Politics run the Ad world

 Politics are all around us, but they pick up in advertisement during election time. The year before elections the advertising world is goes into a political frenzy. Republicans and Democrats saturate TV air time with their campaigns. Either it being Senators trying to get re-elected to the Presidential commercials. Before Presidential commercials mostly talked about the good things about the candidate running, but commercials and ads have changed drastically in recent years. Today instead of commercials trying to make their candidate be likable they attack the other candidate instead. Republican commercials will attack the Democratic candidate and vice-versa. Another new thing added to Presidential campaigns and commercials is the inclusion of celebrity support. 

Old Presidential commercial

Eisenhower Commercial

Newer Presidential commercial

Romney attack on Obama

Obama Ad Romney v Big Bird

Celebrity support

Clint Eastwood for Romney

Women for Obama

Sony's Bold Move Against Nintendo

Nintendo was the king of video games coming into the 1990's. No other company really competed with Nintendo and Mario. Not even Sega and Sonic put much of a fight against these giants. It wasn't until 1994 when Sony decided to release it's first ever gaming console. The Sony Playstation was released and became the first gaming device to use disks instead of cartridges. Even so Playstation could still not compete with Nintendo and Mario's popularity. Sony felt they needed their own lovable mascot just like it competitors, but they wanted something that would stand out. With cooperation with the developer Naughty Dog Sony found its mascot and it's first gold mine in games. A little orange marsupial by the name of Crash Bandicoot was born and completely changed the scales in the video game industry. Crash Bandicoot played similarly to Mario, but what made this little guy more unique were some it's characters. Crash had a variety of powerful villains instead of just one like Mario. Dr. Cortex, Dr. Brio, Koala Kong, Papu Papu to name a few. On top of that the way Sony went on to advertise both Playstation and Crash was done extremely well. Thanks to their great advertisement Sony Playstation sold more units than the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis combined. Below are couple links to some of the best Crash Bandicoot commercials.


Crash at Nintendo


Crash at the airport

Crash 3 commercial

Gender and Sexism

Companies are known to use a specific image for both male and females they have in their ads. Many companies push their ads to be sexy in order to get people's attention. Sex today has become a very common subject to talk about unlike before when it used to be a bit of a taboo. With sex being more common it only makes sense that companies push sexy and what sexy should look like in their ads.  The companies that are the most guilty in using stereotypical images in their ads are mainly clothing ads and cologne/perfume ads. Companies like Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabbana, and Abercrombie and Fitch give off their image of what a man should look like. Meanwhile women are stereotyped similar as men by showing images of how women should look and what they should be doing. Most women are sexualized in ads or they are shown doing work around the house. Some of the companies responsible for this include, Victoria's Secret, Carl's Jr., Kenwood, and Axe. Below are a couple examples of just some ads that either sexualize or degrade a gender.

WWF Don't Let This Be My Last Selfie

 WWF is the world wildlife fund. This organization strives to help animals both endangered and those who aren't. In their 2014 WWF came up with a slogan that is very relevant to people today. Their campaign slogan for 2014 was Don't Let This Be My Last Selfie. It's relevant to today because in 2014 the word selfie became very popular with millions of people posting selfies of themselves on social media sites. On top of using this slogan they used the hashtag Last Selfie to try and make people a lot more aware of animals that have become endangered and their goal with this whole campaign is to raise money in order to make safe havens for these animals. Below are a few examples of the ads they used during this campaign.

 WWF did very well when it came to advertising their campaign because they used animals that many people know of, but more importantly they stayed relevant with with their slogan. This campaign along with some others they had throughout that year helped raised over 263 million dollars to help animals all around the world. 

Disney Happiness Tainted by it's Dark History

Walt Disney and his company Disney have been shrouded by the dark cloud of racism. Disney movies throughout history have always been accused of having hidden messages or having some kind of negative undertone. Some films don't even hide the fact that some of their characters are racist while others do it more subtlety. A few examples of a very obvious forms of racism in Disney films include the little dark-skinned centaur named Sunflower from the film Fantasia. Fantasia is a compilation of different stories, but the story of Sunflower stands out because she is the only dark-skinned centaur and whats even worse she caters to the needs of all the light-skinned centaurs. Even one of the most beloved movies from Disney Dumbo has some of the most obvious examples of racism. The crows who teach Dumbo how to fly are a good example because they talk in Southern African-American jive and what's worse the leader of group of crows name was Jim Crow. Below is a link of what are considered some of the most racist parts in Disney animated films.

Animated Disney

Not only have disney films been criticized for being racist, but the man behind many of these creations has as well. Meryl Streep has accused the now deceased Walt Disney of being racist, sexist, and anti-semetic. A lot of this has recently come up thanks to the release of Saving Mr. Banks a film about Walt Disney and how the production of Marry Poppins saved his company. What many people disliked about the film was that it portrayed Disney as a very kind-hearted man when in reality according to many people who knew Walt said it was very different, but even till this day many people still aren't sure what to believe about Mr. Disney, and many how started not caring because they try to forget all the negative aspects and stick to the positive feelings that Disney animated films have left us.

Walt Disney

Race in Film and TV

Film and television has always been known to use people of different cultures stereotypes and sometimes it represents them in a very negative way. Only recently have minorities started taking more out typical stereotype roles in both film and television. Most noticeably Hispanic and African American were mostly always represented as their negative stereotypes. For example they would portrayed as uneducated or criminals with mostly minor roles. More recently they have taken more important roles including scientist, soldiers, and presidents. Racism in film hasn't always been a bad thing due to the fact that some of stories portrayed in the films are propelled forward thanks to some racism. Below are a few examples of racism done by film including a film that today is considered a big part of film. Another notable name includes Disney and many of their animated films.

Racist Disney


Birth of a Nation

Birth of a Nation is a film considered to be a pioneer in the film industry, but it has extreme racism represented. Birth of a Nation is a film that represent the KKK as a group fighting for good while hurting blacks that were played whites in black face. This film is considered one of the most racist films in history yet an accomplishment to the advancement of modern film.

Another film that was released in the 90's that has racism and race as a big piece to it yet doesn't give off the same racist feeling as Birth of a Nation is the film called American History X. American History X follows the life of skinhead who grows up in California during the time the state becomes a lot more diversified. Through out the this film many racist scenes are shown, but it in the end this film uses racism to teach a lesson. The lesson being that even a person so devoted to a life of racism can learn that people aren't always what they appear and that going of race alone in the end could lead you to some regrettable decisions.

American History X trailer

Racism

Racism has been a problem around the world since the beginning of civilization. It's no surprise that when advertisement started racsism was integrated into it's core. Racism has been heavily directed at the minorities since the beginning of advertisement. Most of these racist ads create an image of minority using some of the most stereotypical looks to them. An African-american is depicted as obedient, big lipped, and not very smart. The Native Americans are mainly portrayed as uncivilized or as savages, Asians are shown as slanted eyed, buck teeth, and evil especially during WWII, and Hispanics are depicted with mustaches, broken english, and wearing a sombrero. Above are two of the biggest criminals when it comes to racism in advertisement. Today most of us wouldn't even consider Van Heusen or Aunt Jemima to be racist, but both have a dark history. Below are examples of some of the most racist ads including a few examples from Van Heusen and Aunt Jemima.

Even today that we consider ourselves more aware and more understanding of others advertisement still manages a way to screw up and push something too far. Some companies today that have ended creating problems amongst certain groups include Sony, Intel, Burger King and Pop chips. Even those some of these seem a bit harmless it doesn't mean a large group of people were not offended. From these modern ads the one that seems to be the most offensive is Ashton Kutcher and his Pop chip ad which has him in brown face and seems to be mocking the indian people.

Below are the links to both the modern offensive ads and also older offensive ads.

Racist ads

Modern ads

Boy London

Boy London is a british clothing brand that has come under much critique this past year when they revealed a logo on some of their clothes. People who saw the logo of an eagle perched on the O immediately compared it to Adolf Hitler's nazi eagle. In the article it touches on both sides. It has opinions from people opposed to the logo. Many of them being of jewish decent who either had family or new someone who survived the holocaust. The other side is the company itself trying to give it's reasons for using the eagle. They give the reason that the eagle is not the Nazi eagle, but the Roman eagle. Both of which are very similar and only a few things differ from them. It would be more believable that the company got it's inspiration from the Romans if they incorporated the eagle inside the O and not perched on top like the Nazi eagle. (Below are the three eagles  Whatever the real inspiration was for this logo the company made bold move that ultimately failed due to the fact that it brought them more negative publicity than positive.


Boy London not affiliated with Nazi beliefs

Boy London

Nazi Germany

Roman Empire

Semiotics

Semiotics is a tough thing to put into words. It's more or less two views. The literal view and the deeper meaning view. I've decided to pick three pieces of advertisement to use semiotics on. One is a print, the second is a TV commercial, and the third is a billboard. Below are links to the all three.

Tobacco

Blu Cigs is a brand of new E-Cigarettes. In this advertisement they show a rich African-american man with poker chips and a box of Blu Cigs in front of him, and then large fancy skyscrapers in the background. To top it off they post a small message at the bottom that ties the whole ad together. The message this ad gives out is that if you pick these E-Cigs you will suddenly feel like a big shot or how the ad says it will make you feel like a true player.

Prilosec OTC

Prilosec OTC is a product used to help with heart burn and one of their biggest celebrities to come on their commercials is Larry the Cable Guy. According to the commercial Larry himself takes prilosec to help him with his own heartburn. Along with Larry the commercial shows regular people enjoying a BBQ as well as him driving a huge monster truck. The people in the commercial having a BBQ represent the consumers and show that they shouldn't be afraid to eat what they like because thanks to prilosec they will be able to enjoy it. Also I believe the monster truck is used to represent the products strength. Monster trucks are considered to be powerful vehicles that can overcome anything and in a sense that is what prilosec is trying to sell us. Make us believe that their product can indeed take on any kind of heart burn.


California Adventure Frozen Fun

Disneyland advertisement has always had a simple touch to it. They will stick one of their beloved characters on a big billboard. Disney's most recent advertising billboards is California Adventure's new attraction called Frozen Fun. Last year Frozen took the world by storm and continues to grow. Disney has taken advantage of this huge demand for new Frozen material they created a new area in California Adventure dedicated to the characters of Frozen. I'll start by stating the obvious features of billboard. Three of iconic Frozen characters are presented along with the California Adventure logo and a line from one of the songs in the film. It's obvious why Disney designed it this way. The three iconic characters obviously shows what the new attraction is for. The frozen logo in the background and the amusement park logo at the bottom to not over power the characters, and to finish it off their slogan "First time in forever"gives people a feeling to go visit the park.