You're Never Too Young

It's day #5!!!


Young love can some times be a beautiful thing...other times it's downright hilarious. In this next commercial a pure,  innocent love is kind of devious and frivolous.
You're Never Too Young

Some Lizards and Love of the Sport

I know I'm late with the post, but I just got home from practice. Late is better than never.


So, on to Day #4!


Today we have an international ad about love lost. The ad is from Thailand and showcases the love life of two lizards and one not so stable ceiling.


Love Lost


Yes, this ad is a bit ridiculous, but the agency who put this together looked at ceiling and thought of it in a whole different way, as a destructive force to the well being of a relationship. The way the ad company looked at how to sell ceilings reminds me of a very good book that all creative (and non-creative) people should have on their shelves. A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger von Oech challenges people to get outside of their comfort zone and disobey the rules of thinking to come up with creative solutions to their problems. My recommendation: Stop reading this and go out and buy it NOW!


I love international ads! The agencies seem to have more freedom with nothing as strict as the FCC limiting them. They also seem to play on emotions in a different way or different emotions entirely.


The second ad I'm presenting to you killed me the first time I watched it. While it's not about romantic love, it still involves family love...well sort of. At the very least it encompasses "love of the sport."


Soccer Partner


Although this is an exaggeration, I know many a little kid who wants a sibling just as bad. Hey, maybe it's for all the wrong reasons, but I'm sure his new little brother will come in handy some times. This ad is reminiscent of Home Alone and all the other movies where the kids are shown as being pretty devious.


x,
Chace
The Faux-hattanite

The Honeymoon Period

Day #3

We all know that after the "honeymoon" stage of the relationship, we start seeing those flaws that we may have overlooked in the beginning. This commercial from Belgium is a lovely reminder of that. The juxtaposition of the romantic music and the less that perfect breakfast kills me.

Why women split

Also for your viewing pleasure an Israeli commercial involving copycat-style flirting. They took the humor just far enough. It may be kind of predictable, but still very cute.
Don't Try to be Smart

I'd write more, but it's been a wicked busy day for me and I have to jet off to class.

x,
Chace

Love is Corny

I know this is corny,

perhaps really cheap,

but I want to swim

in your eye so deep

`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`

Day # 2

Yes, many Valentine's related items may be corny, but they get the point across.

This next ad may go too far, but Hallmark is known for its cute cliches. You always hear people calling endearing moments "hallmark" moments.

This ad is certainly not targeted at anyone under 30. Although the humor is young, the idea of reminiscing about a first date or what drew you to your partner comes across as the strong point which can be found more so in stable, established relationships.

Hallmark REO Speedwagon Valentine

Personally I don't think a card makes a difference in terms of all the Valentine's Day package. Unless the card is written by that special someone, I probably won't take more that a glance at it.


Also for your Valentine's Day hearing pleasure a remake of Haddaway's "What is love?" sung by Diane Birch.

I'll leave you with this wonderfully corny poem.


x,
Chace

`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~

You're the sprinkles on my cupcake,
You're the pop to my tart,
You're the funny little puppy,
That has captured my heart.
You're my teddy that I hold,
And my favorite pair of shoes,
You're the apple of my eye,
And that corny phrase I just used.
You're my favorite punk rock band,
You're my rocketship in the sky,
On a scale of one to ten,
You're my perfect one hundred guy!

Diesel Sweeties

On the 1st day of February

Ah February...

The month of frantic planning for that one perfect evening where love is in the air and  Louis Armstrong's "Wonderful World" plays over and over in your head.

Don't misunderstand me, I love Valentine's Day. I just find the needless worrying about whether he'll like this or she'll like that to be pointless.

When I think of February, my mind fills with hearts, cupids, and red and pink all around. But above all, two concepts hang in the air, overshadowing all the corporate hubbub: Love and Sex.

So for the month of February I'll be posting on these two topics. The first 14 days will consist of postings about all the wonders of love, with the remaining 14 days focused on sex.
`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~

So let's get to the love!

Throughout the ages philosophers, poets, and the average Joe have all wondered about what love is, what it means, and if it even exists. Webster has a few definitions for love.

1. (a) a strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties ; attraction based on sexual desire; affection and tenderness felt by lovers; affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests (b)an assurance of love 
2. warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion
3. (a) the object of attachment, devotion, or admiration ; (b) a beloved person
4. (a) unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another; the fatherly concern of God for humankind; brotherly concern for others; (b) a person's adoration of God
5. a god or personification of love
6. an amorous episode
7. the sexual embrace
8. a score of zero

So first comes emotions, then sex, then...tennis?

We might not have all the answers, but we sure do know one thing: Love makes us feel great. It's like a drug, whether mentally, chemically or emotionally induced, and we are hopeless junkies with no chance of recovery.

Companies capitalize off of this feeling through television and print ads. While some may find that abhorrent, it's pretty effective. So, to ring in the love fest I propose Two Weeks Of Love, 14 days filled with romantic and funny ads about love, couples, and Valentine's Day. Today is day # 1 and here is your ad:

Happy Valentine's Day from Amstel

Typically I'm not a fan of beer commercials because their humor is rather crude, but I like this one. We all know that the people we date are not perfect and they will do things that may annoy us at times, but they still care...in their own special way.

Even though this ad shows men singing to their wives/girlfriends it is not targeted at women. It's still humor for men (which some of us women happen to chuckle along to). For men, there is a feeling of camaraderie. They are not in this Valentine debacle alone; there are men all around the world pandering to the commercialism of Valentine's Day.

Since that one wasn't too romantic here's another video: Post-it Love

Although it's not a commercial, it would be perfect as one (except for the amount of time it takes to build up).

Enjoy your first day of February!

x,
Chace

P.S. I started a new blog so I can talk about other things while this project is going on. Check it out, it's called The Faux-hattanite

It's nice to meet you

We've all heard the phrase "a picture equals 1,000." But what happens when you pair it with words, particularly statistics. Well, let me tell you, it can go either way, but for Grande Reportagem it was a complete success.

"Grande Reportagem is a Portuguese news magazine known for its photo-journalism and investigative reporting. Since January 2005 it has been running a series (developed for them by the ad agency FCB Publicidad) called "Meet the World" where national flags are used to graph a social/political issue specific to the particular country." Ethan Ham

Below are some of the ads that the magazine ran:

9gag

The statistics were taken from Amnesty International and the UNO. The images have been circulated around the world via e-mail chain letters.

Ethan Ham

"There are eight flags that portray very current topics like the division of opinions about the war in Iraq in the United States, the violence against women in Africa, the social inequality in Brazil, the drug trafficking in Columbia, Aids and malaria in Angola, etc." Brazilian Artists

Social activism and awareness via advertising or PR has to be one of my favorite things. Each day we are bombarded by ads telling us to buy, buy, buy! It's refreshing to find an ad that just wants to inform us of something instead. You could make the argument that the magazine is calling for people to use this new awareness to make a change, but that's the observer's own choice.

x,

Chace

I'd like to send YOU an instant message!

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