Advertising Techniques

Advertisements are all carefully constructed to appeal to your senses. You watch something on television, and think; "Hey, that looks amazing... I need to buy it." It probably isn't as great as it seems. The media and companies have carefully decided on advertising techniques to catch the eyes of certain targets, who are most likely to buy their products.

Well, there are things used for these products, such as color, camera angles, lighting, music, sounds, the product itself, and more. For example in the picture above, it shows a shiny new car the company is selling. What makes this car better than any other car? Nothing, except that its shiny, and looks nice. It probably doesn't have any other advantages that the usual cars don't have. The company hired the media to advertise this car, and they used techniques to sell this car. First off, the camera angle is a full shot of the car, and its showing the back of the car, which is the coolest looking part of the car, attracting attention. They make the lighting bright, but still showing shadow, though the brightness makes the car shine, and look pretty and appealing. The angle is overhead, and slanted slightly, because straight on angles aren't as appealing. Diagnal or tilted angles give a move

ment and exciting feel. The overhead view makes you look down on the car, but it makes it look like your main target, and you have to have it. The slightest little techniques will make a product look a million times better than it may be. Does the car below look as appealing? Noooope.

To appeal to gender, colour is often used. As described in my previous blog, stereotyping the colours boys and girls are suppose to like, takes place in advertising. Blue for boys, pink for girls. Cool, strong, manly colours for males. Pretty, bright, girly colours for the females. This car is directed mostly towards males. Its a grey/silver, and its a duller colour, not very bright, and its a truck. Directed more towards men. Also, its a bigger car, showing the strength of men. Now if you get a small white minivan, or tiny purple car, its directed towards woman. Isn't that odd? People should decide what they want no matter who its directed to, and that's what we do. Advertisements don't always work, though the techniques catch our eye, we don't fall for it all the time.

Other ways of advertising could consist of things directed to your country to show patriotism, or your background, your interests, or if your a regular person, living a regular life, there's the plain folk appeal. Other appeals would be snob appeal, card stacking (giving more and more positives without negatives), bandwagon, facts and figures, weasel words, and more. Most common in commercials is card stacking, like when they advertise Sham Wow, or things to cut vegetables in your kitchen. They stack the positives about the product, and don't tell you "They don't work as well as this product." Or "It'll break in 3 weeks and we wont give you your money back!" :D YEAH! They also repeat the product name to engrave it in your brain SHAM WOW. So when your watching television, take a look SHAM WOW at the commercials, and try to pick out the advertising techniques SHAM WOW used. You'll notice how they drew you in SHAM WOW in the first place. :) SHAM WOW.

By the way, the same goes for when the media advertises womens clothes. They make the women look sexier, so you'll buy the clothes, and that encourages EATING DISORDERS AND SELF CONCIOUSNESS! So beware, don't fall for the traps, be yourself, buy what you need, and don't give in to peer pressure.

- The Queen of Neptune.

Stereotyping and Judging.

The original thing that is stereotyped for when you're baby is born, starts with the colors. Pink is for girls, and blue is for boys, says the media, says parents, says many people, continuing the tradition thats been happening for centuries. Who says that your baby girl cant wear blue? Whats wrong with a boy wearing pink? Does that make them gay? No. Colors are colors, and we have the rights to choose, but we just continue to advertise them in a certain way for our children. Blue for boys, pink for girls. I know when I was a child, I loved blue. I loved all colors, thank you very much, but my mom did dress me in pink often.

When your married, the typical thing for someone to think nowadays is; women work in the kitchen, and play housewife, and the men get the jobs, work all day, then say "Make me a sandwhich" to their wife. Where did that come from? I dont know, but its advertised everywhere. In television shows, the internet, and even my friends say it, and laugh. Go make youre own sandwhich you lazy bum.

Nowadays, stereotypes are everywhere, and its taking over. My own friends, my mother, everyone I know, give in to sterotypes, and it leads to judging people. For example, a girl who has a bellybutton piercing. My mother doesn't like that idea, my dad would say "If it was meant to be there, there would already be a hole.", and my best friend, who wants a tattoo, has a tongue piercing, and many other things, says "Oh she's a slut for having one, if you get one Meghan, I will rip it out of you." Does having a piercing make you a slut? No. Even if you were one, the piercing doesn't make it so. We all have free will and rights to get a piercing if we want. Maybe we think it looks pretty, have you ever thought of that? Well I hope so, thats why we get piercings in the first place. Media and gossip has spread the rumors, and we have started to believe them. If you wear a belly shirt, or a mini skirt, are you a slut? Are you having sex with every guy you see? No, maybe not, maybe you just want to feel beautiful.

Yesterday, a quite scary "gangster" looking guy came up to me, and said "Excuse me, you dropped your phone." I was speechless, picked up my phone, and said "Um, thank you!" Smiled, and continued on into a store. I was shocked, he looked like he could attack someone, but he was polite, and a good person. Most people would have picked up the phone and took it, but he told me I dropped mine. The way you look doesn't affect your personality all the time. Just because someone dresses like their ganster doesn't make them a creep, maybe they want to fit in. Or someone who dresses goth, they may just like black, and the style, and they may be the sweetest person you have ever met. Stereotyping makes you unaware of these things.

A popular person at school, may have the most friends, the best clothes, and the most stuff, and they may be very pretty, but they could be the nicest girl you have ever talked to, I know this by experience. You would think most of the popular crowd wouldnt be nice to you if your not popular. Some people who look nice and innocent, are the MEANEST people you've ever met. You will never know if you sterotype. Take a chance, and ignore the sterotypes nowadays.

Some stereotypes are there for a reason, and thats because of what you see, without looking deeper into the details. Though, some sterotyepes are kind of horrible, yet sometimes true. They say, and when I say they, I mean a lot of people, including the police, think black guys are always looking for trouble, and to steal things. Then they actually go and get arrested, and the stereotype becomes more true. Then you have some really nice black guy, who would never dream of doing any of that, and that stereotype will hurt them. :( Stereotypes are awful. The big one nowadays would be directed to all teenagers. We don't know anything, we dont understand money, or work, or anything about love, its all lust, and all we do is have sex, and get pregnant, and we dont know the dangers of the world, we just make a mess, steal things, and dont care, we make a fool of ourselves. Uhhuh. Suuuree, all teenagers are DEFINETLY like that. Totally, because I've TOTALLY had sex and gotten pregnant before, and got arrested for shoplifting. NOT. :( Adults nowadays stereotype teenagers the most. Its kind of saddening to those of us who actually stay away from trouble as a living. I don't like people like that, and I dont cause trouble, so the fact that my mom doesn't trust me because of that stereotype, hurts.

Some stereotypes are common, like this;

"Asians are super smart and get straight A's"

"Black people are violent and criminals"

"Indians want everything for a penny"

"Men are the workers"

"Women are the housewives"

"Goths are all scary and evil"

"All old white men are pedophiles."

These aren't always true. Especially the last one. HAHA, but yeah, sterotypes are everywhere, and I suggest you look a little deeper before you judge. :) Thank you.

"She has acne, not because she wanted it. She is overweight, she didn't choose that, maybe she has a medical condition that makes her that way, or something else. She wears too much makeup, maybe she wanted to feel beautiful because she has insecurities. Think before you judge."

GaGa`s Controversy

The new hit song "Judas" by lady gaga is really a song created to push the limits and boundaries. It is said that lady GaGa is the modern day Madonna and as we all know Madonna was also one to really push the limits in terms of her music. Lady GaGa tends to sexualize religion in many of her videos. For example in her music video for "Alejandro" GaGa swallows a rosary this first real kick at religion caught people off guard, but her latest song Judas in my personal opinion has taken it to far and thousands of people agree. her new music video features clips like GaGa riding a motorcycle with a man with a crown of thorns on his head (jesus) and falling in love with Judas (the disciple that betrayed Jesus), Gaga in a bathtub with Jesus and Judas etc. for somebody who is a religious person such as myself, this music is very offensive. I understand that GaGa is very different and that she wants to do different things in the industry. but when you place religion into the concept i believe that is taking it way to far. something that i also notice is that Christianity is the only religion that gets torn apart and made fun of in our society. Even "Jesus Christ" is a swear word. you never walk around and hear somebody say "Oh Buda !!" why is that? in conclusion i think LadyGaGa is taking her music to the level of unacceptable and offensive and if she continues along this path i think she will loose many fans including myself.

Never Say Never

From the first music video "One time" to his current hit movie "Never say Never" people have been criticizing Justin Bieber day in and day out. From his baby face smile to his perfectly fallen hair, people never seem to run out of things to say about the pop sensation, but despite all of the hard criticism Justin Bieber has defied all of the odds. The media has changed the name Justin Bieber from just an everyday small town boy name, to being a thing of marketing genious. take a t-shirt throw the name on it and you are sure to have a top selling item. But the name Justin Bieber isn't only a brand, its also an inspiring story. In the new movie/biography "Never Say Never" the story of how this young boy went from being the boy next door to a household name is told in an exciting yet inspiring way. From health issues to selling out Madison Square Garden this movie gives you an inside look at the life of this teen pop sensation and shows you that he is more than a one hit wonder, but he is someone who has, is and will always beat the odds against him due to his passion for what he loves the most.... creating music and entertaining those around him. In the same case as many other people I'm sure, this movie has completely swayed my opinion on Justin Bieber. I used to just follow the trend of thinking he was going to fade away soon, but this movie was so inspiring and it brought me to think about the way that the media has portrayed him and the way that it has negatively shown him, But "Never Say Never" has truly given me and many other people a new persepctive on how this 16 year old boy is truly an amazing artist.