The power of Advertising

Advertising is a huge business if done right. Businesses' profit margins are often largely due to their advertisements campaign. Nike invest millions in advertisement campaigns year in year out to promote their products, using big name stars and celebrities. If done right, advertisements reach the audience in a few ways. Identification for example - where the audience can relate to the person or product shown - is one of the most important aspects of a successful advert; if the consumer can relate to the product, they will be influenced more easily by the messages of the advert.
However, a recent advertisement campaign for dairy milk, showing two children performing an 'eyebrow dance', has become a huge hit for consumers. Although to date there is no official profit margins laid out by the company, to get an idea of the success of the advert, type in "Dairy Milk" on YouTube. The whole first page is dominated by Cadbury's adverts of the past and present, with the majority of these being the "Eyebrow" advert.
So much so has this been a success that Internet users are uploading multiple videos a day to sites such as YouTube and Facebook showing off their version of the advert.
One of the things that struck me from watching this advert was the lack of thought towards the identification model. One of the elementary conventions of an advert has been ignored. But do Cadbury's care? The advert is a tremendous success, and all it took to make were two siblings, a camera, a few workers, and an editing suite. It's that simple.

Is America fake or is Britain hostile?

Recently I visited Hollywood on a school trip this February. Besides the huge size differences apparent there (super large vs super skinny was certainly something that came to mind), I was amazed by how polite and courteous Americans are. Compared to them, we're rude, obnoxious and extremely hostile towards one another.

One of the "rules", you could put it, of being a true gentlemen is to hold a door open to let a woman pass through. This is treated as a kind gesture, but should it really be treated as a big thing? Surely it's one of those things you instinctively do if you're a nice person? I think that's the difference between the two countries: When a Brit does something nice, its 'good deed of the day - done'. Yet when an American does it, they just get on with their lives and perform the same thing countless times the same day.
Everyone there is so jolly, so upbeat, so refreshing, that it really gave me an insight into what life would be like if us Brits were like this 24/7.
Fair enough, there were a few people that dimmed this perfect image of American citizens - one security guard at LAX was extremely impatient, constantly banging on his prison-esque cubicle he'd call a workspace for the next person to go through customs whilst shouting "C'mon ma'am!" numerous times. But this contrasted to others such as the baggage handler who noticed we were British (which, for some reason, most took a liking to - again different to us who, for the best part of the general public, would wonder what these 'yanks' are doing in England). This woman made a joke about us, saying who she thought was trouble, who to watch out for, pointing accusing fingers in a light hearted gesture at a few of us.

Everyone in America is so confident, so outgoing, that it makes me wonder why we can't be the same. Sure, America is a superpower so in a way you almost expect every single American to be right up in your face - I agree, some were quite pushy and hard to get rid of in certain places - but it's funny that not even a quarter or so of us can meet their standards in this department.
Why?

Boredom strikes, sorry if that sounds cliche...

Trouble always seems to come in two's, bit like buses you could say.

Only last week, my heart strings were being pulled, but I thought no fear, rescue is here, for my nearest and dearest will always be there for me, as long as two plus two doesn’t equal five, and you don’t get the wrong end of the stick with my emotions. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, count your blessings even though the sun shines on the other side, you aren't always to know. Praise the high heavens your only a stones throw away - you're only down the road, so when I get knocked off my high horse you're always there to help me find my feet. Well, I won't lie, I fell but I'm up and better than ever - although I feel like I could eat a horse right now! I should choose the healthy option but you only live once - After all, an apple a day keeps the doctor away and all that. Just hope I don't catch the man flu - which I never seem to get female sympathy for, women’s instinct maybe? Whenever I try to milk it, it always turns out bad, often I’m out eating with the dogs - I’m always in the dog house these days. Potato patato, it's all brushed under the rug.

Sometimes it feels like time is standing still, when it’s not flying. Good things come to those who wait, and since patience is a virtue I’m hoping my luck of the Irish will pull me through, making me twice the man I once was.

Not to sounds cliché or anything.

Knowledge is power, yet digression is sometimes lethal.

Blogs are addictive, yet some are pointless.

S'no day like snow day

Sometimes I wonder where government money really goes, who’s really benefiting from all these changes - because I know for a fact that Transport for London couldn’t give a monkeys where their passengers end up sometimes. Originally I intended to rant about the poor service I experienced on the 20 bus route destined for the glamorous Debden. But after ‘snow day’ hit last week, I heard about the decision by transport providers to suspend all services with immediate effect, and this makes my half hour problem waiting for a bus that wasn’t going the wrong way like the other three in a row that I saw look microscopically miniscule.Fortunately I nor anyone I remain in close contact to was stuck in central London during Monday night, the night the snow hit. But for dozens of thousands of commuters or entertainment-goers, leaving your favourite London hotspot at close to midnight only to hear that your only two cheap forms of travel have royally stuffed you up surely must have felt like God was on his time of the month. The way I see it, if I can get a cab from Loughton to Highams Park - albeit at a cheeky double rate (ingenious, however extortionate, profiteering) - then surely the roads in a packed London city are safe enough to drive on. On the other end of the spectrum, a recent conference in Brussels featured a ranting man (his job/name I can’t for the life of me remember) moaning about a need for England to invest millions into preparations for such an event. So basically, in a time of recession where money is key and profit is becoming a rarity, there are people calling for hazard prevention for an event that will happen once a decade at the most. Tell me, does that sound plausible in any way?

A foot inside the door?

I must admit that coming from a football orientated mind, I tend to disregard any bias advertising or programs revolving around the sport. Hand in hand with this, any rugby advert makes me cringe - the build up to the recent Six Nations competition makes me wonder how many half decent adverts could have aired during air time of the adverts for the competition on the BBC. However, upon watching the Third Round FA Cup Replay Merseyside derby - yes, “that one” where Ben Gosling scored a 128th minute winner only to be missed due to wrongly timed advert breaks thanks to the now extremely and publicly embarrassed ITV - I’ve wondered why sports such as football get so much television coverage. Viewing figures are what come flooding into my head; it’s fairly obvious that major sporting events conjure up millions upon millions of spectators time after time. However, surely importance of programme topics should be accounted for?I’m certainly not one to criticise - I would never intentionally want to block sport from my televised planner, only to be rewarded with a double bill of Garden Force for a start. However, I thought it was strange that “ITV news will follow the end of the football” came scrolling across the bottom of my screen. Maybe if “ITV News” was replaced by “The Jeremy Kyle Show” I wouldn’t find it that surprising - football > daytime chat shows. However, on the same note, surely the news > football? Real life happenings > entertainment, right? No. Why?

Music is more than sound; it is a reflection of life.

More on a personal tangeant this time around, recently I have been consuming music faster than food, digesting every single word and injecting subseqeuent thoughts into my fist-sized organ resting upon my shoulders.

The fascinating thing about music is the many different interpretations produced from it. Music serves as a purpose of entertainment. Or does it?

The Wiki definition of music is "an art form whose medium is sound organized in time". Simplistically, it acts as a means of entertainment - time wasting, time consuming, boredom fighting, thought provoking entertainment.

However, music isn't just this. It is also a way of life for artists, a way into Hollywood even, a basis for living.

Dip deeger and it could be interpreted as an educational tool. West Ruislip to Woodford, an hour long Underground train journey from East to West London, must be ranked up there on the 'dull journeys' table, right? Not if you've got a voice tape with you. Imagine, you leave Woodford station at noon, departing from a loved one with a simple "Goodbye, speak to you later". Fast forward an hour or two, and you've arrived at your destination, greeting another loved one with a far from simple "привет, я тосковал без Вас, как дела ?" (for you very few people who don't understand Russian, click the link) (For those who don't want to, it translates to "Hi, I've missed you, how are you?")

Digression really is a habit of mine; wheter this is good or not is undecided. Anyway.

I was on the bus on Thursday to my local gym, to get in shape for my half term holiday, and was away with the faeries, spending quality time with my phone-turned-mp3-player (I hate iPods). When music is pumped through your eardrums, you are forced to listen, and in this case I did. With this task the audience experience three things: interpretation, imagination and identification.

Sadly, I can't quite identify myself with the artist Iwas listening to, Ne-Yo- I'm not American, I can't sing (well), I'm comparitively poor, and I'm white. But the messages in his songs are something I can relate to. Coincedentally at the time, the night before I had a fight with my better half, "Mad At You" came on my iTunes, my favourite song and therefore one I sadly/proudly know every word to due to this.

(For those of you unaware of the song/lyrics)

The impact this song had on me upon listening to it on the bus was amazing. Everyone's had that tingling feeling in their spine through shock, be it from a scary film, an epiphany or a random muscle spasm. Well, I had this - and no, it wasn't a random muscle spasm - and things like this force me to recollect random things about the song, the artist, my life, my girlfriend. And it is because of these things that I believe Ne-Yo has made it to the top. The identification model in a song is rarely commented on, but the purpose of such songs is to relate to the audience. After all, if you can't relate to a song, why buy it? Popularity is success, success is fame, fame is money. At the end of the day, artists attempt to transfer a simple situation into a song, and this is where the professionals differ from the amateurs. They get it right, time in, time out. Just look at Ne-yo's recent hits. "Mad at You", "Single", "Miss Independant". For those of you unaware of Ne-yo's music style or target audience, all his songs relate to the objectification of women with focus to masculinity and the role of the male. Miss Indepedant has had 18 million views since September, and that's just based on one YouTube video.

The point I'm getting to is blurred, the point I'm getting to realistically doesn't exist. But the topic of identification struck me hard enough to write about. And anyone reading this will no doubt become aware of Ne-Yo, identify with a song they like, or both. The ease of manipulation is scarily easy to do through music, I for one have been captured by it. But without this, music would be meaningless. And a part of me would be crushed if I had to go from Woodford to West Ruislip without my trusty iPod-beating-phone-thingy.