HMAG: Marketing Interview

For a much better version of this, check out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0ARo3UWm9c

RESULT: 6/10

-1pt. for bad spacial use

-1 pt. for having P-boobs

-1 pt. for having cougar chaser not prepared for his shot

-1 pt. for general visual confusion
(clutter, clutter ain't a friend)

Vivienne Westwood's Spring 2009 Collection: Third Analysis

Just noticed something. That monster of a belly-gut is not attractive at all. Check out the dude's tummy! It's hanging out just a tad -- looks like the clothes are kind of tight. Kind of uncomfortable, kind of...not worth buying?
I really want my stomach to look like that.
Okay, I'm just saying, if your going to put on a photo shoot, hire a professional photographer, and block the street corner up, pay P-Boobs some bills, do a little bit of sucking in here. It's the least thing this cougar-chaser can do. For model or Curt Cobain-impostor looking all ill-prepared for his cameo (-1 pt).

Vivienne Westwood's Spring 2009 Collection: Second Analysis

space and we ain't talking galaxies and shiny stars
what's going on here? Focus should be on the clothes, and focus is brought on to the clothes by use of space. There is such random space, and it's not even being filled in the most attractive ways. I know this is being really nit-picky but the white car has its butt sticking out. It doesn't outline Westwood nicely at all, and near her hip there's this brown log thing, which matches so well with her leggings that it looks like a purse or something. And because you don't see a lot of the 'log thing' it just distorts your eye's attention visually. Aesthetic Confusion. (-1 pt). Plus, the dog's leg jetting out to the left of P-Boobs hip looks like a random strap. Enough though it's dog's tail and leg. It's just all to crazy.
Not really, but still dog-straps-tails never a passable thing. That's it.
I'm calling PETA, I'm on it. Endorsing animal accessories, they should feel all ashamed.

copy cat chilly-willy styles
The dry cactuses get more attention than the actual clothes, why are they upfront and not Westwood who is wearing the ripped up remains of her collection? Maybe she wanted to be in the background to proof herself as a non-attention whore. But really, if your selling, pony-up and get your stuff out there. Standing awkwardly all chilly-willy bagged decked out over your shoulder like your a random kid whose 'running away' by camping on the front steps of her home isn't exactly cutting the deal either.
Composition-wise I agree that's its nice to have random texture and objects everywhere but when the scene is already cluttered with parked cars, palm tree's, parking meters, dogs, telephone poles, shadow's and P-Boobs, there's a lack of focus. No focus can be blamed for bad use of space(-1 pt).

Vivienne Westwood's Spring 2009 Collection: First Analysis

pamela anderson is a piss-off
Why Vivienne Westwood casted Pamela Anderson in her new 2009 Spring Collection campaign is messed up. Dirty dirty notoriety. Speaking of dirt, Pamela Anderson is so mud. She’s like the mud of all mud slides. Not only is she that, but she’s just passé. Her look is just done. The boobs to the boobs, to the boobs? Anderson’s overall playboy image has been slapped on so many different things, that it’s just been pounded to the ground. It’s over.
Why Vivienne Westwood casted her into her new 2009 Spring Collection campaign is f-uped. Having P-Boobs as a subject in this ad (-1 pt.)The message of the ad is so off because of her, I don't know about you but when I see this ad I think Hugh Hefner, Tommy Lee and sexual harassment. You know, the trailer park communnity is a completely different sub-culture altogether -- it's not the culture of punk. Westwood's clothes are'punk'. Really? Because last time I looked at the ad I found that all that was missing from making it a completely picturesque trailer park utopia were a couple of beer bottles and some white beaters. Way to target trailor folk as your consumers, Westwood. Because that makes such sense, when your clothes have a price tag of a thousand if not more bucks. That's like the downpayment for a trailer home.

punkie kicks
Razor blades, bicycle or lavatory chains, safety pins, spiked dog collars and making hair look messier and dirtier even though it’s just been washed look is nothing short but p-u-n-k. Punk started with Punk music. Punk rock music worked through our speakers in the early 1970’s. It was bands like the Ramones, in New York City, and the Sex Pistols and The Clash, in London, who were totally the ones that looked fierce, and made fierce looking hawt. At their first gig, the Sex Pistols were clothed in stuff by Vivienne Westwood –catapulting the punk style to high stat as the trend rolled in notoriety.

boobs
The ad makes me not want to buy those clothes, it makes me think of implants, and old implants at that. Plus, Westwood herself featured hip-to-hip with her much younger beau, looks like she could have easily been one of the Twilight vampires. She’s freaky looking, pale with carrot-top hair. I’m not down. The great Dane is the only thing in this ad that looks normal – scare a little chiwawa to death no doubt, but at least healthy looking.

Vivienne Westwood's Spring 2009 Collection

RESULT: 9/10

-1 pt. for contradictory message.

Glaceau: Third Analysis

all things aside
I think the ad makes great use of space. Having Kobe in the ad immediately gives me the idea that this product is designed for sport activities. With Kobe, you become aware that Glaceau is so targeting 14-25 year old guys. My brother would be warped into this ad. I also like the graphics of the ad. It reminds me of the 1960's with the use of glossy and soft edged photos.
Only thing is, the font or except at the bottom of the ad was a little small. But I wouldn't take points off for that, because if it was any bigger it would take away from the Glaceau's motto (which by the way ned to work on).

The off motto
Glaceau's motto 'Try it...it works for Kobe?' just makes Kobe look like a prick. The drink works for Kobe, it's a good thing, yet Kobe is whopping its behind on the courts. I know games are competitive but themes in advertisements are just as important and if you portray the product in a weak position, the product comes across as lame.

Glaceau: Second Analysis

what the ad tells me
Kobe treats the product like crap in this ad. so why should I even buy vitamin water?
Not only that, the bottle reads 'Power C' what kind of power are we talking here? The bottle looks like its being ripped to pieces on the court. If your going to have Kobe against the bottle, at least, for the company's sake, portray the vitamin water winning. Glaceau here makes their product look weak, and it's suppose to be an energy drink!

make the bottle a cheerer
I don't see Kobe and it being a team, it looks like they are totally against each other. Maybe they have just put the bottle in the stands cheering with its little top flying off in excitement or something because at least then it would look like the vitamin water is supporting Kobe in some way. It would give us the idea that the vitamin bottle is there for its drinkers, it remains strong and its energy keeps its drinker going.
I don’t want my source of energy being against me. What the hell is up with that? So in this case, I find the message of the ad contradictory and not strong at all (-1 pt).

Glaceau: First Analysis

Read closely and you find a "team"
I think it's fairly clear what is being advertised here. Celebrities are often used to endorse a brand so I immediately recognize the bottle as the product. Product and endorser work together to make sales, common equation.

At the bottom of the ad it reads:

3 championships and counting
1,845 bottles of vitamin water and chugging
1 mvp award and long overdue

Okay, so Kobe plays and chugs while the bottle just holds its stuff. The bottle helps keep Kobe energized and Kobe is well, 'grateful' for the vitamin water's energy or something like that. But then...look at the ad again.

Only thing is...endorser and product so do not look like a team in this ad.
As funny as it is, the excerpt at the bottom of this ad convinces me that the vitamin bottle and Kobe are a 'team.' Working together, so that Kobe can do is thing - shoot some hoops and feel energized doing it, right? But then why is he pushing the bottle away on the courts here? Shouldn't he be like, throwing him the b-ball or something? After being chugged so much, 1, 845 bottles worth and mind you that's a lot of sips, you would think the least thing that Kobe could do is give this bottle here some court space so that it could bust a move or something. No, instead, he is pushing the vitamin water and its water is toppling over. Its little cap is flying off and Kobe is hogging the ball.

Glaceau's Vitamin Water Campaign

RESULT: 6/10

-1 pt. for bad spacial use

-1 pt. for being not cool with the dead person thing. Not cool.

-1 pt. for too much message complexity

-1 pt. for size issue. because for once that's a problem.

Diesel: Third Analysis

Poor lighting

If I had a little boy, and wanted to buy him Diesel, this ad would not even get to me because of the light issue. I can't even see the clothes! It’s a matter of showing the consumer the actual product that the company is selling before highlighting green bottled people in yukky water (-1 pt).

Target audience
Which brings me to target audience. There’s a dude in his early 20’s or so, and then a little boy. Diesel, your stretching your age group here. Make up your mind at who you want to aim at. I think you need to crack down specifically on one age group, or put the boy in a separate ad all the same or are you too cheap to do that? Yeah, it does mean hiring maybe another marketing group to go back to the drawing board. Paying them overtime, because it's going to take massive creative power to get mom's to even want to buy their kids $200 jeans. With this recession? Target it up baby! And when you do it, don’t put the kid beside a dead person? Talk about ethics (-1pt). I mean, are your clothes that crappy that you need to put dead people in your ads to get attention? Yeah, you think about that.

Your balls are appropriate
On a positive note, the soccer ball is actually a good object to put there it shows that your clothing is 'sportif'. That’s nice, and kids like soccer balls so at least your balls are appropriate here.

Diesel: Second Analysis

Steven Spielberg on drugs
I mean, who is thinking jeans, belt, shirt, and shoes when there’s a person flopping over like this? Then I get all tied up on the soccer ball. How random is this, what kid is playing with a soccer ball around jugged people? No, this is not human after all. No, this is something Steven Spielberg would do if someone locked him in a cube and made him write a new version of Star Trek meets Alien while giving him crack as a snack during his break time. I’m discouraged.

Smurfs are small
Plus, the spacial use of this ad is poor. The boy is so far back, he’s gone smurf size on us which means I can't see the clothes he's wearing. I offically cannot see the Diesel product. Messed up spacial use (-1 pt). Diesel, you could have placed the alien peeps more in the background or something thus projecting the boy more into the scene to see. Or wait, are the alien guys wearing something I would be interested in buying? Oh no, that's right they're naked. Just lovely.

Diesel: First Analysis

You're freaking me out
I don’t know about you but this ad just freaks me out. There’s this floppy corpse leaning over this sharp edged glass. It’s Matrix meets horror movie.

Soccer balls catch me
My eyes go straight to this bottled-person, and then the little soccer ball.
‘Broken…not good…soccer ball…okay, okay so that’s what happened…the boy, yeah he must have kicked the ball into the jug of human and now this human is falling overboard.’ Diesel, your message is too overwhelming. Are you telling us to not play with soccer balls in labs? Not kick the ball into people in vials? Use better glass when storing people in tubes? It’s too bad (-1 pt).

H2O when did ya get so nasty?
Also, what’s up with the water here? Why is it so murky? You know, when I was young I’d get so lazy to clean my fish Hotdogs’ aquarium --- imagine this, but human-styles. I’m even more grossed out now.

Parental-crap is actually impt.
I’m not a mother or anything, but who stands like that would you scold a child for breaking something and causing a person to fall out of their jug? It’s like, ‘I’m just going to strategically place my hand like so, and turn on this slant, and address the severity of this slippery matrix-ish person situation’. This is more than a broken vase, this is a lame ad. The font they used for ‘Human After All’ on the lower left actually read to me as ‘Humor after all’. This sucks (-1 pt).

Human After All Diesel Advertising Campaign

RESULT: 7/10

-1 for ugly product:
Shoes. Let's (not) get some shoes. Shoes. Let's (not) get (these) shoes.

-1 for poor font representation:
You're proud of gay married lesbian mothers, we got you. But then don't downsize the font on that. Don't make it a '12' when it can be '72'. Bigger is better.

-1 for not being clear in its message:
Kenneth Cole if you want to be about modernity, liberalism and the bit? Maybe try being more contemporary and don't go all conservative-spinster-grandma on us with those dresses.

Kenneth Cole: Third Analysis

looking at the ad again
Oh right, the Cole ad is suppose to be all ‘modern’, ‘non-uniform thinking’ for us and yet these women are wearing nun-below the knee length dresses. Plus, did I mention that they’re black? Yes, black-nun-conservative-like dresses. You know, this is the exact type of thing I would have had to wear at the Catholic private girls school that I went to. Even worse, this black long dress thing would have actually been the exact type of uniform mandatory for the students to wear at my school back in the 1800’s. True fact. So way to go for ‘non-uniform thinking’ Kenneth Cole (-1 pt). I'm not saying these models should have worn mini-dresses because that wouldn't be very work appropriate, but knee length? Not everyone enjoys going to lame spinster cocktail parties.

Kenneth Cole: Second Analysis

so random but justified
This painting seems so random for the purpose of this blog, but upon closer inspection we discover that it does the same contrast-thing as the Kenneth Cole advertisement. So, it’s not so random and read on.

history of painting
Firstly, this painting was created during the German Romantic period by Friedrich Overbeck entitled ‘Italia and Germania’ . Guess what? Elements of technology, social institutions and economic factors are critical to the understanding of art and this is so much like the framework of an advertisement too.

why this painting reminds me of the advertisement
‘Italia and Germania’ reminds me of the Kenneth Cole ad because it too uses female subjects. By placing the women together the way he does, Overbeck is romanticizing their friendship. So, it hits a romantic level in some way which is more than what Kenneth Cole has done with his models in the ‘We All Walk In Different Shoes’ advertisement.

By connecting the landscapes (found behind Italia and Germania) we see a symbolic connection of Germany's heritage to Italy. I’m not an art historian so just check out here for more of this stuff. Anyway, in the painting, look at how much the women's respective backgrounds are not removed, but actually softly and neatly incorporated -- Behind Italia an Etruscan villa sprawls across the landscape and the Mediterranean sits below the horizon. Behind Germania is this gothic city with buildings towering over each other. It’s this exact use of contrast that reminds me of the Kenneth Cole print. In the Cole advertisement what you have featured are four feminine legs juxtaposed with the innocent face of a wide- eyed baby girl.

So, unlike the pronouncement of something like countries and their affiliations (a.k.a Germany and Italy) found in the Overbeck’s painting, what Kenneth Cole has done in their advertisement is establish a link between the generation ‘X’ (1965-1979) and generation ‘Y’ (1980-2000): Middle aged moms, and their children. That’s the first symbolic contrast I saw, and then I just got distracted.

looking at the ad
I got distracted by the hideous Van-or-Car-seat-color Grey shoes. The style of them is okay, just okay. But the color? The color reminds me of my grandmother’s reading glasses from the 1980’s. The vertical strap going up would have been hot had it not been for the overall color scheme ugliness of the shoes. Because the shoes are ugly, the strap now looks like a toe thong. You know what? For advertising an ugly product (-1 pt).

We All Walk in Different Shoes Kenneth Cole Advertising Campaign: First Analysis

looking at the ad
I'm soaking up the image, and it’s catchy. It’s a lesbian-themed one, something you don’t come by on a regular basis accompanied with their campaign title ‘We All Walk in Different Shoes’. Okay, so I now know what ‘different’ means to Kenneth Cole. Different equals not good not bad, just not mainstream so maybe that’s how Kenneth Cole views homosexuality? Whatever the case, I didn't get their target audience quickly enough. I needed to read the blurb, ‘GAY MARRIED COUPLE’ first. Which brings me to my next point, this font should have been bigger (-1 pt).Kenneth Cole if you want to aim in at Lesbian, married couples, make it more known because just showing female legs with a small blurb isn't doing it. Or what you could do is leave the anonymous and random legs there and just print ‘GAY MARRIED COUPLE etc' in a bigger font. If not, my newly pregnant cousin is just going to think this is some Pampers ad because of the central focus that's placed on that blue-eyed baby. Which is another point, my eyes go directly to the baby and not say, your ugly shoes or your too-long boring black dresses.

focusing in more
This ad is not super direct -- I need to think. Okay, it’s a product for women, middle-age women, but damn, there’s a baby. Okay, rethink. Kenneth Cole is targeting here middle-aged-lesbian-mothers. Ok, I'm not one of those but I admire that they are focusing on this population. The demographics of middle-aged-lesbian-mothers must be small or so I would think? If that’s the case, Cole took a bit of a financial risk (their product is targeting an audience that is small and not so big which means less profit). Or by extent, Cole here is also focusing on middle aged women, mothers and lesbians in general. So, this definitely opens up their audience market by touching base on all these identities.

kenneth cole and social responsibility
Either way, they take on an incredible social responsibility. There is a ‘social production’ that went into the making of this advertisement, and its clear: this global campaign lays the foundation for a social acceptance of lesbian families. The ad reads with a small but bold description: GAY MARRIED COUPLE, JOANNA AND NICOLETTE TESSLER WITH THEIR DAUGHTER RUTHIE. Folks, we are talking more than black sleek dresses and leather strapped heels here. Why? Because this print advertisement is very much striking an ethical and social implication. Kenneth Cole here demonstrates what is now referred to as ‘caring capitalism’. It’s an example of how marketers today are taking on a social responsibility, they do so by voicing a lifestyle that is often not portrayed in mainstream media.