Watch some commercials and …


What does it mean to be creative in advertising?  


Think about this and then watch this video clip.


 




Were your considerations correct? 

What kind of creativity is expressed in this ad? 

What is actually being sold? 

Why do you think certain companies decide to advertise their products in this way? 


For example, watch the video again and this time pay attention to the Starbucks ad (people drinking coffee from a paper cup whose bottom shows a grinning mouth).  Why did Starbucks decide to invest money on devising these paper cups?

35 Replies to “Watch some commercials and …”

  1.  
    To me Coca Cola or Starbucks do not sell their products anymore: they try to sell a new image of the companies, an image that conveys new meanings. For example Bauli, with its ads, broadcast during Christmas and Easter time, makes people think that its products are necessary to live in a happy family, as if a cake could infuse happiness and love between people.
    I think that a world without ads could not exist: as Mr. Cataruzza told us, ads have been created when people started to deal with trade, at it happened a long time ago!!
    I think that ads are necessary because if they did not exist, it would be difficult to find out activities and goods that we need; to me would change also the relationship between trader and costumer: we would go back to the time when there was only a small shop in every town that sold every kind of good! Lots of companies would sell fewer products and new companies will not be established because people will not know what the company sells and what the advantages are.
     
    Stefania

  2. I can barely imagine my city without ads, billboards and placards, really. Maybe because with the greenery that disappears more and more, they are the only thing that can give a touch of colour to the reinforced concrete.  Anyway I think I would feel depressed and sad. I cannot deny in fact, that I’m often impressed and mesmerized by  the lightening of the big cities when it is night, even if those writings and neon signs are saying “CocaCola”, “Samsung” or “TDK”. Think for example about Piccadilly without  giants displays! It would not be the same! However I think ads and commercials can be both fundamental and paltry for the sales of a company. In my opinion it is up to the popularity of the company, because there are firms that rely all their income on the efficiency of advertising and other multinational companies that have already built around them a certain image that speaks for itself. Anyway they could not do without keep on advertising their products because in this way they can be always present through the generations saying the consumers “ hey, look, after a century we are still here, working hard for you guys, being beside you when you feel thirsty, CocaCola will never let you down!”   Gloria

  3. Dear Erica,

    Nice considerations.  You disclose interesting aspects about advertising: shock advertising, as you write, is certainly a form of art.  People are positively impressed by it. 

    Valentina, you struck a “relevant” chord when you say that our society couldn’t possibly “exist” now without advertising.  They are complementary opposites (borrowing from Blake!) and they certainly influence our morality too.  I wonder to what extent. 

    Stefano, I like the picture you draw of a world without advertising!

    Gloria, I smiled when I read your comment: how could we possibly appreciate Trafalgar Square or Times Square without their flashy billboards?

  4. So… I am arguing with myself!!! Thinking of what I wrote few time ago I disagree with me.
    I wrote ad sends us just a product… that it does not oblige us to do, to think something… but…I really know that this is not true! This is only the way I  want , I promise and  maybe I impose me to think.
    I mean this is the “TRUTH” I want to see. You can imagine two Jessica, having a debate on the effects ad  have to us… values, beliefs, view of life…. I  think INCREDIBLE and UNBELIEVABLE are the perfect words.
    And now… what I see in a world without ads and commercial??! NOTHING.
    I am thinking about an image, a scene I see and live every single day:13.20 the bell is ringing; a huge crowd of people are coming out to school. I don’t see young people… I see EASTPAK rucksacks, CONVERSE shoes, MP3 PLAYER OR  I–POD, mobile phones… A MASS, dominated and controlled by  fashion, lifestyle and AD.
    SO… in a world without commercial, I think just  brave people could live, people who know very well what means survival and live better than us also without an EASTPAK.
     
    Do you want to know what I remember at the best about  PICCADILLY CIRCUS?! THE SCREENS WITH ADS.
     Jessica

  5. Blake’s oxymoron is perfect to define the relationship between advertisment’s tycoons an buyer: ADVERTISMENT IS THE MIRROR OF OUR SOCIETY. Undoubtedly ads influence our lives because they are literally everywhere,they strike our unconscious and our rational component. Advertising writers are aware of what people want,think and desire. They know very well what their morality is;they can’t go against their values and beliefs,they can’t offend them,and violate their ethics.
    Valentina

  6. Doubtless famous companies do not need to advertise their product anymore, but I would not fight against the course of time. Time is an enemy for advertising: it deletes everything, so in order to gain over it (it is really possible?!?) companies HAVE to show us something new, funny, interesting, exciting every time, even if they are selling the same thing since XIX century. And they know how to refresh our memory.
    A world with no ads or commercials? "What a wonderful world". I see a sort of positive emptiness: it could be boredom, it could be sadness, it could be solitude. But why not freedom? Ads colour grey cities nowadays: why not start to paint buildings instead of trying to make money and not art? Companies would sell fewer products, but it could be a really long and slow process. I think that without ads there will be no more distinctions between manufacturer and customer: especially the customer would not be influenced anymore and he would have free choice without psychological conditioning. Last, but not least, the product (no more advertised) would cost little and it is a great advantage for everybody who buy. Obviously I am talking about ads which sell material things. Generally speaking we HAVE to save ads which promote cultural events, meetings, arts and all what have to do with CULTURE.

    Tiziana

  7.  In Africa paths, streets and villages are covered by dust, earth and trees.
    Women have to wear coloured beads or flowers to distinguish themselves from nature.
    Here we are bombarded from colours. Even new marks nowadays are difficult to invent because there are too many products to advertise.
    In African markets women have to observe, to examine, to choose carefully their goods of exchange. It is a real exchange of things.
    A lots of objects have the same function and one product has thousand potentialities.
    In our supermarkets packages do choose us, they jump literally in trolleys.
    We don’t buy our neighbour’s cheese or vegetables, we want to be sure that what we buy in our towns we can buy in India too. And we want to show other people that we buy a powerful image. So we are important, we are better than other people, we have money to appear or just we believe in lifestyles that companies sell.

    Sabrina

  8. Dear Tiziana,
    I like the expression you used "time is the enemy of advertising".  In other words, companies use advertising to remind consumers of their products, so that people will "feel the presence" of that product or service on the market.  Then the more companies let their voice be heard the more consumers think that given product is of "good quality" and thus a product to be trusted. Then you make the distinction between "useful" ads (the adjective is mine, that is why I placed it in inverted commas!) and "useless" ones.  It seems you are saying that advertising could really be useful to promote cultural events and to arouse people’s consciousness.  It would be really effective if it were meant for this purpose only.  As a matter of fact this is SOCIAL ADVERTISING and we have already analysed some examples of it.  A special post will be dedicated to to in the near future.
    See you!

  9. I think that without commercials there would not be a relationship between manufacuter and customer.
    In fact, through images, involving musics and funny scenes, products would be sold not that easily. Sometimes it is the ad that reminds us the product, we saw it with Tommaso, when we watched the Marini ad: almost no one remembered the spot but once we saw Charlize Theron, we all started nodding! This is the reason why i think this relationship and the existance of advertisement is so much important! I can not even think about the idea of not having ads, even because they are a "structure" in our society.

    Sara M.

  10. Be creative means make something unexpected! 
    Is an awesome way of been creative… it catches the attention and it convinces customers to buy their product. Actually they did not sell their product, expect for dogs food, and cameras, but at least they sold their images; everybody will link the shop or mark to that kind of advertisement. 
    starbucks decides to invest money on these cups because lots of people will buy their coffee, just because of cups, not necessarily because they love starbucks’s coffee
     Chiara F.

  11. Being creative in advertising means being able to advertise a product or service by depicting it in an unusual way, taking in consideration all the features of the product, from the color for example to its destination.  This funny video deals with different kinds of creative advertising, and shows how advertising is now became an inseparable part of our everyday life. The companies bombard us with their products, advertising them in a way that cannot be taken for granted. Lots of different things are sold in these adverts: from dogs’ food to nail polish. The two cups with the big grinning mouths at the bottom for example are a funny way to advertise Starbucks. Even if someone did not like coffee, he would buy it just for the pleasure to have a nice cup!
    Alice

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