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.

It's myspace, Right?

When your filling in your "about me" section on your Myspace letting your cyberspace comrades know that you love Birtney Spears and have a Abercrombie and Fitch background you are no longer just informing your friends your music interest and personal style. You are now target for a tailored advertisements . Myspace is now sending information that is listed on your profile to companies and letting them directly market to people who are interested in a certain product or category of consumer products. Instead of mass marketing the same artist to every person that logs into Myspace, a person whom list Hip Hop or rap under their music interest will be bombarded with ads for Kayne West's Newest album. Myspace had done this earlier but on a smaller scale. I know fromm being a Myspace user and listing my orientation as gay, when i log off of my profile there is a gay.com advertisement preceding my logging off. Not only has Myspace taken this specific marketing one step further with tailored ads, but Myspace is also trying to use mobile web as a new outlet. They are trying to develop technology that understands where a mobile phone user, whom is logged onto Myspace, is located and market products and places that are in the vicinity of the user. Tom was our first friend in the myspace community, but he is starting to show that his intentions weren't as benevolent as they seemed.

The Death of the metrosexual

In class last week we had a discussion on how target markets are changing and how this is affecting the way products are presented to the consumer. The target market that has changed and countinues to diversify is the "metrosexual" market. I personally believe that the metrosexual does not exist any longer; instead it has been replaced by a general male youth market. I see that there is no longer a small group of men who are up to date on fashion and the perks of grooming. I feel that males have become or are as brand concious as women. Males in the GEN y market, whom consist of the majority of people I come in contact with, are becoming more and more aware of trends. They are willing to pay large sums of money for fashion based products like True Religion jeans, Gucci Eyewear, and Dolce and Gabana Cologne. These brands are being thrown around more and more everyday by males everywhere.This may also be an affect of a growing upper class and a huge demand for luxury goods. Designers are catching on to this demand for exclusive high trend apparel in the male market.
Marc Jacobs, in his Marc by Marc Jacobs spring fashion show, used very feminine details like a semi-empire waist in his mens collection.
Also D&G have been embelishing there clothing with very feminine and glammy beeds and studs in their ready-to-wear collection.Even Rappers are dropping their thug persona and cleaning up into fashion savvy celebs.

GO GREEN.

Over the past couple years or so, environmental awareness and general concern about climate change has increased drastically as we all become more conscious of the irreversible damage that has been occuring on our planet. Through several different mediums, most notably the striking 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth, the plea for us to "go green" has become an inescapable one.
As of very recently, I've noticed an increase in the amount of commercials urging consumers to reevaluate their stance on environmental awareness. In particular, I've taken note of these advertisements on networks and during programs very much aimed at and intended for my generation and young adults aged roughly 15-25.
I tried to locate on YouTube a commercial I considered to be a really good example, but I couldn't find it. It was an ad for Chevrolet that aired last night during the MTV Video Music Awards, which, as we all know is a major event for the network and a program that many young peoally ple tune in for every year. The Chevy commercials (I saw atleast two different ones) were simple, showing people engaging in environmentally conscious behavior: a girl playing a flute-like instrument made out of recycled bottles, a man not shaving for weeks to save water. But then at the end it gives simple suggestions of practical things we can do to help. I thought it was really smart to run this ad during an event like the VMAs and to portray conservation as such an easy and achievable action, because honestly, most young people would probably rather spend their time doing something else.

Here's a great ad for Live Earth 2007 that ran this summer that I find to be extremely influential.

Falling back in ...

The fall and winter seasons are coming up and I really enjoy this time of the year, because i feel shopping is more exciting and retailers really push their product and brand through amazing advertisements. One of my favorite places to shop during this time of the year used to be the gap. Their ads used to give me a warm feeling and rush me into stores. In the past few years their products have really gone hill and their advertisement has been mediocre, except for their RED campaign which was a brilliant idea, but its hype did not match up to its sales. Well, on a recent visit to south park mall in Charlotte I decided to stop into a GAP store. Surprisingly it looked as if the retailer is going back to its fundamentals, classics with a modern twist, and producing a highly marketable product that i want to buy. Their magazine ads and in-store ads also are giving me that desire to business with them again. I am just hoping to see amazing ads like this some time soon