When people think of commercials or ads, what do people think of? What do they see? A commercial that they saw from the Super Bowl? A thirty-second video right before the actual video about a horror movie? Or even an interactive poster that talks to people when they walk by? But what could possibly make an advertisement stand out and could possibly change the game?
The Food Industry
The food industry has countless ads of their products ranging from burgers to fried chicken, even salad. Throughout history, they have been trying to figure out how they can get people to buy their products. Some have failed to get people to buy their products, but some have succeeded by using the simplest of things. For instance, Around the 1970's era, at a time where home-cooked meals were mainly used, people were getting tired of cooking. Burger King decided to use the "Have it your way" jingle for a very long time. The thought of being able to customize food in a timely fashion was unreal for people. This jingle was a way to beat McDonald's "You deserve a break today" which incorporated jingles that caught people's attention. People were singing these songs that these fast food restaurants were making and it got people to buy their product which made the fast-food industry to be more prominent. Fast forward to the 1980s, Wendy's wanted to promote their "fresh beef burgers" in a way that other burger industries would never do. At the time, it was all jingles, but Wendy's decided to take a different approach. They used three old women criticizing a burger saying "Where's the beef?" At the time, McDonald's and Burger King were the top two players in the fast-food industry and Wendy's wanted to distinguish themselves as something different. A burger that is "modestly called a single" and "has more beef than the Whopper or Big Mac." What made this commercial groundbreaking was that they did not have to use a jingle to get their point across. Originally, Wendy's wanted to use younger people but instead used an elderly woman for humor purposes. There was no dancing, no singing, just three old ladies complaining. It got people to talk about it years later and it is still one of the most highly acclaimed ads ever aired. In fact, that year, Wendy's sales jumped up by 31%.
Computers
While there have been plenty of interesting commercials revolving around computers, one of the most compelling advertisements of all time was made from Apple. What Apple did was they created a commercial of a dystopian world portraying the book 1984 by George Orwell. It had people mind-controlled by what appears to be a Big Brother, and suddenly, a woman with a sledgehammer is running away from security. She then slings it to the gigantic big brother and destroys it. From there, a line of text is introduced by saying "Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like "1984"." The commercial was aired in Super Bowl XVIII. The thing to note is that the commercial was completely unrelated to the product. However, it was an empowering ad. They could have had a man throw the sledgehammer, but instead, they used a woman. Additionally, in the book 1984, literally, everything was controlled by the government: The press, technology, mannerisms, and more. What Apple was trying to do was they wanted to give the people the idea that with Macintosh, it would give people a sense of freedom rather than being controlled by a piece of technology. The Mac eventually became one of the most popular pieces of technology even to this day. Even then, the ad itself is still used today. In fact, the popular battle royale game, Fortnite, used the same template as the Apple 1984 commercial as a way to promote a new season for the game.
Insurance
What could possibly be groundbreaking when it comes to insurance? It surprisingly exists for people who are new in advertising or possibly someone in advertising but have not thought about that. People recognize the State Farm jingle, "Like a good neighbor State Farm is there," or the Allstate phrase, "Are you in good hands?" As simple as they may be, they are what make people remember the product or service that they are trying to sell. However, one insurance company brought the idea of being upfront and incorporating humor in an insurance commercial. That company is Allstate and they brought to the table the "Mayhem" guy. Looking at the "Mayhem" commercials, they are very odd to say the least, but what they brought to the table was something completely different from what other insurance companies have done, even in the past. People would expect insurance commercials or ads to be peaceful and spew information on what they can do for people. Not compared to the "Mayhem" commercials, some of these commercials in the series are very chaotic and get people to think sometimes. The "Mayhem" guy, Dean Winters, usually starts off with some scenarios, and then these bizarre events start to happen in these commercials which then end with "Be better protected from mayhem like me." It shows events to get people to think about why they should have insurance and why they should get Allstate. It became so popular that there would actually be a whole series of the "Mayhem" guy that people can look at. Adding the chaos component as well as humor became the key component for Allstate's success in ads. Other insurance companies have done it in the past as well, such as State Farm with the "Like a good neighbor State Farm is there." For a while, State Farm aired commercials with people singing their phrase as well as an agent showing up in their "times of disaster." These commercials showed how State Farm really cares about their customers and would want to make sure that they are fine. Farmers Insurance tried to incorporate the same formula as the "Mayhem" commercials did, but ultimately, the "Mayhem" commercials were more successful because other insurance companies tried to replicate the same formula that Allstate created.
The Beauty Industry
Beauty can range from makeup to lotion to even body care products. But the most interesting and most talked about beauty ad was made from Dove. One of the most famous commercials and ad campaigns that Dove created was the "Real Beauty" campaign. The video is called "You're more beautiful than you think," and it had a professional sketch artist to draw how people saw themselves. He then asked other people what they thought about that particular person and asked them to describe thoroughly how they looked. The results were interesting. For the first drawing, it was the image of how they saw themselves. They often described themselves in negative ways which resulted in a negative photo. However, the second drawing was how others saw that particular person which ended up the most beautiful drawing. The concept of this campaign was Dove wanted people to realize how beautiful they were than how they actually think. We currently live in a time where negativity is extremely common and a time where people often doubt themselves. Dove wanted to bring joy and happiness in the world and it did just that. The video gained millions of views around the world. It gave a powerful message that sometimes we as people need to realize that sometimes we undervalue ourselves and need to start being more positive on ourselves. What is more interesting about this is that Dove did not even sell their product. In fact, they did not talk about it even once. Most commercials talk about their product when there is a story, this one did not mention it and presented emotion more than soap or shampoo. However, since people talked about how emotional and empowering this campaign was created by Dove, people now have a positive image of what Dove represents. So when people think of Dove, they can associate it with positivity which would probably get people to buy their product more.
Gaming
This is my personal favorite when it comes to advertising. Not because it involves gaming, but the marketing behind it is incredible. Sony's PlayStation 2 is considered by many to be one of the greatest gaming consoles of all time. It set the standards of how games should be in terms of gameplay, graphics, and technology. The ultimate goal for Sony, even to this day, was to win the console wars. It was competing against the Nintendo GameCube, Microsoft's Xbox, and Sega's Dreamcast. Although all of those consoles became iconic themselves, especially with their exclusive games, the PlayStation 2 dominated the market by both its marketing strategy and exclusive games such as the iconic Grand Theft Auto, God of War, or Devil May Cry series. During this time period, DVD was gaining prominence, but it also was very expensive to buy. Sony capitalized on this opportunity and decided to give people a chance on having a DVD player as well as a game console. The PlayStation 2 was sold for $299 versus a DVD player, at the time, was selling for nearly $600 or more. Most consumers saw the price and decided to go for the cheaper option, but also had more features that a DVD player would not have, gaming and utilizing it as a CD player. They even sold it with the DVD logo and implying to sell it as a game console that happens to be a DVD player and a CD player. Sony is known for having diversification and they wanted to diversify as much as they could when it came to technology. Their target market was towards people in the teen ages or late twenties, but not only that, in the gaming community, females were starting to get into gaming more which the community starting growing. Not only did Sony change the game in terms of marketing, but it also changed the game for the gaming community, standards of selling, and even campaigning a product.
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