The mass involvement of the media and our culture is astounding. There doesnt seem to be an area of our lives that the media and advertising cannot influence. Now even companies are paying to have their logo and products placed in movies so that people will recognize the brand and buy the products. Twenty years ago, this was not even heard of and now you cant even go watch a movie without recognizing some company or product.
There is no doubt that product placement is effective in getting the attention of the viewers. We are constantly bombarded by different advertising campaigns from different companies, so not recognizing the logos is almost impossible.
Like I said above, product placement is effective in helping the viewer notice the products, but it doesnt make the viewer want to purchase the product because there is rarely a campaign within the movie (an exception is the movie Billy Madison, where he does an ad campaign for Subway). So the products may be recognized by consumers but they dont necessarily make the viewer desire the product the way commercials and print ads do.
Overall I find product placement amusing in movies because it shows how desperate these companies are for us to buy their products. Product placement doesnt have much of an effect on my desire to purchase; it is just another way for consumers to recognize the companies that are trying to sell to them.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Blog #5
The media manages to penetrate almost every aspect of our lives. From TV to magazines, to newspapers, to radio and billboards, the media is constantly sending us a message through advertising. Over the last few days i have observed several different advertising techniques that companies have tried and tested to see if the ads are effective on the group of people they are advertising to.
A billboard on a major highway was advertising for Verizon. This billboard had the man that always says, "Can you hear me now," on it and very little text description about the product they were advertising. This image of this man has been etched into our brains so that when we see him we automatically make the connection to Verizon. This is a psuchological technique such as the one used by Pavlov and his classical conditioning theory. This is also the case with ads by Nike and other well known companies. Whenever we see or hear something that is repeated constantly, we begin to make the psychological connection to that company and the products that they sell us.
Radio commercials are another form of advertising that bombardes consumer over and over again. These advertisements vary for every station. The common ads that seems to be appearing on the radio are the ads that focus on saving money, getting jobs, and trying to find ways to benefit from the current economic state. These ads mostly focus on men, even though gender is not implied, because the majority of people that are laid off are middle aged men, therefore these radio commercials are sent at middle aged, white men. Usually these men are located in the city/suburban area because that is where the majority of the layoffs are taking place. This helps ad companies a lot because they can just figure out who listens to what radio stations, and put their ads on these stations so they can reach their target market. Decision making units for these ads are whether or not a person has a job, if they have a family to support, and if they need some extra money.
Advertising companies use many different propaganda devices that range from the weasel word to snob appeal. They also use famous people to try and get regular people to buy their products. This is a common practice for radio stations where they have a famous singer that is likely to be played on their radio station promote listening to said radio station. This is the act of a testimonial propaganda device.
As i said before, the media is a powerful and very influential aspect of everyday American life. The influence that the media can spread around cannot be escaped by people because the media penetrates every aspect of our culture and our lives. There are so many types of mediums that can be used that advertising companies can reach us in almost any way possible. And the funny thing is, we pay them to be another form of advertising. So overall, we the people, are the deciding factor on how far a company makes it.
A billboard on a major highway was advertising for Verizon. This billboard had the man that always says, "Can you hear me now," on it and very little text description about the product they were advertising. This image of this man has been etched into our brains so that when we see him we automatically make the connection to Verizon. This is a psuchological technique such as the one used by Pavlov and his classical conditioning theory. This is also the case with ads by Nike and other well known companies. Whenever we see or hear something that is repeated constantly, we begin to make the psychological connection to that company and the products that they sell us.
Radio commercials are another form of advertising that bombardes consumer over and over again. These advertisements vary for every station. The common ads that seems to be appearing on the radio are the ads that focus on saving money, getting jobs, and trying to find ways to benefit from the current economic state. These ads mostly focus on men, even though gender is not implied, because the majority of people that are laid off are middle aged men, therefore these radio commercials are sent at middle aged, white men. Usually these men are located in the city/suburban area because that is where the majority of the layoffs are taking place. This helps ad companies a lot because they can just figure out who listens to what radio stations, and put their ads on these stations so they can reach their target market. Decision making units for these ads are whether or not a person has a job, if they have a family to support, and if they need some extra money.
Advertising companies use many different propaganda devices that range from the weasel word to snob appeal. They also use famous people to try and get regular people to buy their products. This is a common practice for radio stations where they have a famous singer that is likely to be played on their radio station promote listening to said radio station. This is the act of a testimonial propaganda device.
As i said before, the media is a powerful and very influential aspect of everyday American life. The influence that the media can spread around cannot be escaped by people because the media penetrates every aspect of our culture and our lives. There are so many types of mediums that can be used that advertising companies can reach us in almost any way possible. And the funny thing is, we pay them to be another form of advertising. So overall, we the people, are the deciding factor on how far a company makes it.
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