SUPERBOWL

This weeks class we were discussing superbowl ads and how effective they are. My all time Favorite Superbowl is of course the Briteny Spears Pepesi commercial. When i used to drink soda i was loyal to Pepsi based on the fact that they used Britney in their ads, now that i have stopped consuming soft drinks i try and drink Aquafina, but its not always convienant.

Falling into trouble

Even thought the GAP is on its second year of running and suppoting Bono's RED campaign, that fights AIDS in Africa, the company has run into some ethical problems. It has been found that one of the productiong facilities that is contracted to the GAP has been using Slave-like child labor. Children in these factories are as young as ten and sold by their parents. They are forced to work up to 16 hour days and are paid nothing. Along with long hours the children are in distubing living and working areas. GAP does not personally own these production facilities and as soon as they became aware of this monsterious working ocnditions withdrew any products from these facilities off their shelves and stopped production with these facilities. With it being close to the holidays i believe this will negatively affect the GAP's imae among consumers, which is already low. Hopefully they can gain somoe ground and build their image by continuely pushing and supporting the RED campaign.

Now THAT'S Advertising.

In contrast to the assignment on an advertisement we hated, I wanted to share an advertisment that I love. A few weeks ago in class we watched a youtube video on the process of projecting an ad campaign, the one that had the series of humorous clips of ad agency employees trying to pitch ideas. The first clip in that video was the beginnings of this commercial I'm talking about.
A friend of mine showed me this commercial when I went to visit her at the Savannah College of Art and Design about three years ago and I instantly fell in love with it.



I just find this commercial to be absolutely beautiful in such a subtle, simple way. Sony took a product as basic as a television and thought completely outside of the box on how to market it. This commercial makes a connection with the viewer, luring them in with vibrant colors and picturesque images that stick in the consumer's mind. The song fits perfectly, and I love that the ad is a full 2:30 long. What better way to advertise a television that's supposed to bring you "colour like no other" than with an avalanche of rainbow bouncy balls flooding the streets on San Francisco? It's innovative, original, and absolutely brilliant.

Yahoo! Advatars: Problems and Solutions

As someone who didn't even have a Yahoo! email account prior to writing this blog, when it came time to explore the world of Yahoo! Avatars, I felt a little overwhelmed and perplexed as to where to begin. Yahoo! does a good job of providing categories as a guide to help users find the features they need to help customize their Avatars, with divisiions such as appearance, apparel, extras, and backgrounds.
I think these categories are a good start, but Yahoo! could probably develop the Avatars even further with categories like music, movies, and books. The more customization options that are provided, the more the users will have to opportunity to paint an individualistic canvas, like many college students do on their facebooks and myspaces. If Yahoo! wanted to target more college-aged users with this feature, I think they could benefit from keeping up on the trends and pop culture that our age group is concerned with. Many of the Avatar outfits were trendy, but some were either outdated, too mature, or too juvenile. Also, I think the career-themed accessories were a bit excessive and unnecessary for the college kid target audience. I do, however, like the causes/isesues feature as well as the branded one; those are smart ways to find out what the user is interested in and what brands he/she affiliates themselves with. Adding the music, movies, and books features would also help with this.
One other area I thought could use improvement was the backgrounds section. There were so many of them to choose from, probably hundreds I'm sure, and there were no categories dividing them up. A busy college student will probably not want to take the time to go through all of these to find one that suites them. Anything convenient and time-saving would be beneficial in making the Avatars more student friendly.
With so much on the internet to compete with for young adults' attention, Yahoo! should focus on doing whatever it can to set these Avatars apart as something unique and fun, an alternative to the addiction of logging into facebook or myspace.