The Fear Appeal

The WWF (world wildlife fund) has several advertisements that apply the fear appeal. All their ads are very catchy and out of the ordinary which draws the readers in. This organization focuses on saving the animals and our planet, which seems to be put on the backburner these days. Having these dramatic and fearful advertisements makes people think twice about recycling or polluting. The organization lets the photo speak for itself since they only have a slogan and their logo small in the corner.

The fear appeal is used well on all their advertisements because they associate all the negative things that happen when people do not take care of our planet such as sea turtles becoming extinct, climate problems, and cutting down trees. The purpose of these advertisements create buzz and attention then provide them with a solution; which in this case is to take action and stand up for their cause by either giving money or changing your own personal ways or spreading awareness about their cause.      While the fear appeal works well in this case, some fear appeals can make viewers intimated or disgusted to look at their ads. I know personally looking at some health ads make me want to be sick. I seem to always end up thinking about how disgusting the ad is and lose focus of the companies message. I think the WWF had enough fear, but not too much where the viewer isn’t going to pay attention to the message.

Here is a link to lots of WWF ads.

http://speckyboy.com/2009/04/16/55-inspiring-creative-and-potent-ads-from-the-wwf/ 

 – Brittany Smith 

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Effective and ineffective humorous ads

Attached below is my opinion of an ineffective way to use humor in an ad. This ad is for the company post-it and written in little letters it states, “for the little things you forget”. For most people this would be considered offensive and not humorous.

As discussed in class, 30% of ads use humorous appeal and they score high in recall tests. After looking at this ad, am I tempted to go out and buy post-it notes? No, but next time I see someone or use one myself I will recall this ad.

Yes, this ad is humorous, but some people make take offense to it. I believe that the company will probably offend more people than the people that find it funny. I believe this ad is very effective in grabbing attention of those who look at it. By having the logo small and to the side, people are wondering what this is advertising. Having this draws the viewer in and sparks their curiosity. 

The next ad is also in my opinion very funny. This ad is playful and meant for the audience to have a laugh. This ad would not offend anyone like the previous ad. Having such a weird picture grabs the attention of the audience and perks their interest to see what company this is.

Similarities:

–       Both ads place their company and a short phrase at the bottom right hand corner so people are first drawn to the image, and then look to see what company this is.

–       Both ads attempt to be funny

 Differences:

–       First ad can be interpreted in a way that some people would find it offensive.

 

– Brittany Smith 

Extreme Advertising

The topic I wanted to talk about today was similar to my last topic about proofreading advertisements. Inappropriate advertisements are all around us. We see them every day, but most of the time we don’t fully understand the line that many of these ads cross. The picture I have attached is from LICRA, an organization that aims to stop racism and anti-Semitism in the world. While an organization that has noble causes, sometimes their marketing material can be seen as inappropriate.

            The picture I have attached is one that was published by them. It shows a number of babies in the nursery supposedly soon after birth. However, the inappropriate aspect of this picture is the black baby in a janitor outfit. This advertisement suggests that black people are doomed to work dead end jobs that do not pay very well. While extremely as inappropriate and condescending as this may seem, the text sheds some light on the true intention of this picture. The text reads “Your skin color shouldn’t dictate your future”. With that context it is quite clear that the advertisements intentions were to state that even though you might be a minority, it should have no impact on your will to succeed.

            At first glance this advertisement is very inappropriate, and that is what goes wrong with this picture. Most people won’t spend the time to look for the text and think about what they are trying to say. From the first glance it seems racist, and that is the opinion that most people will have about this advertisement and their organization. Companies and organizations like LICRA need to be sure to take the time to guarantee that their message is conveyed and conveyed very clearly without any confusion.

– Brittany Smith

Proofreading Signs and Marketing Material

         I’ve included a photograph of a sign for a company that didn’t quite turn out the way they expected to say the least. Advertising mishaps like these are actually more common than you might think, although not many are as exaggerated as this one or as easily noticed. The problem with advertising is that mistakes like these can leak through proofreading and make it in to production. Advertising mistakes like this can ruin your businesses appeal or make people think less of what you have to offer.

            You might think that advertisements like this that don’t convey meaning are not very common. Think about the last time you saw a commercial on TV that no one else you know liked? Why would a company publish an advertisement that the majority of people don’t like? Perhaps it is because that advertisement was not properly scrutinized before it was published. Companies should thoroughly read through and examine any marketing material that they plan to publish in order to ensure their ad will be well received. If they showed this ad to a large group of people within their company and tested it before they published it these mishaps would not happen.

            Megaflicks should have used a different font. I think we can all agree on that. However, there is more than just an unfortunate font at fault. Too many businesses, large and small, publish advertisements without proper proofreading and criticizing. If more companies went through the proper steps before publishing their advertisements, we would all see more polished ads that appeal to many more people.

– Brittany Smith 

Website Comparisons

In today’s modern world where technology is everywhere, websites are a very important method of communication and information exchange for companies. With the rise of the internet and the popularity of websites, the need for good design principles when making a website have become an issue that companies discuss regularly. Two websites that I believe are very different in their approach are Yahoo and MSN. Both website provide news, sports, weather, and trending topics to the reader, but that is where the similarities end.

            Yahoo and MSN both take different approaches in their attempt to convey information to their readers. Yahoo takes a Facebook-like approach. Their news is displayed in a chronological fashion with the newest information at that top. This style is very similar to that of the newsfeed on Facebook. MSN takes a very different approach. They have divided their websites into sections like recent news, entertainment, and sports. This division separates all of the different news articles into categories as opposed to a big grouping of all news.

            I find that Yahoo’s website is a lot more cluttered. While they follow good design principles with consistency and repetition, their alignment is not as good as MSN. MSN separates their news into easy to read categories. If I was interested in entertainment news it would be easier to view that information that it would be to go through extra clicks on Yahoo to make sure that the newsfeed style is only displaying entertainment news. Some improvements Yahoo could make would be to make it easier to choose what type of news the reader is exposed to. If they did this, their website would have much better clarity similar to that of MSN.

 http://www.yahoo.com/

http://www.msn.com/

– Brittany Smith

Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is a technique used in photography to make photos more interesting. The rule states that if photos are taken with the focus of the picture in a particular area, that photo will become a lot more intriguing and interesting to look at. First, the photographer must imagine that there are two vertical lines and two horizontal lines dividing the picture into thirds both vertically and horizontally. As seen in the picture I included, the four white lines divide the picture into thirds.

The rule of thirds is a very old yet time-tested method for taking photographs. It is widely recognized as a way to make photos look better. The seashell in the picture I included is the first thing the eye is drawn too. With the white lines on the image, it is easy to see that the seashell is in the bottom left quadrant, in the lower and left third of the picture. This picture also exhibits leading lines. After looking at the seashell, my eye was drawn to the break in the sand and I followed it all the way to the sunset.

By using this technique, the photographer made an ordinary picture of a seashell look extraordinary. The smooth sand combined with leading lines and utilizing the rule of thirds makes this picture very aesthetically pleasing. Of course the rule of thirds is not the only element that makes this picture look extremely well, but without the rule of thirds, this picture would be much less interesting and beautiful.

 

 

Brittany Smith

Typography of Pepsi

After our class in typography, I began to pay attention to company’s logos that I saw in my everyday life. I began to notice a trend of simplicity and minimalism. I was curious so I thought I would look up old advertisements and logos to see if trend has always been popular. What I found may not surprise you, but old logos and advertisements are notorious for using cursive fonts whereas today’s ads use almost exclusively print fonts without serifs. This trend is especially clear in the pictures I attached of Pepsi-Cola and their logos throughout the last 100 years. For most of the 1900s, a cursive font was used until around 1950 when they began using print style fonts.
Many companies began changing their logos and branding around this time due largely to the rise of the media, both print and visual. Pepsi, like many other companies, followed the trend of print fonts without serifs. The most recognizable company who has not followed this trend is Coca-Cola, however, they are the exception. A simple search for old logos will reveal that many companies have changed to this more simplistic approach. This form of typography in advertising works very well in our culture that praises simplicity and less clutter. This trend can also be seen in schools and in people’s daily lives since cursive is becoming a less and less popular form of writing to the point where I believe it will not be taught in schools anymore.

– Brittany Smith

Colour in Advertisements

http://www.squidoo.com/all-about-colors

I was searching the web and I came across this very interesting article. I have attached a link to the article for everyone to check out. The article is titled, “What colors attract customers to your website?” In the article, the author talks about how, depending on the colors on your website, you can either attract or un-attract customers to further view and possibly buy something from your website. It also discusses what colors should be used to target certain audiences, and every color says something about the company. For example, blue symbolizes trust and reliability where silver means prestige.

After reading this article, I thought really? People are going to exit from a website all because of a color? But the more I thought about it, I realized I have chosen clothing, for their colors. I have never really considered how much thought companies put into choosing colors. The example used in the article said that marketing researchers have found that working class people prefer colors that you can name like blue, red, and yellow where as highly educated people prefer “higher class colors” such as taupe and mauve. This is why Walmart’s color is blue, because these are the customers they want to attract and those that they market towards. I thought this was very interesting and true in most stores.

I never have thought about this concept until I read this article, I encourage you all to read it as well!
It really opens your mind and perspective on advertisements and websites. Consider this the next time you see a website, what colours are they using? What do these colours say about their company?

-Brittany

Recreating Ad using PhotoShop

I found this image on Google images. After learning what we have in Photoshop these past few weeks, it is easy to see how the creator would go about making this ad. The first thing they would need to do is change the background color. The next step would be to take a picture either from Google or from a photo, and use the copy and paste technique to place it on the purple layer. If this image was too large the creator could use the scale tool to insure that the picture keeps the same shape. Holding the ALT button and using the mouse to shrink or large the image. Once the image is to the desired size, the creator would use the magnetic lasso to remove any background or anything unwanted from the original image. When this has been finished the creator can now add the text. Using the Text option the creator can make the text any font and font size and move it around the image for the best look. Once the image has been completed the creator is able to either place this on the Internet or print it. For these different tasks the creator will be required to save as in different options. The best option for print is a .TIF and the best option for the web is .GIF. Before exiting and using the images the creator must flatten the image. By flattening the image you’re unable to come back to edit it so, therefore, the creator must make sure that the image is the way that they want it. By flattening the image all the layers are compressed into a single picture creating the full image.

-Brittany Smith