Advertising

In this post, I'll analyse a quote that stands an idea about advertisements. Afterwards, I'll conclude with my opinion about this topic. 

“Advertising is everywhere you look, whether it is in the newspaper you pick up daily or on that billboard you see while driving down the highway. Some people may say that they are not in fact influenced by the advertising that is thrown at them each day, and that they do not fall into it, but everyone does.”

Well, what I understand about the text above is that, no matter where you are or what you think, advertisements are always present in your life: in sports, in videogames, in clothes...in every single place. This is already internalized in our minds, so generally, it's not something we give importance to. But, as a matter of fact, it is important. It modifies our way of thinking, our needs, our entire society. Therefore, we are all influenced by advertisements. 

The question that is now important is if it's good or bad for us. If it lets us be free, or at least what we think is freedom, or if it restrains it. At least, most of them are, according to the laws, completely legal, so they are not supposed to be taking off our freedom. But, we have to understand that the advertisements are used by most of the companies, including the same government. So, perhaps here we can find vested interests. Other perspective where we could analyse this question is the companies' point of view. If we don't let them put placards, we are restraining their freedom, aren't we? 

Well, apparently this is not an easy problem to solve. But what is completely demonstrable, is that the advertisements are already in our heads and it would be very difficult to put them out of there. I don't really know if this is something good or bad for us. At least, with it, we are not imposed certain products or services, and we have the "freedom" to buy what we want. 

Advertisements

Just like the last year, we are now again studying the advertisements...If we study it a lot, it must be for something, right? Well, in this occasion, our task is to create an ad based on a new mobile phone of our choice. Then, step by step, we planned how it would be, and finally, we created a picture of how it is already finished. So, here it is, I hope you like it, and perhaps you even will want to buy this awesome device!

Apple - iPhone 5 - TV Ad Analysis

Advertisements. Ads. Commercials. You may call them as you want, but they are all the same. They are all announcements that try to sell you a specific product or idea, and hopefully, make you think that it's the-number-one-need, and it's a must to buy it to be better, to be cool, or whatever. An example of this is the iPhone from Apple. Below this paragraph, you'll be able to watch the iPhone 5 TV Ad, after which I'll briefly analyse it.

I'll base my analysis with some basic questions: 
What product or service is the commercial trying to sell? Where was the commercial set?  Who was in the commercial? What objects were in the commercial? What happened in the commercial? What is the target group? What is the message? What are the aural and visual techniques? Do you find celebrity endorsement? Does the ad respect the governmental policy of the country?

Well, of course, the ad is trying to sell the new iPhone 5. It's set in a white background, that helps with the idea of a new technology and the purity of the phone. It also highlights the idea of a completely new full HD screen and camera. This is the main visual technique they use, in my opinion. The other one, will be mentioned below. 

We found no people in the commercial, because they wouldn't help at all at providing the idea of a revolutionary-technological device. It's just worthless to bring people to say that the iPhone is the best device and that they endorse it, because that work is being made just by the device itself and the white background I already mentioned. In the ad, we could appreciate the iPhone 5, but most importantly, the great variety of applications that can be used in the phone, including a rubix cube, a skating game and a postal card creator, between others. Also, the words that quickly alternate helps with the idea of speed of the device, and also, with words like 'marvelous', 'phenomenal' and 'outstanding', they reiterate the idea of it as being the best. The last word of each part, is told-out-loud by a happy-voice. This, in my opinion, is the second visual technique, accompanied in this case with an aural technique also, to reinforce the idea of people being happy using the device. Perhaps the words, as they are so fast that we can't possibly read them all, are also a kind of subliminal-explicit message. Subliminal in the sense that we can't read them all, and explicit, because, in terms of legality, they are not making subliminal messages to oblige people to buy the product. So it's just like a tiny-sort-of sublimnal message, I guess. 

Laughing of the only
feature that apparently is
important for Apple in their iPhones.

Even if I'm not an expert in advertisements' policies, I think that Apple is not breaking the law, as if it had done it, every single competitor would have complaint to the authorities. The Federal Trade Comission is in charge of the policies and laws of advertisements in the US. As they post in their page, "The FTC looks at the ad from the point of view of the 'reasonable consumer', the typical person looking at the ad. Rather than focusing on certain words, the FTC looks at the ad in context - words, phrases and pictures - to determine what it conveys to consumers.". Therefore, if a typical consumer, maybe like me, didn't find problems with the trustabilty of what they sell, then maybe there's no big legal issue with it.

To conclude, I let what I thought is the most important part of any advertisement: its target group. In this case, they focused on people that wants to be technologised and have a pretty nice and functional mobile phone, with all the magnificence of an Apple product. It doesn't make difference between men or women or children. It's just made for everyone of us. And perfectly. Or at least, that's what they want us to believe. So the message is basically that. In other words, they want to persuade us that if we don't buy this product, we won't be cool enough and won't have the latest technologies in the market, and soon enough, we will be completely uncommunicated with the rest of the people. But the iPhone is what can help you to get back to the world, and it's just perfect for you or for whoever; it doesn't matter, but just buy the product. It can change your life to have a cellphone with a bited-apple in its back...really.

Welcome 2013!

I know it's not New Year. Actually, we are already in March. But I wanted to make this post to let you know that I'll start posting again with regularity. A new year started, new goals, new teachers, new classmates, but the desire of having a great blog and posting my ideas is still intact! 

Hopefully you have rested enough in your holidays, so that you can start better than last year. Let's make this year the best one!