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Showing posts from December, 2019

TikTok

TikTok, the main reason for my homework never getting done in a timely manner. I love TikTok just like everyone else, but have never considered the amount of ads on the app that are constantly trying to sell me something. These ads are usually marketed to the right demographic too. Most people on TikTok are young ranging from early teens to mid thirties. Most of theses ads are down by celebrities and major influencers on the app. Just today I saw one for Spotify with a music artist named Yung Gravy. This artist blew up on TikTok with his song and now he’s in a Spotify ad promoting himself and the company. Overall, I would have to say that the advertising on TikTok is perfectly targeted to the audience which is mostly teenagers.

Lovemarks

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As I was watching TV, not doing the work I should've been doing, I found myself watching an All-State commercial. In watching it I noticed a few things. One, that the person working for All-State was more like a friend to the person in need, rather than a professional relationship. Two, the narrator was a sort of father-figure in a way not only guiding the commercial, but also guiding the person in need. And three, the commercial ended with their slogan,"You're in good hands". This to me was a clear representation of love marks in advertising. Love marks are about telling the consumer what they want to hear. All-State does this perfectly. Who doesn't want reassurance form an older, fatherly black man that everything is going to be ok. Or from an insurance agent who knows that the leak in your roof is going to cost you an arm and a leg, but hey it's All-State so you'll be fine. This type of advertising builds a relationship between consumers and the company

The Simpsons

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After recently getting DisneyPlus, I started watching The Simpsons since the app has all of the episodes. Though when I did, I noticed lots of product placement for old and new products. It's fascinating to me how even in cartoons companies are able to sell their product. I believe it shows how advertising has had a massive effect on our culture today, and has also become part of our culture in a way. I also saw the way the characters interacted with the product. For most of the products, one character had the product, while the other was willing to do anything to get it. This puts an emphasize on the product, making consumers feel that they have to try it. For instance, there was a Butterfinger ad and it started with Bart teasing his siblings with it. In doing so he describes how great the product is and the ad ends with the classic line:"Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger". This not only left the siblings want the product, but also shows the importance, the n

McDonalds Advertising

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Everyone eats McDonalds. It's cheap, easy, and greasy. Who wouldn't love it? But recently, since learning about companies using certain words or phrases in advertising to be more appealing, I've been looking at every ad differently now. I've been analyzing the wording and searching for evidence to confirm what I've been taught. The other day I went to McDonalds to eat and I look at the ads that are displayed everywhere in the restaurant. Literally everywhere. There is no hiding. Anyways, I started looking at these ads and realized I found the ambigous language that we had been learning about in class. They use words like 'bliss' or 'tender'. Even their kids meals are called 'happy meals'! They use these words so people associate good things with their food. It's a quite simple technique: Use a word with positive connotations, relate it to the food that is being advertised, and suddenly the brain is associating chicken nuggets with happine

Politics and the English Language

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After watching the presidential democratic candidates closing statements in the debate, one thing is clear: all of them said words that mean nothing. Now before you start to question what the previous statement really means, think about George Orwell and his commentary on how people are killing the English language. Orwell goes on about how people use big words, or words with double meaning to persuade people without actually saying something that makes sense. This can clearly be seen in the first candidates closing remarks, stating,"We are on a mission to find the America that's been lost...we are a country that used to do things...we did these things with real solutions...etc" At first listen these statements put together may not sound deceiving, but when you really think about these statements, they make absolutely no sense in context or out of it. How has America been lost? What 'things' did we do? What are these 'real' solutions? When you really look