Viral Advertising

advertising has had to evolve over the years as people become immune to its effects. on average, a person will see anything between 30 and 3,000 adverts in a day, and most of those have very little effect on them. 'shockvertising' is one new form of advertising that has emerged to combat its ineffectiveness. another newer form of promotion is something known as 'Viral Advertising'.
in Wikipedia, it is defined as; Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily. Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages. The basic form of viral marketing is not infinitely sustainable.

basically, viral advertising works via word-of-mouth, promoted by the fans themselves, because they get something out of it, often inciting the curiosity of the fans and allowing them to interact with the campaign.

one particularly successful example of viral advertising is the current promotional campaign for the new Batman film. this link leads to an explanation of part of the viral advertising campaign where fans had to promote the website and get as many of their friends and acquaintances as possible in on it in order to uncover a hidden picture.

so much cooler thn normal advertising methinks =]

x sylvia

More Shockvertising [warning: disturbing imagery]

shockvertising has proved in the past to be extremely effective. it operates on the assumption that the old saying all publicity is good publicity is true. the images are shocking, contraversial and often disturbing. iv included a link to a count-down of the top 50 shockvertisements.


they include a french anti-AIDS campaign


and an anti-whaling campaign


pretty, isnt it.

x sylvia

examiners report && brainstorming

right, just for my own personal benefit im posting a link to a copy of the examiners report on advertising in this post.
the following extract from it i feel is extremely important;
many drift into a general discussion of a variety of media forms (especially magazines and TV) and few stop to consider the aims and purpose of advertising itself.
now im glad i read this, because as i mentioned in my last post, we can all sum up the purpose of advertising; to make you spend your money. which may lead you to ask (and why is it that all my answers lead to more questions?!?) is advertising the driving force behind consumerism? and more importantly why? what is it that makes people want to go out and buy a product because they saw it on tv/in a magazine/on a billboard?
i think some questionnaires and things are in order...

x sylvia

Adbusters

when looking at advertising and in particular its links with consumerism, you cant help but look at the parodies found on adbusters.org, a non-profit, anti-consumerist organisation, who have described themselves as "a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age."
full of interesting articles on anti-consumerism, stopping global warming, making the world a better place and other such happy things. it contains many 'spoof ads' also known as 'subvertisements' which are a direct parody of real adverts.
although they are not adverts in a conventional sense, they can be seen as commenting on the ideologies that these adverts support or portray.
The following is an advert for Absolut Vodka, and one its adbusters counterparts


pretty cool =]
clicky for more subvertisements.
the subvertisement suggests many things; firstly it is saying VODKA MAKES YOU IMPOTENT. i think we all managed to see that. what it is also pointing out is that advertising does not tell you the whole story. in fact, advertising may not necassarily tell you any of the story. advertising tells you 'BUY THIS PRODUCT' and it does so to earn money. advertising does not care if you turn impotent because of something it told you to do. it brings to light the question
is advertising moral?
to which an obvious answer in this case, and in many cases that im sure you can think of, the answer will be no.
this brings to light another question;
CAN advertising be moral?
hmmm....

x sylvia

shockvertising

public health warnings and charity adverts are becoming increasingly graphic, using shock tactics and attention-grabbing images or taglines to get their message across.
THIS is the link to an article about new anti binge-drinking campaigns launched by the home office, which are to be shown in the evenings to capture their target audience.

THIS ARTICLE, although slightly older, talks about 'shockvertising', focusing on graphic, hard-hitting ads such as the barnados add showing a baby heroin addict.

x sylvia

Critical Research

ok, its been AAAAAGES since i last posted lol

for my critical research i have chosen advertising as my topic. originally i planned to focus on how advertising in the media, focusing on the fashion industry, affects women's body image, but now, after reading an interesting article which sparked my imagination, im thinking of focusing on the censoring of advertising -
> why certain things are censored where others arent,
> how far advertisers can go in order to promote whatever they are promoting without crossing the line,
> how advertisers use shock tactics to appeal to their audience,
> whether censoring and restrictions on content hinder the creativity of people who create adverts or encourage it
> how as an audience the public has developed over the years - things acceptable in advertising now would have caused outrage 30 years ago

this is only an initial idea and is subject to change over the next week or so, depending on what my initial research tells me.

x Sylvia

social networking gets creepy

paving the way for internet stalkers is new functions on social networking websites allowing a users position to be tracked by satellite.
[full story]

thats just too far in my opinion.

- sylvia