Modern Advertisements

     Media, which is the way in which advertisements are transported to the consumers was evolving ever since it was born, weather it is in print, radio, television, then internet the ways in which companies advertise themselves or their products has to evolve too so as to match the modern era and not fall behind!

     In the past, the media outlets were limited and so was the ways in which advertisements can reach the people, but now with the emergence of internet and the ease with which people can access all the types of media advertising now things are different than the way they were past, the process, the costs, the quality of advertising is definitely taking a new shape than the way it was in the  past.

     Right now, revolutions have been planned through the internet, a single event on facebook gathered millions of protesters to uprise against the ex-regime in Egypt last January, this is how effective and viral the internet can be if used as a way  for advertising be it advertising for a product a protest or just as an informative campaign. Also, the demographies that use different types of media outlets are changing rapidly... teenagers now use computers/laptops more than televisions for example so if your advertisement is going to target teenagers, it will be smarter and more efficient to invest into ads that appear on  the internet rather than appear on television channels.

     Finally, normal advertisement is not the only way in which a company can advertise its product... there are many other smart ways to reach the crowds that can even cost less than television ads! YouTube is one of these ways, AT&T & T-Mobile, two very famous telecommunication companies are a leading example of  taking full advantage of the flexibility of the internet...

     This article discusses a very successful campaign by AT&T that was very successful and was later picked on by the internet and made viral. (Here is link to all the images of this campaign)

One of the images by AT&T 2009 "hands" campaign.

     The following video of a flash mob organized and funded by T-Mobile proved to be very entertaining to everyone that witnessed it and was then passed on all over the internet to reach millions of people all over the world!

     Also, this is another smart 2011 ad made by AT&T that takes the idea of the flash mob that was mad by T-Mobile to advertise its new 4G network coverage!

Homework #3: Cigarettes Retro Ad

     I got this ancient ad from a blog entry titled 40 Gorgeous Vintage Tobacco Advertisements while I understand why the author would call these ad gorgeous(probably because of the vintage effect and the colors) we can clearly see how harmful this ad is, especially that it involves cigarettes and also from a media literacy point of view, since they used a lot of very well known techniques that are used to fool and persuade the consumers who are exposed to this ad.
     The techniques used in this Ad are numerous, I will try to list all of them and give a brief example of discription from this Ad...

1. Hyperbole: i.e. exaggeration... we can see this technique when they used the words "Tangy" "Rich" "Luscious" and "Delicious".
2. Beautiful People: the use of good looking people and faces is very apparent in this ad, which makes it more attractive.
3. Simple Solution: in this ad, they want the consumer to understand that if you buy this brand of cigarettes and blow some of the smoke on a womans face... she will follow you everywhere! Magical isn't it ? While what I really think is that if you blow smoke on someone's face, the least you can expect is a slap in the face.
4. Lies: I really find it hard to classify if this lie is a big lie or a small lie... but from the description of the ad, they say that you can "get smoking satisfaction with inhaling smoke" which does not make sense... since the "smoking satisfaction" comes from the nicotine that is absorbed when you inhale the smoke into your lungs, and no other satisfaction can be achieved by cigarettes other than this way.

     Although almost every country has organizations like the ASA(UK's regulator of advertising) to control and regulate the ads, its contents and placing these techniques are still overused, while I was looking around for ads to use in this article as an example, a lot of the new very modern ads use the same techniques and ever more, so the next time you come across an ad, whether it is a poster or a TV ad, take a minute to think of all the techniques that might give you false hope or information!