Week 3 EOC: Thank you for smoking

1. In this advertisement for Phillip Morris cigarettes from 1956, a mother is seen cradling her sleeping baby with a sweet smile on her face. A pack of the cigarettes can be seen on the table next to her. The baby appears to have just woken up and needed its mothers comfort.

2 and 3. The mother and her child are at home. The mother is in her nightgown and the baby is just in a diaper. It’s a peaceful, quiet setting.

4. Even though she is obviously a new mother and she isn’t currently smoking a cigarette in the advertisement, the woman appears to have no problem smoking around the child. The pack is right next to her beside an ashtray. It looks like she will put the baby back to bed and light one right there while watching her child sleep. The cigarette company is trying to make the product appear harmless and like they fit perfectly into the lives of their customers, always there to comfort the smoker and make them feel better.

5. The goals of the mother are to put her baby to bed safely and securely so that she may then enjoy a cigarette. The goals of the company are to make the cigarettes look appealing to everyone, even new mothers with babies. They want their customers to understand that they can smoke a gentle cigarette and have no fear of harm from doing so. This ad also introduces a new package that the company has adopted for their product.

6. The mother assumes and perceives the product to be safe and gentle. She sees the cigarette as comforting, good tasting, and completely fine for her to enjoy.

7. The conflict today with this ad is that we now know cigarettes are very harmful and would never be used in front of a baby. The fact that something so harmful is next to a sweet innocent child is a conflict of morals for society today.

8. The outcome of this ad is that the child will go to sleep and the mother will smoke her cigarette, knowing that her child is safe and protected and feeling completely at ease with her decision to smoke.

Week 2 EOC: Questionable Ethics in Advertising

Unethical advertising can take many forms. Some companies use this as a way to generate publicity for the brand. They may even be aware that the ad will be viewed badly, but they choose to run it anyway because it will generate more recognition from the press it receives about how unethical it is. Unethical advertising exists because of how a commercial is filmed or the way a product is portrayed. One such ad is one for Antonio Federici Gelato from Italy. The ad portrays religious figures in an overtly sexual manner while advertising that the gelato is so temptingly delicious, it makes people go against their beliefs and sin in order to have it. This ad would never run in the United States because it would offend so many people’s moral values. In other parts of the world sexuality is viewed differently but this ad takes it a little too far. It’s also very serious to be advertising a product like gelato. The company could have easily gone a different direction.

Another questionably ethical advertisement is for Durex brand condoms. The ad is just a picture of a woman’s mouth with a Band-Aid on each side of her mouth. The words underneath suggests that she has just performed oral sex on someone that is “really big.” This is a clever but overly sexually suggestive advertisement. Given that the product is used in a sexual way provides some leniency when it comes to this company’s advertisements. This was offensive to women, however, because it suggests that in order to make a man happy, she must suffer.

This Portuguese advertisement promoting safe sex could be considered offensive and unethical. It is for all intent and purpose, saying that women who don’t practice safe sex may as well point a gun at her vagina. This ad probably hits home for many women and makes them realize how important practicing safe sex really is. It’s very graphic and could be considered unethical to portray a woman’s body as such, suggesting that it is completely a woman’s responsibility to illicit the safe sex practices when it comes to intimacy. This make some men feel less responsibility for such an important issue.

Week 2 BOC: About Me

Fashion is a means of self-expression and a way that people communicate their personalities to others without the need for words. This is one of the reasons I decided to pursue a career in the fashion industry. A culmination of passions for style and knowledge has led me to fashion writing. From experience I know that looking one’s best is the only way to achieve success, whether that be professionally or socially. The total look is not only important in personal appearance but also in the quality of work I put my name on. Examining the marketplace for the newest trends and staying current with up and coming designers keeps my work fresh and relevant. Understanding the pace of the fashion industry and the standards that have been set with publications like Vogue keeps me ahead of the curve. In an age where everyone is an authority on fashion and can make their voice heard in numerous fashion blogs, I eventually hope that my writing will inspire and inform my audience of the importance of fashion in today’s society and how to utilize all the tools and style options that are available today.

Week 1 EOC: VW Lemon

Doyle Dane Bernbach ad agency from New York is responsible for changing the face of advertising with his 1959 Volkswagon Bug advertisements. The understated style of these advertisements stood out in a sea of in-your-face, larger-than-life ads that penetrated the market. The genius of the design has become a tradition with the brand. The famous ad that just said “Lemon” underneath a picture of the Beetle explained to consumers how the inspectors of the car would reject that specific vehicle because of a small blemish on the chrome bumper. One ad didn’t even have a picture and simply said, “"No point in showing you the 1962 Volkswagen. It still looks the same." This appealed to the Baby Boomer generation of the 1960’s as a way to reject materialism. The ads concentrate on using humor to pull the consumer in and give them a positive connection with the brand. Giving information about the car or the brand was not the primary function of these simple advertisements. People already knew what a Volkswagon Beetle was and the company understood this. They just wanted to give people a reason to like the brand and want to come and look at the car. Once inside the dealership the consumer could be further informed about the product. That’s what good advertising does. It creates curiosity and wonderment. Once people are curious about something they want to know more about it. Since the 1960’s advertisements for Volkswagon created this sense of curiosity, the company became the number one foreign vehicle provider in the United States. This trend continued until brands like Toyota and Datsun created similarly priced products.