RRJ #5

Reference:

Wentz, L. (2010, Feb 25) Is Paris Hilton too sexy for Brazil? Advertising Age. Retrieved Mar 1, 2010, from http://adage.com/globalnews/article?article_id=142291

Summary:

Conar, Brazil's self-regulatory body, is investigating an ad campaign for Devassa Bem Loura beer, because the campaign is too sexually provocative for people. The campaign features Ms. Hilton; in the TV commercial, she rubs a can of Devassa Bem Loura beer along her body in front of window in a high-rise building dressed in a short, tight black dress in order to parade her sexy body to a crowd gathered to watch her. The campaign started as a TV and online teaser campaign about a mysterious blonde; they had hidden who the blonde is, and the beer marketer spread the words “Bem Misteriosa” on Twitter. Finally, Paris Hilton was revealed as a celebrity guest at Carnival in the beer marketer’s VIP box. On the Devassa website, she poses all over the site in the same dress; elsewhere on the site, she poses wearing black lingerie. Conar opened three different investigations about the campaign; one is the result of a formal complaint by a consumer. The beer’s website may violate rules against promotional activities, there is a claim that content on the site is sexist and disrespectful to women. Conar will formally notify both the advertiser and the agency, and the news spread throughout Brazilian blogs with provoking lively comments about both the campaign and Ms. Hilton.

Reaction:

In Western countries, a lot of ads include sensual nature, and I thought Western people tend to like this kind of ads. That is because I saw many sexy ads in global advertising competitions; also, some ads are sexier than the Devassa Bem Loura beer ad, and it is expressed in a more direct way. I think the ad campaign is not too sexy, and it can stay on air on TV and the website. Using sensual nature is one advertising strategy, and the ad doesn’t reach a level that people can criticize it for the sensual content. I think the reason people criticize the ad campaign is that the beer marketer used Paris Hilton as the main character of the campaign in a sensual way. She is one of the famous sex symbols in the world, and her gossips have made flutters many times. Probably, there are some people who dislike her, and the ad campaign is what provoked them to defame her. People tend to like this kind of gossip, and I think it is the reason the news spread rapidly all over Brazilian blogs and the ad campaign got a lot of complaints. Using a person who often comes up in gossip is dangerous for an ad that depends on his or her popularity; however, the ad may gain publicity even if the substance is not good.

RRJ #4

Reference:

Wentz, L. (2010, Feb 18). Canada's marketers celebrate Olympics. Advertising Age. Retrieved Feb 21, 2010, from http://adage.com/globalnews/article?article_id=142163

Summary:

A lot of Canadian companies rolled out their advertisements in order to boost the Olympic games in Vancouver. These ads are evaluated highly, and Canada's ad industry is focused on as much as the athletes in the Olympic games. There are some interesting ones among these ads for the Olympics. In terms of the one by Taxi, Bombardier, which designed the 12,000 Olympic torches, created the spot that demonstrated that the torches are weatherproof even in wintry Canada. Bell, Canada's telephone and telecommunications company, has bought air time for more than 2,000 commercials during the Winter Games. Its agencies created various ads, 24 English-language and 23 French-language TV spots to prevent people getting tired of the Bell's ad. The spots appear to sell Canadian niceness as well as their merchandise. Tim Horon's, the Canadian coffee shop, rolled out a tear-worthy spot dubbed “Welcome Home” during coverage of the Olympic opening ceremonies. The spot shows a tearful story, a reunion of family. The family seems to have been separated for some time; the husband reunites with his wife and two kids at the airport with the winter coats that he prepared for them, and he hands his wife a cup of Tim Horton's coffee and welcomes her to Canada. Tom Horton's offers consumers a place to tell their stories and upload videos and pictures; the spot is based on the one of their stories. Wrigley, a chewing gum manufacturer, is donating a portion of their gum sales to Canadian athletes. People can participate in its financial support for the athletes by chewing more of their gum, and they also can see the amount of the donation on giant digital billboards updated every 60 seconds. Wrigley changed the package of gum to the one printed with an image of a Canadian athlete, and added a small Canadian maple leaf to each gum piece.

Reaction:

The Olympic Games cause big economic effect to each country whether it is the site of the Olympic or not. Therefore, companies all over the world create various ads for the Olympic to boost their sales, and these ads tend to be better than their usual ads. The Tim Horton's spot expresses human's delicate emotion well in a 90-second spot. The husband welcomes all visitors to Canada as well as his family in the spot, and the Tim Horton's coffee warms his wife; also “the Tim Horton's spot” warms our hearts by the tearful story. A woman watching the family with a smile in the spot reflects audience who are watching the spot; we are in the same situation that is watching the tearful reunion of the family. I think that we feel a sense of seeing ourselves in a mirror when the woman appears in the picture, and we may make a similar expression as her. The spot uses various techniques to make people move their emotions; one of them is that they created the spot to be based on a true story contributed in EveryCup.ca, a place where consumers tell their stories. People can feel the story closely and the spot highlights the connection between Tim Horton's and customers. Wrigley also attracted many people by its interesting strategy, large-scale fund-raising for the Canadian athletes and showing the amount of the donation on giant digital billboards. People can participate in the fund-raising by buying their gum, and they can feel more of a sense that they support the Canadian athletes when they look of the billboard. These provoke people's consumer appetite because they want to support the Canadian athletes, and Wrigley offers people the way to support them in an easy way.

RRJ #3

Reference:

Parekh, R. & Zmuda, N. (2010, Feb 11). Does Coke's Super Bowl ad look a lot like old Israeli dairy spot? Advertising Age. Retrieved Feb 17, 2010, from http://adage.com/globalnews/article?article_id=142075

Summary:

It is wondered if the Coke's Super Bowl ad is a rip-off of the an Israeli commercial. Coca-Cola aired a new commercial during the Super Bowl, and the ad terribly looked like the eight-year old Israeli commercial by Yotvata Dairy: markets of milk, yogurts and flavored-milk drinks. The Coke's ad called “Sleepwalker” is like a story; a young man sleepwalks a long distance through the African savanna and he escapes various accidents while he is sleepwalking; finally, he quenches his thirst with a cold Coke in a tribal village. The storyline is the almost the same as that of the Israeli commercial; also, both commercials used the same music: Ravel's “Bolero.” The similarities of the two commercials spread rapidly through many people in Israel and the U.S. on YouTube, Twitter and e-mail. Coca-Cola has firmly denied the doubt and maintained the similarities are quite coincidence; whereas, Young & Rubicam: an agency of Yotvata Dairy that created the Israeli commercial didn't respond to request to comment. It required between $2.5 million and $3 million to buy the media time for a Super Bowl ad this year, yet Ad Age’s Bob Garfield says “Sleepwalker” is like a warmed-over Pepsi spot from the ‘80’s.” However, the commercial carried well in the public because it ranked No.5 out of 63 commercials on the USA Today Ad meter.

Reaction:

I think it is not impossible that there are two or three similar advertisements in the world. because uncounted advertisements air every year, every day around the world, and there is no way that all these are quite not similar to the others. In addition, it is natural an idea comes from other ads or art works among designers; in fact, there are some ads that deliberately look like other ads. Designers always struggle to make fresh and revolutionary advertisements; therefore, they see many works to get a new idea and pick good ideas from them. I think picking a good idea is not wrong for designers, because it is an easy way to make good work and they learn many things from picking such as sense of observation, arrangement, or estimate. However, it certainly doesn’t allow them to make and air a rip-off. It just leads them to get new idea, and they have to create a fresh one including the idea and “their own idea.” It is a tacit rule of creating advertisements, and all designers fully understand it. Both commercials are too similar, and we can’t believe it is purely a coincidence. The most surprising thing for me is that the beverage giant Coca-Cola got the commotion, because Coca-Cola uses a lot of many for advertising every year and their work always wins some awards at advertisement competitions around the world. Of course, they might know the dangers of rip-offs, and they ought to search if there is a similar one to the commercial in the world, and then they would be able to find the Israeli commercial even if it is a real coincidence. The problem is a serious one for Coca-Cola, because the top advertising company aired a rip-off ad during the Super Bowl: the show is watched huge by numbers of people.

RRJ #2

Reference:

Madden, N. (2010, Jan 26). Unilever links hot steam with warm wishes in Lipton contest. Advertising Age. Retrieved Feb 1, 2010, from http://adage.com/globalnews/article?article_id=141764

Summary:

Unilever has conducted the Chinese New Year Campaign in Lipton content. The campaign, called “Cup of Greetings,” is going on toward family celebrations leading up to the Lunar New Year, and it invites greeting with friends using its unique service. The service is that they offer a digital greeting video like one’s original short movie, and you can make your own greeting video on Lipton’s website. The main process of making your greeting video is that you choose one film first from three types of them, featuring mimes, schoolgirls and a rock band, and upload a photo of your face to share with the other people, and then, the person who receive your greeting video comes to see the film which you are in as a main actor. In addition, your message appears from the steam when the greeting arrives in the scene of a steaming cup, and the greeting message can use any language. The campaign ran through so many people in a short period; as a result, more than 17 million viewers were attracted in the first two weeks from when the campaign started. There are more benefits sending a greeting on this website; the user who sends 20 greetings can get net money on the site worth $1.46, and the user who sends the most messages wins an iPhone. Now, there are around 338 million users with the world’s largest internet market, and the influence of using digital media strategies is becoming wide in the world.

Reaction:

Now, the number of campaigns having the purpose of making people have a strong relation with each other, such as this Lipton campaign, is increasing. This kind of campaign invites people to communicate with others like a friends or family, and the thought caught on with people around the world. This campaign invites people to greet the people around them; also it can combine personal connection and the merchandise, Lipton tea, in this case, very well. Usually, most people don’t like any advertisement included their familiar things like a e-mail or website; however, in this case, people can enjoy the funny greeting video with Lipton. The content attracted people, particularly young people, and came up among them due to the impact or fun of this campaign. In addition, we can learn about the spread of digital media marketing from this article; there are so many people who use online content now, and digital media is taking the place of the other media, TV, magazine, and radio. In fact, a huge amount of people are moved by this digital content, and this kind of campaign may increase more as for the result that is success of this Lipton digital media campaign.

RRJ #1

Reference:
Elgan, M. (2010, Jan 27). The iPod is potentially one of the most important, culture-changing products in history! linux today Retrieved Jan 27, 2010, from http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2010-01-27-031-35-NW-RL-AP

Summary:
The author stated, “The iPod is potentially one of the most important, culture-changing products in history” because it can replace all conventional media like a TV, radio and DVRs, and it changes the way to use all media. In addition, iPad uses new processor called the Apple A4 processor, which is Apple's own one, and it makes a sea change. However, Apple has some problems as well as these successes. Now, Apple pushes unprecedented extension of DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and it is a system that protects a copyright from users. But, some people want to remove this system from Apple devices, because they think DRM is used by Apple to restrict users' freedom in a variety of ways. The group Defective by Design made a protest against DRM to set up “Apple Restriction Zones” along the approaches to the Art Center in San Francisco, and they are asking citizens to sign a petition calling on Apple to remove it.

Reaction:
I also think the iPod is one of the most important, culture-changing products in history, because I thought it changed the way to have music when Apple launched an iPod, and its design was sharp, stylish and fresh at that time. I haven't considered about the processor, but I knew it is a surprise that they made their processor. In terms of DRM, I think any Apple devices have to include DRM, because music, movie or software each has copyright, and Apple should protect these copyrights from users as the site offers entertainment. However, I know the claim that the Defective by Design says, because I also want to get music, movie or software freely to save my money. But, if Apple reduces DRM from their devices, nobody would crack down on criminal download, and there is no point that copyright exists. Therefore, Apple must not reduce BRM from their devices, and they can't allow users to download freely.

2/1

Hello, welcome to my web site.

I'm Takako Onoyama.

TK used blog title is my nickname in Tokyo :-)