Product Placements Are Everywhere

Product placements are such a great way to advertise. It promotes a product without people even realizing it. Product placements are everywhere from half hour television shows to hour half movies.

I think product placements are becoming more popular due to the new thing known as TiVo. Ever since TiVo was introduced, people have been fast forwarding through the commercials, therefore seeing no advertisement what so ever. Having product placements at the least gives the company some kind of advertisement, so they are not losing full business.

I also know that product placements in production tend to lower the cost of producing/broadcasting the actual show and in some cases may even pay for the whole air time. The television show Survivor has been doing it for a while now and it really cheapens the price of broadcasting.

Product placements are everywhere. You constantly see the newest car in television shows. For example, the 300C has been recently in the television show ER a lot. Another example is when I was watching Happy Gilmore, they really promote the subway sub, or in Big Daddy, they promote MacDonald's and Hooters. The simplest things as putting restaurants in movies really help advertise the product, don't you think?

Sometimes product placements are free, but in most cases it is cheaper for the advertiser to do a product placement rather than a commercial. Think about it. People are guaranteed to see your product and its cheaper? Now you can't beat that!

Generation ME

Generation Y, or should I say generation me is an awesome generation to be a part of. We are known as the "Internet Age." Isn't that something to be proud of? The Internet is huge and we are offering more and more everyday when it comes to technology. This is a very fast paced, savvy, generation. I love how it is always going and everyone is so motivated to get things done. We want automatic results, so we will work to make everything come faster.

Advertising generation Y would be basically calling it the Internet, savvy, technology age. I think that everything we do now a days is based on technology, thanks to this generation. In this generation we keep striving for better. We want that, oh wait no, we want the better one. It is always getting better and people are always trying to have the best thing out there. This generation keeps creating bigger and better things and I am proud to be a part of it.

We are advertised as being hard working and wanting more. Yes we want the best, but we will work hard to get the best. It is not like we are expecting to get it with no work at all.

Another thing about our generation is that we work well with others. We have been taught to work well at home when we were little and as we went through elementary school to college, we continue to do so. It only makes us work better in any kind of job enviorment .

I think our generation is excited about work, we are excited to create newer things and we continue to strive to be the best. Who would not want to be a part of this generation? I know I am completely thrilled to be a part of such a hard-working crew.

Movies in Advertising

When I think about advertising, one of the first things that comes to my mind is movies. Movies are advertised all the time. I personally think they are being advertised well because when someone sees a preview they automatically decide whether or not they are going to see that movie.

Imagine if there were no "previews" for movies? We would not even know of the movie, better yet would there even be movies? Luckily for advertising people get to see what they want. The hard part about advertising movies though is you have to be very critical. Advertising movies is tedious because you have one plot and you have to stick to that theme. Then you have to make sure that during the preview or commercial you do no show too much of the movie. It has to be a "teaser," something to pull the audience in. A lot of movies do a good job at creating that romantic scene to that action scene because they know what kind of audience they are trying to attract.

For example, “Saw” movies were advertised very well. That movie really keeps the audience thinking and wanting more. With their previews, they sometimes show so little that it confuses you and makes you want to see it more. Horror films will show a lot of blood because they know that is what the audience wants to see. Action will show a lot of fighting and so on.

A lot of it has to do with the movie itself, but creating the preview or the commercial could be the hardest part. You have to know how to draw your audience in and you have to make sure you do not get off topic.

Wawa Vs. Airlines

When we look at advertisements, we never really think whether or not they are shown nationally or locally. The marketing plan for local advertisements is just to sell their product in a certain area and to create awareness to the local public. On the other hand, national advertisements are directed to anyone and everyone. It takes a lot more time to advertise a national advertisement because they have to think of all of the plans from educating the people to actually promoting the store or product.

For example, when people see Wawa, they do not realize that there are only Wawa's in the tri-state area. I know of at least five Wawa’s in a 10 mile radius of my house. Think about it, how many Wawa’s are around you? I know there is a lot no matter where you live. That is a very good way of advertising. So many people love Wawa, and I know personally, I would not want to move too far because I love Wawa so much. They have some commercials, but I honestly do not think they need that many advertisements because their stores really do all of the promoting. Think about it; imagine if they got rid of Wawa? Wawa is something "locally" that people mentally think they need. I think that it is one of the best advertisements in our area.

Then if you take a look at airlines that are being advertised, they are done everywhere. Everyone flies at least once in their life, I mean unless they are afraid of flying. There is always a commercial here and there about different advertisements for flying. I think the internet has a lot to do with the airline advertisements. National advertising is a lot harder to do because you have such a bigger population to impress. There is also a lot more competition involved with national advertising because these companies are bigger and better. All that they want is to be number one and in control.

Local and National advertisements are very different and in some cases the local advertisement is done better than the national. Wawa does a great way of advertising to the local public because they are only expanding. What if Wawa went national? Could you imagine how well Wawa would probably do, but then they would have so much more competition to work with. National vs. Local advertising is so different and one thing to think about is a local advertisement went national.

Society and Advertising

Society emulates advertising in so many ways. People see things all the time and they are like "Oh, I want that, I want this." Everyone wants to be the people in the commercials because they seem so perfect. Even if it is not someone in a commercial, it could be something you saw on a sign, but the instant it makes a connection with you, you are hooked and want that product. The more advertisers work, the more different the world gets. People reflect from advertising. They think that since it is on television, that it is the automatically right. The better the advertisement, the more the society will copy that ad.

Some people do not even realize that they are copying ads. For example if you look at a Hollister ad, you will see the typical beach girl with a polo and ripped jeans. Now go walk through the mall and you will see that everywhere. Society instantly copied what Hollister was advertising because it seemed to be cool and attractive. People see models or things and they want to be just like that, or they have to have it. I mean the more we see the advertisement the more we want it, right? Therefore we begin to copy it, so we can be it.

Society acts off of advertisements and tries to be them. Without advertisements, what would people wear, how would people shop, who would people be? I personally think people would be confused as to what they should and shouldn’t get. Everyday people are copying advertisements and not even realizing it. You see the typical model on television taking diet pills and in an instant your mind thinks that you should get those diet pills because you want to look like her. We try to be the ad, or should I say, we want to be the ad. We copy the advertisement as best as we can because in our minds that advertisement is flawless and perfect and who wouldn't want to be flawless and perfect?

Stereotypical Ads

Advertising today is very stereotypical. Almost every commercial can be depicted as to how it is set up for certain viewers. You have the common diet commercials that are so unreal and you do not believe anything. They have the typical model body which is most likely unhealthy, but it makes viewers want to look like that, so why not do it?

Another commercial that stood out to me were the swiffer commercials. In these commercials there is always the typical, happy, vibrant mother who is all about cleaning. She is always dressed nice and no matter what she has that glowing smile on her face. Rarely, if ever, do you see a male "swiffering" the floor. It is still known in today's society that the women cook and clean, not men.

You also have the Reynolds wrap commercials that have been going for a very long time. It makes me wonder if they are ever going to fall flat? These commercials are exactly like the swiffer commercials. It is the "ideal" mother who opens the freezer and is like "Honey what would you like for dinner?" and she pulls out three different things wrapped in Reynolds wrap. Of course this commercial is for the prevention of freezer burn, but just having that typical wife baffles my mind. Now a days, men do the cooking sometimes, so why not have a male open up the freezer and ask his kids what they want for dinner? It just does not make much sense to me at all as to why women are still portrayed as the typical cleaning and cooking mother.

Finally the last commercial that I thought was somewhat stereotypical was the Hillshire Farms "go meat" commercial. This commercial has men grilling while singing go meat. Of course there is not one woman grilling, yet i know many women that are capable of grilling. The link to this commercial is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1xGFcmmf-U. I personally think that this commercial is a good form of advertising only because it really does pull you in. The only question though, is why not have at least one woman in the commercial?

There are so many different stereotypes and it really makes you wonder why even stereotype? I look at it as if stereotyping is going to sell a product, then why not do it? People will do whatever they can to sell a product, and really, there is not anything wrong with it. Also what is even more incredible about stereotyping is that many people do not even realize it, unless they are really looking for it.

The Verizon Fios Commercial with the young kid

So how about the young kid in the Verizon Fios commercial? He is becoming the latest advertising star. Verizon started out using him briefly in their first commercial. They had him just standing there with a puzzled look on his face. When they realized that was working, they decided to do more. The next commercial he tells the verizon guy that he has a "nice truck." Then he has his big break. He basically completes the whole commercial. The link to that commercial is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JISrB-QWm3c. His name is Raymond Ochoa and just his voice pulls you into the commercial. It is one commercial that I always tend to remember.