Test on Advertising (Part 2)

contradictions

Advertising is no longer a means used to sell products or services only.  You learnt that it has expanded beyond the mere act of selling something.  You saw some ads and commercials that tell stories, or taht have a strong moral message.  Then you spotted some commercials/ads that somehow seem to be ambiguous or ambivalent or even paradoxical: e.g. the commercial of a car which emphasises the "green" impact of the product, yet we all knwo that cars pollute.  Taking all these elements into consideration wrie your own considerations as to the developments of advertising.

contradictionCan advertising be considered a form of art or is it simply a subtle way of imposing a product on a potential consumer?  In other words can advertising be viewed as amoral?

0shampoo

In  what way do you think the setting up of a blog has helped you acquire a wider perspective on the study of advertising? Do you think the blog has helped you become a more "critical" consumer? Were the teacher’s comments and your calssmates’ observations helpful? Why (not)?
If you had been asked to run a blog on advertising, what elements would you have added? Deleted? Why? In other words, do you have any suggestions as to a way of improving the blog itself?

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21 Replies to “Test on Advertising (Part 2)”

  1. If advertising was the best idea that companies had in order to sell more products, nowadays it is a sort of danger for society: it is not only meant to sell a certain kind of food, but it is used to change people’s habits, making them buy only certain products. In this way different people will have same habits: they will all buy frozen food, cars that seem to have a “green” impact on the environment.
    This happens because ads have a great impact on people. They use stereotypes to catch the attention of the viewer but not only: music also plays an important role, colours too; all creative ideas that have changed the simple article on the newspaper, where sellers write “I do this; I sell that; call me at number ***; come to my shop”, into a thing that captures people and changes society.
    To me ads could be considered a form of art, especially social ads, because they use all the techniques in order to convey ideas and to highlight issues: it is for this very reason that we cannot just say “Ads are amoral”….obviously there are ads that go against morality, that play on racism, sex and so on, but we cannot mix things indiscriminately!
    I found the activity on the blog VERY useful: it helped me improve my knowledge and turned me into a more “critical” consumer. I have noticed that, every time I see an ad, I tend to analyse it at first glance and often I find something that I do not like so much, because I recognise the advice they are using to catch my attention.
    I think though that it has been a bit demanding because I stopped studying the violin for a couple of months…and I have to take a very important exam!!
    But maybe it has been very useful to raise my consciousness on front of something that we tend to take for granted. The comments and observations of my class mates are very helpful because I could think about issues that I did not ever take into consideration before! Sharing ideas is important because it is a way to help one another.
     

    Stefania

  2. -In the past Advertising was a way to sell products and make the market more vivid. But this solution which was meant to sell more, it has now become a way of thinking. It creates stereotypes in order to control people’s feelings, emotions and lifestyle. In fact advertisers make the consumers think that they need their product in order to be happy or have a good life.
    Sometimes they are even paradoxical. Think of the ad that Davide analysed. It promotes a new engine that pays particular attention to the environment. We know that every type of engine pollutes, but we need to know that we can do something for our Earth that is in danger. In this sense I think that advertising has a strong influence on our ideas!

    -I think that advertising could be considered a form of art, but only in the past! Today it has overcome some limits that are important for human beings, for example dignity. I think of a post of our blog, the one about children. I was really shocked by the image of a child used to advertise some of the biggest brands known all over the world. I think this is immoral! A child is a wonderful creature and you cannot use him/her, ruin his/her dignity transforming him/her in a misfit. It is really amoral.

    -I think the blog helped me acquire a wider perspection of advertising because I learned lot of interesting concepts that helped me understand some parts of the deceitful world of advertising. I think I have become a more “critical” consumer because I pay more attention to the persuasive elements of an ad and I try not to believe in tricks. The teacher’s feedback was useful because it tought us some important peculiarity, for example that of intertextuality was a surprise to me! Even the classmates’ observation were helpful because we confronted different opinions about an idea. In this way I have learned a lot from the others because I expanded my knowledge and now I know that sometimes my thoughts were wrong!

    -If I had been asked to run a blog, I think I would make it like this one because I appreciate the fact of sharing ideas, an important element for me. Then I think that our blog deals with basic, not always easy, but important concepts, useful to understand the complex world of advertising.

  3. Advertising is no longer used to sell products or services. Ads, nowadays, tell stories, have strong moral messages and catch our attention.
    At the beginning ads were created only to sell but, along with the development of society they have changed. To catch the address’s attention the advertiser has introduced into the commercial moral messages and sometimes creates a story for example the Pantene ad. It tells us a beautiful story of two girls and we cannot imagine that this ad is about haircare products.
    For this very reasons I think that advertising can be considered a form of art. It is a creation of the advertiser like a picture for an artist. We must observe his product more than once to appreciate all messages that he wants to give us. I think that the setting up of a blog helped me a lot. Here I can share with my classmates my opinion and I can learn a lot by reading their comments and by reading of teacher’s observations.
    I think that it is a good exercise to develop my critical capability: now, I see ads and commercial in a critical way: I always try to understand the moral message, I try to find the ambiguous or paradoxical elements that are very common…now I am a critical costumer and this happened thanks to this blog and thanks the work about ads that we have done during this school year!!!

    CHIARA B.

  4. I thik that advertising is not only a way to sell a particular products but it is also used to teach something. Some commercials that we have saw in class tell stories (Act on CO2 on the atmosphere), others have a strong moral message and others catch immediately our attention. I think that there are some commercial that are only used to increase the sale of the products in fact, this commercial used children because they are kind and sweet and they catch our attention. Nowadays advertising is becomes a sort of danger for society: in some case commecial change people'a habits and aptitude because ads have a strong inpact in the mind of the viewers.
    I think that advertising could be considered a form of art, particularly social ads!!!!In the commercial the use of creativity is a very important element to catch the attention of  people.
    I think that the activity in the Net is a very interesting and useful but also a very demanding activity. At the beginning I did not like the idea of writing something that everyone could read but in the end I found this activity interesting because I think that the comments with points of view and ideas that differ from mine can improve my knowledge.I think that the teacher's comments and the observations of my classmates are very halpful because in this way we can see that in a simple spot everyone can sess different things.The BLOG helped me become a more "critical consumer"because I pay more attention to the persuasive elements of an ad.
    Anika

  5. Ads, except for social ads, generally speaking are created in order to make money. This is the first goal for any ads’ expert. Ads should have a strong impact on the potential consumer, so experts make you focus your attention on specific details, that give the commercial a special effect.
    Advertising cannot be considered a form of art, because, in my opinion, art should be something “pure”, not linked to money, social problems, moral questions. Advertising is a subtle way of imposing a product upon a potential consumer. Ads and art cannot be seen in the same way; they are totally disconnected: I associate art with emotions, human passions, but I cannot do the same with ads, because advertising is invasive, it is something imposed, even if not necessarily amoral.
    Through the blog I have learned a lot of new things about the world of advertising and it helped me develop my creativity. Thanks to the blog, I became a more “critical” consumer: now I analyse every ad I see and when I run into a new product I know how to “protect” myself from marketing strategy. All the comments and observations I have read or received were helpful to improve my knowledge about this world and to improve my critical ability; I had the possibility to read a lot of different and interesting points of view and reflect upon them.
    If I had been asked to run a blog on advertising, I would have added two “spaces”: one where we can find the most famous and important links on advertising and also some basic information about it, in order to “start” the activity from a common knowledge; the other “space” would be a post reserved to the comments of the guests. I would like to read observations also by people I am not in touch with. Also a place where we can upload our ads’ pics could be nice!

    Tiziana

  6. Advertisement is the most innovative form of art of the 20th and 21th century.Sometimes is amoral,sometimes beautiful,agressive,stereotyped ,superficial as a painting or a song.
    A form of art that included a research of the human being from Freud to nowadays.
    In my opinion is not sell only a product or tell stories;ads are the images of our society with negative  and positive aspects
    I think that advertising can be considered  a form of amoral art.Art because it is a research of colour,images that uses other forms of art much as sculptures and music.Unfortunatelly it is amoral because it emphasises products only to sell it.This is not the case of social ads where there is only a positive message.
    The use of the blog tested our ability (to analyse and understand)and improve our English.Sometimes it is very demanding but when you finish the analysis of an ad you feel rewarded.
    It provides a starting point for the “area progetto” because we can test the things that we have learnt from the stage and confron ourselves with classmates.In this case teacher’s comments are very useful to understand mistakes and to discover different point of view.
    If I had been asked to run a blog on advertising,I would created different link as “advertisement and  cinema”, “advertisement and art” where people can choose what analyse.Sometimes I found difficult wacht the video because of technical  problems and I prefer photos.
    Nazzarena            

  7. Advertising was born as a way,as a means to sell products,nowadays is one of the most important and strongest means of communication. In some cases it has become a show,a sad show,and the product is barely mentioned. But not all ads are negative,for examples social ads, they help the society to heal the illness of out time. According to me advertising is a form of art,because advertisers use images,music,colours and words. The fact that ads are considered art because they are nice,sparkiling and shock you,is a sort of cover and expedient:tycoons use the beauty of art in order to hide their amorality towards consumers' conscience. But not all commercials are amoral, the majority of them are fair and their aim is just to sell their products. I have noticed that big companies are the ones ehich use subtle advertising,even if they have already conquered the marker; this consideration underlines their lust for power,a lust that makes them lose moral values. 
    With the blog I was able to give vent to all my ideas,doubts and criticism;it was a way to confront with my classmates and to discuss with my teacher. To me the blog was a sort of dialectik beacuse I put toghether my considerations with the ones of my friends,to create new ideal amd beliefs,which really made me focus on issuse I had never dalt with before. I noticed aspects,like ads addressed to children,that did not cross my mind immediately!
    In some parts of the blog I admit that I repeated the same concepts too much,and this is the only criticism I can raise. I really liked this experience and I am really thankful for this,even if sometimes it was very heavy,maybe because the questions were too demandinf,but it even helped me improve my knowledge of the mysterious world of advertising!
    Valentina

  8. Advertising is much more than what we see on TV or read in the newspapers. Advertising is extremely powerful because it sells ideas, ideologies, stereotypes, conventions, fears, hopes, dreams. The aim is not just that of selling: it is catching the attention, making people making people think about that ad, dividing opinions. Advertising controls people and can foresee their reactions, feelings, decisions. Ads and commercial tell stories in order to convey messages, to let people reflect upon certain concepts, and they somehow penetrate people's minds. In my opinion, the ambiguous messages of some ads are just meant to be like that, in order to catch the attention and to be discussed. Other ads are paradoxical or ambivalent, but maybe most of the people do not care or notice it.
    Since advertising was born (in the late 1800) it has changed a lot: ad agents have become smarter in their approach and have grown more aware of how they can manipulate people's brains; even the support of technologies helps a lot.
    In my opinion, advertising is a form of art: that page on the newspaper or that commercial which lasts only few seconds are expression of weeks and months of work and sweat of many people. Advertising lets imagination spread and creativity can be used in thousands of way. But there are many rules to respect and limits that must be observed. Of course advertising is a subtle means to catch the consumers' attention and sometimes it is amoral in the sense that it shows little respect for people's sensitivity or excessive messages. Many ad agents just care about selling and to do that exploit everything they know about the human soul and mind.
    To me, the “experience” of this blog has been a little demanding but also useful and curious. For sure it has been a new kind of homework    and a way to improve my English knowledge and the awareness of the risks of advertising! I read my classmates' opinions and I agree with most of them. I admit sometimes I look at their posts in order to understand what it is asked to do and to make an idea of the things that are requested! 
     In order to improve this blog I think I would have done it a little bit more colourful! But it is a derisory aspect! Good job=)

    Erica

  9. I think advertising is continually in development.
    We started studying and analysing  commercials from the beginning , when we didn’t know  anything about them. We grew up “thinking ”  and reflecting  on ads.
    Maybe some time ago, commercials  were used  just to sell a product , but now?! Now, in my opinion it is completely different. Each kind of  commercial has something  which goes over first impact ; each “story ” , even if it is short, has a message that unfortunately not everyone is able to catch  or understand. Some ads seem to be ambiguous! There are commercials which stand up with contradiction.  Some people refuse to accept the deep message  present in an ad and don’t want to see what companies give us.
    I  don’t want to sound too negative , I know that there are also  commercials that have a moral message, they are less than the other , but they are present!
    Sometimes these ads are wonderful, (think for example of Pantene), describe fantastic and moving stories  but in the end? In the end it is always the same : a product!
    So, there is illusion at the beginning and disillusion in the end.
     
    In my opinion Advertising can be considered a form of art only for an important thing that characterizes it. we know that the ideas and the message we reach from ads are other people’s ideas!
    So, we have to say that  PUBLICITY is a form of art ; sentences, slogans, logos, colors, music… are put together , and together create “brilliant, genial  expressions of  fervid minds”!  what we watch  on a screen is the fantasy and the thought of a real lively mind!!
     
    Of course the blog has helped me to become a critical consumer, and I try to  “teach ” my family to do the same, but, this is too difficult. I think a blog is really useful , because it is a different way to give others our opinions and thoughts.
    I think teacher’s and classmates ’ comments are very helpful also because of a personal  pride.
    If my teacher and my classmates answer to my consideration they understood what I wrote.. and this is a huge satisfaction!
     
    Just like Erica, I would put more colors and draws in the blog, just to make it  “OUR”  , made by us in every single part but… of course these aesthetic  aspects need time and collaboration.. however we made together a great job!!
    Jessica L.

  10. if advertising was born to sell products, nowadays it is a means of persuasion. Once it was just a form of communication to sell services but with the birth of the mass society advertising is deeply changed.
    Now it is a sort of struggle which uses all the possible weapons to mesmerize and hypnotize the consumers's attention. For example it creates stereotypes that often become paradoxical because they promote something that on reality has different consequences that ore obvious : a diesel car in fact pollutes but through a commercial they make you believe the contrary or at least that his emissions are lower.
    To realize  these "effects" they use lots of techniques as creating little stories that sometime last more then 30 seconds.. 
    Ad and art often coincide, both of them are a form of communication, they are addressed to a public and they have to be interpreted. It is not really simple to answer this question because even if ads use art to enchant consumers , sometime they are really different from art. However advertising is full of artistic elements, aesthetic forms and original techniques but in this sense art is also exploited by ads, in fact it becomes another means to persuade people. So ads can be viewed as amoral because it converts something pure as art in another mean to make money exclusively.
    the work on the blog helped me to know better the theme of ad that is often misunderstood or took for granted, i think it has been useful and very efficient to face this problem. the most important advantage of this "itinerary" is that now I am a conscientious consumer, I am able to criticise and to value what is useful and necessary or not,I am less conditioned by this world of consumerism.
    If i am asked to run a blog on advertising I would make something like this, it is  complete even if I would have appreciated a warmer participation maybe by debates about the posts of the blog.
     
    Elisa

  11. Beyond every commerical, there is a moral message, something that should help us understand why we should buy that kind of product. Once advertising was used just to sell goods and not to ''manipulate'' somehow mankind's minds. By analyzing commercials, in these months, I understood how many ideas there are beyong the screens and what we see/watch. Some ads may even seem ambiguous and paradoxical, for example the ad presented by Lory: it was about beauty industries , the impact that they have on girls especially on young girls, that are constantly bombarded with stereotypes and images. This ad is promoted by "Dove" which is one of the most importand beauty-product industry. Paradoxes and ambiguity coexist in evey ad, this is the only way it can be sticked to your brain.
    For sure advertising is a form of art, just think about all the stuff you have to use in order to create an ad, the ideas you have to use and have, the use of sentences and colours. Maybe as it is not in other forms of art, advertising is somehow and sometimes a little bit amoral, because it hides messages we do not expect. You see figures images that remind us of something else, names that existed in older times that had a different connotation and so on. Anyaway since I started analyzing commercials and I found out those things, I do think that these promoters have lots of creativity in their brains, and this creativity somehow penetrates through commercials in our brains to let us but or do something: this is the only reason why I think advertising is, sometimes, amoral.
    The blog helped (and helps me) focus on the important parts of a commercial, what is foundamental and what is not. Focus on music and words, thinking about the identikit of someone, trying to think of how things that can be advertised: this is how the blog is helping me.
    I have started thinking in a different way and I have started using creativity and imagination too, as I have never done before. I only wish I had more time to write and post!

  12. Sice its birth, advertising underwent a lot of changes, it has became through years more and more effective, to keep up with other ads, with the competition every ad has to be more effective and strikinf. In order to be remembered more easily, many of those make use of paradoxes or stereotypes: elements of everyday's life get subverted, in rder to be impressed on the viewers' minds. A good ad has to chose a peculiarity of the product it is selling and emphasise it as much as possible, often creating paradoxes: think of a diesel-engine loved by nature and animals. or of the AUDI car, polluting less then a foam glass!

    Some ads can actually be considered a form of art, because they sharply and smartly stirr emotions in us, they're well done and easy to keep in mind: which is the goal of the companies trying to sell us the product or of the organisation raising our awareness about something (GreenPeace, WWF, social ads aimed at safeguarding the environment,..). Some other commercials are amoral, because they abruptly present their message, dealing with disturbing stereotypes, or are simply offensive and rude (think of the Air-Action Vigorsol chipmunk!).

    The blog helped me a lot in becoming a more critical observer, thanks to the striking examples and cases presented. It's a different way of learning, through the net, and can be enjoyable of taken in the right mood. To me, it was also useful to sometimes confont my interpretation with someone else's.

    To me, the blog doesn't need anything else, it's enjoyable because it's modern and not boring at all. The last posts, the longest, are different from the rest of the blog, because of the quantity of information; i tried to stick at the Keep It Short And Simple religion, for a shorter text is more enjoyable and lighter to read, not for neglect.

    Davide

  13. Advertising is used to sell a way of living not only a produc, I’m thinking about Sabrina’s ad of Pantene, it tells a story and in the end it says that if you use Pantene products you can shine in life, they try to convince you to use their products in order to have success.
    Many commercials are paradoxical just think of Dove ad, they made a social ad to protect girls from beauty industry but Dove is a beauty industry!!so this is a paradox but the message is: you can use our products even if you are ugly and fat, you do not need to be perfect.

    In my opinion some ads are a form of art, I’m thinking for example of Davide’s ad ,it is a very artistic to advertise a car using bright colours, animals, flowers, happy song etc..
    But all the ads are simply a subtle way to impose a product on a consumer, they convince you that some products are useful even if you have no necessità of them.
    Almost all ads are amoral, they give you a view of people and of life that is not right.

    I think the blog is useful to me to become a more “critical”consumer, it helped me also to improve my knowlodge of advertising.
    The comments of my class mates are very helpful because I can know their ideas and I can also confront my ideas with the other.
    Thanks!!

    Lory

  14. I think it was worth doing the blog: I’m quite enthusiastic. Despite of the nights spent on it, I think it gave us the chance of expressing ourselves in English like nothing ever and to some extent it was delightful. That was one of the goals of the blog.
    Then comes Advertising, which was one of the most challenging issues in the economy of the 20th century, yet it has got to the top of many social issues in the 21st century and, together with it, to the top of many social diseases.
    In many cases, Advertising can find and convey the cure for these diseases, like Social Advertising tries to do.
    Yet, having abused its powers, Advertising has now to face the consequences it has triggered; the reactions (like health disease, overweight of many children in the USA) it hadn’t foreseen. Thanks to Advertising, companies have extended their influence beyond the stores and the supermarket: wherever we look, we see a logo, a brand, a “message”, and we have terribly got used to it. I cannot think of a place in my house, where a logo does not come to my attention. We have become advertisement as well, for instance, when we wear on a T-shirt with the brand of the company; we are just peddler, and we feel cool, fashionable and up-to-date to be like this. Isn’t it a little bit strange?
    To sum up, after participating to the blog we are surely aware of the tools that we need to create an advertisement and, along with it, we have the knowledge to “undress” the advertisement itself; it has provided us some useful tips, that otherwise we would have easily overlooked; we have learnt how to put up with the deceiving messages that advertising constantly delivers to our eyes and ears. We learnt how often messages are conveyed through a poetic language. Later Advertising has borrowed many devices from literature and poetry, and, to me, it was the “beginning of the end”. Nevertheless advertising cannot be considered a form of art, it is nothing more than a mere way to sell products and conveying ideas, so that those products become more appealing to our “senses”.
    As usually, I have nothing to complain about. I hope the blog can draw more interest not only among our class or future classes, but also among all users of the Net. Although sharing opinion on whatever issue is not granted in all countries, we saw how easy it is, and how it can produce great results and solutions. Personally, I would create a separate section with the latest news on the issue, on advertising, or a “problem of the day” section; either a part where an expert can answer some questions asked by users.
    Let it go on.

    Stefano P

  15. Yes, advertising as undergone many changes and developments over the years. As a matter of fact it is no more about the product with its qualities and features, but ideas, styles and emulation. This is because step by step the advertising agencies have realized that to gain sure results it is necessary to study and understand deeply the human brain, its fears, its relationship with society, its passions. As a matter of fact starting from the 1970s these agencies have improved and increased psychological research to employ its result in marketing and advertising fields. Nowadays for example, issues like ecology, environmental disasters, binge eating, beauty and power are the main subject matter of commercials and ads. Moreover what catches the consumers’ attention and guides them in the choice of their shopping in a market surrounded by hundreds of different products that are actually all the same!
    I don’t think that advertising, as well as marketing, can be considered a form of art. In my opinion instead it uses (exploits) certain forms of art (e.g. visual art) to gain commercial results. Often in fact advertising acquires unethical and amoral methods and I’m not surprised by it since we live in a world where money has the supremacy over ideals and humanity.
    I am sure that this blog has not being just a way to improved my awareness as a consumer but also an original method to share opinion and thought with the rest of the class on a very vivid issue! In fact speaking about advertising is not just useful for our “area di progetto” but also for our future carrier at university, since we have been dealing with issues of sociology, marketing and actuality, and we had the chance of improving our vocabulary and our writing skills. Just one thing I would have liked better to improve my English skills: since this blog took us (students and teacher) a long time and effort I think that each post should be considered a sort “written composition” as the ones that we are asked to write on paper over the school year. I know that it would have been a hard job for you ,Mrs Ziraldo, to check grammar and spelling in each post, but it would have helped us in improving our English. Writing this blog in fact, we committed ourselves in producing original, interesting and well written posts…the problem is that I don’t know whether what I wrote is correct as far as the English language is concern! J
    Anyway I’m happy of what we created in this blog and I’m sure it had been a useful experience!
    Gloria

  16.  I notice that sometimes each commercial describe products through telling a story, and I think that advertiser in this way wants that consumers pay more attention on what they are seeing. It is a mode to suspend everything on the mind of the consumer and concentrate on the story. Maybe a person could think that it is a scene of film or something like that, and it is push to see the commercial till the end. The really important thing is that advertising succeed in their aim. Advertiser make an ad that catches our attention. The other thing is that paradoxes, oppositions, strange, unreal are the weak point that persuade us, and advertising agents know that.
    I think that in some way, advertising is a kind of art because advertisers use their imagination to compose an ad. All is studied to catch our attention and to impose a product. Every minimal object, colour, word are used in a special mode to convince us to buy a commodity. In one hand ad is a kind of art because everything that takes out from our mind is art, on the other hand it is a persuasive art using to impose a commodity on a potential consumer.
    I think blog has helped me acquire a wider perspective on the study of advertising because now I can see more details in a commercial. Sometimes posts on blog were too long and took us a lot of time to do them, because we have to analyze each characteristic. Now when I see commercials on tv, I try to catch immediately elements of persuasion and how the colours, the images, the words are used. I liked very much the first post, where we have to comment a quotation on advertising, and the last part on social ads are really interesting, because are about the real life and the world.
    Giulia

  17. Advertising sells first of all ideas, lifestyles, vices and virtues of society.
    Then it sells a product too.
    So, when we buy a specific kind of biscuits of a specific mark, in fact we want to buy the serenity and the quiet of a good and long breakfast with all the family.
    When we buy a certain detergent, we want to buy pure air and boundless green fields to dry the washing, we want to do the laundry as grandmother did half a century ago…but with the washing machine.
    We realize, sometimes, that we buy contradictions, false Arcadian myths, or our own dreams.
    But the advertised product is just a way to arrive in this fantastic world, far away from grey cities and from the crazy watch.

    The firs advertisement, that advertised only the product and anything else, nowadays it wouldn't have a grip on people because it doesn't sell any dream or mirage.
    In the past, on the contrary, this type of ad was good because it was strong the idea of technological progress, to possess the last industrial product as a symbol of modernity.
    In 50s some admen made fun of the idea of progress.
    They reproduced mas-produced a great deal of symbols of society to cause indigestion till these symbols loose their meaning.
    Pop-art arose. And ad becomes the representation of society, it becomes art.

    I think that the blog is useful because I gained some knowledge and some critical aspects about advertising. I think that now I can say why I like a commercial or not. I understand better tricks of advertising and its occult power of persuasion.
    I think that this blog is an interesting work even if a bit “concentrated”.
    Probably I'd have added something about the hidden meaning of advertising, or something about the present-day “symbols of progress”.

    Sabrina

  18. Personally i don't like advertisments, but i have to admit that some of them are really beautiful. Not all advertisments are amoral. Some ads are a little story with protagonists, a plot and a moral message; in most of them you realise only at the end what product are they  trying to sell to customers. On the other hand, other ads are a mere act of selling, they are just a spot when you see every 5 seconds the logo of the product… there is nothing beautiful in it!
    The blog has been a great experience! Ihave learned tons of new information; now i cannot see Disney Channel anylonger! I pay more attention to what i am buying, when i see a commercial i try to figure out all the possible meaning; i try to analyse it.
    To be honest, i do not have any observations; but maybe some "exercise" were too long and for this reason difficult to follow, but this is the only thing that could be changed!
    Chiara F. 

  19. Advertising can be both things ( I think it is quite simple and logical to tackle it) : it could be a form of art selling a product, it could be an involving video fostering a service, it could be a world-wide protest to raise awareness on some relevant issues. Advertising could be lot of things; it is up to us to spot the differences between the various expression of advertising, to not being caught into the traps of who minimizes art to sell us something.
    The blog has given me the opportunity to reflect about issues concerning our everyday life, that probably I would had not taken into consideration. It is funny now to watch the TV, the billboards along the streets and on the walls, to flicker through the pages of magazines  and spot the traps and the techniques employed to make us believe what they wanted us to believe and to appeal to our feelings.
    I enjoyed a lot the activity of analyzing some commercial: it has helped me a lot for my area di progetto.
    The blog is well done: it is full of food for thoughts, videos, quotations and images useful to grasp the core of the question.
    Alice

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