Interruptive Advertising

Advertising is constantly interrupting our lives it feels like, but is it really being interruptive or is it simply a part of life we don’t always want to pay attention to.  Advertising is everywhere from the clothes we wear to the food we eat to the material objects we surround ourselves with, but the only form of advertising people seem to really get annoyed with is radio advertising or television advertising.  This seems odd to have only one form of advertising be interruptive to our daily lives, but really we just want advertising to be present but not in our face.  However if we didn’t have this type of advertisement then as consumers we would suffer and not participate in the daily cycle of consuming items we hear or see during these interruptions.  While we would never admit to it consumers need these advertisements to keep them up to date on the newest and coolest items.  Therefore, interruptive advertisements are not at all a nuisance, but a necessity. 

Nostalgia - Frosted Flakes

Nostalgia is a big part of advertising because when someone can relate to a product or a brand they are more likely to pay attention.  Many consumers will purchase a product because their friends say it works or because they can recognize the advertisement for it, and this is enforced further when the brand has been around for many years.  Frosted Flakes is great example because people will always recognize Tony the Tiger and when they have an option between choosing Frosted Flakes or store brand, the majority of the consumers will chose Frosted Flakes.  This works well for them because if they ever decided to come out with a new type of Frosted Flakes consumers will be more likely to eat it because they trust the brand they have had for their entire lives. 

Toblerone - Crunchy Almond

For our Toblerone advertisement we decided to take the route that many companies have tried, some succeeded and some failed, by having the consumer create a new flavor.  We want to emphasize the new sweet and salty crunchy almond flavor so our platform would be social media based, primarily launched in the bay area around the holidays.  We would have a site connected to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, where the user can like the new Toblerone flavor site on Facebook, which would then take them to the fan page for Toblerone Sweet and Salty Crunchy Almond, where they can then create their own flavor.  The catch to this is that the consumer would only be able to choose one flavor, from a given list of exotic and more unusual foods, such as acai or ginger.  The user would chose their option and then take a picture of half of their face… which then gets paired by one of their Facebook friends choices and a combination is created.  The combination is then combined, as our the faces, with the picture for the user to set as their Facebook profile picture, a picture to post on Instagram, and now something to tell people about on Twitter.  This would then be shared for likes where consumers can vote on their favorite combination.  During the last of the holiday season Toblerone will wrap their new flavor with a limited time only option for the fans, and these will be given out at a free promotion event for Toblerone. 

Symposium - Got Ethics?

The symposium for the advertising department was actually quite interesting.  The topic was “Ethics in Advertising”, so I was expecting a debate between the speakers, however I was pleasantly surprised to see that they all pretty much agreed on every commercial or topic that was brought up.  The commercials were a bit questionable but the speakers all did an excellent job of explaining that the ads are not to blame, it’s the people who take the advertisement personally or to a completely different aspect then it had been intended.  I was surprised to find out that most of the speakers had a topic, or product, that they would never endorse or create a platform for simply based on their own personal ethics.  Overall the symposium went really well and I would definitely return to another one. 

Everyone Poops! - Toilet Paper Docking Station

Our group decided to advertise the iPod Toilet Paper Docking Station to the busy mom who needs a gag gift.  We thought that as a mom, she has explained many times that pooping is a normal part of life.  Being that she most likely has had this conversation a few times we decided that this product would be appealing to her sense of humor, therefore we included catchy theme songs to each mode of advertising to help improve the humor. 

Radio:

Less Conversation

SFX: Elvis - A Little Less Conversation slowly fades in. Music cuts quickly during toilet flush.

Announcer: (Mr. Moviephone Deep Voice)

Claim your porcelain throne,

Be the King of your Bathroom,

with the Toilet Roll iPod Docking Station.

SFX: Song cuts back in to guitar solo.

TV:

Jeep - Its never been so simple...

“It’s never been so simple to live the Jeep life” The theme of our Jeep commercial is how simple it is to live an exciting and energetic life even when you aren’t in the 18-25 year age range.  The age range we targeted was 50-70 year old people who are still out exploring and enjoying life.  We wanted our commercial to be geared towards these people; therefore our spokesperson is Chevy Chase.  We chose him because he has recognition among the crowd and brings a light and funny mood to our commercial.  The commercial would start with Chevy driving around in the Jeep with a few friends and he would be showing them how to use the turn dial shifter.  He would then end up getting questioned by a police officer and would “play dumb” by acting old and senile.  This would then result in Chevy getting out of his ticket and him driving off to more adventures in his new Jeep.

 

The Harley Brand

Harley has definitely created a brand following and with that a sense of community.  The brand has given the consumer a way to make friends and join a community of other people just like them.  The consumer enjoys feeling special and this can do just that, therefore the consumer will continue to stick with Harley simply because they are now “part of the family”.

The Posse Ride helps to enhance the meaning of the brand because they have created a gathering place for the consumers to go and use the product together.  Not only are the consumers now using the product but also they are going with other consumers of the same product to different places where they can buy more items from the Harley brand.  This is very smart for Harley to do because while the consumer feels like they have their friends by them just hanging out they are actually advertising for the brand and they are consuming merchandise along the way.

Harley should not get more involved because then it will be more like they are trying to sell the brand to the consumers when in reality this is true, but the consumer feels as if its their choice and its not being forced upon them.  If Harley were to get more involved it would become too commercialized and lose its essence of the makeshift community that has been formed by the consumers. 

In addition to the Posse ride, Harley could hold “Harley Routes” for riders to go out and explore the country on routes given by other riders.  Similar to what Nike did in Amsterdam and Paris, by allowing the riders to map out their travels with their Harley bike they can then share that experience wit other riders who can travel the “road less traveled” as well.