Mass media and awareness

Mass Media and Brand Awareness

Mass media has been a paramount advocator of creating brand awareness and inducing consumers to opt for different brands. Any company who has a sight for expansion and growth and is looking forward to delving into the market must always have a clearly visible design and objective so as to pass the right message, and for the message to get to the intended audience thereby having a positive response from the recipient of the message.

Advertisement 1

In 2009, the athletic apparel giant, NIKE, collaborated with 72andSunny, a Californian advertising agency and launched an initiative called “integrated recruitment campaign”. The advertisement called on men and women to join a competition where they could purchase customizable athletic apparel and software online. The challenge was aimed at tapping in to the competitive nature of young athletes to purchase their merchandise through creating and maintain an active athletics community.

Analysis

Primarily Nike aimed at revitalizing its initial audience by appealing to gender competition. The advertisement was cognizant of the existing gender constructions, whereby two unique and different entities that are unified and at the same time warring. The advertisement aimed at invoking the friendly competition between males and females. The advertisement called on women and men to prove their prowess as well as the prowess of their respective genders. “The rhetoric in the advertisement suggests a simple binary between “men” and “women,” which is largely effective in attracting a wide pool of consumers. The use of the word “challenge” is set in an attempt to emphasize the competitive instinct that Nike wishes to instil in viewers – a drive that will bring them to the Nike+ webpage to buy the apparel required for competition.” Ads of the World, (2011) The use of the phrase ladies first, men second reference to the age of chivalry where men’s position was equivalent to how they treated women. This kind of helps to propagate uneven gender expectation, since men are portrayed to be cautious only for their own prestige. On the other hand, the phrase “…for men to rule” reference to Masculine dominance. The men vs women Nike challenge accentuates the perceptions of gender and power and how these two entities are viewed and reinforces those beliefs. The advertisement which was meant for young athletes was largely successful. The advertisement was able to spur continued purchase of the Nike Running app which was and is still a major brand in the industry. Further, success can be demonstrated in that the Nike+ community is still active today. Incidentally, in the fiscal year 2010 Nike webs sales grew by a phenomenal 25% this can only be a testament to the efficiency and effectiveness of the men vs women challenge.

Advertisement 2

The unfamiliar advertisement analyzed is the Olay Anti-ageing cream. The theme of the advert is that a few weeks after using the cream the user will look younger and more beautiful. The advertisement displays split half’s of a very beautiful woman’s face, on a red background. On one hand her face is wrinkled without using the cream, while on the hand her face is smooth and spotless after using the cream.

Analysis

The advert is primarily aimed at aging women (between 40 and 60) who are faced with wrinkles. The presence of wrinkles, presumably portraying the fading of beauty, hence the clamor to look young and beautiful. The first half of the picture symbolizes an ugly woman who universally transforms herself into a charming beautiful woman after using the product. “The denotative meaning for the picture is a woman who looked charming after using the cream, while the connotative meaning includes more than that; it refers to beauty, charm, vigor, the powerful effect of the cream, and the dreamy world with no fear of aging or wrinkles.” Gonzalez, (2005) The use of color is also key in the context for this advertisement. The color red is brought to encapsulate strong feelings and emotions. The color symbolizes power, energy, sexuality, and attractiveness. This notion of beauty and attractiveness ideally play into the preconceived notions of society about women. This advertisement, unlike the one by Nike, received muted reactions and responses. While the advertisement increased the product visibility it received numerous criticism from the general public arguing it was offensive and misleading. Olay in its defense however, asserted the ad designed to address a large number of women who were concerned about wrinkles and were interested in the use of an anti-aging cream. Finally, this paper has offered an in-depth description and analysis of two advertisements based on gender roles and perception. There are significant successes noted with this advertising mantra. Advertiser should therefore leverage on this mantra to reap massive benefits. However, there are significant issues of perceptions and stereotypes that do not augur well in this model and should thus be handled with maximum caution.

Works Cited

Ads of the World. March 2009. March 2011. Retrived from:
http://adsoftheworld.com Accessed at: November, 06 2017
Hally, Sut. "Image-Based Culture: Advertising in Popular Culture." Gender Race and Class
in Media. Ed. Gail Dines. [S.l.]: [s.n.], 1995. Print.
Gonzalez, L. M. The Impact of Ad Background Color on Brand Personality and
Brand Preferences. (2005).
Kang, M.-E. The portrayal of women’s images in magazine advertisements: Goffman’s
gender analysis revisited. Sex Roles, 37(11-12), 979–996.(1997).
Nike Running. 2011. 9 April 2011. Retrived from:
http://nikerunning.nike.com/nikeos/p/nikeplus Accessed at: November, 06 2017
Pinker, Steven. “Family Values,” How the Mind Works. New York: Norton, 1997.