I like how this video project was set up. It was helpful having all the parts broken down into separate parts so we knew all the information about Abercrombie and Fitch before the making of the video. However, I felt like making an advertisement for A&F would be a lot more fun and would allow us to be a lot more creative with the content of our video.

The filming was easy because everyone was able to pitch in their own ideas and participate, however, when it came to the actual editing of the video, I thought that was hard to divide up the work. It was a lot easier for just one person to edit the video which takes many hours to do. But thanks to Peter Zhao the video expert, it was a lot easier to understand the basics of editing the video. Without him, we would not be able to incorporate the same effects that we would want in our video.

I found the peer evaluation of other videos helpful in the way that you could see what other groups did to get an idea of what you can do for future videos. But I don’t think it added as much value as expected.

This video project is the definition of a bitter-sweet memory. During the entire process of creating this video, I can say that I was really frustrated. Learning a new program from scratch is not easy, however, after “successfully” finishing the video, I felt very satisfied. To me, I’ve learned a life-long lasting tool that I can use in the future. Overall, I have to say that I enjoyed this video project, and I believe I gained a lot more from this video project than doing another typical presentation, a skill that was already being cultivated in high school.

Half the battle is won if a company is able to make a product stand out among all the others, and catch the eye of a consumer. All that is true, unless the “thing” that makes your product stand out is the fact that your packaging or labeling is weird. When you look closely, it is interesting to see how many companies spell or translate phrases in weird ways. You would think that companies would be willing to spend some money to get someone check their translations, or even Spell Check their catchy phrases that are printed in big bold letters!

For instance, even such a big company like Proctor and Gamble sometimes gets lost when translating. For people who speak fluent French, Charmin Ultra has a phrase on their packaging that says “Garante conenable de NOUVEAU! Petit pain”, which consists of two typos and which also translates to “Expedient guarantee of a fresh bun”. Although “n” and “m” are similar, “bun” and “bum” mean two completely different things!

Also, when I go visit Taiwan, I encounter products like this on a daily basis. Even big companies that have many product lines in Canada seem to be capable of messing up English to Mandarin translations. Maybe they do not want to waste money into hiring more than one translator, hoping that nobody would read would be able to read and understand the descriptions. However, this is extremely unprofessional, and sometimes the translation are just cute harmless mistakes. In some cases, it can make potential consumers not want to buy a product. If it were a food item, you may not want to make a purchase because if a company can be so careless with the packaging of their product, there is a chance that the content of the product itself is not trustworthy.

Source: http://bloomingmarketing.com/translation

Today, I will be commenting on an article written on Blooming Marketing: http://bloomingmarketing.com/april-fool-day

A recent article, “No Kids On-board Policy”, posted on Blooming marketing really caught my attention. The article discussed an interesting marketing campaign that several companies use, including WestJet, a company who has effectively used this tactic to appeal to more consumers.

Everyone knows that most companies takes advantage of all the “bigger” holidays like Christmas, Halloween or even Valentine’s day to promote their product or service during these festive seasons.  However, who would have thought that “businesses are making April Fools’ Day a part of their marketing plan”.

Last Year, WestJet promoted their “Child-free Cabins” video through Social Media, and obtained 739,649 views on YouTube. The humorous video featured something called “Kargo Kids”, which shows kids being put on a “travel toboggan”, and then being led to a different flight, separate from their parents, a plane filled with toys and a “Kargo Kids counselor” who supervises the kids for the duration of the flight. The children will then arrive with the luggage, making the parents’ cabins child-free.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4SkoJy3D0M#t=81]

Some might think WestJet is wasting their resources in filming a video to be aired on April Fools, however, I also believe that the video is “serving as a multipurpose strategy”, and is not at all wasteful. The online exposure of WestJet’s video became a hot topic in conversations and led to a great word-of-mouth, which created excellent exposure. By making a humorous commercial, consumers might feel “closer” to WestJet and connect better with the company. Which gives consumers a friendly image, making them inclined to fly with WestJet the next time  they decide to fly. By doing this for a couple of years, WestJet has kept people guessing at what their  next Aprils Fools’ joke will be, increasing their exposure and popularity.

Kevin brought up a good point on his blog: blog:https://blogs.ubc.ca/kevinsong/

I want to emphasize on Kevin’s point on how fast food chains are fueling obesity, and for the most part I will focus on McDonalds. Many people blame fast food chains for their influence on a child’s diet, however, many fast food chains turn the blame around and push the responsibility back to the parents. Yes, ultimately, parents are able to somewhat control what their child eats, but realistically, no parent wants to endure endless whining from their child for naively wanting to complete their Happy Meal toy set.

With McDonalds flawless marketing strategy, it is very hard for kids to resist such temptations.

Which child can resist a happy meal like the one above? To children, parents are just taking away their happiness by not giving them their ‘happy meal’. They don’t see that parents are trying to protect them and their health. When marketing, McDonalds often fail to give full details of how their food was made.

With commercials like these, kids can be instantly attracted to McDonalds and engrossed on how to get the complete set of the very popular Despicable Me characters. How much longer can fast food chains take advantage of innocent kids who know no better? I understand that McDonalds is a profit-maximizing company, but isn’t it time for McDonalds to change their ways? With so much money going into advertising Happy Meals, can’t they invest in using healthier ingredients to make their food? This is an opportunity! If McDonalds used healthier ingredients, and properly communicated this to the public, it will be no surprise that parents will become more lenient in letting their kid buy happy meals, while improving their public image.

To raise awareness of the dangers of leaving a dog locked up in a heated car, PETA, an animal welfare organization made a commercial which was heavily criticized to be sexualizing women.

For the entire duration of this commercial, no dog was to be seen. Instead a ‘sexy’ supermodel was used to depict the message they were trying to get across. In the commercial, she was unwillingly locked in a car which created an imagery of kidnap and rape, which trigged Corey Lee Wrenn, the author of the article“PETA Sexualizes women & Uses Rape culture Imagery to Raise Awareness For…What?” to write about unethical marketing methods.

People were upset when women was used as a comparison to dogs, they felt “the real point of this video is to exploit sexualized violence against women to bring attention to PETA”. Although PETA launched this commercial with good intentions, they went too far in the attempt to attract viewers.  The main focus of the commercial was lost, which in turn resulted in criticisms.

Some of the responses to this video was:

Dog damn! I have never realized how sexy it was to let a dog closed in a car for a few minutes!!!

This video has backfired in 2 ways. 1, I now regard women as dogs, 2., now I have a heat exhaustion fetish

Although PETA wants to draw attention to spread their message, but did they go too far? What are the ethical boundaries for companies? Will they do anything in their power to gain attention? Of course you cannot be certain on how the public will react, but companies definitely need to be more aware of the aftereffects of this kind of marketing. Or things can go really bad, like this one.

Sources: http://feminspire.com/peta-sexualizes-women-uses-rape-culture-imagery-to-raise-awareness-for-what/

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