Honda "Choir" Advertising

This, by far, might be one of the coolest commercials I have ever seen. Not only is it for my own car brand, Honda (sorry Audi!), but it is SO creative. I think it's amazing what some people can do with their voices alone and with a choir.

The way the group harmonizes to make the different noises of the car such as the tires, starting the engine, the acceleration of the engine is just amazing. I like the take that Honda took on this car commercial-- it wasn't talking about all the stuff the car had to offer but more the appearance and the appeal that the car provides its drivers.

Budweiser- Coming Home

Who would have thought that a beer company could have such a sensitive side? I'm a VERY emotional person, the smallest thing can set off my water works... just like this commercial..

Budweiser-Coming Home

I love how Budweiser includes the soldier in this video, I think it gives the commercial a great touch and it even gives a little credit to the soldiers fighting for our country. I also think it's really creative how Budweiser used a side-by-side effect of the two brothers preparing for the arrival of the soldier. As one was getting the house ready, the other was leaving to come home. Also, the mention of "PROUDLY SERVING THOSE WHO SERVE" at the end really made the emotional connection for me.

Kim, Khloe and Kris Getting Real with U by Kotex

The Kardashian clan is one of the most influential families on reality TV these days. Not only do they have their own TV series with multiple spin-offs, they also endorse many products including Sketchers, QuickTrim and U by Kotex. I came across this video on YouTube of Kris, Kim and Khloe Kardashian endorsing the new line of tampons by Kotex called "U".

The video also includes a question and answer portion. All different women sent in video questions for Kris, Kim, and Khloe to answer relating to women's health and periods. I think by having some of the Kardashians endorsing these products really gives the brand a good image. The Kardashian women are role models for girls all around the world and including them in brands such as Kotex really boosts their image.

Twitter

With the news of Osama Bin Laden being killed all over the news, the only thing that I came across on the internet today were articles relating to Osama. One in particular was 10 tweets from celebrities that related to Osama. I thought it was interesting that among such a serious issue, Twitter was involved. It just goes to show how influential these social networking sites really are. 10 years ago when 9/11 happened, Twitter and Facebook weren't even around yet, there would have been no mention of such major social networking sites like there is today.

Some examples of celebrity tweets...

Texting and Driving PSAs

As a lot of people have seen, the UK created a PSA for texting while driving. The PSA that they created is very strong and has explicit material in it. It's very descriptive and almost disturbing to watch yet has a strong effect on the people watching it. As I went to YouTube.com to search for the video I came across a mini video series that AT&T did about texting and driving. I had never seen a phone company do a PSA about texting and driving previously and when I thought about it, I was shocked that all the phone companies aren't doing it. I think it's really great PR for the companies and it boosts their image.

Both videos contain images of cars that have been damaged from texting and driving but the AT&T has personal stories from families who have suffered loses. I think that the AT&T documentary is more effective just because 1. it has personal stories and 2. it isn't as exaggerated as the one from the UK is. I think people take the one from the UK as a joke sometimes where as the AT&T one provides personal accounts from families and people who have suffered from bad occurences while texting and driving.

AT&T Don't Text While Driving Documentary

Texting While Driving PSA-UK

Welcome to my world, world of Red Bull.

After watching the Red Bull group present in class it came to my attention that I no longer see the Red Bull "Gives You Wings" commercials. They used to always be on TV and had such a distinct look to them. They all were animated commercials with a specific characters who had distinct voices. I was talking to my friend about how I no longer saw those commericals and he brought to my attention Red Bull's new campaign with Robbie Maddison as well as other extreme sport athletes that are sponsored by Red Bull. At the end of each commercial, Red Bull shows the athletes saying, "Welcome to my world, world of Red Bull."

I think this new campaign that Red Bull has introduced is more effective than their previous Red Bull "Gives You Wings". These new commercials are more exciting and eye catching than the bland cartoon characters Red Bull previously used.

AdWeek.com

Today I was looking around Adweek.com and came across a new commercial for Gatorade's "G Series". I thought that the video was really catchy; it included James Brown's hit "Super Bad" and carried the theme of having soul through out the entire video. I felt that the commercial was very clean cut and simple all while describing Gatorade's "G-Series" formulas.

I like how Gatorade cut the commercial up into 3 sections, before, during and after and showed what each formula of "G Series" is used for. The commercial doesn't come off as seeming "choppy" or not flowing well because it's cut up into segments but whoever made this commercial made it work well.

Over Easter break I was given the opportunity to interview for a position in the marketing department of a web development company, Americaneagle.com(to avoid confusion, it's not the clothing store). Today I was glancing at their Twitter to try and learn some stuff about the company and I came across this article... http://mashable.com/2011/03/23/mobile-by-the-numbers-infogrpahic/.

Not only am I blogging about this article now, I also tweeted about it because I think it's EXTREMELY interesting. It just goes to show how technology is constantly evolving; it's expected that by 2014, mobile internet usage will take over desktop internet usage. Not only are people using the internet to search things but a lot of the use is for games, checking the weather, and particularly social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube which are the 3 most common sites accessed.

To start off, I think all of Apple's advertising strategies are great. They're all clean cut and get to the point. One of my favorite advertisements they have going on is for their iPods. Their use of a colored background with a black image of a person dancing holding a white iPod is so simple yet so effective. Their consistency with all of the advertisements is really effective. I also like how they included a picture of the before and after shot of the person dancing in the picture.

Taylor Swift-- Newest CoverGirl

Well it looks as if CoverGirl is trying to market to a younger audience. Just recently they put on Taylor Swift as their newest spokesperson for the brand. Although I'm not a huge T-Swift fan I think that CoverGirl's decision to use her to advertise their products was a really good one. With the sudden break out of the young country star all that her appearance for CoverGirl will do is increase sales. I think their brand will now target a younger audience after having used celebrities such as Rihanna, Queen Latifah and Drew Barrymore who appealed to an older crowd.

Collection of Cool Pepsi Ads

Admittedly so, my drink of choice is Diet Coke. No matter what anyone says, I can taste the difference between Coke and Pepsi and I don't like it! Although my tribute goes out to Coke, I came across some REALLY cool Pepsi advertisements.

Just to show a few...

I love how Pepsi uses all types of different advertising strategies to sell their product. They play off the design of the can, the size of the can, as well as the product as a whole such as the semi truck in the last picture. In some ads they even included their competitor, Coke, but left out the name of it.

PETA

The first time I ever heard of PETA's "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" campaign was on Keeping Up With the Kardashians when Khloe was asked to pose nude for them. While surfing the web I came across another campaign done by PETA, the action being named "None of us would like to end up like this.. neither would other-than-human animal". I was SHOCKED to see the extent that animal activists would go to. For this campaign, four people were laying naked on styrofoam trays with plastic covering them trying to imitate packaged meat from the grocery store. I believe in standing up for what you beleive in but I think this method that they used was too extreme. It was a great way to advertise PETA because it was so outrageous but I think that the line was crossed with this idea. PETA's "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" campaign seemed to me like it was extremely effective due to the amont of celebrities that they were able to get to pose nude for them.

Kardashian Advertisement

One of the ONLY reality TV shows that I'll allow myself to watch is "Keeping Up With the Kardashians". I am an AVID Kourtney, Kim, and Khloe fan. Not only do I follow all 3 girls on Twitter, I'm constantly reading their blogs and checking for updates. Recently, I came across a blog from Kim about her ednorsement for Sketchers "Shape Ups". She was writing about how she came this advertisement for the shape ups that had herself on it. She was going through security at an airport and saw her picture inside of the bins she was using. Companies are really starting to become creative with their advertising, not just the advertisements but also with where they place them. What better place to advertise your product than in an area where thousands of people are each day? People are always using those bins when going through security.

As I was surfing the internet looking for different idea things to blog about I came across this advertisement for the Mini Cooper. Although I personally would never purchase a Mini Cooper or even drive one, this recent advertisement they came up with was SOO creative. There's no better way to play off words than this advertisement to the right. The idea was not only creative but extremely appealing to the eye. I love companies that advertise their products in non-traditional ways such as this Mini Cooper. Not only does it increase product recognition but they're fun to look at! A lot of companies have started to take an approach such as this one where they advertise their products in "larger than life" kind of ways. For example, one of Christian Louboutin's most recent advertisements was an oversized shoe that people could sit in. Advertising products in forms that are out of the ordinary are the companies that I believe stick in peoples' minds.

I was on Twitter recently and came across a link that my friend tweeted called "The 25 Most Epic Ads That Aren't Apple's '1984'". Although I hadn't seen a majority of the ads that were mentioned in the article I thought the ones that they chose were interesting. It was also cool to see the different brands that were involved within the 25 "epic" advertisements. Advertisements ranged from Heineken to Best Buy to a French AIDS awareness commercial. Although there was no special "advertising" propoganda behind this article I just felt that it was something enjoyable to read and look at. Unlike the book I read at the beginning of the year, "20 Ads That Changed the World", these advertisements are all fairly recent.

Britney Spears-Product Placement

Just the other day I was watching Britney Spears' music video for her song "Hold It Against Me" off her new cd Femme Fatale. As I was watching the music video, I was very

caught off guard by the way certain products were making an appearance in the beginning of her video.

Not only did Britneys own perfume "Radiance by Britney Spears" debut but Sephora's own brand of makeup "Makeup Forever" was also used in

the video.

Curious as to what the reasoning was behind the awkward use of "product placement" in the "HIAM" music video, I googled it and to my surprise, came across many articles relating to her video. According to Rolling Stone magazine, Britney Spears made over $500,000 with the use of product placement in her music video. Along with the perfume and makeup, Sony televisions and monitors were used as well as the dating website, Plenty of Fish.

Along with the Rolling Stone article, I came across another article online about the uproar with the product placement used in the music video. Katy Perry, another music artist, defended Britney Spears saying that product placement should be done with "style and grace".

TUMBLR

Recently I've been seeing a lot of posts about "Tumblr" on both Twitter and Facebook. I first came across the website from my friend Jaclyn who has a Tumblr and constantly updates it and posts about it on Facebook. Within the past week or so I feel like I'm constantly seeing tweets and Facebook statuses that have to do with this up and coming "blogging method". When I first saw Jaclyn's, I didn't really undertand what the purpose of her Tumblr was. So today I decided to look into it more.

One of the first things I came across when looking at the "About" section on the Tumblr website was a quote from the Telegraph website in the UK.

"Weblogs? Been there, done that. Facebook? It's full of kids. Twitter? That's so 2006, darling. No, the smart thing to be doing online these days is tumblelogging, which is to weblogs what text messages are to email - short, to the point, and direct."

According to the creators of Tumblr, "Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything. Post text, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos, from your browser, phone, desktop, email, or wherever you happen to be. You can customize everything, from colors, to your theme's HTML."

Tumblr was also voted one of President Barack Obama's top 5 tech tools according to PC World.

Not only can you access it from your home computer, you can update and search the website via smartphones.

I think this social media platform that I have currently become educated about is going to make a big impact on the whole social media thing that our society currently has going on. Although I don't think it will take over Facebook and Twitter, I think it will come really close to it.

Over springbreak I read the book The Dragonfly Effect written by Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith. The basis of the book talks about ways to use social media to make a change using the power that they all possess. It didn't give tutorials on how to use sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, it gave specific examples on how these sites have been used to make a difference in the world. Brands such as Gap, Groupon, Starbucks, Nike, and eBay were all featured in the book.

Each excerpt in the book contained a concrete goal that both individuals and companies were trying to achieve. Goals such as bone marrow donors, electing the current President of the United States, and raising money for cancer patients were all done via these particular social media sites.

I think this book is etremely beneficial to read. Not only does it provide ways to go about utilizing these social media sites, it talks about the successes and

failures that people have ecountered along the way. It teaches readers that there are uses outside of contacting people; if used correctly these websites can save lives. Some of the campaigns that are written about are truly inspiring and it goes to show how easily

you can "spread the word" about different issues over the internet.

AboveTheInfluence.com

Recently I feel like I've been seeing more and more commercials for the "Above the Influence" campaign. Although they've had commercials and advertisements out for years, I feel that some of the commercials that I've seen lately are more powerful and effective than some of their previous ones.

Their website even has a section dedicated just to their ads. The campaign that they have associated with their ads right now tries to answer the question of "What does it mean to live Above the Influence?" Each commercial tries to answer that question in different ways.

Above the Influence website

My favorite commercial that they have out right now is called "Diner". I actually got the chills the first time I watched it. I think it's really powerful because it shows an elder person recognizing and commending a youth for his decisions.

One brand in particular that I think is most like myself is David Yurman. David Yurman is a high-end private jewelry company that was founded in New York by David Yurman himself. Yurman’s pieces are made using different materials such as gold and sterling silver by incorporating different textures, metals, and stones. His collections feature bracelets, earrings, pendants, necklaces, rings, charms, watches, as well as eyewear and fragrances for both him and her.

One aspect of Yurman’s jewelry that stands out the most to consumers is his use of integrating both gold and sterling silver into his pieces. Most people are afraid to wear the two metals together but Yurman makes his pieces in a way that looks sophisticated and elegant when both are used together. His use of sterling and gold together is similar to me because Yurman took a risk by making pieces using both materials. I think Yurman’s decision to make a piece of jewelry that doesn’t appeal to the eye at first relates to me because I like to go against the grain and be different. Rather than following what everyone else is doing, I like to be an individual and have my own personality.

David Yurman "Helix" using both sterling silver and 10 k gold

Another aspect of David Yurman’s jewelry is both the simplicity and complexity of some of his pieces. Some of his collections feature pieces that are very simply; only one texture is used, minimal stones and materials are incorporated, and the pieces are fairly small. On the other hand, some of his pieces, necklaces and rings especially, are made to stand out and make a statement using multiple stones, both big and small in size. I think this aspect in particular relates to me because I can be both easy going, which relates to Yurman’s more simple pieces, or I can be loud and obnoxious which describes his bigger, statement pieces.

Magazine Advertisement

Lastly, all of David Yurman’s advertisements for his jewelry line are the same; simple yet elegant and portray his pieces in an appealing way. His website is easy to navigate and his commercials are fairly short and enjoyable to watch. I think his way of advertising is both similar and different to the way other companies choose to advertise their products. The one thing that stands out the most about David Yurman’s use of advertising is the minimal amount of time he spends on advertisements, most of his business is due to word of mouth. This aspect of his company is like myself because I’m a reserved person, I don’t like putting myself out in the open and being center of attention.

Naomi Watts for David Yurman Jewelry Commercial

David Yurman Facebook Page

David Yurman Twitter Page