Junie Chow's Blog

It is a true statement when said that advertising is everywhere, especially in a particular case of ads being displayed in public washroom mirrors and in another case where the ad actually follows your every movement. These two cases were highlighted on http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/ by authors Tim Nudd, who wrote about the moving remote-controlled ad, and David Kiefaber, who wrote about the mirror advertisements.

Retrieved from http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/

First, about the mirror ads, companies “Clear Channel Outdoor” and “Mirrus” have collaborated to bring these mirror ads to some U.S. airports, like “O’Hare International Airport” in Chicago. David Kiefaber made clear his own opinion on the original article from http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-0121-bathroom-ads-20110120,0,708194.story, stating “I don’t want to live in a world where the Geico gecko can watch me pee.” I agree with him because I feel that there’s a bit of inappropriateness to all of this. Though I can see the marketing opportunity to this as public bathrooms receives a consistent stream of people each day, I like to think of the bathroom as a private room separate from the outside world.

As for the other story, where Belgium shoppers were followed by a moving ad for “Alfa Romeo”, I find it totally ridiculous. I understand that the company wants the ad to stand out, because usually, in my experience, if that ad were not moving I would probably not see it. The moving aspect to it greatly increases the chance of potential consumers to pay attention to the advertisement. However, as shown in the video, it seems like the remote-controlled ad would become a nuisance to some people resulting in negative feelings for the company.

These are two examples of new advertising methods, which I feel are a bit too much, but there are probably others who think otherwise and view them as effective and unique.

I’ve started to pay attention to the type of commercials that are on certain television stations. There are channels on tv called “W network” and “Viva” that air shows most adult females would be interested in watching and I’ve noticed that the commercials were mostly geared towards that adult female audience. They showed products such as, “Pantene Pro-V” shampoo, anti-wrinkle cream, baby products, and healthy food/drink items. Another observation I picked up was that it seemed like most of the actors in the commercials were of the female gender.

I also remember my younger days as a child watching cartoons on the YTV channel. The commercials on that channel were mainly advertising for toy products, but there were also several ads promoting awareness for the need to live an active lifestyle. I still have a distant memory of the toy commercials being very lively, with cheerful kids playing with a product, like a Barbie doll or a superhero action figure, and acting as if they were having the time of their lives.  Those commercials were quite effective for me because I remember always wanting the toy afterwards.

Before I didn’t give much thought about the commercials on my television screen, I just thought of them as fillers for the break from my show that I was watching. I kind of just zoned them out as I was waiting for my show to return. Now I realize there’s a reasonable amount of effort and planning that goes into bringing a commercial into the public environment, like choosing which tv station to air a commercial in order to appeal to a target audience.