Music Video Update

As said before, this semester at Shepherd University, I am expected to plan, shoot, direct, edit, and produce a music video for a mass communications course. I have been making great progress on the planning of the music video and I already have a strong script prepared for the shoot. The music video I will produce is titled “The Heart Break” by a local band in Hagerstown, MD that calls themselves: Matinee at Midnight. “The Heart Break” is a great rock song and can be found on the following link: www.battleofthebands.com/u/matineeatmidnight . Please note that “The Heart Break” is the second song on the playlist. The song contains a series of repeating lyrics including “I can’t take a Heart Break. I can’t make, can’t make the same mistake.” From these and more lyrics, it is obvious that the song is about a refusal of a potential relationship in order to prevent heartache or a ”heart break”. Therefore, my music video should reflect on this aspect.

According to my rough script, most shots are of the band simply playing on a stage with fast shots and interesting views. However, while the band is playing, there is no audience expect for one fan, which is a very attractive women in the front row. Near the first minute of the video she is seen flirting with the lead singer. Later in the song, the lead singer leaves the stage and continues singing. The flirting women continues to make eye contact with each member of the band until each member leaves the stage. (the music continues, but they are singing the chorus instead) Perhaps, the band members could be singing to the girl “I can’t make the same mistake” to then give further meaning to the lyrics, suggesting that “the same mistake” was made by one of the other members in the past. In the last portion of the video, the members re-enter the stage after the attractive women leaves the location and music video.

Altogether, I believe I have a strong script that will help to produce an entertaining music video. Also, the script very much relates to the song mood and lyrics.

Effect of Dove Ad Campaign

On the left is an image of perhaps the most well known ad of the Dove campaign. It is an image of a women seperated down the middle. The right side of the picture is her natural self with out make up or digital work, while the left side of the picture is her with makeup, hair work, and lots of photoshop work. The ad shows how distorted our look of beauty can be. Although the campaign exposes these truths and is considered a "feel good" campaign, I argue that the campaign serves an effective way of selling products. The campaign shows that normal women: young, old, flawed, or not; can use these products and they are made for them. In my opinion, other ad campaigns that show over-the-top models using these products, could turn off women to the products because they believe it is not for them because of their flaws. However, Dove expresses an opening to these women that others do not.

Semiotic Ad Analysis

On the left, you can see an image of a group of sperm cells in a triangle pattern with one distinct cell emphasized. This one cell has a mustache and hair much like that of Adolf Hitler's. The ad's intention is to show how devastating a single sperm can be to one's life and increase the demand for protect from a sperm such as the one in the ad. Thus, the ad increases the demand for condoms. However, why are these characteristics understood and expressed this way? There are several ways the ad expresses in terms of Semiotics: The large swarm of sperm is the signifier. It signifies a large chance of the sperm reaching its destination. Thus, creating fear for the reader. The swarm is also shaped like a triangle, which suggests an offense stance. Of course, the most obvious signifier is the hair on the emphasized sperm in front. The hair signifies that the sperm is evil and bad. This is understood because the hair style is identical to Alolf Hitler's and culture identifies with the hair style and projects Hilter's actions to the sperm cell. This emphasizes the damage a cell can do to one's life, further showing the importance of a condom.

Ad Changes

This past week my Advertising and Imagery class has been working on a magazine advertisement for a cell phone targeted at pre-teens. Also, each ad is gender-specific: One is targeted for boys, one is targeted for girls, and one is for both. The ads are posted above. After reviewing my blogs and considering some of the comments by my classmates, I now have a few changes I would like to make to my ad.

The first change I would like to make is to completely change the female specific ad. (The one with the one girl in a suit) I have found the ad to be irrelevant to the other ads because the girl has no power and is not doing anything. Also, the girl needs to be in more gender specific clothing. Finally, the girl appears to be much younger than the target age group.

The other ads, in my opinion, have a very strong message and they function as they should. However, a few comments gave me some very useful feedback. It may be beneficial to change the background of the text on the bottom of each ad. Also, some of the children in the ads look younger than the specific age group. Overall, after these changes are made, I believe this group of ads could be very effective.

Social Media

Lately, companies are using social media outlets to advertise their products. These companies do this for several reasons:
1.) It’s effective. Almost everyone uses social media such as Facebook and Youtube.
2.) It’s inexpensive. Companies spend next to nothing producing these ads campaigns because most of the information is spread by consumers.
An online Forbes article shows some of the most famous and effective social media advertisement campaigns.
One example of how effective these ads can be is the Old Spice ad campaign. I am sure that everyone is familiar with the latest ads of Isaiah Mustafa on television. But, Mustafa did not stop there. He continued to comment on consumers questions online. According to Forbes.com, over 180 consumers were given a video response. This kind of social advertising is very effective because each of those 180 consumers will most likely share his or her experience with a friend or family member. This kind of interaction will effectively instill Old Spice’s name in the consumers mind as well as the friends and family of the consumer. That is because, in my opinion, word of mouth is the most effective advertisement method. I believe that what you hear from others will affect you more than what you might hear from other forms of advertising.

Ad Campaigns in Films

Advertisments are all around us. We are influenced by them whether we know it or not. Most often they are annoying and we tend to ignore them. However, in my opinion, there is one advertisement genre that tends to stick out: advertisements in movies. When this thought first popped into my mind, I, at first, could not think of an example. However, a youtube video showed me otherwise. I soon found the reason advertisements in films were so effective and popular was because the technique is very subtle. Most times, the audience does not notice the advertisement, because there is often not a break in the storyline. For example, in “E.T.”, Hershey paid to have Reese’s Pieces in the movie. The Reese’s Pieces acted as a part in the storyline rather than an interruption similar to a commercial or a magazine ad, which disrupts and pauses the storyline. In addition, film advertisements arguably enhance the feature. The advertisement, if popular, functions as a tool to relate to the audience and it makes the film more realistic. After all, the world record for the most advertisements in a film goes to the latest Transformers movie, which was a massive hit in the theatres.

Advertising and Imagery Intro

This semester at Shepherd University, I am participating in an “Advertising and Imagery” course. In this course, I plan to learn and understand ads so that I may better interpret ads in media and society and so that I can better create ads for my business.