The Magic Of Macy’s

Macy’s new line of TV commercials are simply cute, clever and fun! As the YouTube tagline reads, “Only one star can bring all these stars together. That's the magic of Macy's.” This commercial plays on that slogan as well as Macy’s star logo by using an assortment of different stars. By featuring Martha Stewart, Jessica Simpson, Donald Trump, Tommy Hilfiger, Sean John, Kenneth Cole, Mark Ecko, Usher, and others who all have product lines at Macy’s, the commercial appeals to a variety of holiday shoppers.

This version in particular shows all the stars decorating Macy’s for Christmas. Each one has a specific task in order to open up on time. Martha is being a perfectionist and telling everyone what to do while they are hard at work using their personal input in showcasing their products. Even Donald Trump was put to work; now that’s pretty impressive! Jessica Simpson definitely brings the comedy to this commercial, as well as the other versions, with her ditzy actions. You just can’t help but laugh when she accidentally unplugs the lights and the store goes dark. Then Martha says “Jessica.. Darling..” and she plugs them back in and the store is complete!

Overall, this commercial is very entertaining and great publicity not only for Macy’s, but for each featured star, as well as their product lines. A combination of bright colors, festive background music, sparkly ornaments, strands of lights, special hot chocolate, the one and only Santa Clause, fresh baked cookies, sprinkle snow, talking elves, tree decorating, and noticeable product logos tie the whole commercial together and make an effective Christmas advertisement.

Charge It! ;)

So I was surfing Facebook, as usual, and a skyscraper ad on the left hand corner of my home page immediately got my attention. It was advertising a Chase Credit Card, but not just any Chase Credit Card, It was a brand spanking new PINK Chase Credit Card. Yes, you read that correctly, there is now a PINK Credit Card. The body text read, "Girls know that image is everything, so why should your credit card be any different? Grab your pink card now for the shopping season." If you think about it, what girly girl would not want a pink credit card? Of course it will only make shopping more fun!

As soon as I saw this ad, I was jealous that I already had a Chase Credit Card, but mine was a dull black one. So, what did I do? I picked up my pink cell phone and called the number I found on the connecting link to Chase’s website for personal Chase credit card members. After listening to an automated voice machine, I pushed a couple buttons and was immediately connected to an operator. In a total of three minutes and fifty-one seconds, I requested for a new Pink Chase Credit card to replace my current one.

Overall, I believe this was a great way to make girls spend tons of money and go in debt! Personally, I believe this ad with its direct targeting is definitely effective! My new Pink Chase Credit Card has been mailed out and I just can’t to receive it! The first thing I am going to do is cut up my dull black one and take my pretty pink one and go shopping in style!

The 4 am Rush Hour

Ever have that rush to the heart kind of sensation when you have no clue what so ever about what is going on? This commercial gave me that very feeling. Take a minute and see what you think!

Surprised by the ending message? I sure was, all that upset just to go shopping! But not just any shopping, JC Penny’s huge Day after Thanksgiving Sale! I truly believe this commercial was well planned, well written, and effectively gets across their message.

When first watching this, I had no clue what it was even for. From the mom going to the window to look outside, to bursting into the girls room, waking them up, making them put on clothes, to running down the stairs and grabbing food from the cabinet, to jumping into the car, locking the doors and driving away, it is all fast paced and questionable to what is going on. The dark lighting and music have an eerie tone that reminds one of a scene from a scary movie.

Locking the doors of the car sets of a sense that there is something to be afraid of. All the people outside with flashlights toward the end seem to be like they are going after them as they pull out of their driveway. The viewers are left clueless until the little girl finally asks her mom what is going on and she finally fills them in that they are going to the JC Penney after Thanksgiving Day Sale! The looks on the girls’ faces are priceless! This is the climax of the commercial when you are just dying to know what is going on and then chuckle after discovering the real reason. The mom pulls out and heads toward the sale with the other people in the community. This gives one the feeling that everyone else is going, so you should too.

Seeing this on TV actually made me want to get up at super early on the day after Thanksgiving and be at JCPennys by 4 am! Not just anything can get me out of the bed. THAT my friends, is one effective commercial!

How Can I Tell You That I Love You?

With the holiday season now underway, television is flooded with advertisements for anything and everything. The DeBeers Christmas “Morning Surprise” commercial advertising their Journey Necklace is one I have enjoyed watching the past two years.

In my opinion, Cat Power’s “How Can I Tell You,” song is what makes the commercial so great! Its calmness matches the flow and actions of the husband who is quietly giving his wife the necklace. Without this song, the commercial wouldn’t have the same meaning. The well written lyrics are what convey the message to show the meaning behind DeBeers Journey Necklace.

As the end of the commercial says: “This Christmas, say everything, without saying a word.” (The lyrics are: How can I tell you - That I love you - I love you - I long to tell you - That I'm always thinking of you - I'm always thinking of you - But I can't think of the right words to say)

With the night time setting, the lighting is somewhat dark, and the colors are dull. This allows the necklace to better grab the viewers attention when finally displayed in the woman’s hand.

This commercial is shown throughout the year, just with everyday settings replacing the snow and Christmas tree screens. The closing text is also changed to fit the appropriate occasion.

For some reason, I have always been under the impression this was a commercial for Kay Jewelers until I searched for the commercial on YouTube. One problem I found within this commercial is the company’s name is not displayed. One line of text at the end could easily solve this simple confusion.

Overall, this commercial is just so sweet and romantic. I’m sure many men have seen this on tv and realized how perfect of a gift it would be for any special occasion. After all, what lady would not want her man to surprise her like this?

Give The Gift Of A Dad!

Finding the perfect present for someone isn’t always the easiest task, especially when that person already has everything they could ever need or want. An ad in People Magazine’s June 25^th 2007 issue has the perfect gift for those who may not be as fortunate as those who are difficult to buy for. Before you get your hopes up, let me break it to you gently: This is NOT a Christmas ad, instead, it is advertising for the perfect Father’s Day Gift!

And just what is the perfect Father’s Day Gift you may be wondering? It is not the typical neck tie or Hallmark card, but involves a trip to Wendys! That’s right! Of course everyone loves food, but that’s not really it either. This ad’s tagline reads “Give the Gift of Dad” and contains a vintage drawing of a little boy whose arms are thrown up in the air with excitement standing beside a tall wrapped present resembling the shape of a man. The body text at the bottom explains that during Father’s Day weekend, fifty cents of every frosty purchased will be donated to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. So, take dad out for a frosty on Father's Day and you'll be giving two gifts!

After seeing the excitement of the cute little boy and reading the body copy, this ad really played with my emotions. I then pictured myself in the little boy’s position and just imagined how exciting it would be at his young age to receive the lifelong gift of a dad. How wonderful would that be?! A gift that would keep on giving, and keep on loving!

This ad’s placement in People Magazine is a great spot to attract its target audience. The colors and vintage look of the ad improvises the time aspect of their phrase, “Finding Forever Families for Children in Foster Care.” Overall, I believe this is a very effective ad causing Wendy’s effort to support adoption appealing to others.

TEACH MAKE SHOW ART

I was getting off the elevator in Breck this past week when a multicolored flyer caught my attention. To no surprise, this awesome advertisement was from the Art Department, promoting their Art Faculty Show.

What I really like about the design is the way the text is lined up to where it spells out in black, the most perfect description: TEACH MAKE SHOW ART. As far as color scheme goes, they done a great job incorporating sequence of a rainbow by starting with red toward the bottom and ending with a shade of violet toward the top.

Although I find this to be very creative and impressive, I would suggest increasing increase the space between the groups of text or putting a shadow on the black text to better distinguish the idea of the formation of the letters into words.

Finding the placement of this flyer was a smart move for the art department, since many of their students, or those who are at least interested somewhat in art, are also advertising majors or minors and have numerous classes in Breck. I consider this a job well done on pin pointing their target market.

Overall, I believe this is a really impressive ad. It gets its point across in a very creative manner by displaying the faculty’s names as a piece of art and has actually convinced me to check out the Art Faculty Show for myself! In all honesty, I wish I had designed this poster. You better bet I would be taking all bragging rights!

Can't touch this! Or can you?!

Multi touch meets multi applications

Just to let everyone know, I am pretty jealous of this “Nick Haley” guy, a student who just received a nice “donation” from Apple for creating a commercial showcasing the new iPod touch.

I had no clue what so ever that this type of iPod was on the market until I watched this commercial. I am amazed that in a matter of thirty seconds, with the help of sharp editing and a fast beat song, the ad nicely highlights every feature of the device which are available by a simple touch of the screen.

With both the images and song appealing to wide range of demographics, this tells the viewer the iPod touch is for everyone! Also, with a solid black background and the idea of yourself being the person in the ad, carries on the same well known iPod style. Its sleek design and sophisticated shiny black color makes it very appealing to the eye, yet with the same classic iPod feel.

With the merge of music, video, photo, and internet capability, this is the perfect gadget for any multitasker. I also noticed that when displaying the music choices, it shows the newest hit songs such as one of my personal favorites Bubbly. Mentioning Facebook also targets many of us college students. All this allows me to better relate with the product by imagining having everything I enjoy at the tips of my fingers. Honestly, in my opinion, this iPod is the next best creation to the apple iPhone!

The apple logo appearing numerous times is a real eye catching strategy which is used as a great call to action! Also, I like the way apple’s website also gives a link for web surfers to purchase the song from the commercial from iTunes. Smart thinking!

Although it doesn’t mention how much it costs, the ad is certainly designed well enough to convince me to add it to the top of my Christmas wish list!

This commercial actually leaves me wondering though… why do our everyday desktops and laptop computers not have touch keyboards? Humm… now that’s something to ponder about!!

You Son Of A Biscuit Eating Bulldog!

If you were to ask what my favorite gum was, hands down, it would be Orbit! Not only do I love their gum, but I love their commercials as well, which have been replayed numerous times lately on tv. With their unique themes, they leave the viewer with a witty thought of their product.

The opening screen of the commercial is very plain and lacking any bright colors. A glass bottle flies in out of no where and the funniness begins! You just have to see the commercial for yourself, but let me warn you, you may want to watch it frequently just for a good laugh! Also, pay attention to the guy and his coworker who are chomping away on their gum the whole time! Do they really need to chomp that hard?

I hear people say “What the French toast?” and “Stinky McStinkface” all the time. Even though these catch phrases are not very nice, I love the way this commercial spins common expressions which its viewers have adapted. This is just another way to publicize the Orbit brand

It’s funny when the Orbit lady randomly appears and simply says “Fabolus” and Bill, his wife, and the co-worker are suddenly smiling! They are in the background trying to basically kill each other though when Orbit’s famous phrase is shown: “A good clean feeling, no matter what!” Also, if you pay attention, the colors of the Orbit lady’s tie matches the packaging colors of the Raspberry Mint flavor being advertised. You can also relate her white suite with the clean white look the gum will make your teeth!

Overall, I believe this is thirty seconds of very random yet entertaining advertising. After all, “over reacting was when I put your convertible through a wood chipper!”

The Beauty of Smoking?!

US Weekly Smoking AD

I was flipping through the first few pages of the October 15^th edition of US weekly when an ad immediately caught my attention. A minty-green teal box and hot pink fuchsia and gray letters on a black background read “NOW AVAILABLE: IN STILETTO” and it was surprisingly for Camel No. 9 100’s cigarettes.

Although the word stiletto is referring to a new thinner and longer cigarette, I believe there is an additional hidden meaning. Smoking’s effects are ugly, yet the advertisers tried to make the cause of the problem compare to the beauty of stiletto shoes. So when women who purchase this brand will appear to be cooler than other smokers when they take the lovely box out of their purse.

Apparently they have found a way to target women with their sleek new design and feminine boxes. Although I am not a smoker, this ad and product design appealed to me. However, if I were a smoker, I would definitely purchase their cigarettes in the pretty boxes. Also, the name “Camel No. 9” sounds very similar to the perfume Channel No.9. I find this to be another way for the product to connect with their target audience.

Overall, this is a beautifully designed ad, yet I believe these ads will have an impact on the raise of young female smokers. Magazines should value the health of their readers over profit when publishing these ads.

May Cause Confidence!

After the conclusion of the premiere episode of Donald Trump’s Pageant Place, I glanced away from the TV. I mean, isn’t that what most viewers do after a good show goes off? Who really cares about the commercials? Well, my room went silent for a whole 10 seconds, and then I heard an “excuse me sir” come from our TV. I looked up to see a college student, who looked pretty average, in a quiet classroom, telling an older guy who had been standing around speechless, apparently for 10 seconds, about a trick to make people relax when public speaking. Although picturing someone naked was not what I had expected him to say, I do admit my roommate and I laughed pretty hard!

When the college guy says the same thing to a girl sitting near him, I was quite impressed, thinking he was quite brave for such a bold statement! After the nice display of the Clearasil kit, I automatically thought it was a pretty nifty commercial concept, unlike some of their others. Their commercials heavily rely on one’s need for confidence, which is good since that’s what their teenage target audience usually lacks. I also absolutely loved the way the brought back a little humor by having the college guy growl in the mirror. Overall, I believe this commercial done its job, brought a laugh, and could help with sells of their products. If buying Clearasil makes you feel that confident, count me in!

After reading the comments posted on YouTube about this commercial, I learned that some parents want this taken off of TV. I agree with the one writer who says there are defiantly more offensive commercials aired on TV than this one. Sure, it may have a little humor not suitable for all ages, but at the same time, I watched it on MTV, not Nickelodeon, the Disney Channel, or Cartoon Network!

Smoke Free Tennessee!

Smoke Free Tennessee Ad

When designing ads, I sometimes find the simple black and white ones the most difficult. You do not have as much versatility as color ads, yet you still have to find some way to try to catch one’s attention. A recent Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids was very successful at grabbing my attention and maintaining it until I had read the whole ad. I immediately noticed the listing of the governor and legislators’ names in the shape of Tennessee, which was a very clever idea! This is defiantly different than your normal columns and rows of names. Also, by using a black background on the upper portion and a white on the lower, everything is nicely balanced, complete with a simple row of the sponsors at the bottom. Explaining the problem of second hand smoking, the statistics given are very informative. There is not much to say about this simple ad, but that it is effective enough to be straight to the point and get its message across. It simply works! Personally, I would love to see this ad in the future for other states! Maybe Kentucky will be next!?!?

Sharper than Ever!

Not only is that phrase Motorola RAZR2’s slogan, but are the exact words to describe its commercial. I found many interesting aspects along with hidden messages and symbols all combined into the 32 amazing seconds of sharp advertising!

RAZR2 Commercial

By playing on the name RAZR, it shows it as being sharp enough to cut things, of course it doesn’t in real life, but it’s the world of advertising, where anything is possible!

At first a guy gets off of a subway and looks down at his cell phone, slicing a woman’s top with his cell as she walks past him. After the perfect knife/sword sound effect, he checks his email on his cell and also shows the Motorola logo. Also, if you pay attention, they are some Yahoo! advertising hidden in there!

The woman notices has happened, let her part of clothing drop to the ground, quickly takes out her RAZR2 and cuts the back of his jacket. His jacket falls to the ground and he turns around and she uses her cell in a ‘come here’ motion, which shows the versatility of the opening and closing of the screen. The cell closes and she uses the external touch screen to push play on the MP3 player, which shows another new feature of the phone. It begins playing Le Disko by Shiny Toy Guns, which I believe to be a perfect song for this commercial with its very catchy upbeat rhythm. Also, the first lyric to the song is “Hello” which is part of Motorola’s main slogan, “HelloMotto!” which is yet another hidden component in this commercial.

Notice the cell phone, along with the guy, girl, and other’s outfits are all black, giving it a Matrix like atmosphere. Of course, the action breaks out and triggers back and forth camera shots while they continue to cut more pieces of clothing off of each other. Then he oh-so-graciously dips her into his arms, with his RAZR2 in the other hand, and captures her on the phone’s camera. This shot shows off the extra large display screen on the inside, with the very crisp camera feature, along with a zoom option, and of course you have another glimpse Motorola’s logo. She finally gets away from him and jumps back on the subway, but he still has her phone. He throws it and it cuts into some type of advertisement on the side of the subway’s wall. Although it is not a Motorola ad, it is for something that begins with “R-A”. This shot also gives you a closer up view of what the inside of the phone looks like folded out.

The commercial closes out with a basic black background, which flaunts different angles of the RAZR2. It displays its thinness, large inside screen size, and shows off its email, music, and web features once again. I absolutely love the way the RAZR logo appears on the screen and then the number 2 scrapes itself onto the screen in a bright burnt orange color, in a very appropriate cutting motion with the perfect sound bite.

Overall, I really like this commercial. I believe the guy and girl have a lot of chemistry together and do a great job making the commercial a success! Every aspect of the cell phone come together at the end and makes the viewer want to be the proud owner of Motorola’s new RAZR2!

Believe It? Or not?

Usually it takes bright colors and a catchy slogan to catch my attention, but not in this case. When flipping through August 27^th 2007’s issue of In Touch Weekly, I noticed an article featuring this Britney Spears’s latest print ad for the launch of her new perfume Believe. The headline read, “Is this Britney’s body? A gorgeous, too-perfect ad for the pop star’s new perfume has fans scratching their heads.” I wasn’t really sure what to believe after reading the article, so with the help of the wonderful World Wide Web, I done some additional research and came to my own conclusion.

First off, I took a good look at the ad. I can defiantly associate the perfume’s name with the advertisement because I don’t ‘believe’ this is 100% Britney. Photoshop can do wonders these days, which I realized after watching the Dove 'Real Beauty’ Commercial on YouTube the other day in class. The first thing that popped into my mind is obviously that isn’t Britney’s real hair! I guess her almost bare head of hair would be a totally turn-off for the ad though, causing her product to probably not be as successful. Next I noticed something just as surprising. If anyone has been keeping tabs on Britney, or just glancing at magazine covers at the grocery store, you would know that she has defiantly put on a little weight. Her body in the ad appears toned and with some pretty impressive abs! In reality, she he hasn’t looked that trimmed in quite sometime. My conclusion: This must be the result of the ‘Photoshop Diet!’

The tone of the ad is very calm, but the birds and bird cages don’t really make any sense to me. The only reason I can think of off the top of my mind is maybe the scent is somewhat nature like, yet I could be completely wrong! Actually, this ad leaves me clueless about what the new perfume will smell like. Shouldn’t that be what they are trying to sell? It appears to me as if they are trying to market Britney more than her perfume. Apparently it’s not something fruity or they would have used brighter colors. Maybe they are leaving it up to our imagination to where we will have to purchase it at the end of September to find out.

On a more positive note, the one aspect I particularly like is how they placed the nicely designed bottle on the ad. Myself, I tend to buy products simply because they look pretty. Of course when it comes to a perfume, the smell does matter, but the looks of the bottle is what grabs my attention. I’m not going to pick up an ugly bottle of perfume to smell it! In my opinion this is nicely designed and something that I would consider worthy enough to sit out on my dresser. I also give the company kudos for using somewhat the same hue of green for the logo’s text as the bottle, yet considering that is about all of the color in the ad, hopefully it is enough to get one’s attention.

Rumors have circulated that it isn’t even Britney in her own ad, but possibly another person’s body with Britney’s head. Of course that is very possible, but after reviewing others' comments and concerns about this ad, I have come to my very own conclusion: I 'believe' this is really Britney, but who ever Photoshoped this ad, should get a raise! Although this isn’t an ad that would necessarily catch my attention and persuade me to purchase the perfume, I do personally believe the ‘Photoshoper’ done a pretty great job, considering what they originally had to work with. So…what do you ‘believe’?