of those teams that have worked hard to increase interest in their city. Dallas is such a big city, and if people want to go to sporting events, they have just about as many options as New York or Los Angeles. Dallas currently has the Dallas Stars, Texas Rangers, Dallas Mavericks, Dallas Wings, FC Dallas, and the Dallas Cowboys. Thats a lot of competition that the Stars have to face. Not all teams run games dousing the same time of year, but the Dallas Mavericks run their season directly parallel with the Stars. The Stars are still able to bring in a large crowd and thats due to the advertising campaigns they run. 

These two billboards although may not be large television commercials or expensive campaigns, but they work because the Stars know their demographic and what they enjoy. People enjoy the sport of hockey because it goes fast, their aren't many stops in the middle of a game, and it has a heightened yet mature level of violence. 

The Stars know this well and they execute it perfectly. They also know that the youth movement in this country will eventually drive their sales, which is why they utilize comedy in their ads taking playful shots altho he other sports in town. Dallas did an amazing job building the groundwork for their financial success throughout their future. 

The 2016 Stadium Series

The Pittsburgh Penguins have always done a fantastic job marketing their team to the city of Pittsburgh. There was no exception when the National Hockey League announced that the Penguins would host a Stadium Series game on February 18th, 2017. They would host the Philadelphia Flyers, and would play the game at Heinz Field on a rink built on the turf.

The Penguins then went to work to market their outdoor game, selling it to fans of both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. From that point on, every piece of promotional material or advertisement that went out, related to the city of Pittsburgh and the rivalry between the two cities. Their logo for the event was designed to look the the bridges all over the city of Pittsburgh, while the details show metalworking inside the"Series" and "Pittsburgh" banner.

Philadelphia and Pittsburgh then began working on their conjoined marketing plan, with the NHL. The teams were both pushing the rivalry aspect of the game, and how it was "The Battle for Pennsylvania". of course in professional sports everything is sponsored so Coors Light would present the Stadium Series. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia then came up with new uniform designs that were created for this event in particular. Pittsburgh's gold uniforms were meant to contrast directly with Philadelphia's new orange jerseys.

When game finally came of a below freezing night in February, (trust me, I was there) Even the arena was built to resemble the city of Pittsburgh, and the Penguins had actual live penguins brought in from the PPG Aquarium. The teams walked out on the yellow "beams" to enter into the arena, and their was a performance during the 2nd intermission from Train. The NHL succeeded in putting on a great show in Pittsburgh. the found that it was so successful, they planned a rematch to take place in 2019, where this time Philadelphia will play the host in Lincoln Financial Field.

"Dilly Dilly!"

Bud Lite at its Finest

Bud lite has recently made an enormous success with their latest ad campaign featuring a medival kingdom that is obsessed with the alcoholic beverage. These ads first began with a king being given Bud lite by his subjects, and when one gives him a whine, that man is sent to the pit of misery. This illustrates how Bud Lite is both popular, and that other people won’t be happy with anything else. The next few are just as humorous as the others, but the best begin close to Super Bowl time. 

The first is a “pep talk” where the king’s forces are terribly outmatched. He goes on to say how the enemy has all these advantages, but then explains they’re out of Bud Lite, and the enemy has some! The army then charges into battle because they want the Bud Lite that badly. This then leads to a second commercial where the kingdom is losing badly, and things look bleak. However, the “Bud knight” shows up, and after going through the battle he gets some bud light from the store on the other side. The people then ask if he’s going to help, and after a bit of discussing, he saves them all. This leads to the catchline, “to the friends that always have your back”, which enforces the idea that bud light is what friends drink.

The ad campaign also made videos for each of the teams playing in the super bowl. Which was where the king gives pep talks to each of the teams. In fact, the Eagle’s video was where they got the term “Phily Phily” which was a play on “Dilly Dilly”, the ad campaign’s catch phrase. This campaign had such a large following, that the Eagle’s named one of the play’s that won the game “Philly Philly”. The fact that this campaign reached such a high level like that shows it's effectiveness. Overall, these advertisements used Bandwagon and Repetition the most. For instance, the commercials emphasize everyone and their friends are drinking Bud Lite. While it also repeats the phrase "Dilly Dilly” in each of it’s commercials, which is how the campaign has become so well known and familiar with people. In all, this ad campaign was tremendously successful, and hopefully it it will continue for a long time to come.

YouTube reacts to Logan Paul

Over the past few years, Logan Paul has been quite the internet sensation. He began on the Vine app originally, but has recently been more of a YouTube star. For most of his internet career, he was known for his light-heartedness and comedic content. In January of 2018, Paul posted a controversial video dealing with a suicide victim. This video was eventually removed by YouTube and Paul released a public apology and was given "one strike". Soon after this was forgotten about, Paul put out yet another controversial video post involving dead animals.  This time around, YouTube was fed up with the use of his platform.

This raises a tricky situation for the company. YouTube prides themselves in being a place for anyone to express themselves with the freedom of speech. However, once one reaches the level of subscriptions and audience members that Paul has, YouTube realizes that these influencers reflect on them as a company just as much as on themselves. 

YouTube saw fit that they temporarily suspend the advertisements on Paul's videos. His content was not seen as appropriate for brands. Though this seems like a good option for YouTube, is it really punishing the source of the problem? The question that lies is does removing the ads on Logan Paul's YouTube channel punish him as a vlogger or the companies of the ads? Should YouTube have taken a different approach?

http://variety.com/2018/digital/news/logan-paul-youtube-advertising-suspended-1202693482/

http://www.businessinsider.com/youtubers-react-to-logan-paul-ad-suspension-2018-2

Miami Heat unveil their new City Jersey.

The NBA's Miami Heat have recently showcased and produced their new alternative jerseys. Named the "Vice" City edition jerseys, the uniforms are meant to be a celebration of the city of Miami playing off of the successful late 20th century TV show, Miami Vice. Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for the Heat, Michael McCullough, said that the uniforms are an "ode to the City of Miami, its distinctive history, [and] its iconic place in the annuals of pop culture."

 By using the same copy for the "Miami" as the original text used in the classic 1988 lettering only reinforces the team's idea of showcasing the history of Miami. Instead of ignoring a drug filled decade within the 1980s of Miami, the team has decided to focus on the positive aspects that arose from that time period such as the distinct Miami fashion that grew to define the city of Miami. Since the team unveiled the new uniforms, it has gotten massive amounts of praise from the online community. After recently acquiring back Miami Heat legend, Dwayne Wade, the sales for his "Vice" City jersey increased the Miami Heat's store sales by eight thousand percent.

One can see how using Pop culture references within marketing can be extremely effective. Being able to recognize the appeal of the Miami Vice color scheme and the unique visuals, along with the history of the city was a great way to create an attachment between the customer, the team, and the city. The Miami Heat have done a great job in capturing a distinct aspect of Miami and picked colors that will attract customers from the Miami area as well as customers from around the world.

Do Mobile Games Benefit from Advertisements

Most games on mobile devices will have short advertisements appear often while playing them. When playing Words With Friends, a short advertisement will appear after every move advertising anything from other mobile games to Ocean City's tourism website. So do the companies advertising on mobile games turn a profit as a direct result of the advertisements?

In some games the user can pay up to $2.99 usd to not see the advertisements, paying dividends back to the advertising companies, but this alone cannot be enough to justify the ads. To decide to advertise via a specific app, they had to have looked at their prime prospects and saw an overlap with the game's player's demographics. Do they predict the habits of their prime prospects will stay consistent with that of the game they're currently playing? They certainly did not go on a limb and decide random games to advertise on, primary research had to have been done to decide which outlet is best.

So how do they know if it's truly effective advertising through this outlet? Focus groups and observations, experiments and surveys were most likely utilized to decide this. Focus groups and surveys will allow them to hear straight from the horse's mouth if the advertisement will ultimately be effective, where as experiments and observations will let them see how often the user pays attention to the advertisement and if they retained any information from it.

Personally, I'm tired of these advertisements when I'm just trying to pass the time on my phone, but I don't have the money to skip the ads, so I'll keep dealing with it. Occasionally I'll look further into an intriguing ad, but the majority of the time I'm jamming my finger on the corner of the screen frantically when the prompt comes up that I can finally skip.

Red Bull Still Using Humor to Draw Customers

Red Bull has been using the "Gives You Wings" campaign for over a decade and have been successful with keeping customers entertained all the while. Red Bull has kept the same visual continuity throughout all of their "Gives You Wings" advertisements, with almost every advertisement looking as if it was drawn with a pencil with a plain white background. Red Bull also maintains aural and verbal continuity through the constant of the slogan "Red Bull Gives You Wings" usually said in the same manner by the same voice. The amount of continuity used by Red Bull makes recognizing the advertisements incredibly easy and has helped to build the brand immensely over the years.

Red Bull is now the leader in almost every extreme sport and many uncommon sports, such as airplane racing, break-dancing competitions and downhill ice skating. This allows even more outlets for Red Bull to advertise in a nearly untapped market. The uniqueness of this opportunity Red Bull has made for themselves gives them freedom in the creative process to do what they feel will effectively reach their target market the best.

Dale Jr Honors his Father With a New Goodyear Commercial

This past weekend's Daytona 500 was the first Dale Earnhardt Jr did not participate in nearly 20 years. He still made an appearance though and was mentioned throughout the race following the premiere of a touching Goodyear Commercial featuring him and his late father.

The commercial was titled "Make a Name" and featured Jim Croce's song "I Got A Name" sung by the late singers son, A.J. Croce. The heartwarming advertisement features clips of both Jr and Sr and came on the 17th anniversary of Sr's untimely death.

The ad provides attitudinal continuity as this is not the first Goodyear commercial either Earnhardt has appeared in. The Earnhardt's are arguably the most familiar faces in stock car racing and Goodyear utilizing them frequently helps with familiarizing the brand.

Goodyear consistently takes advantage of the partnership with NASCAR to reach their target market and usually take a peripheral route to draw emotion from their potential customers.

Awareness Test: Look Out For Cyclists

Grabbing the attention of an audience can be a very challenging task for advertising agencies to execute. With attention spans decreasing, there is only a brief window of opportunity for a commercial to catch the eye of its viewers and most importantly, keep it.

Viewer engagement can be a very resourceful tactic for agencies to utilize, especially if the advertisements goal is to make a point. This can be successfully seen in social experiment or social awareness advertisements.

In 2008, Transport for London created an audience involved commercial about testing awareness. The experiment was simply called, "Awareness Test", which is boldly stated at the beginning of the advertisement. A line of people then appear, with four of them wearing all white, and four of them wearing all black being split into teams. The narrator asks the viewers to focus on the team in all white, and to count how many times those team members pass a basketball to one another. The teams then begin to move around and intertwine, as strictly focusing on the team in a white becomes a challenge. The teams are then paused, and the narrator asks the viewers how many times the basketball was passed. The answer is then revealed as being 13, however, it is followed by the question, "Did you see the moonwalking bear?". The recording of the teams passing the ball is replayed, and a man in a bear costume is revealed dancing in the middle of the mix of team players, something that could have easily been overlooked as the viewer was focusing on the team in all white passing the basketball. The commercial then states, "It's easy to miss something you're not looking for. Look out for cyclists." The commercial was first seen in movie theaters around London, and then was uploaded online where it almost immediately became viral, hitting 10 million viewers.

This viewer engagement commercial was successful because of the usage of the Elaboration Likelihood Model's central route concepts that include utilizing critical thinking of its audience and leading to long lasting behavior or change, which was proven by the decrease of cyclists being hit by vehicles in the London area. The advertisement also used some aspects of the peripheral route of the ELM by incorporating strong visuals with the awareness test as well as creating strong emotional appeals such as a level of shock value or understanding to the viewers which can make the commercial more impactful and easy for the audience to remember.

View the commercial below:

Uber's Rolling with the Champion Campaign

Uber has partnered with Uninterrupted and created The Rolling with the Champion campaign in which there seems to be a shift in the way companies are reaching their audiences.  Uber, as well as many other companies continue to produce content that is similar to a short film or kit, as opposed to a TV Commercial.

Uber Showcases a Shift in Content Marketing and Advertising

Why?  IT is because this type of media markets towards digital platforms (i.e. Facebook, YouTube, Etc.)  People would rather watch two high profile athletes talk about real world issues , as opposed to watching a commercial promoting a brand.  Which, is a major shift in all advertising, as was similarly shown wit the SuperBowl 2018 ads.

LeBron James' Opinion on President Trump

This type of content humanizes the brand.  This technique allows people to relate to real world topics, engages the customers, all while ultimately promoting their brand.  In this video, LeBron James was asked about the President, in which he responded with personal opinions of the President's lack of concern for the African American Community.  James' comments sparked outrage from reporter Laura Ingraham, who suggested he "just such up and dribble." LeBron James returned by saying.  "We will definitely not shut up and dribble.  I will definitely not do that.  I mean too much to society.  I mean too much to the youth.  I mean too much to so many kids who feel like they don't have a way out and need someone to help lead them out of the situation they're in.


Check out Lebron James' Response to Laura Ingraham

Uber reached millions through a conversation

This content sparked major public debate and reached the top of the mainstream media.  This gave Uber the media outreach it needed without being in the spotlight.  Now people who want to watch this debate and the things that were said must search, "Uber: Rolling with the Champion" video in order to view the content.  In the end, Uber was able to reach millions of people by simply filming people having a conversation.

Lenten Season Commercials

February 14th marked the beginning of the Christian Lenten season, which means the return of everyone's favorite "Filet O'Fish" commercials from McDonald's.
While McDonald's never directly links their Filet O'Fish sandwich to Lent, it is a seasonally priced item, heavily marketed to coincide with the Catholic tradition of eating fish instead of meat on Fridays during Lent and was indeed brought to the menu to combat falling hamburger sales on Fridays, back in 1962. The 'Filet O'Fish' campaigns began back in the 60's and traditionally run from the start of the Lenten season to a week prior to Good Friday, when McDonald's switches focus to their seasonal Shamrock Shakes. The restaurant usually sees about a 24% increase in sandwich sales as a result of these campaigns, annually.

McDonald's has an annual commercial to market the Filet O'Fish. The most notable one came from 2009 and features mascot "Frankie the Fish", linked below.

The video is extremely memorable due to the catchy jingle repeating "Filet o Fish" over and over, never letting you forget the product, even thinking about it past fish sandwich season. The commercial successfully utilizes humor and a lighthearted tone and has a simple objective: promoting the fish sandwich, and making consumers extremely aware of its existence, even though it had already been around for 40 years. The commercial inspired online videos of customers singing the jingle in drive-thrus, using only the lyrics to order the sandwich. Frankie, the singing fish, replaces the former Captain Crook McDonaldland Filet O'Fish mascot. The commercial is regarded as a nationwide success, still notable after almost 10 years, the jingle still stuck in many of our heads, during and past fish sandwich season. 

In 2017, McDonald's Filet O'Fish campaign in the UK received massive backlash, featuring a much different take from their 2009 jingle and actually had to pull their ad. The commercial featured a boy mourning the loss of his recently deceased father. The boy stumbles through his life, trying to be like his father, failing, and finding that he lacks a connection to him -- until he eats a Filet O'Fish sandwich. Though the commercial attempts to appeal to families and make a connection through something they view as a tradition, the plot felt rather exploitative and insensitive, and as a result completely fell flat. It did not seem like anyone on the team working for it had ever felt the pain of losing a loved one, let alone a parent, and struggling to keep a connection to them.The commercial in question is linked below. 

Last year in the US, McDonald's decided to take a completely different approach and address some of the environmental concerns consumers often have when it comes to fast food restaurants with a commercial highlighting sustainable fishing, as opposed to less ethical fish farms that are bad for the environment. This angle makes sense for McDonald's, as they are also trying to re-position themselves as a better brand, healthier and more environmentally conscious than their current rather unfavorable reputation. Here, they are claiming to be the first fast food restaurant to have the Marine Stewardship Council ecolabel, also setting them apart from their many other competitors. 

As alluded above, McDonald's certainly aren't the only company that promote their fish sandwiches around this time of year, after all, it's only smart business. Wendy's has their "premium North Pacific cod" sandwich, Arby's has a crispy fish sandwich, Burger King has their "Big Fish" sandwich, amongst many other competitors. The competition is high, especially in areas that also have local restaurants and churches running their own homemade fish frys.

A 2018 commercial has yet to air, and after their 2017 scandal, it may be likely that McDonald's is stepping away from television promotion of the sandwiches this year. However, they certainly aren't shying away from promoting them in their restaurants. Many locations, alike their competitors, feature prominent signs in front of their restaurants displaying pricing and deals for their fish sandwiches, one of many options around. It may not seem like the most popular marketing season, but the Lenten season is certainly one promotional period the restaurant business doesn't want to miss out on. 

In late January, Burger King released an ad that revolved around the issue of net neutrality. The repeal of net neutrality within America states that internet providers can slow down the loading times of websites that use big amounts of data.

Burger King wanted to explain to the American public how this issue can impact their lives, using the famous Whopper in replace of a streaming service such as Netflix. With this advertisement, Burger King is declaring that they are for net neutrality and believe that like their Whopper, the Internet should be the same price for everyone.

Many of the recent Burger King ads have been directed at targeting social issues within American society. Conducting social experiments with real customers in order to demonstrate a greater problem that needs to be addressed is a great way for Burger King to promote themselves. Dealing with topics such as bullying and net neutrality are good issues for Burger King to advocate change for because Burger King is assuming most people will agree with the stance that the company is taking, and therefore build a positive connection with their restaurants. This ad is a comical way to approach a serious topic. Burger King's desired intention for positive social change is a good way for people who may not visit Burger King to change their opinion of the brand be a reinforcement of the people who frequently eat their food.

Earth - Shot on iPhone : Apple's Commercial Regarding Climate Change

Climate change is a prominent topic in today's society. With many people joining organizations that advocate for environmental safety and the expansion of scientific research regarding the change in our climate, many companies utilize the subject in their advertisements. Apple, for example, published a video commercial in June of last year showcasing different videos taken by iPhone users. The caption underneath the ad on Youtube states, "Our only home. Shot on iPhone through the lens of everyday users. Written and narrated by Carl Sagan, from the book, Pale Blue Dot — A Vision of the Human Future in Space. #OurOnlyHome #ShotoniPhone."

Carl Sagan was an American astronomer, author, and scientist who provided a substantial amount of research regarding extraterrestrial life. His book, Pale Blue Dot - A Vision of the Human Future in Space, Sagan implies that we have gained humility as human beings over many years because we are not the actual center of the universe and argues that organizations like NASA must focus on preserving Earth because it is the only home planet for the human species to exist on. 

In the commercial, Sagan states, "The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is no where else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Like or not, the Earth is where we make our stand. It underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the only home we've ever known." 

Websites like AdWeek and Entrepreneur mentioned Apples' thought provoking ad in various articles and applauded the companies portrayal of the natural beauty of the planet. The commercial gained attention from environmental organizations as its message increased social awareness of the issue to its viewers. The whole commercial can be seen below:

The Classic Moe's and Chipotle Rivalry

The Queso Awaits?

Is this a display of local advertisers battling it out with their clients? My close friend and I were driving to Duquesne after a shopping trip and she pointed out these two, hysterically similar, queso advertisements on Fifth Street. Historically these two have been major competitors since Moe's debuted in 2000 (Chipotle opened its doors in 1993). In Pittsburgh, Market Square is home to both. Even the students here on Duquesne's campus are divided, "Moe's or Chipotle," when it comes to their local downtown hotspot eats.

The one on the right is for Chipotle. The one on the left, however, seems to be poking fun at the idea of a "queso" product at Chipotle. Whether or not this is a direct callout, it has been clear that there are some things people would change about the newly added Chipotle queso. Moe's seems to agree on this too. They took a this opportunity to highlight they are queso experts and quite literally mock the idea that Chipotle has released their own version. Moe's has some ground to stand on with this claim since Moe's has been making their queso since 2001 (based on what the advertising image above).  It's almost as if Moe's doesn't believe Chipotle can call their new product to be the recognizable, cheesy dip, but it is done in a clever and subtle way.

The Moe's ad is very clever, it took into consideration both its audience and audience proximity, media buying, and message when creating their advertisement. I wonder if more dueling billboards are out there in the city for these two companies, or if any will appear in the future.

Instagram "Stories are Everywhere"

Creativity is bursting in today's world and social media helps users share their innovative material. In spring of 2017, Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam launched, "Stories are Everywhere"  a massive Instagram Stories campaign.

The campaign was released in the United States, Germany and Italy during the month of April. Producers say the campaign was inspired by the amazing creativity users possess with simple tools such as stickers, brushes and some live video.

"Instagram is one of the most loved brands in the world, and it's their first global campaign," said Thierry Albert, creative director at W+K Amsterdam. "In a world full of hyperstylized communication, it felt fresh to shoot the campaign on iPhones, using only the stories features. No cheats. No tricks. Anyone can do what we did. All you need is the Instagram app."

The campaign included 26 stories unveiled at an Insta Stories Festival in Cologne, Germany, on June 24th. Before the grand reveal at the Festival, W+K employed over 270 billboards and guerrilla out-of-home efforts. 

Instagram executive creative director Bekah Sirrine attributed, "We intentionally mirrored the experience of Instagram Stories, so all the executions were short, fun and surprising. We didn't take ourselves too seriously, because that's what connecting with friends on Instagram is all about."

Check out the creative innovations of Insta Stories below.

"Whether you love pineapples, dancing horses, inspirational quotes, ramen hair or Fashion Week, you can find it on Instagram, and you can find someone else who loves it too. Unearthing these insights through the platform and delivering them in entertaining way, coupled with the fast pace of the work, challenged us to think about how we create content and embrace an exciting new journey with Instagram," added Clare Pickens, group account director at W+K Amsterdam. 

Gold Medal Worthy Advertising by P.F. Changs

Stop into your local P.F. Chang's for your favorite Chinese dish, and you might even get to watch an Olympic event. According to a Chicago TV broadcast graphic blunder, the 2018 Winter Olympics are being held at P.F. Chang's rather than Pyeongchang, South Korea. Scottsdale, Ariz- based P.F. Chang's used the error to the company's advantage. The company tweeted Sunday afternoon, "Contrary to this broadcast, we're not hosting the games."

P.F. Chang's handled the social media in house. Darryl Carr, P.F. Chang's spokesperson attributed, "We saw this on Sunday, and after seeing the reaction it was getting, we decided we had to respond and have some fun with it."

The Chicago Tribune reported Jayme Nicholas, WLS spokesperson, apologized for the graphic mix up. WLS stated the graphic was created to be used by a weekend anchor in a satirical sports-news segment for his Saturday report.

A blunder for WLS formed a prime advertising opportunity for P.F. Chang's. The response tweet has been liked more then 5,700 times, and the tweets did not stop there. Instead, in addition, the company tweeted, "The P. F Chang's Games 2018 have officially begun. What event would you dominate?"

The company even tweeted a video reading, "#PFChangs2018 Games Idea: Cocktail Curling" The playing space is lined with chopsticks, and customers wet the surface with limes, while a teammate slides a cocktail down the bar. Check out the game below on P.F. Chang's twitter account.

https://twitter.com/PFChangs/status/963557065967964181?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Ffood-drink%2F2018%2F02%2F15%2Fp-f-chang-s-offering-pyeongchang-lettuce-wraps-following-on-air-flub-by-chicago-news-station.html

The company also renamed their famous P.F. Chang's lettuce wraps to Pyeongchang Lettuce wraps. The restaurant informed customers they could score a free wrap with the purchase of an entree February 15th, dine in only.

P.F. Chang's has had a good sense of humor about the entire situation, and utilized the mess up as an amazing advertising opportunity for their company.

Samsung "Do What You Can't" Commercial

As I've been watching the Olympics for the past few days, I have seen this Samsung commercial multiple times. The entire concept of this commercial is to keep practicing doing what you can't do, until you eventually are able to do it. A girl who doesn't think she can walk with a prosthetic leg, a little boy who thinks he can't swim, etc.

The song "All These Things That I've Done" by the Killers is used in this commercial, and about half way through you begin to hear the lyrics "I've got soul but I'm not a soldier" slowly building up to a climax, where the people in the commercial are shown accomplishing the things that they thought they might not be able to do.

I really just find this commercial inspiring and unique in comparison to many other commercials for electronic and tech companies. It does not focus so much on the product, instead it tells a sort of story that brings the audience in and gives you a good feeling when you watch the commercial, and the use of the song helps to bring the whole commercial together. I actually get chills every time I see it.

Dove Campaign for Real Beauty Ad

Most of us are familiar with Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty. It has been around since 2004 and has been growing and evolving in popularity ever since.

The entire goal of this ongoing ad campaign has been to show people that they are beautiful no matter who they are or what they look like. This campaign is all about embracing your own uniqueness and feeling beautiful in your own skin.

I quite like the design of this ad, and the others that Dove has released that have this layout.

It is a very simplistic design, but it spreads a very important message to the people that see the ads. With the top boxes that point out a so called "flaw" and the bottom boxes showing positive, complimentary words, people can see that the things that are unique and different about us, that many people could consider to be flaws of themselves, can actually be beautiful, positive things. Dove really wants people to embrace these things about themselves rather than seeing them as a negative. 

The fact that there is a link to the campaign for real beauty site on two of these ads will likely entice people to visit the website to learn more about Dove and this campaign. 

The women pictured in these ads also have very happy, positive expressions on their faces, conveying the fact that they embrace their unique flaws and realize that these things are part of what makes them unique and beautiful. 

Worldwide Breast Cancer: Know Your Lemons

Worldwide Breast Cancer created a campaign in 2017 titled #KnowYourLemons.  They are a nonprofit and their goal was solely to educate.  Personal health is a very private topic for many people and does not always get talked about openly.  Worldwide Breast Cancer's campaign uses the metaphor of lemons to talk about breast cancer.  This way, they are able to get to the point, show visuals, and educate women in a simplified way.  Their campaign site is very user friendly and does not feel like a cancer themed conversation.  This again creates a lighter feel to a heavy topic.  The metaphor is not the only thing they have done well.  They have also kept the information minimal.  Everything you need to know is on the home page, however, if you would like more information, they have made it clear where to find it.  It is quick to read and easy to skim. As stated, the visuals help with this immensely.  They've created charts and images to portray exactly what needs to be seen to help understand the dangers of breast cancer.


Overall, the best aspect of this campaign is the fact that it is not scary.  What I mean by this is that a woman researching breast cancer may not always be ready to grip what she is learning.  This may be a woman who is concerned about her own, or a loved ones health.   When visiting this site over others, such as www.breastcancer.org, one is likely to feel a little better about the content.  Worldwide Breast Cancer's content was portrayed in such a way that just might keep someone, at least, a little less scared.  To the left is a screenshot from www.breastcancer.org.  Though they also have a wonderful site with all the information needed, it is not as colorful or as light-hearted as The Worldwide Breast Cancers campaign.  While both sites have the same accurate information on the science of breast cancer, their approaches to raising awareness are vastly different.

Cancer is a serious topic, but does the research have to be?

https://www.worldwidebreastcancer.org

Opinion | Nivea Needs to Do Better

Advertising departments and agencies have to be very aware of what type of message they are sending to their audience when creating a campaign, advertisement, or commercial for a business or client. The copy and visual portions of an advertisement go through several different sub-departments before they are finalized and approved to make sure there are no errors. But sometimes, a mistake can be overlooked, creating a whirlwind of bad publicity that can ultimately tarnish a company's character and customer relationships. In March of 2017, Nivea faced severe backlash when they posted a deodorant advertisement for their customer base in the Middle East. As shown below, the phrase "WHITE IS PURITY", is boldly centered underneath the back of a woman who is sitting on the side of a bed while facing towards a window. 

Soon after the ad was posted on Nivea's Facebook page, it became viral on various social media platforms, with many viewers flooding news feeds and timelines with criticism and personal opinions on the advertisement. A majority of people were baffled by Nivea's oblivion to how the ad could be perceived as promoting white supremacy. Twitter was especially used to voice attitudes about the ad, as it became the topic of discussion throughout the day and night.

                                 

But this was not the first time Nivea had been under scrutiny. Back in 2011, the company was accused of racial insensitivity after posting an ad stating, "Re-civilize yourself" and "Look Like You Give A Damn". The ad depicted an African-American man who looks as if he is about to throw away his own dismembered head with an afro-styled hairdo in exchange for his newly trimmed hairstyle and clean-shaven face. The ad was widely criticized for its comparison to having naturally styled hair as equivocating to someone being lazy or uncivilized. 

                                          

The ad was quickly pulled after receiving such negative feedback, but resurfaced after the launch of the "WHITE IS PURITY" campaign, serving as a reminder to viewers that this was not the first time Nivea had come up with a seemingly racist advertisement. With people now realizing that Nivea had a history of ads with racially insensitive themes, there was now speculation that the company in its entirety supported white power. 

                                           

Although Nivea removed both of these advertisements and issued individual statements explaining how diversity is something they value and discrimination is not tolerated, that does not ultimately make up for what occurred; that both of these ads were deemed acceptable for publication by the company. Nivea allowed this to happen twice, with a six year span between the advertisements. How dis they have that much time to process and reflect on where they went wrong, only to make the same mistake again? 

 Nowadays, people are not so forgiving of a company when it is at fault. Misunderstanding and improper direction are poor excuses as to why copywriting, marketing, creative, and advertising teams allow ads like these to be finalized and approved. It's especially important for companies to remember that social media acts as an archive system, storing anything and everything they do, good or bad, whether they like it or not. So, if Nivea wants to create a better brand image and gain back its diverse, international customer base, it is going to have to do more than send out apology letters.

Alexa Lost Her Voice

The Super Bowl commercials always provide their audience with a laugh or two, while also making them memorable for the remainder of the year. This particular ad I saw before the Super Bowl, during some YouTube browsing, and I was intrigued by the potential loss of an, up-and-coming, iconic voice of our generation.

The following advertisement is for Alexa, the Amazon equivalent of Apple's Siri or Microsoft's Cortana.


With familiar pop culture names such as Gordon Ramsey and Cardi B, the advertisement had enough content to reach to all kinds of audiences enjoying the Super Bowl. It was fun, relatable, and most importantly memorable. Was the clever "loss of voice" just a goofy ploy to gain attention or increase sales of the Dot or Echo? Brian Heater, a blogger from TechCruch.com, thinks otherwise. He speculates this commercial might be a lead into something else in this article. In short, his article ponders the familiar blue-ringed headsets used by the celebrity cast of the commercial and the potential for new versions of Alexa's voice. Unfortunately, he clears up that the company had denied these claims.
Based on the money spent on Super Bowl ads, it is surprising to see this commercial released just for a goofy reminder that Amazon Alexa exists. Yet, Amazon is large enough to spend a pretty penny on a fun commercial and they couldn't have picked a better outlet to send their reminder. It will be interesting to see what happens to Amazon's Alexa, Dot, and Echo interest trends, and sales, change over the course of the year; hopefully to get that positive payoff Amazon was looking for with their expensive investment.
What was your favorite Super Bowl ad of this year?