IMC Hawks Blog

Tag: Advertising

  • VitaminWater: Ethically Healthy?

    When asking people about their New Year’s resolutions, you are likely to hear about their well-intentioned dietary goals. Our culture today is fanatical when it comes to weight loss and getting healthy. There are numerous hit TV shows such as “Biggest Loser,” “Celebrity Fit Club,” and “I Used to be Fat” plus piles of trendy diet books littering a great deal of homes across America that all attest to this craze. With people’s insatiable appetite for slimming down quick, it is no wonder that the big players of the industry are trying to cash in, even if it means being dishonest. So where do we cross the line? Isn’t it unethical when companies are turning out products that claim to be good for you but in truth are the opposite?

    By branding and promoting products as healthy, companies are capitalizing on the fact that people will buy almost anything they think will make them healthier, lose weight, or feel better. Some companies have gone to extreme lengths to ensure “healthiness” and “good for you” are  intertwined in their brand message but some go too far. It’s simply unethical for marketers to make a product seem healthy just to soothe our guilty conscience and sell their product. While striving to reach your health goals this year, keep the following misleading speed bumps in mind on your road to getting skinny and staying healthy.

    For example,Vitamin Water has healthy buzz terms in its title yet when you take a closer look at the nutrition label, its marketing campaign is contradicting the actual product. The brand of choice endorsed by our favorite two-coin rapper actually has about 32.5 grams of sugar per bottle. “Vitamin” and “Water” carry healthy connotations in their misleading titles and have relied on clever campaigns that play directly at our desire to be healthy. However, these products don’t in fact deliver on their promise. These little morsels of advertising non-truths can soon turn into a fat lie.
    -By: Alexis Kapczynski, Kacy Cox, Sara Kaloudis and Josh Bowman.

  • Looking Forward

    Going green.  It seems to be at the top of every corporation’s priorities.  In this day and age we have a better understanding for how unsustainable our daily lifestyles have been since the start of industrialism.  In the past, building and developing areas was praise-worthy.  Urbanization has supplied new jobs and opportunity for the ever-increasing population.   It is only in last fifteen to twenty-five years that we have started to realize that depleting our natural resources and burning fossil fuels cannot persist at the rate at which they are.

    Alternatives must be sought out. 

    Today, we can still live freely without compromise, however, the media has brought on an underlying pressure to conserve and to use less.  People are speaking out about Global Warming’s effects and the public is listening.  The message is now resonating that the way we do business personally and professionally needs to change.  With a heightened awareness of going green amongst the general public, it has opened up a new avenue for companies to use in appealing to their target audience.

    “Green this, organic that”…  business motives have shifted and companies are doing whatever they can to show they are a green, sustainable business. Marketers have leaped into branding “green” through strategies and ideas that promote the better goodness of the environment.  Besides a company’s involvement in becoming more sustainable, the main concern lies within the image they portray. Today, for the general public green equals good.  In going with a “green” company, it allows people to grant themselves with a feeling that they are doing the right thing for themselves, their environment, and the future based on what the mass media has hyped about the environment.  The color green symbolizes many positive aspects about a company’s values, making it crucial for any business to incorporate the theme into the design of their logo, website, advertisements etc.  Having an overall look of being clean, simple, sustainable, organic or recyclable seems to be what’s driving some of the most successful companies around us today.

    by: Oliver Evans, Sally Shupe, Jared Sales

  • Ready to shop ’til you drop?

    Gobble, Gobble! Happy Thanksgiving Eve! With all the impending excitement of a delicious home-cooked meal, time spent relaxing with family, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and of course football, let’s not forget about another American tradition: Black Friday. Every eager deal hunter and thrifty mom alike will be setting their alarm bright and early to take advantage of all this day has to offer. With deals such as Walmart’s Emerson 32″ LCD TV for $188 to Best Buy’s 24″ Dynex HD TV set for a crazy price of $79.99, the early hours are completely worth it.  Target has DVD’s for as low as $1.99 per DVD, while Sears is offering sweaters for 60 percent off from 4 a.m. to 1 p.m. only. With these prices, who needs to advertise? The prices seem to speak for themselves. However, this doesn’t seem to be the case. Companies seem to be spending a great deal of time and effort on their advertising campaigns, from targeted Black Friday commercial campaigns, to leaked Thanksgiving Day newspaper inserts.

    Target has put an interesting spin on things and has changed the way they have marketed to these consumers. Instead of bombarding customers with prices and products they should be looking forward to buying, they have tried a different technique: portraying a ‘stereotypical’ yet over the top Black Friday shopper.  The commercials feature a woman who has been counting down the days to shop at Target for Black Friday, and gives herself pep-talks and training sessions to prepare for the big day. This fresh way of advertising really seems to have hit a nerve with the public. This is a pure example of a well-executed targeted marketing message. It’s a tongue in cheek inside joke Target is portraying to their customers, “Yes, Black Friday shoppers are crazy, but, hey, with prices this good, there’s a reason to be,” Target has been spreading this campaign through traditional mediums, such as through TV commercials, as well as through social media. They have released additional videos of the “crazy Target lady” on Youtube, as well as giving her a personal Twitter account “ChristmasChamp” to the tune of over 13,000 followers thus far. Although the cost benefits from shopping on Black Friday speak for themselves, the advertising for this day certainly serves as a great positive reinforcement. Happy shopping!

    Phelps, Kingman, Hensley

  • Justin Bieber wants YOU to adopt an animal.

    We all know that celebrities play a huge role in the commercial and marketing industry. We have all seen the Proactiv commercials featuring a long list of celebrities that struggle with acne or a commercial like the one featured in yesterday’s post with Pauly D. In fact, according to the International Journal of Advertising about 25% of all US advertisements use celebrity endorsements and whether we want to admit it or not (ahem…third person media effect), what celebrities do or buy does have an effect on us. But that doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. What about when a celeb uses their influence and power for the greater good? When they help draw attention to a social problem?

    Oprah Winfrey is probably one of the most famous philanthropic celebrities of our time. She has used her show to shed light on many social issues and world issues as well raise millions of dollars for charities across the globe. Her influence is so high that economists at the University of Maryland stated that when she publicly endorsed Obama in the 2008 election, she may have brought in up to one million votes with her. That’s a lot of power. Other celebrities have also started to take a public stance on social issues in order to gain public interest. Jennifer Aniston along with many  other celebrities do commercials for St. Jude’s or in support of animal adoption.  Or as seen in the picture, Justin Bieber has joined with PETA in an effort to get people to adopt animals from their local shelters. The list could go on and on.

    So there’s some food for thought. Although we usually discuss celebrity endorsements with an air of negativity, we should also look at how they help organizations and causes that we, as the general public, might not have noticed without them.

    -Alaethea Hensley, Jessica Kingman, & Lauren Phelps

  • The Miracle of Celebrity Endorsement

    The key to success when promoting a product, whether old or new, is by using a familiar face to associate with it. Many companies hire celebrities to advertise their products in hopes of increasing sales.  The widely known sandwich staple, Miracle Whip, recently came up with a marketing strategy to promote their product using celebrities. These ads aren’t like anything you have seen before.

    Paul DelVecchio, commonly known as DJ Pauly D from MTV’s Jersey Shore, stars in one of the commercials:

    What’s different about these ads is that Kraft chose to highlight individuals who dislike their product. The “which side are you” campaign has brought much attention to Miracle Whip. Even though Pauly D despises the sandwich spread, the commercial still succeeds in catching the viewer’s attention. Kraft made a wise decision in choosing Pauly D as a spokesperson for their product because of his connection to a different viewing audience. Many of today’s generation tune in every Thursday evening to catch the latest episode of the hit show. By choosing Pauly D instead of a big-time celebrity such as George Clooney or Brad Pitt, Kraft is targeting a younger audience in hopes of attracting buyers who have never tried Miracle Whip before.

    Which side are you on?

    -Stephanie Bakolia, Claire Outlaw, David Glaubach

  • Do campaign ads sway your vote?

    In just under two months, we will celebrate the arrival of a new year. There will be plenty of things to anticipate in the coming year: the optimists will make their resolutions striving to reach them by the year’s end and the pessimists will continue to raise their voices about the end of the world. But 2012 also brings another event with it: the presidential election.

                As the presidential campaigns begin to get into full swing, our television sets once mainly confirmed to the usual commercial advertisement bombardment will face another kind—the political advertisements. Every four years we are exposed to the constant cycle of emotional ads, attack ads, biographical ads, issue ads, and on and on and on. And the reason is simple: the person who spends the most money in the races is usually the victor. This was demonstrated in the 2008 presidential election with Barack Obama outspending John McCain 3 to 1 on political advertisements on television. In the 2008 congressional campaigns, in the 426 House races, the person who spent the most money won 397 of those races. Also in the races for seats in the Senate, the biggest spender won 30 out of 32 races.

                This does not necessarily mean that if a candidate spends more money on advertising that they will win. However, it could be an indicator of just how much influence advertising has on our election process.  We are inundated with ads and messages about political candidates from TV to radio to simple guerilla marketing tactics and it obviously impacts our voting decision. So take a step back and think about it as you begin to listen to these ads. Are you voting for this person because you truly feel they are the best candidate or are you voting because the candidate’s ad campaign was great?

     

    For a closer look at how much politicians are spending on political advertising, head over to http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/

      -Jessica Kingman, Alaethea Hensley, Lauren Phelps

  • Connecting to Potential Jobs

    When it comes to the big job hunt, there are a plethora of considerations that come to mind. Seeking out career fairs, perfecting your resume, and getting the right professional look all seem to be high on the list. However, there’s one tool we sometimes neglect when it comes to seeking out jobs in our field, whether it be Marketing, Advertising, PR, or IMC: social networking. Sites such as LinkedIn provide a huge leg up for those looking for a job in our current market. You will be able to get your resume out to multiple different audiences with the click of your mouse, while also putting your resume out to employers who you may have initially overlooked.

    Not only is LinkedIn important for initially creating new job opportunities, it is also useful in growing and cultivating new connections and relationships. Networking is extremely important in the field of IMC and every connection you get could be a potential for a new opportunity. Active use of this resource shows those you have connected with, what you are up to, how you are looking to grow professionally, and if you are currently looking for employment options. With the current economic state, we have to exploit every avenue we can to ensure that we are able to find a job upon graduating.  While it is necessary that we have a strong resume and good interviewing skills, we also have to remember that our potential job opportunity could be found through LinkedIn.

    – Lauren Phelps, Alaethea Hensley, Jessica Kingman