L I F E & A R T

With print ads, and every other type of advertisement, it is important to consider the AIDA Theory. This refers to the reaction an ad must have to the consumers. This stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Act. Imagine a pyramid, 'attention' lies at the very bottom of the pyramid, indicating that the ad should capture the attention of many. The other elements follows upward (while the audience also lowers), and ultimately arriving to the top of the pyramid with 'act', meaning, the ad should serve it's purpose: to sell. One of the many engaging print ads out there are these Executive Optical (EO) ads. EO is a shop that sells prescription glasses. Many of its ads show humorous scenes of mishaps (such as the picture included in this post). Advertisements could use different varieties and combinations of different appeals, mainly, fear appeal, humor/humorous appeal, and sex appeal. Fear appeal tells the consumer to buy the product to avoid embarrassing and/or negative experiences, humor appeal tells the consumer that using the product will be a fun and exciting experience, while sex appeal is used to increase the attractiveness of the user. EO's ads (which are dozens) uses a combination of all three, but this particular ad to be analyzed mainly uses fear appeal.

Executive Optical ads are notorious for using humor, and its very effective. In terms of visual (Colors etc.) the ad has very few colors. The ads colors are not very distinctive and is very repetitive. The ad utilizes its company colors. The heading text is also not distinct. The ad has actually plenty of space and you can see that the header is too small. However, like many of their ads, EO's use of picture is very attractive. I don't about you but a guy trying to take a selfie with a remote is a definite head-turner. It also has exaggeration in it. The emotions are very humorous and engaging. I could definitely relate to the girl's "What are you doing?" reaction. Why is this guy trying to take a selfie with a remote? Now that my attention is grabbed, I am now listening (or looking) to what you are trying to sell. Phase 1: Attract Consumer's Attention -- Mission accomplished.

 Arouses Interest

Now that I am up close, it's time for the ad to interest me more. This is particularly done by using words. Choosing good words is important because, let's face the truth, no one likes to read. EO's ad does not use many words that explain further about the produt. It's very visual oriented. The ad is targeted to a wider demographic. It's placed on a mall entrance. It's target audiences are young adults and adults. It has a very simple heading 'Selfie or Epic Fail?' as if warning the consumer of the impending tragedy their failing eyesight is going to cause them. It also has a subheading 'Have your eyes checked' that tells the consumer what do to fix the tragic selfie-using-a-remote experience. Also this leads us to . . .

Creates Desire

To create desire, an ad must use different propaganda techniques to persuade the consumer. It has to say 'You want this' or more importantly 'You need this.' By using propaganda techniques the ad targets the emotion of the consumer. Hence, Desire, the third quality of a good ad cannot be SEEN, it has to be FELT. It has to invoke something, a feeling. There are many propaganda techniques such as Bandwagon, Snob Appeal, Testimonial, Plain Folks, and a lot more. This particular EO ad uses a technique called Logical Appeal. In logical appeal, the ad uses -- well -- logic. Common sense. Sentido kumon that is. It's telling you you need this because you don't want to take a selfie with a remote. Logical appeal tries to convince you to do the right decision, which in this ad is to have your eyes checked. 'Have your eyes checked.' Do the right thing. Simple. Logical. 

Causes Action

What is the real essence or importance of this ad? Not for you to just read it, but for it to sell the product. Call to action  is the most important part. Your attention has been attracted, your interest aroused, your emotions are invoked and now you desire the product so dearly. The ad exhibits the action part at the footer part of the ad. It tells you where you need to go to have your eyes checked.

I would say that this ad (and EO's other ads) are a 10/10. Okay, maybe a 9.98/10 to leave room for improvement. It sure does accomplishes the purpose of the ad. It follows the AIDA theory. It uses elements that are only important. This ad could easily have gone to disaster by overdoing it. At the end of the day what is important is for it to sell the product. Marketing is made more exciting by the different techniques, appeals, and whatnot. Today, beside from selling the product it also has to trigger an emotion. It has to have a story. In this poster, EO managed to tell a story (a tragedy if we're being specific.) That selfie is definitely disastrous, but fortunately the ad is not.

On my past blog posts, I've talked about what really makes a good TV advertisement: it's story. I've also talked about how, in these short commercials, the advertisement should really capture the audience's attention. In our subconscious, we all hate these commercial breaks. In our subconscious, we are all saying "I don't really need this ish." Sometimes these advertisements functions as just another source of entertainment. To brighten up a lonely day. To make us laugh. To keep us entertained. And in the case of this blog post, to make us dance and sing-along.

In today's blog post, we are going to talk about the second source of television entertainment here in the Philippines. None other than commercial jingles. I would even argue that it's the number one source of entertainment, since commercial breaks here are longer than the actual TV show. Going back to our topic, we are going to talk about commercial jingles specifically of the arguably, number one commercial jingle king of all brands, Rejoice shampoo. For our first ad, we have Sandara Park's classic 'Walang Sabit' commercial. Sandara Park was probably the most popular Korean here in the Philippines during her time. Appearing in a local star search, Sandara's career here in the Philippines thrived. She was nicknamed 'krung-krung' (meaning 'crazy') and was loved by millions of Filipino for her quirky attitude. Today, Park is part of the internationally known K-Pop girl-group, 2NE1. Park and four other member have spawned many hits, many of which became popular here in the Philippines as well.

But before Sandara Park was making critically acclaimed albums and singing bass-pounding Korean pop tunes, she was a teen pop star here in the Philippines, singing the cheesiest teen pop tunes. I can clearly remember this advertisement straight from my childhood, the corny song, the bad graphics, the basic, 90s-pop song studio setting. The song, 'Walang Sabit', compares the shampoo to Sandara's ex-boyfriends. Unlike her exs, Rejoice does not give her any problems. Examining the song's message, well, we could just say that it tells us a very basic story about relationships gone wrong. And truthfully, it does! But if we look into it more deeper, we could say the song gives a message of self-love. The song is saying, you don't need any man in your life, what you need is yourself, and a beautiful, rich, walang sabit, hair. That's where Rejoice comes in! It is indeed, very cheesy and corny, but it did have that cultural impact and everytime Rejoice was mentioned, expect people to sing 'Walang Sabit' complete with that hair-hagod dance.

Now it's 2015, Sandara Park may have outgrown her teen pop roots, but Rejoice is still out here creating these jingles. Of course, who could have missed this ad? 'Walang Sabit' is our 'Haba Ng Hair' is in. This time Rejoice offers that salon-like treatment. It plays with the catchphrase 'Haba ng hair!' Literally meaning 'long hair'; figuratively meaning 'you got a lot of suitors.' And yes, for some unknown reason, long hair is attributed to the number of suitors you have/had, if that's so, here's to hoping you are not bald. Get it? Long hair equals a lot of suitors, bald equals no suitor at all. What the song says is that, if you use Rejoice, chances are, you'll be hired for a job, you'll have a lot of fans chasing after you, and your hair looks so good you will mesmerize a rapper (who was very unnecessary). So you better get that salon-like treatment from Rejoice. 

This blog post does not aim to compare the two advertisements. What I wanted to say was how commercial jingles have helped as a strategy for selling their product. It's not just a mere source of entertainment but also, an effective way to sell their product to the consumers. Who haven't sang these songs? Who haven't sang 'Haba Ng Hair' to tease their friend with dozens of suitors? Who haven't sang 'Walang Sabit' to . . . well, just tease their friend. These songs are known in every corner of the Philippines. It had a huge cultural impact. Not all good stories are interesting. Some are better translated into song.

In this short but sweet (and funny) advertisement of Boysen Roofgard, we see the story of a vampire disturbed in his sleep (during the day, of course) by the hole in the roof of his mansion. I used to love this ad so much when I was young. Every time this would come up on the TV screen, I always get amused because of the witty story and just the smart, and funny, endorsement of the product. I can't blame my young self for thinking this was funny. I mean, it still is very funny. Even though it came on air for about a thousand times each day, I still think it's funny. It is very important for an advertisement to make some kind of lasting impression. Why, you may ask? Simply because it has to serve the purpose of an advertisement: to promote and sell the product.

The thing that makes this advertisement so effective is that it has a good and compelling story. It breaks away from the cliched flooding-the-house-with-water-because-of-the-hole-in-the-roof roof sealant advertisements. Most of the advertisements of roof sealants plays on that same, old, story. Same concept but different storytelling. What is so smart in this ad is how the writers (or whoever conceptualizes these things) thought of a different situation. Instead of just a normal family in a suburbia or a poor family living in the slum, with holey roofs, they thought of something very different than usual. Whenever we see vampires, most of the time, they are being very villainous and gruesome. Their teeth stuck in a person's neck sucking their blood out, leaving them lifeless. Sometimes they are a bunch of beautiful, glistening people living in a hill. This time we see a vampire dealing with, well, #VampireProblems. And what could be the most terrifying thing a vampire might encounter except for garlic, silver bullets, and wooden stakes on their chests? It's none other than sunlight.

This ad shows how very mundane things can also be a problem of the supernatural. And that is how they sell their product. By amusing the audience with their story. Like a vampire, Boysen have bitten on their attention and ready to get them to buy their product, when times of roof dilemma comes. They might not have succeeded that much on the visual effects, but they sure did score with the story. It is important to note here that a good story always wins over visual effects. You can invest a lot in a good story and it's impact will surely come back to you ten times greater, Advertisers can save a lot of money if they just stick with a good story. Visual effects is usually not the part of advertisement, or even a film, that sticks. When you and your friends gather around you will only for sure talk about how the story was great - or bad. At the end of the day, what's important is to have an ad that has an impact, will last long in the minds of consumers, and will give you a rise in sales.

What makes a print ad effective is that it should be eye-catching. The advertiser only have very little time to capture the audiences attention. During the 1950s, when they had limited resources, this was a particularly hard thing to do. Comparing it to today's print ads, we have the liberty of splashing ads with dozens of bright colors to catch the audiences attention. Our society allows advertisement to be more liberal rather than conservative. Today, if you show some skin on the ad, people will surely pay attention. "Sex sells", as they say, but that's another blog post. Advertisements during the 1950s are very simple and straight to the point. There's not much of a fanfare. They have the product, and they have to sell it. That's it. 

As I said, due to the limited resources they had back then, they had to think of other ways to catch the audiences' attention. In this Coca-Cola ad, they use the mestiza beauty of movie star Gloria Romero. Her beauty was used to get the audiences' attention. There are a lot to be seen in this ad, underneath it's simple layout and design. We can see that time's beauty standard. Women all over the nation wanted to look as good as Gloria Romero. That's why it's a very effective ad. Another thing is the role of women to the society. Women back then were powerless. They are often pictured as housewives, there to serve their husband and family. This is what Gloria portrays in the ad. A mestiza housewife serving her family the best drink.

The ads back then were very simple and reflects how their society works. Just in that one ad, we were able to peek to the life during the 1950s. We were able to see their beauty standard and analyze gender roles. This just proves that advertisements are not here just to sell products. Advertisements also impacts our culture and can be used as artifacts for us to be able to see what life was before. This ad would not just let us study the history of marketing (marketing communications to be exact), but also our life. We can see the effect of colonization and American occupation and it's impact on our culture. In this simple Coca-Cola ad we were able to see our history. Using this advertisement we are able to find a piece of our identity.