SO I know I'm backed up on all the stories that I'm supposed to write about from when I was abroad, like how I missed my flight from Brussels to Rome because of a car crash or how I fell for a British guy living in Dublin, but since the school semester has started it's time to get back to work.
This blog will temporarily be turned into an commentary about advertising! (Yay!) I am taking a Multimedia Communications course and part of the syllabus is that I keep a blog. While it will no longer be about fun traveling stories (awe :( ), it will get updated a lot more.
Although I'm only a PR major, I have an insatiable passion for advertising. I will be commenting on my favorite ads, new developments in advertising, advertising strategy, past ads that were either good or bad, and so on.
So, to start everything off I'd like to talk about one of my favorite ad campaigns that involves our addiction (as a society) to technology contrasted with our want of offline interaction.
Dentyne's "Make Face Time" campaign stresses the concept that we have put up a wall of technology, blocking out the human contact that was originally associated with communication. It's simple copy consists of phrase that any internet connected 16 - 28 year old is familiar with and pairs it with images filled with some real face-to-face time.
Personally, I think the ads are adorable and they are promoting their product correctly because we all know that nobody wants to have face time with someone who's breath kills plants and small animals...especially if you are "sending and receiving." Here is their
television commercial which is along the same lines as the print ads.
The Dentyne website continues this campaign by only allowing you to browse its content for 3 minutes before it kicks you off. Of course you can reload the page and continue viewing, but the point is to get you off-line. When you open the website it reads:
"Welcome to the 3 minute website. You have 3 minutes. After that the site shuts down. We've got nothing against the internet, but when people are surfing the web they're missing the best parts of life -- being together. That's why we've created the first website devoted to helping people spend less time online and more time with each other. For starters, we've allocated just enough time to browse every link, but not a second more.So enjoy your three minutes, then get out there and make face time. Chop chop. Time starts now." Dentyne Homepage
Ah, if only Facebook or Youtube would do that! Then I might actually be able to get some work done around here.
A few blogs, like the
Guru of New, mention the anti-facebook aspect of the campaign, but I hardly think that the websites popularity has even been the slightest affected by this campaign.
So why is this ad important? It's important because it represents a growing trend towards personal experiences and the handmade touch that consumers are looking for. We have gone through an age of immense technological improvements, and no doubt there are even more discoveries on the way, but right now the customer is looking to connect with something other than their cellphone, television, and computer. Advertisers will have to work to make the consumers feel a connection with their product or company if they want to gain more revenue.
It reminds me a bit of
Patrick Moberg's "
New (Media) Work Out Plan" which challenges you to work out (only a bit!!!) before you get on to each of our favorite addicting websites. The Guru of New also mentioned its likeness, in getting people to connect face-to-face, to the
Free Hugs social movement that became a viral hit via Youtube in 2004.
x
-Chace
