Nowadays ads have almost become one necessity in our daily life. As an essential branding measure, ads are created for making similar products different. However, products are in fact not that different from each other. Thus, companies have to add and spread something beyond the products(I guess that is why we can not even find the link between the ads and the products it is trying to advertise :p).

Now I believe that ads are trasforming to a special culture. They are no more only maketing tools. Those ads made for environment campains and those ads reminding people of keeping a healthy lifestyle, regardless what they are advertising for, are so meaningful and inspiring that can teach people more than a book can. Here are some ads for environment campain (http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/environmental-ads-44102408#ixzz1szcxnPeR).

The message: “The first signs of global warming are now clearly visible. We  urgently need to limit greenhouse gas emissions.”

The message: “Non-native species of the California coast.”

The message: “Rubbish can be recycled. Nature cannot.”

Also, I would like to recommand the “Ads worth spreading” available on TED : http://www.ted.com/initiatives/aws.

Here is one example I like:The Return of Ben Ali

I guess everyone knows what Twitter is in Canada, but do know what is Weibo? It is a microblog website in China. Similar to Twitter, people can post a short paragrah attached with picture or emotion on their own page and people can follow others’ post as they like. Here is one example of the interesting application of Weibo.

A Weibo user, whose seems to produce funny and humorous content, posted a few  photos of him using a few Durex condoms as protection of his shoes from the  rain, which was “retweeted” by some of his 8000 followers. In two minutes after  the post was published, Durex’ official account “retweeted” this post to over  100K followers and interacted with people who replied.(http://www.chinainternetwatch.com/1126/case-study-3-lessons-on-weibo-marketing/#ixzz1szUak4rZ)

Funny right? Did you realize that that weibo user just did free marketing for Durex? This guy actually delivered the message that the quality of Durex condems are good. The fact that people can post their own picture with their comments on Weibo makes Weibo a perfect marketing tool. As a Weibo user, I have not seen the trend of Weibo being used for marketing but as the online video and social media advertising are garnering attention, I believe Weibo will soon become a popular and trendy form of marketing tool in China. Here is the data about the change in spending for Ad/Marketing Tactics.