Cool Advertisements

I’m going to do something obvious & do the Mac vs. pc ads. They’re something easy to recognize & funny. I mean, if you don’t know what a Mac vs. pc ad is then you must live in a box. But even then, you’d still know-id bet your box was made out of a Mac or pc box. These ads are everywhere, print, TV billboards, and any other advertising medium. And they are highly effective. They are sponsored by Apple so the argument being made is to buy a Mac for various reasons. The 1st noticeable thing is the outfits that the 2 guys are wearing. The PC guy is wearing a suit & does not appear to be “cool.” He is kind of stuffy & uptight looking. While on the other hand, the Mac guy seems to be pretty laid back & cool. The PC man seems pretty old school while the Mac guy seems young & hip, which is the way Apple markets its products. They are primarily for the younger generation. Seriously, how many old people have you seen with Mac’s? Apple’s target population is young people. The Mac vs. PC ads mix both facts & humor, which is why I think that they’re so popular. They’ve even spawned spoofs that are relevant to us here at Virginia Tech. If you look on YouTube, there is a VT vs.UVA spoof of the ads. They are made by UVA, so they’re making fun tech. But they’re still really funny. And as a Hokie, I know that these ads are just to make UVA feel better about themselves, I know Tech is the better sports school (not sure about the minority part though, they may have gotten us there). The other argument that the Apple people are making is that even though PCs are cheaper, they are unreliable & must be replaced quicker than comparable Mac’s. This is important because price is the big deterrent for people looking to buy a Mac. These ads are trying to convince people that they are worth the money. That is the main argument being made by these ads.
The next advertisement that I find really cool is an ad I saw for WWF. It’s a giraffe pieced together with pennies. I thought that was so cool! I got the argument right away. The argument is that a simple donation of pennies could save a giraffe. That is just a genius way to represent this concept. I chose this ad because saving wild animals & the natural environment is something close to my heart. This ad is sponsored by the WWF, which works to achieve these goals. Their main advertisement means is on clothing & through mailings. They send out free stamps and their apparel is easily found in any department store. In fact, I am using their tote bag right now. Their logo is a panda with the letters WWF underneath. I like this argument because it is pretty simple. The advertisement is trying to get people to just make even a small donation o their cause. Advertisements should be simple so that people can understand them. Nobody wants to sit down & comprehend an advertisement. It’s not like its English or anything. They should be able to look at it & immediately understand the message. The argument being made by this advertisement is very simple, donate a penny and you could be saving a giraffe. Think about if everybody in the world donated just 1 penny to a cause? That’s billions of dollars! Very cool….very cool.
The third advertisement that I liked is this one for a hand sanitizer brand where the lady is holding random hands on the subway bars. The argument here is that you don’t know who touched something before you did. So when you touch it, you’re getting all the germs that they did. When you put it like that, it’s a really disgusting thought. I mean, you have no idea where that person went or what they did. They could’ve gone to the bathroom & not washed their hands after. They could have been extremely sick with Tuberculosis or Swine flu. That’s so gross. It’s really not something that people pay attention to but it’s a real problem. I think this advertisement is effective because it opens up people’s eyes. On the other hand, I don’t think that it makes an effective argument for the product. Their product is only seen in the bottom right hand corner. Somebody might decide to buy a more reliable and recognizable brand, such as Purell. I for one have never head of Dettol. And if my health is in somebody else’s hands, I’d want to pick a nationally recognized brand (yes, I’m a brand shopper, shoot me!). I think this is a good shot at advertising but not quite there yet. They should make the product bigger. But it makes a good argument. Overall, the argument behind this advertisement is pretty cool & obvious. Always carry hand sanitizer!
Hopefully I did this blog right!