Media Blog #2: Clearasil Ultra

As I was flipping through the pages of my Seventeen Magazine, I came across this advertisement, and was instantly attracted to it. It might have been the bright colors, the use of weasel words, or maybe even just the fact that the girl's skin is absolutely flawless in the picture. Either way, I definitely found this advertisement very eye-catching and effective.

      

The first thing that caught my eye was just the bright colors of this ad. I see all the bright blue, purple, and pink, and it just attracts my attention very much. This is a very useful strategy as it will attract the audience's attention and it goes along with the color scheme of the bottle itself. Even if you do not like the colors you see, most people eyes would be attracted to bright colors. 

The next thing I want to comment on is the girl in this ad's flawless face. Her face is perfectly clear, with not a hint of any spots on her face. This would grab the attention of the audience to want to buy this product because they will believe that Clearasil Ultra will do this to their skin. I think it is safe to assume that everyone wants to have a perfect face, so the girl's face helps sell the product. However, my question is: In reality, will our faces really turn out like that if we use the product? With the use of photoshop and technology, anything is possible. The makers of this ad could have easily just used photoshop to make her face look flawless. That is something i see in common with many ads. The picture always looks really good, but once you order the product, it never looks as good. Even though this happens all the time, most people would still buy the product because they see the great picture of it on the ad.

The last thing I found to be very effective in this ad was the use of weasel words. The first one is the word, "fast." The ad says "Clearer skin at the speed of fast," but what exactly is fast? There is nothing in the ad that specifies what exactly fast is, so you don't really know how long it will take until you get clearer skin. However, when ever someone thinks of fast, they automatically assume that fast is good. The next words are "as little as." Clearasil says, "Get visibly clearer skin in as little as 12 hours." 12 hours logically would be a very short amount of time to see visible results in your skin, but by saying "as little as," it can still take longer than 12 hours. 12 hours is just the minimum, so you could really not see results as quick as 12 hours. However, we only really notice the 12 hours, so we think that the product is amaizing to work so fast. 

Overall, I believe this ad is very effective with the techniques they use. Although we see all the time that we may not get the exact same results as the people in the ads that use the product, we are still tricked into believing that these things will work perfectly.

 

April 27, 2013

Media Blog #1: Gatorade= Success?

      In this commercial for Gatorade, Kevin Durant and Dwayne Wade team up to advertise this popular sports drink. The commercial starts off with Kevin Durant having a dream about losing the basketball game, as Dwayne Wade blocks his shot. After waking up from the dream, Kevin Durant then goes through hard-core training, with Gatorade to help him along the way. After Kevin goes through his straining, he gets another shot at the game winning shot, with Dwayne Wade guarding him. He ends up making the dunk, but then we see that this was a dream within a dream. Dwayne Wade has this nightmare of losing to Kevin Durant, and the audience can infer that he will want to go through the same training that Kevin Durant went through, with the help of some Gatorade products.
    
     The use of ethos is very apparent in this commercial. The commercial is trying to prove the credibility of Gatorade by having two very well-known NBA players in the commercial. Because they are so successful in their careers, it must mean that Gatorade is a great product. People like to see familiar faces because it attracts their attention, and it gives off a sense that we can be just like these stars by using the product.

      The two appeals used in this commercial are the "need to achieve" and the "need to dominate." Both Kevin Durant and Dwayne Wade not only want to win, but they want to be better than the other and want to dominate the basketball court. Kevin Durant uses Gatorade to help make his goal of beating Dwayne Wade and getting the winning shot for his team. It is also assumed from the commercial that Dwayne Wade will use Gatorade in order to prevent himself from losing against Kevin Durant. Everyone wishes that they could be as great of a basketball player as one of the two players, but in reality, only a few will actually achieve that dream. Gatorade's products are for people who strive to achieve their goals in order to "win." We want to succeed just as much as Kevin Durant and Dwayne Wade do.
     
      The use of diction is almost nonexistent. The only words of the commercial are "Win from Within," and they are just shown on the screen rather than said out loud. This is actually a pretty good strategy because you hear the suspenseful music throughout the commercial rather than a whole bunch of talking, which could cause some confusion. The lack of words was most likely intentional because Gatorade is trying to show that their products not only affect a person physically, but also mentally. Without words, it keeps the reader interested in the commercial because they have to continue to watch the commercial to find out what the point of the whole thing is. Gatorade was pretty smart with this commercial.
     
      Overall, I believe this commercial is very effective. Although in reality Gatorade is probably not capable of providing us success like Kevin Durant and Dwayne Wade, we still get a sense of achievement and dominance from the commercial. We feel that Gatorade will at least help us a little more in achieving our goals.