Thursday, October 20, 2011

Famous Advertising Slogans

There are many, uncountable amounts of slogans out there to keep up with. I'm going to share with you a few that as soon as you read it, you'll know which company it represents, but I'll also present some that you may have no clue where it came from.

  1. Subway, eat fresh -Subway
  2. Taste the rainbow - Skittles
  3. Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger - Butterfinger
  4. Have it your way - Burger King
  5. Think outside the bun - Taco Bell
  6. Always Coca Cola - Coca Cola
  7. Drivers wanted - Volkswagen
  8. The best part of waking up is Folger's in your cup - Folger's
  9. Double your pleasure, double  your fun - Doublemint Gum
  10. Zoom Zoom - Mazda
  11. A diamond is forever - DeBeers
  12. Be all that you can be - U.S. Army
  13. I'm lovin' it - McDonald's
  14. Every kiss begins with Kay - Kay Jewelers
  15. Good to the last drop - Maxwell House
  16. Just do it - Nike
  17. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there - State Farm Insurance
  18. M'm M'm Good - Campbell's Soup
  19. Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's Maybelline. - Maybelline
  20. So easy a Caveman can do it. -Geico
Those are some very common slogans, and I know you were probably humming or singing along to some of them when you recognized it! Here's some that you may have not heard, but are pretty clever.
  1. Between love and madness lies Obsession - Calvin Klein's Obsession
  2. Have you met life today - Metropolitan Life
  3. I'd walk a mile for a Camel - Camel cigarettes
  4. Is it live, or is it Memorex - Memorex video cassettes
  5. It takes a licking and keeps on ticking - Timex Corporation
  6. Put a tiger in your tank - Exxon
  7. Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't - Almond Joy
  8. Taking care of business - Office Depot
  9. When it absolutely, positively, has to be there overnight - Federal Express
  10. No bottles to break - just hearts - Arpege
  11. Finger-lickin' good - KFC
  12. Your potential. Our passion - Microsoft
  13. Isn't life juicy - Starburst
  14. If you want to capture someone's attention, whisper - Coty Perfume
  15. Fly the friendly skies - United Airlines
  16. Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet - Chevrolet
  17. More fun than rum - Malibu
  18. M'm M'm M'm M'm M'm... Toasty - Quiznos
  19. Where's the beef - Wendy's
  20. There's an app for that - Apple
Ok, so some of those are pretty recognizable, but some aren't. Either way, they're fun to read. What's your slogan?

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Examples of Subliminal Advertising

Visual cues and subliminal messages are in every ad that you see. You can count on several different props being used to induce the consumers, depending on the type of market the advertisers are trying to appeal to. Subliminal messages work because they delve into the subconscious part of your brain, the part of the brain that takes it all in all of the time, then stores the information. Your conscious mind bases the visual input on logic, so if a subliminal message is used properly, it bypasses the conscious and goes directly to the subconscious and can be almost hypnotic.

Sometimes, these visuals are not subtle, other times, you don't even realize what it is your watching. For example, if there is an ad for a shampoo, they don't typically use women with thin hair or no hair at all. They use women who are young, have long and strong, shiny and beautiful hair, to make you think that this company's shampoo is what caused her hair to look like that. Would you be more willing to purchase a shampoo if the ad had a bald lady? Probably not. So, in cases like that, the subliminal message isn't very subtle; it says "buy our product and your hair will look amazing, like this girl's."

Some that are a little more subtle would be, perhaps, car commercials. Many car commercials try to show the point of view as if you were driving that car. It puts you in position to try to understand what it would feel like to be behind the wheel of their amazing product. Another form that is more subtle is a TV ad. In TV ads, they rely on repetition. They put the text logo on the screen for just a second, and many times your conscious mind may not have had time to absorb the impact it had, but it's likely that your subconscious mind did.

So let's give some examples. Most subliminal messages out there seem to deal with sex in one way or another, whether with a phallic symbol or a representation of something that it's not necessarily supposed to be.

Other messages are a little more discreet. For example,the movie poster from Silence of the Lambs; if you look closely, you'll see that the moth's head is a skull (that's a little more obvious. If you can get an extreme close-up, you'll notice that the skull is made up of figures of women).

So as you might be able to see from these images, subliminal messages are everywhere. They're in the ads you see for McDonalds and all sorts of different beverages (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic). They're in everything you see, both online and on TV. It's hard to avoid and sometimes works really well, when done properly. It makes a big impact on those that see the ads.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Advertising Standards Authority

Advertising Standards Authority, or ASA, exists to ensure that consumers can trust the ads they see, not just enjoy them. They make sure ads are legal, decent, honest, and truthful. They have advertising codes and act fast when marketing communications break those rules.

One thing they do is accept complaints. One complaint can lead to an ad being withdrawn and the ASA makes sure the procedure to file these complaints is quick and easy. If you need to make a complaint, simply call the ASA and discuss the matter at hand. If the complaint is covered by the ASA, they will give you the name of the person who will handle your case and be your point of contact. All complaints are anonymous, unless you're asking for you name to be taken off a mailing list.

The ASA rules are designed to ensure that advertising does not mislead, harm, or offend. There are certain products for which consumers are protected such as alcoholic drinks, health and beauty claims, children, medication, and gambling.

There are two primary types of codes that the ASA regulates. One is called the CAP code. These rules apply to non-broadcast marketing communications, like newspapers and cinema. The BCAP code applies to all advertisements and program sponsorship credits on radio and television, like broadcasters and teleshopping.

There is a list of certain advertising that the ASA can regulate, like magazine and newspaper ads, radio and TV commercials, TV shopping channels, posters, and more. There are also some that don't cover like credit advertising, data protection, amount of direct mail, discrimination, editorial content, and a few others. Before deciding if a complaint is necessary make sure you find out if it is covered by the ASA or not.