this and that

I don’t see the mention of infomercials in the book when they talk about cable TV and the benefits of advertising there. Let me give you a heads up if you don’t already know- those commercials they show when you get home from a night out on the town are not accurate. Sure, they go on about how the makeup is flawless and the best you can buy, and that exercise equipment will make you lose 3 dress sizes in a day and can fold up and be stored under a bed. All that and there are only a few payments. Oh boy, look out when you get some $100 makeup that looks like it belongs at the dollar store, and that pilates table that can’t fit in a small bedroom will be debited $39 monthly from your bank account for eternity. That’s what should be added to this book. The book states how it’s less expensive on cable channels to advertise, and all that, but what about the consumer? You have the awful infomercials in the wee hours, and round the clock some of the cable channels play their commercials at ear drum breaking decibals. Great, you’ve just worked a long day and are sitting down for some chill-out time, oh nice, the history channel is showing how the catapult was invented. You’ve zoned out for a good 13 minutes of this, and a commercial comes on so loud that it blows your hair back. Who’s responsibile for this personal intrusion?

Don’t get me wrong, some of these seem like pure genius ideas with reasonable prices- like “point n paint”. But it’s the type of product you just don’t seem to get around to buying. Maybe because painting is such a chore that you dread and put off. Buying it is just admitting you will do it, you’re beyond the “to-do” list. It might be helpful if these advertisers stress the relief once you’re done. I’m not trying to be funny, that’s just helpful.

So, I needed another blog, after a long time of staring out the window at the beautiful murky sky, it hit me! Vincent Gallo has been in H&M ads recently! They had the target audience and geographics in mind when picking him. I’m not seeing any ads locally, but on line it mentions the big campaign in NY, Boston and LA. I know if I were still living in NY, after seeing the ads with Vincent, I would run (literally!!) to the nearest H&M and buy all the pieces in the ads. That’s how crazy this guy makes you! The power of the “target audience” is twofold here. You have the consumers that are being targeted, and then you have all the media people that are being targeted. If you know anything about Vincent Gallo, you know simply having him there will generate a crapstorm of bad reviews. As long as they get the name right, right? He is a behemoth of a personality, to put it mildly. I love this guy. His art, his website, his amazing interviews, and his other-worldly eyes. There’s only one Vincent Gallo, and he actually agreed to do advertising for a company. The people at H&M where surely counting on Vincent to provoke people into giving their reviews of his performance, well- it worked. I haven’t seen such an uproar for a celebrity in advertising, since, well I don’t recall. But the important thing here is that it’s Vincet Gallo, people! I’ve looked up so much about this ad campaign that my computer is running slow now. I guess a virus scan is in order.

Call me a nerd, but I got excited when I read 80-20 existed in advertising. It’s all over the place, and I don’t know why I’m so struck by it. I think maybe I was Vilfredo Pareto in my past life. The other examples are that you wear 20% of your clothes 80% of the time, and at work 20% of the employees do 80% of the work.  The list is endless where this 80-20 rule comes up in life, it’s really interesting. In advertising, this means 80% of units sold are purchased by only 20% of the consumers. The book states this comes in handy when advertising Diet Coke. To go beyond the 80-20,  diet Coke is actually 84- 8. Makes sense- when you have such a small segment buying so much, you need to pay attention. Is this book a combination advertising/rocket science book? That is some handy knowledge right there. I must say they started off strong with the 80-20 thing, but then it just got really boring with types of people and stuff broken down. I guess they need to put this common sense in here, but now I need to move on and search through some more crapola to eek out another 2 blogs tonight.

This may be a trend I’m starting- phoney words consisting of a combination of words(insert obligatory hyperlink here) as a subject line to blogs. This weeks installment is “fabutackalious”. It means an annoying person that over-uses a boring and/or tacky portmanteau. (ex. fabulosity, gi-normous, and the always clever-”guesimate”) What really tops it off is the look of accomplishment on the person’s face when they say these words. Priceless. What does this have to do with adverstising you ask? In 2005 Revlon had an ad for mascara that they were using to try to position themselves as better than Maybelline. Maybelline’s “Great Lash” has been around for possibly 5000 years, and all mascaras are compared to it. The ad that Revlon had for their new line, get ready for it…”FABULASH” was pretty funny. It was “Why settle for great, when you can be fabulash?” I personally refused to try this mascara based on the annoyance factor the name produced. What were they thinking to go after Old Faithful, and to use that name?

I guess this was part of the “confident sexiness” positioning that Revlon had started in ‘02. Has it worked? I think it has. When looking at the packaging, ads, and overall “feeling” of the drugstore brands of makeup, I’d say they seem to be more sexy than the plain-jane Maybelline and Cover Girl. But-does the feeling or label make me personally buy one over the other? No. I buy what works best, if I didn’t that would be redonkulous.

Why wasn’t this iconic picture of “Rosie the Riveter” in the book? It’s not in my 16th edition, maybe it’s in the 17th edition that I was supposed to get, that I paid for, but got gyped on from a certain seller in amazon.com that will get their’s, but that’s another gripe. So, back to the question, I think this is such a familiar, and probably the most moving, piece of advertisement in history- and it’s not in the book. Go figure, maybe because it’s so played out, I dunno. This picture stood for so much, the American woman doing a man’s job because our men were off fighting in a world war, fighting for the well being of our country. ”We” put on our rationed mascara and rolled up our sleeves and built airplanes and other stuff. I can’t think of another piece of advertising that was so truly motivating to the masses. How would we deal with this now? Where’s our motivating advertisement from the government now, during the recession? um..hello???? I don’t see any ad compaigns by the government, just reports on what they are trying to do.

Oh, silly me, there’s the  Bob the Builder Obama slogan “Yes we can“. “Yes we can” vs. “We can do it?”….How could I forget that?? Sooooo motivating, isn’t it? Allegedly rehashed phrases, funky music, what the? I’m not into politics, and I prefer metal ,so maybe it’s just not my cup of tea. Frankly, there’s far better, more interesting video out there. Maybe if they got Jason behind the campaign we would see a difference. Hey, it’s my blog, and I’ll do with it as I see fit.

I made that name up. It’s an amalgamation of all the prescription drug names that I see advertised on TV commercials. I watch these and can’t figure out what they are selling. There’s butterflies, a woman looking around like she’s lost, and a man riding a bike. The possibilities are endless for what this could be a cure-all for. Maybe allergies, “enhancement”, heart disease, back pain, or depression. Maybe not. They’re not saying. But, they are telling you the horrendous side effects that are possible. Geez, I think I’d rather live with the disease (whatever it may be), rather than what the drug will do to me. Just read the first line here and see if don’t feel anxious! I guess this is why the companies camouflage what they are selling.

Too bad Mt. Vesuvius took out Pompeii. According to the book, they kept it short and sweet with advertising, assuming everyone was illiterate. You wanna you shoe fixed? Go to the place with a sign with a picture of a shoe on it. You wanna some milk? Go to the place with a picture of a cow on it. I suppose it wouldn’t be possible to follow this mode of advertising present day on TV. A certain segment of drug companies wouldn’t be able to legally advertise under that mode, but it sure would be funny.