Month: September 2010

Advertising over the years has changed drastically. In the past, ads were designed with only the product in mind, and were very informative and promoting of the product, yet slightly boring. While ads of previous years have been sufficient enough during their time, they just don’t cut it in our generation where ads can be displayed practically everywhere, from displayed in a magazine to being the side boards at a professional hockey game. Advertisements now-a-days need to be eye catching, bold, and intriguing to get the consumers attention and persuade them to buy the product being advertised. However are some tactics that companies are using going too far?

Companies have started to advertise in a much bolder sense than ever seen before, and it is starting to become unethical and wrong. Many advertisements now include risque photos and concepts that, although they are very noticeable, may be excessive. An ad I discovered on another blog that demonstrates my point entirely, is one put out by the company Sisley Fashion. In one of their many ads from the “Fashion Junkie” campaign, there are two extremely disheveled girls sprawled out on a table pretending to snort the thin white straps of a dress as though they were lines of cocaine, as seen here http://www.adpunch.org/entry/sisley-fashion-junkie/.  I completely agree with this blog in the fact that had Sisley found it entirely necessary to use addiction as a source of persuasion, they could have probably done in a manor that was a bit more respectable and less blunt. On top of that, I think it’s disgusting that Sisley is using a major societal issue as a way to sell their product. So basically, I think that yes, companies are needing to be new and unique in their advertisements, however they need to know where to draw the line between eye-catching and intriguing, and unethical and wrong.

gooooodbyebye.

So you’re walking down the boardwalk on the sunniest afternoon in July and you suddenly get a craving for ice cream. You casually walk down the street and notice two seemingly similar ice cream shops located side by side. One of the ice cream shops has a massive line, while the other merely has a few people standing out front. By the huge crowd gathered out front of the first ice cream store, it seems pretty obvious that there must be something phenominal about their ice cream; the price must be way lower, the quality of the ice cream must be way better, or the service in the shop must be outstanding right?

That’s what most people would think, that’s what they most likely want you to think in fact, but the real reason why the first ice cream shop has such a higher demand all comes from the advertising being done outside the store. From the street, while both ice cream shops have huge posters with pictures of ice cream cones, and massive signs with their 60 flavours, the first store has another sign, and it’s this sign that makes the difference. That last sign that they have that pushes their product up and over the other ice cream shops product is simple, and it reads,“Buy one, get one free”.Without even thinking consumers line up at this shop, because they automatically feel as though they are getting a better deal and more value for their money. Hey, all they have to do is buy one ice cream cone and they get another one entirely free, no questions asked! The consumers at the first ice cream shop, who have been waiting in line now for 35 minutes are waiting to buy one $4 ice cream cone… buy hey, then they get one free. What they don’t realize is that if they were to walk right next door, to the store with absolutely no line, they could buy one ice cream cone for $2. So here’s where I’m going to let you do the math. It probably didn’t take you long to realize that 1 ice cream cone for $4, plus the one for free works out to be $2 per cone, while at the second store they’re simply priced at $2 a cone… the prices are the exact same. However people line up for ages at the “buy one get one free” ice cream shop, because based off of a strategically priced product and advertising campaign, they have practically tricked consumers into thinking they are getting a better deal.

Personally, I think it’s incredible that consumers can’t figure this out, and it’s working incredibly in the favour of the first ice cream shop. They have discovered a method to make it look like they are giving the same product to their customers for a greater benefit than their competitors, however they are actually giving them the exact same value, but forcing them to wait twice as long to get it.