Michael R. Faddis
RSS“Join us July 26th for a night of fundraising in the fight against cervical cancer.”
Men have Mo-vember. Women have Julyna – a non-profit organization that encourages creative grooming to raise money and increase awareness of cervical cancer and HPV. This print campaign promotes their fundraising event.
Advertising Agency: Cossette, Toronto, Canada
Creative Directors: David Daga, Matt Litzinger
Art Director: Angela Sung
Copywriter: Rachel Abrams
Photographer: Phillip Rostron
Published: July 2012
Coke Zero challenged unsuspecting train passengers to unlock the 007 in them for their chance to win tickets for the new James Bond movie SKYFALL. They had 70 seconds to do so.
(Source: youtube.com)
To promote their new IPS monitors, LG decided to field test the high-definition screens by installing a 3x3 grid into the floor of an elevator. Watch out.
(Source: youtube.com)
Our Children Are Growing Up With the Logos of Fast-Food Companies "Branded" on Their Brains
A generation of young people is growing up with the logos of fast-food companies “branded” on their brains. Scientists say scans of children show the pleasure and appetite centers of their brains light up when they are shown advertising images such as the McDonald’s logo.
The study reveals that the same areas do not respond to well-known logos that are not to do with food. It suggests fast-food firms are tapping into the reward areas of the brain, and that these develop before the regions that provide self-control, leading to unhealthy choices.
“Research has shown children are more likely to choose those foods with familiar logos,” said Dr Amanda Bruce, who led the study. “That is concerning because the majority of foods marketed to children are unhealthy, calorifically-dense foods high in sugars, fat, and sodium.”
The finding comes in the wake of research which showed advertising had a pronounced effect on children’s eating habits. Children who tasted two identical burgers, one in a plain box and one labelled McDonald’s, preferred the latter.
“The theory is the increase in risk-taking behavior in adolescence is attributed to uneven development in brain regions associated with cognitive control and emotional drive,” said Dr Bruce. “The brains of children are ‘imprinted’ with food logos. Without the necessary inhibitory processes to aid in decision-making, youth are particularly susceptible to making poor choices about what to eat.”
Proctor & Gamble and Gillette collaborated on this salute to United States Olympians, which also kicked off their global “Get Started” campaign. Gillette explains the visual artistry, which featured 60-foot holograms of swimmer Ryan Lochte and sprinter Tyson Gay:
Part science, part nature and part digital art, Gillette created a series of projected light displays on buildings throughout Boston culminating in a massive water show. The event used half a dozen projectors to display video images of Ryan Lochte and Tyson Gay in action on two massive screens of particulate water vapor sprayed above the surface of the water adjacent to Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art.
Currently making “music” in Sao Paulo, Brazil — the Guitar Pee, lets users create and download their personal M-Pee-3 online.
No word on a U.S. release.
McDonald’s agreed to stop airing the above ad in Germany after Burger King released a statement saying its fast food rival has “broken the rules of comparative advertising by degrading the Burger King brand.”
Free beer, topless bartenders, and false advertising.
Banner Ads Work Subliminally
A study in the Journal of Consumer Research suggests that although web-readers may not click through the banner ads on the pages we browse, we do subliminally register the products advertised there. What’s more, the subliminal impression we gather is positive:
To test this, they asked students to read a multipage essay under the assumption that they’d be answering questions on the essay’s content. Instead, the students were ultimately quizzed about a fictitious brand of camera, Pretec, that had appeared in banner ads on the pages that contained the essay. Different pools of students were exposed to Pretec ads zero, five, or 20 times.Afterwards, when asked about their negative feelings towards the brand, the number of exposures made absolutely no difference. In contrast, those students asked about their positive feelings towards the brand saw those feelings increase in a linear fashion based on the number of exposures. In fact, the authors noted that the positive vibes still appeared to be going up after 20 exposures, leading them to wonder where this effect might start leveling off.
Impressive Ad Creep, Copy Ranter
A showcase of some of the more notable examples of conspicuous product placement in movies.
Subliminal advertising takes a new turn.
(Don’t let the creepy music make you think advertising is all about fear mongering.)
Earlier:
The story about slot machines in Canada that flashed barely noticeable jackpot images? (Konami, the maker, denied allegations saying it was a tech glitch.)
2GB writes that “Scientists at the University College London (UCL) have found the first physiological evidence that invisible subliminal images do attract the brain’s attention on a subconscious level.” (via Neuromarketing). There was one other recent study with similar conclusions.
Even Earlier:
Subliminal Spam
Study: Subliminal Advertising May Actually Work
ABC Rejects KFC Ad As Subliminal
Dream Machine and Subliminal Ads?
(Subliminal) One-Frame Ad
David Ogilvy: We Sell or Else.
Ogilvy came from a background in research, and was an early proponent of AB testing. He had a huge amount of respect for the Direct Response Advertising industry (as opposed to what he called ‘General Advertising’ – Print, TV, etc.) – mainly for the fact that they were so focused on tracking response rates, and working towards winning ad designs. To quote:
“You Direct Response people know what kind of advertising works, and what doesn’t work. You know to a dollar. The General Advertising people don’t know. […] The chasm between Direct Response advertising and General Advertising is wide. On your side of the chasm, I see knowledge and reality. On the other side of the chasm, I see ignorance. You are the professionals. This must not go on. I predict that the practitioners of general advertising are going to start learning from your experience.”
How Honda Succeeded in the United States
If you saw Mad Men on Sunday there was an interesting side story about how the Japanese rapidly dominated the US motorcycle market through Honda.
In truth this really happened and is apparently something of a classic in business management circles, though it’s often given too much of a reverse-engineered sense of inevitability about it. What I find particularly useful, especially for digital strategy, is the Japanese approach to business strategy. Here is an excerpt from an article about how Honda succeeded in the US:
“Their success, as any Japanese automotive executive will readily agree, did not result from a bold insight by a few big brains at the top. On the contrary, success was achieved by senior managers humble enough not to take their initial strategic positions too seriously… The Japanese don’t use the term “strategy” to describe a crisp business definition or competitive master plan. They think more in terms of “strategic accommodation,” or “adaptive persistence,” underscoring their belief that corporate direction evolves from an incremental adjustment to unfolding events.”
Click here to read the full story of how Honda succeeded in the United States.
About Michael R. Faddis
User Experience Architect