Trolling my social media feeds in search of ads:
First, can I just say: Facebook, stop with the engagement ring advertisements already!!! Just because I’ve been in a seemingly hetero-normative relationship for several years does NOT mean I am your target audience or that I believe in the antiquitous institution of marriage or that I am actually a hetero-normative person at all, so just please stop! I am not buying. I am NOT your target audience. How many freakin' jewelers need to be all over my Facebook page? Can’t you at least try and sell me something interesting or something that I can afford?!
Ok, I keep scrolling FB...
Next, I notice something that strikes me a little odd; Naomi Campbell in cutoffs and a white tee, surrounded by a group of denim-clad, young, hip-looking millennials.
This pops up on my Facebook feed, and as I pause over the ad, the tiny people on my screen start moving into a short video, 16 seconds long. I turn on the sound, see Naomi strut onto the screen and hear Naomi’s voice say, “Generation Gap, take one.” Another, gravelly kinda smokey-sexy accented woman’s voice says, “It was very cool, very easy, but had this like, edge. It was all about personality.” The ad has turned black and white, and there’s this upbeat cowbell-like drumming, and images of these diverse millennials moving with the beat, cutting from person to person. The video ends on a screen proclaiming: Generation Gap. #TheArchiveReissue. It’s a 90s throwback, and everyone is in 90s style plain clothes, jeans, denim, and shirts. The whole campaign was released on 2/2, a Thursday, Gap’s ultimate “TBT” or “throw-back Thursday.”
I click on the link to their Facebook homepage, and decide it doesn’t look like much. All their ads, or posts, on Facebook look like out-of-place Instagram shots; that’s pretty much what they are. They have over 8 million likes on their page and various posts. It’s clear that they are marketing to a variety of groups on their FB page and not just targeting one demographic. There’s photos of kids, tweens, and young adults. It’s like the <35 age-group page. They’ve just released this 90s throwback campaign, calling it a “limited release,” so I hop over to their Twitter page to check that out too.
On Twitter, their Instagram photo ads look less out of place; it fits with the style of the short Twitter post. On Facebook, they did have some nice gifs and photos of kids that looked more professional, magazine-ad style. Their targeted demographic audience seemed more widespread on FB, but their cover photos are the same; the people bedecked in 90s denim, Naomi Campbell front-and-center. On Twitter, it’s pretty clear they are aiming straight for millennials and that crossover generation that doesn’t quite count as millennials, ages 30-38. This latest campaign is targeting anyone who remembers the 90s fondly and feels a connection to the denim-street-style they’re touting. Gap posts every 1 to 3 days, and these posts are usually featuring a photo of a single person in an attractive environment, posed in a way that they use a play on words for the ad tagline.
For example, there’s a photo of the back of an in-shape white girl as she wears a sports bra and workout spandex, arms in the air, stretched outwards to embrace the mountaintops and lake in front of her. The tagline: Giving “peak performance” new meaning. They consistently use two hashtags, #DoYouMove, for their Gap fit line of exercise clothes, and #GapLove for everything else. Some of the ads look like selfies; they all feature attractive people with a variety of ethnicity, who, though attractive, are posed and placed in normal-seeming places, very relate-table, maybe your neighbor or classmate or you… Though relate-able, using that plain-folks pitch to sell basic clothes, the ads lack creativity and exude cliches.
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| #CanYouGetMoreCliche |
These selfie-type ads are often credited to the photographers that took them with a link to the photographer’s Twitter account. This lends it a little personality; the consumer can go see who is producing these photographs directly, and because photography is an art form, these ads are trying to dip into that aspect. (Not very successfully, may I add.) Even though Gap is paying photographers and tweeting regularly, they only have 678,000 followers; not that many for a company who's been around since 1969. Their second biggest global fashion market competitor, H&M, has well over 8 million followers on Twitter. H&M is literally slaughtering the Gap when it comes to advertising on social media. The Gap’s ads are often pretty cliche; yoga at sunset, a white girl embracing the mountains… none very compelling. Their most recent campaign throwback to the 90s just feels like a desperate attempt to reminisce and get some customers back who may have been Gap brand buyers in the 90s when gap WAS cooler street style, but who now maybe have moved on to cheaper brands (Gap is spendy for the common working folk, yet that’s who they are advertising to in this campaign!) with more variety. Naomi Campbell is classic, and perfect for the clothes they are trying to sell since she starred in their 90s ads, but… somebody needs to go help their marketing department, because something is off. Don’t go backwards- get creative! Naomi definitely grabbed my attention, as did their 90s styles; I hadn’t seen it in a while, and frankly, the nostalgia edge worked. While this throwback thing might be a desperate attempt, it probably will get them quite a bit of sales from those of us who realllllly miss the days of sweaty-stiff denim, clouds of smoke, cigarettes in their pockets, wondering if their voice sounds like Kurt’s yet… But the rest of their ads are invisible crap that will be swallowed in the rest of the sea of “buy me.”
Oh, yeah, one more thing. Naomi Campbell’s butt is their last tweet.
Topic 2
Here is my favorite ad I stumbled upon while perusing the internet a few months ago.
The four-minute long video is an ad for a perfume, KENZO World.
After watching this ad, I WANTED TO KNOW WHAT THAT PERFUME SMELLS LIKE. This is a very strange, very creative, effective ad.
See for yourself:
I honestly saw this ad and thought, “What? Did they take this out of my brain? Best ad ever.” Directed by Spike Jonze, and starring actress Margaret Qualley, the ad tells a mini-story and aims to make an emotional connection with its target audience, and then blow it all up into a laser-flinging, superhero-like climax.
The target audience is young, intelligent women. The actress is beautiful but not overstated. She looks very white-American, upper-class, but down-to-earth. Draped in a unique green dress, she stands out, yet looks like the girl next door. The actress shows emotion creeping through her as she escapes a fancy awards ceremony or dinner to have a moment to herself and sheds a tear. Then the chaos starts as she unleashes and the song “Mutant Brain” crescendos, leading Qualley through a guttural dance that ranges emotion from elation to a lioness’ prowess and anger to a moment or two of ballet before a swan-dive off a stage.
The ad is beautifully shot, using mirrors and setting effectively, becoming more and more surreal as it progresses. Qualley unleashes the emotion raging beneath the surface of the modern woman, her creativity, her anger, and her power. And that’s exactly who this ad is aimed at: a modern woman, tired of being quiet, ready to unleash, full of everything, more than the demure facade. The ad uses association principle to link the perfume with the raw feeling and power of a beautiful, modern woman. The audience is supposed to be enraptured and surprised by Qualley’s emotional mini-story; the ad is supposed to show a behind-the-scenes glimpse of a story women will see as their own. It’s essentially branding this perfume with the image of the girl in the green dress and her mutant brain.
Although I say "modern women" will like this ad, I mean more specifically, modern women who feel they don't quite fit in the modern world. This would be women who are perhaps educated, mid to upper class, though I'm sure it would appeal to some working-class women as well. (It did to me.)
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Worst ad I've seen recently:
Annoying song. Product placement of Dunkin Donuts everywhere. Completely ineffective. Let me explain...
While the ad has a positive message, it doesn't stand out. The activities presented in the ad are of a variety of people: a little boy getting a prosthetic arm, a surfer, an old woman celebrating a birthday, a band rocking out, someone jumping off a cliff; and several other activities/people presented. This is supposed to reach a wide-range of consumers, pulling us all together with the beauty of our varied lifestyles. A catchy, pop-sugar song plays, and the ad theme cues: "Keep on being you." While the catchy song may get stuck in your head, the activities have little to do with doughnuts. You might keep humming the song lyrics, "It's a beautiful life" over and over, and your ears might perk when you hear the ad, but that doesn't mean it'll make you think of Dunkin, despite all the ad placement. Or you'll just wish you had earmuffs or something to smash your TV with. This ad is like a shotgun blast of grape jello; it shoots out everywhere, at everyone and everything, makes a mess of it and misses its actual shot at connection, goo-ing ad-watchers with its sugary pop sound.
Dunkin Donuts is supposed to represent the fuel that is driving these people and connecting them all in their different lives, however, nobody actually bites into a doughnut at any point in time. As a viewer, I don't connect these life activities to the doughnut-fuel. Also, doughnuts make me inherently hungry. Any time I see one, I want one, for days after. This commercial did not make me want doughnuts, but it did kinda make me want to try skydiving. Great job selling happy, outdoor activities, Dunkin Donuts. Bad job selling your crappy coffee.
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