Advertisements that use Metaphors

                                          
                                       

                                              Advertisements that use Metaphors- 5b

Metaphors are commonly used in adverts, they are way of making the advert more exciting for the audience and is also a way of describing what the advert is about using the breakdown of a metaphor for example the 'source domain' this is being used to help describe something else, the target domain other known as the tenor which is what is being described. (Lakoff & Johnson 1980) explained how metaphors are used in the world everyday, they don't just shape the communication they shape also the way we think and the way we act as well. The most common example (Lakoff & Joshnson 1980) used was that 'argument is war' its the way we view an argument as a type of war or as a battle that has to be won. These theories have now being used in advertising as a way to show the brands USP to the audience in a different way. 

The first advert looked at is that used by 'Mitsubishi' as they launched their new model the 'instinct'. When looking at the tenor of the advert we can see that the company are advertising the new vehicle and the components such as the engine and stability. As we review the source domain it is clear to see that the brand has used the metaphor of a rhino to show the components of the vehicle. (Ang & Lim 2006) focus on the product perception and the product personality as we can see through this advert with the personality of the car being strong, durable and aggressive very much like the rhino. (McQuarrie & Phillips 2005) observed that consumers are more receptive and positive when shown a metaphoric advert. The advert shown here is obviously showing a different way of advertising the car to the audience. Zaltman (1995) said 'without metaphors we cant imagine, they are the engines of imagination' Mitsubishi have attempted to create a sense of imagination to the audience to pretend when in the car they are tough, aggressive and hard working.

This next advert is from the 'American Red Cross' the metaphor behind this advert is a lot more powerful. It shows the association of piggy banks and that we imagine them to be full of money, the message that the Red Cross have portrayed here is that the piggy bank is empty and they aren't receiving enough donations making the consumer guilty and giving them more incentive to donate money. (Toncar & Munch 2001) believe metaphor adverts give more perceptive explanation than literal adverts. An image like the piggy bank the Red Cross has used strikes quicker than lots of words as its a powerful image taking up the advert with a white background which will automatically strike the consumer. (McInnis 2004) believes that metaphors in adverts generate more thoughts. From this advert it is clear that the consumer will think a lot more through a powerful image than a lot of text. (Desmet & Hackett 2007) talk about how the consumers perceive and experience products such as customer research. This company have obviously seen that their aren't enough of an audience donating which is why the metaphor of the empty piggy bank has been used powerful and effective.

Reviewing both the adverts they use metaphors in different ways to engage the audience. Mitsubishi use a lot of techniques said by (Ang & Lim 2006) using the rhino as a product personality while the American Red Cross emphasise more of a message to the audience with the theory of (Toncar & Munch 2001) as they opt for an image of an empty piggy bank more than using words a technique which many companies use now to send a message to the audience.

Task 2- New advert for existing brand

 

Adidas-'Impossible is Nothing'

I've have used the image of a frog ballet dancing to highlight the metaphor used in this advert. Adidas's USP is that 'impossible is nothing' by using this image it shows the customer that anything is achievable and that nothing is impossible to do.

Reference List

Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Ang, S. and Lim, E. (2006). The Influence of Metaphors and Product Type on Brand Personality Perceptions and Attitudes. Journal of Advertising, 35(2), pp.39-53.

McQuarrie and Phillips.(2005). The Influence of Metaphors and Product Type on Brand Personality Perceptions and Attitudes. Journal of Advertising, 35(2), pp. 40-41

Zaltman.(1995). The Influence of Metaphors and Product Type on Brand Personality Perceptions and Attitudes. Journal of Advertising, 35(2), pp. 40-41

Files1.coloribus.com, (2015). [online] Available at: http://files1.coloribus.com/files/adsarchive/part_1304/13047855/file/mitsubishi-pajero-rhino-small-53977.jpg [Accessed 13 May 2015].

Toncar &Munch. (2001). The Influence of Metaphors and Product Type on Brand Personality Perceptions and Attitudes. Journal of Advertising, 35(2), pp. 40-41

McInnis, D. J. (2004). Crystal Clear Concepts: Using Metaphors to Expand Dimensional Thinking. ACR News, (Winter), 1–4.

Walpuski, S. (2010) Desmet & Hackett (2007). The influence of functional and symbolic metaphors on product perception . The influence of functional and symbolic metaphors on product perception . 1 (1), 4.

Worth1000.com, (2015). Ballerina Frog - Worth1000 Contests. [online] Available at: http://www.worth1000.com/entries/691744/ballerina-frog [Accessed 13 May 2015].

 

Social Psychology 

There are types of Social Psychology within advertising, from the Halo effect to the Devil Effect, and solidarity to status and prestige, in the blog there will be a more in depth look into the phenomenon's of the 'Halo Effect' and 'Solidarity' and how these have shaped advertising today.

The Halo Effect 

The Halo effect is a a social psychology phenomenon. It causes the customer to be biased in their judgement by having the same opinions towards one attribute of something to another unrelated attribute. The Halo effect theory is supported by the findings of (Thorndike 1920). He suggested people tend to judge others in blanket ways as positive or negative, Thorndike's research also has support of black and white thinking. In terms of advertising the Halo effect will be when a company or product finds success due to its association with a company ( smallbusiness-chron.com). An example of this is a corporate brand name. Some of these companies use the power of other products and marketing tools to set up a halo effect for other products. An example of this is Apple which is a highly successful umbrella brand.



 This is a classic example of the Halo Effect in this advert. The advert is promoting the new MacBook. Due to the success of the iPod, many people believed the Mac book would be highly successful. This is because of the Halo Effect as people buy the Mac book due to the success of the other products it has created (investopedia.com). Firstly the most iconic part of the advert is the size of the logo on the advert which is the main image on the advertisement, if the consumer recognises the logo it automatically sees a successful company.
The mac book has become so successful because of the previous product before it the iPod. Apple knew that the iPod would need a source of music which would now be the mac book.When you connect an iPod into the Mac book it allows you to do a lot of things to download music to syncing email contacts ( thestreet,com). Just with a limited detail advert like this one for the Mac book the product has produced five and half million sales this year so far (statista.com). This is all due to the concept of the halo effect from the success of one product a company can produce other products and still generate more sales even with limited advertisement.

Solidarity

Solidarity is the power of a unity of interests within a group and an attempt of persuasion in order to affiliate the consumer. (Hechter 1987) theory about social solidarity being characterized in motive of promoting group goals in their own right and that the consumer perceives a positive attitude towards them-self or in the advert terms the product or service being advertised. ( Hovland 2014) writes how solidarity in advertising is effective and that fellow 'group' members are more inclined to take what the other members are set to do. He also believes that companies selling the similar products will learn to respect each-other rather than always competing.

 
Solidarity is used in all forms of advertising an example seen here is the new breast cancer advert with the phrase the 'pink army' used. The aim of the advert is to gain members to compete in the race for life, in the advert they show all types of social classes from grans, mums to young teenage girls. It uses the theory of (Hovland 2014) as a way of getting more members to join the 'army'. It has been boosted by celebrity endorsement for example Nadine Coyle formerly of Girls Aloud who has said she has joined the 'pink army' as well. The advert is very persuasive and uses motivational music to hit at the 'members' and target audience of the advert to try and get them to sign up. Tajfel 1979) speaks how people who belong to a ‘group’ feel a sense of pride and belong to the social world, this is what the cancer research advert is aiming to do it’s to get women of social classes to join this ‘group’ and take part in the race for life and join the ‘pink army’.

Reference List 

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Grcic, Joseph. "The halo effect fallacy." Electronic Journal for Philosophy 2008 (2008): 1-6. - Small Business - Chron.com,. 'Halo Effect In Advertising'. N.p., 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. - Investopedia,. 'Halo Effect Definition | Investopedia'. N.p., 2008. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. - Pendola, Rocco. 'What Ever Happened To Apple's Halo Effect?'. TheStreet. N.p., 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. - Global sales of Apple Mac computers from 1st quarter 2006 to 1st quarter 2015 (in 1, 000 units). 'Apple Mac: Sales 2006-2015, Per Quarter | Statistic'. Statista. N.p., 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. - Jeffries, Vincent. The Palgrave Handbook Of Altruism, Morality, And Social Solidarity. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. Print. - Hovland, Roxanne, Joyce Marie Wolburg, and Eric Haley. Readings In Advertising, Society, And Consumer Culture. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2007. Print. - YouTube,. 'Race For Life 2015 TV Ad - Join The Pink Army'. N.p., 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. - I-visual.deviantart.com,. 'Advert For Apple Macbook'. N.p., 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. - Kruglanski, Arie W, and E. Tory Higgins. Social Psychology. Hove: Psychology, 2003. Print. - Derryjournal.com,. 'Nadine Coyle Joins Race For Life’S ‘Pink Army’'. N.p., 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2015.

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Negative Advertising

Negative advertising

Introduction 

Negative advertising is a way of approach that focuses on the negative aspects of a rival brand or candidate. In this blog we will look at the arguments for and against negative advertising and using the topic of politics to do so.

Main Body

For Negative Advertising

There are arguments that see negative advertising as a positive way of campaigning a point across. Like seen in the image above it has a strong message that campaigns the different parties against each other by sharing stats and figures which hinder the other parties campaign for election. Many studies have been undertaken in negative advertising, Coulter (2008) finds in his journal that the most favorable impact is that negative advertising is memorable. This is will be of new advert campaigns every election which will be made to catch the audience's eye to make them vote. Austin & Pinkleton (1995) find that negative advertising is also more informative to the viewer with information and stats in the negative campaign to the audience, it engages the voter to read figures and compare the parties. For example in the image above figures say that Gordon Brown let '80,000' criminals out of prison. These stats will capture the audience although they may be false statements as political advertising isn't owned by advertising rights so advertisements like this one can be false. 
Moving on Chou and Lien (2011) find that important appeals or advertisements are more intense than unimportant ones. If the information is given to them in a negative advert they increase voter satisfaction which basically means evidence and satisfaction is more helpful for the voters decision like mentioned with the image this information against Gordon Brown can be a positive for the voter on what party they vote for through a negative statement. Negative information receives more weight in overall evaluations, Showronski & Carlston (1987) which alternatively give the voter more evidence for a particular political party.  Negative advertisements for political elections help the voter with valuable messages about candidates or provide a judgement if they do vote for that party Chou & Lien (2011). Using the theory of Homer and Batra (1994) when negative advertising uses negative attacks voters will pay more attention to the detail about it having evidence or lacking evidence even and plays a further role on the importance of the appeal, like the example shown the information is almost an appeal to the audience. Do they really want 80,000 criminals released early again? It makes the voter think and with its bold and powerful statement it raises the attention and awareness of the voter to think about a decision. Negative adverts of more complex than a positive advert negative information travels more slowly because of how complex it may be because of this it means the negative advert will become stuck into our heads even if the voter does not agree with the advert. Negative advertising also uses something called the 'sleeper effect' many voters dismiss a negative advert now as being just about politics what the sleeper effect does is dissociate the idea but when it comes to voting for a party in the future that advert will come back into the brain as the content becomes stuck. 

Against Negative Advertising



Negative advertising can also be seen in a negative light as well. Ahluwalia and Shiv (1997) state that they believe the negative information can emulate the negative effect of the advert this makes the negative information less valuable to the voter. The image above is from an American election campaign the negative message is bold and could be shown to be less value to the audience who want positives of parties rather than negatives. A lack of evidence in the adverts can distaste the voter and causes them to be more negative about the information within the advertisement Pinkleton (1998). Many of the political arguments start unprovoked arguments against each other for the audience this can be seen as negative and show the negative characteristics of each party in the election which can produce poor responses from voters. Tinkham & Weaver-Lariscy (1996) also show in there article that negative adverts lead to negative evaluations of the target. 

Chou & Lien (2011) discover that negative ads worsen voters candidates attitudes about the political election, the image above may change the impression of voters who see the advert as to negative and to straight to the point with limited evidence shown. When negative adverts lack evidence that they claim for example the image above, the advert can become more unfavorable because of this. Ansolabehere (1994) believes that attack adverts can be used as a form of demobilization they argue that negative adverts are placed intentionally by political strategists which intends to the stop different segments from voting making the turn out of voters for elections lower and when they are shown positive political adverts it will give them more reason to vote. Garramore (1984) speaks about how a forceful attack in a political advert like shown above can be seen as unpleasant by the voter which can give a general negative reaction and the worse the voters feelings become about putting their trust in that party. 

Conclusion

Looking at the research about negative advertising in politics it is clear to see there are many arguments for and against the subject. When looking at the positive reactions we can see that researchers see its effect as memorable, informative and intense as just some of the examples when comparing this to the against argument. Authors such as Coulter (2008) who see negative advertising as memorable get there argument hindered by ideas that suggest it is unpleasant and negative evaluations of the target which make it more unfavorable. Pinkleton (1995) believed negative advertising to be more informative to the voter while Ahluwalia and Shiv (1997) disagree with this statement and argue the complete opposite with negative information being less valuable to the voter. The argument I believe could be continued for many years within politics and it is even forming in other forms of advertisements now such as food and charity. But overall I believe that negative advertising is a new way of delivering messages to the audience and will only continue to grow. From the four examples used it shows the power and force of the message and it does have the ability to make the audience think and make a decisions. On that conclusion I am for negative advertising not only in politics but other forms as well. 



References

-The Guardian . (2010). We all hate negative advertising but it often works. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2010/mar/29/negative-advertising-michael-white. Last accessed 1st March 2015.

- Coulter, K.S. 2008, "The Tri-Mediation Model of persuasion: a case for negative political advertising?", International Journal of Advertising, vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 853.

- Austin, E.W. & Pinkleton, B.E. 1995, "Positive and negative effects of political disaffection on the less experienced voter", Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 215.

• -Chou, H. & Lien, N. 2011, "What does a negative political ad really say?: the effects of different content dimensions", Journal of marketing communications, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 281-295. 
• - Skowronski, J.J. & Carlston, D.E. 1989, "Negativity and Extremity Biases in Impression Formation: A Review of Explanations", Psychological bulletin, vol. 105, no. 1, pp. 131-142.
• - Homer, P.M. 2008, "Perceived quality and image: when all is not "rosy"", Journal of business research, vol. 61, no. 7, pp. 715-723.
• - Ruthann Lariscy. (2012). Why negative political ads work. Available: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/02/opinion/lariscy-negative-ads/. Last accessed 1st March 2015. 
• - hopehering. (2013). Balancing Negative Advertising. Available: https://talkingpoliticsjomc.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/balancing-negative-advertising/. Last accessed 2nd March 2015.
• - Ahluwalia, R. 2002, "How Prevalent Is the Negativity Effect in Consumer Environments?", Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 270-279.
• - Pinkleton, B.E. 1998, "Effects of print comparative political advertising on political decision-making and participation", Journal of Communication, vol. 48, no. 4, pp. 24-36.
• - Weaver-Lariscy, R.A. & Tinkham, S.F. 1996, "Advertising message strategies in U.S. congressional campaigns: 1982, 1990", Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 53-66.
• - Wattenberg, M.P. & Brians, C.L. 1999, "Negative Campaign Advertising: Demobilizer or Mobilizer?", The American Political Science Review, vol. 93, no. 4, pp. 891-899.
• - Matthews, D. & Dietz-Uhler, B. 1998, "The Black-Sheep Effect: How Positive and Negative Advertisements Affect Voters' Perceptions of the Sponsor of the Advertisement1", Journal of Applied Social Psychology, vol. 28, no. 20, pp. 1903-1915.
• - Pringle,B. (2011). Political advertising media spend in the UK under threat. Available: http://politicaladvertising.co.uk/2011/11/24/political-advertising-media-spend-in-the-uk-under-threat/. Last accessed 2nd March 2015.

Print Advertisement

Introduction

  

This blog is a university assignment on advertising and it's influence and persuasion, there will be blogs frequently with different sub headings that will feature different topics on advertising. 

Nikon-Print Advertisement

 

This the print advertisement that I will be critically analysing. The company I am researching is 'Nikon'. Nikon was founded in 1917 and is a Japanese corporation that specialises in selling cameras, camera lenses, binoculars and things like measurement instruments. Mintel state that Nikon is the second largest digital camera corporation in the UK owning 20% of the market share just behind 'Canon'. 

Nikon Print Advertisement  

The camera been advertised is the 'Nikon D1300'. It is a 14.2 megapixel camera and introduced new additions from the previous design.  Looking into the advert itself now it first strikes as a bold advert with the use of capitals in the central picture reading 'I AM EASY TO USE' this obviously suggests that the camera is a new but simple and easy design for the customer to be able to use. The theme of 'I AM' is a new campaign by Nikon with print adverts and television adverts using the same concept. With the television adverts celebrity endorsement is used for example 'I AM Robbie Williams' which shows him delighted with the crowd's reaction at a concert using a Nikon camera. Furthermore with the print advert like looked at now its aim is to show the product's key features and the benefits it has for the customers. The campaign has tried to persuade customers to become more into photography to capture great moments and was placed over europe to try and gain more markets than it has already.  Its aim is to use a type of persuasive language that the customer can read which will give them the impression that can they use it easily and whenever they need to. The image itself is very simple with just a picture of the camera itself over the top of the writing showing the clear brand name. In the bottom left hand corner again is more capital letters which read 'I AM THE NIKON D1300'. This tells the customer the product name and the make of the camera for any new buyers. Again using the 'I AM' persuading text the advert says that it is innovative and simple to use this is a way that Nikon will get the customer in thinking the product is new and exciting but also a simple and easy camera to use for everyday use. 

When first released the Nikon D1300 was priced between £500-£580 which suggests a quite higher class target market who have a keen interest in photography and film. It seems a high expense for a middle/lower class person to afford for a camera. When paying that price for a camera like the D1300 the target market will expect no less than a high performance, better features and easy to use. All of these could persuade the customer which is why the advertisement is effective in that way as it lists that it is innovative and easy to use, it uses the camera as though it is speaking to the market with the 'I AM' theme trying to persuade them into purchasing this new and exciting product from Nikon. It lists all the new features that the D1300 has compared to the former camera the which will entice the customer into thinking about a purchase more showing all its new additions that the previous model didn't. The camera is expensive but with a good persuasive print advert like this one with bold, bright colour's customers of Nikon and even other camera company's will be drawn to it to firstly see what the campaign is about and secondly to see what the new camera Nikon have designed has to offer for them. 

Reference List 

·          Nikon. (2013). I AM NIKON . Available: http://assignments.mynikonlife.com.au/iam. Last accessed 4th Jan 2015. 

      

      Mintel. (2013). Digital Cameras-UK. Available: http://academic.mintel.com/display/662827/?highlight#hit1. Last accessed 4th Jan 2015. 

     

      Macleod, D. (2010). I AM NIKON . Available: http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2010/i-am-nikon/. Last accessed 6th Jan 2015. 

      JVM. (2010). 'Nikon...I am Nikon'. Available: http://www.jvm.com/en/work/work_subpages/nikon_i_am_nikon.html. Last accessed 6th Jan 2015.