Stop Motion Commercial

This video is the first of a series of Amazon Kindle commercials. I have only seen it on youtube, not yet on television however I find that it is a perfect example of a "homegrown"/ amateurish type of commercial for the reason that it utilizes stop motion film, a method pretty much anyone is capable of trying out. For example, in my advertising class my final project is going to be a stop motion film for cereal and once it is finished I am interested to compare the quality of my amateur video to that of the Amazon Kindle.

Kevin Kelly

When the Internet was first becoming popular many thought of it as a new television, a new digital version of media, an electronic newspaper, amongst other simple outlooks. However, we now know that the Internet is much more complex and dynamic than the previously mentioned ideas. The capabilities of the ever-growing Internet are unknown, but it seems Kevin Kelly is very confident in his predictions of what it will grow to eventually be.

I found Kevin Kelly's description of devices as windows to the Internet to be frighteningly accurate. The Internet, a vast intangible world wide web, is equated to a giant machine which we are responsible for creating. Kevin Kelly said that 5% of global electricity is used by the global internet. Humans are becoming increasingly dependent on their wired-in devices, such as cell phones, ipods, laptops, etc. The point is that we are almost ALWAYS connected, and eventually will reach a point where we are always connected. Our everyday natural environment will be web-embedded, everything will connect back to the internet. To think of the natural atomic world and the digital electronic world as one seems sad, but all too realistic. I think there is a necessary division between these worlds, however it seems their collide is inevitable.

The most interesting part of Kevin Kelly's theory for me was the comparison to the human brain. The "machine's" (Internet) complexity is comparable to that of the human brain, but the rate of expansion for the machine is much, much, much faster. So much so that one day the "brain power" of the "machine" will out-power the number of existing and functioning human brains. When that point is reached, will that mean that the internet and its devices will ultimately have control?

Finally, Kelly's take on McLuhanism, or his "McLuhan Reversal Theory" was basically a view that humans will eventually act as the extension of the machine, rather than the machine as an extension of human. We will act as the provider by extending senses that the machine is not fully capable of; feeling, taste, etc. I am not sure I totally agree that one day the roles will completely switch, but it's possible I am just not comfortable accepting that thought.

How Stuff Works Web 3.0

Web 3.0 I found this article on how Web 3.0 is evolving and expected to work. I think it is so interesting that our web, which we all have created, is taking so many of our worker's jobs from them. It is almost as if we have created a monster, and the loss of jobs has no one to blame but ourselves.

Web 3.0

It seems to me as though the direction of 3.0 is heading in a very pervasive direction. The internet is surely becoming more and more a part of our every day lives, whether it is present on our phones, ipods, gps systems in our cars, etc. But more and more we can find that the internet knows us. It is becoming more of a service and more of a friend to us. With the ability to track what we have viewed, what we like, and what we buy, the internet is using this information to make suggestions for buying and viewing. It is as if our computer knows us better than we realize. There is talk of a development of a more intense artificial intelligence capability our computers will be able to express and feel emotions to a certain extent which is pretty scary. In reflection of how far the internet has come, from Web 1.0 which presented information in a very static, one-dimensional format, to Web 2.0 which is very user-generated and dynamic, to Web 3.0 which is omnipresent in our daily lives. The possibilities are endles...

Visual Component

This is my visual component for the Memory Pill. I began by creating a basic elliptical shape and then used the knife and scissor tools to separate and create an outline around each shape. I then used the pen tool to create an infinity like shape to represent the infinite capacity of the mind on the memory pill. Next, I used the type on a path tool to trace the "pill" with years to further enforce the years of memory recall from the memory pill. I think this logo is effective for my project and successfully demonstrates its purpose while being visually appealing.

Digital Illustration Proposal

To accompany my essay on the memory pill, I would like to create a logo for this product. The logo will strive to look professional but also convey a little of what the product does/means.

For the logo I would like to incorporate the eternal or infinity symbol, representing how the pill will cement memories into the brain forever. I am thinking of a spiral effect overlaying a pill with the name of the product across the pill.

My logo will utilize the many tools in Adobe Illustrator. The pen tool could be used and warped to make the spiral image I have in mind. Basic colors and shapes can be used to create the pill itself. The "memory pill" text could be created by the text tools, and then made more professional and appealing after applying other effects to it, such as shadows or embossing.

Adobe Illustrator is the most effective program for this graphic and text-based project.

Midterm Assignment

Advertising and marketing are dependent upon the time period they are concurrent with. The fast-changing pace of present day society calls for a change in advertising and marketing techniques. Rather than focus on what the product does, as did ads years ago, the focus has shifted to what the product means and the culture it creates.

In order to determine the most effective ways in which to market a product, it is first important to become more familiar with the product itself. The so-called “memory pill” is a futuristic pill which would theoretically preserve all life experiences, forever engraining memories in our minds.

Dr. Andre Fenton of the SUNY Medical Center has made great strides in better understanding the function and process, which has up until this point remained a mystery, of our memory. Could there really be a way to keep our brains forever young? Dr. Fenton believes this is a true possibility. He discovered that memories have a physical structure. Basically a PKMzeta molecule binds in clusters around synapses in our brains that create and cement our long-term memories.

He tested his theories of tampering with memory through a number of experiments with lab rats. After subjecting the rats to a series of electric shocks if they entered a certain location, the memory of mild pain helped the rat avoid the areas where they would be shocked. The rats were then injected with a molecule ZIP, which blocks PKMzeta from binding with the synapses. The memory of the pain was then erased from the rat’s brain and they continuously returned to the areas of shock with no recollection of the pain they had earlier experienced. Scientists believe that learning to erase memories is the first step in learning to revive them. Although so far the research has only been done on animals, scientists believe the results will be identical on humans.

The creation of this pill raises many scientific, ethical, and moral questions. Even so, advertisers will still see this as an opportunity to market something new and innovative. Many of the things we see advertised have become so common that there is no longer any shock value. This pill is unlike anything that has ever been on the market. Because it is something that is so new to us, advertisers will have to carefully select the methods they will use to reach the public.

Persuasion is a vicious cycle. Consumer needs, consumer wants, consumer best interests are all addressed leaving consumers feeling empowered and in control. It is our choice to buy what we buy, but the real question is do we know why we buy what we buy? The “persuaders” find a way so deep into our unconscious minds, we are no longer aware it is even happening! In the words of Stuart Ewen, “The secret of it all, the secret of all persuasion, is to induce the person to persuade himself.” Douglas Rushkoff’s “The Persuaders” closely examines the innovative marketing techniques, which are so necessary in effective advertising in today’s society. In reference to the memory pill, we can evaluate which techniques would be most effective in persuading the target segments to buy and use.

Most companies don’t hold the monopoly over a particular product, therefore it is so important to establish an emotional connection, which cannot be replicated by competing brands. The traditional thirty-second television commercial is losing its practicality and effectiveness, yet the price for one is continually on the rise. New technologies such as Tivo make audiences much harder to reach. In order for advertising companies to get at least half of their money’s worth, they need to implement new and innovative techniques to somehow connect with consumers.

If an audience avoids commercials to get to their desired television programs, the ads need to be incorporated into the programs themselves, making them essentially inescapable. This technique is known as product placement. “The Persuaders” segment we watched in class interviewed members of Integrated Entertainment Partners (IEP), a company who integrates products into programs and finds ways to seamlessly work the product into the show. It must be carefully crafted so as not to appear that the program exists solely to advertise the product. With regards to the memory pill, product placement techniques could work the product into such hit series as CSI, Criminal Minds, or Law and Order. These types of television programs could have episodes centering around the memory pill, acting as a way to introduce it slowly and spread familiarity through conversation. It would also be very simple to write such a product into the script without being too obvious that the pill was being advertised.

An especially promising marketing strategy for the memory pill is emotional branding. According to Frank Luntz, 80 percent of our life is emotion and only 20 percent is intellect. This statistic stresses the importance of emotions on the human psyche. The memory pill has a direct appeal to three distinct demographics. The first is the elderly. The second is trauma victims. The third is the youth and students. This pill will not only improve the quality of life for the elderly, but it will also benefit younger generations. It is designed to enhance the area of the brain needed to retain memories and information, enabling students better recall and retention of what they learn in the classroom. Some people will look at this product as a way to remember something forever, some as a way to forget. Either way, advertisers can show that this pill can be used to change a person’s life for the better. For example if an agency created an ad centered on Alzheimer’s, it would reach the emotions of people who know someone who suffers from this disease. People would definitely respond to an ad that reaches their emotions and desires.

The life expectancy of humans is much higher than it ever was. For many people the thought of living to an old age is ideal as long as their mind stays sharp. Unfortunately diseases such as Alzheimer’s and other dementias are also becoming more common. Until now, there has been no promising cure for these diseases, but the memory pill is a step in the right direction. “The drug blocks the activity of a substance that the brain apparently needs to retain much of its learned information. And if enhanced, the substance could help ward off dementias and other memory problems.”-New York Times With an emotional appeal, playing upon the fact that life will be more worth living with vivid memories of great life experiences, the product has great potential for success.

Narrowcasting is a method of advertising used to target specific groups of individuals on a personal level. The target is profiled and then the message is tailored to best fit the target. By separately marketing this pill to the people who need it most, society will realize that the pill is not something to be taken lightly. The most obvious group that this pill would be marketed to would be people in nursing homes and other senior citizen facilities. This pill would bring hope to their families in loved ones. Another group would be people in rehabilitation centers. Because it is believed that addiction is a learned behavior, this pill may be able to stop addiction to drugs immediately. Many times people who have witnessed or experienced something tragic will turn to illegal narcotics, and the memory pill is definitely a better alternative. The pill would also be advertised to psychiatrists would then recommend the pill to patients who have been assaulted, raped, abused, or people who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Narrowing in on these demographics would help position the memory pill in such a way where the advantages for the target would be obvious.

The power of words is exponential and the selection of words is essential. Rhetorical marketing is the changing of words, but not meanings to the advantage of the seller. Some words appeal to consumers more efficiently than others. Since the memory pill could potentially cause controversies, moral and ethical, it would be to the advertisers advantage to wisely choose their diction. With regards to Frank Luntz and his practices, Nicholas Lemann comments, “The right name makes the policy sell better. It's just like putting a name on a bar of soap or any other commercial product. It matters what you name things.” Focus groups could be conducted for each of the potential consumer segments in order to identify key words which are most effective.

The possibilities for the memory pill are endless. Such a product still has a long way to go until becoming a reality, however when the time comes it will be essential to market and advertise the memory pill in such a way not to offend or worry, but to excite and give hope to all who are in favor of preserving their precious memories for the remainder of their lives.

http://science.discovery.com/videos/popscis-future-of-memory-pill.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/health/research/06brain.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

http://www.kaschassociates.com/417web/Vid%20Persuaders%20Frontline%20Ruskoff.htm

Ray-Ban Virtual Mirror

While on the Ray-Ban website I came across this really fun marketing approach. If you have a webcam you can try on all of the different Ray-Ban sunglasses right from your home!

Illustrator Project

Midterm Proposal

For my paper I chose choice number one. I would like to focus on PopSci's Future of the Memory Pill. It seems that there is a possibility to create and cement long term memories, keeping our minds and memories short for as long as we live. It would enable us to train our minds to eliminate those traumatic memories which we want to forget, but also vividly recollect those memories we wish to retain forever. I find it completely interesting that such a pill could possibly exist. I think this product would best be marketed through product placement in movies or television shows, but also could be featured in science programs segments or the news.

Social Media & Web 2.0 Discussion

1. Today many TV shows and advertisements try to look amateurish or "homegrown" to emulate what is often seen on the Web. Do you think professional production values will continue to drop, or do you think amateur user-generated content will get better over time? WHY??

We first discussed actual TV shows and advertisements which utilize the "homegrown" practice in current media. Advertisements such as the E-trade Baby Commercials and TV shows such as The Office are examples of this. However, we view the amateurish simulations more as a style and a fad, not necessarily a revolution within the production industry. While some companies and shows choose to revert to the user-generated production techniques, such as personal cam-corders, the remainder of the industry continues to move forward with the high-tech advancements production has made. Also, in producing much of the "homegrown" media, advanced technology is still being applied while trying to simulate user-generated content. It is an approach certain advertisers have decided to take, in an effort to seem relevant to their audience. Over time, user-generated content will most likely progress further as it has since it started. New user-friendly cameras and computer software are becoming readily available to the average person, requiring less professional skills, and so we think that as top production advances, so will the actual homegrown production.

2. Find a news article and write down tags you would use to define what the article is about. Now goto http://delicious.com/ , digg.com or another tagging site and see how others have tagged it. What did you learn from the differences or similarities in tagging?

Does Facebook Deserve the Hell it's Catching from Greenpeace?

Our tags: Social networking, Facebook, Greenpeace, economy, norms, politics, groups, coal, energy, renewable resources

Their tags: coal, Facebook, Greenpeace, social change, social network, social psychology

When comparing our tags with the tags from Digg, we found that the majority of our tags were the same. From these similarities we concluded that the main ideas and most important parts of the article were universal and apparent. However, there were a few tags from Digg that differed from ours. We found that as a group we gave more specific and detail-oriented tags, while Digg focused more on the holistic and general ideas in the article. For example, we tagged "renewable resources" and Digg tagged "social movement" and "social psychology." A possible explanation is that Digg users tagged broader terms, but since we were conscious of doing a good job tagging we were more thorough and specific.

3. Why is transparency such an important concept in the Social Media world? Is it MORE or LESS important in the offline world? Why?

Transparency is such an important concept because it disguises intentions and viewers deserve to be aware of the alternative motives behind what they see and read. Basically transparency regards the loop hole for advertisers and other social media in which they find ways to mask what they are doing or saying in order to make it more appealing to viewers.

Transparency is more important in the online world. It arises moral as well as legal issues. When viewers watch television they more aware of what is and what isn't an advertisement, however the transparency that is heavily present in the online world often fools its users. An example would be if a big corporation has formal plans and intentions of getting their message across the internet, but hires a smaller distant company to disguise its origin. In the online world, it is much easier to remain anonymous from your contributions, such as blogs. When viewers read blogs they are more likely to trust that the blogger is being objective, rather than being paid off to endorse another company or product.

Article Regarding Celebrity Tweets

Do Celebs Get Paid to Tweet About Products?

The Persuaders

What in "The Persuaders" surprised you (or not)? Name one new thing you learned about marketing or politics from watching the film. Name one new thing you learned about yourself from watching the film, or one thing that the film reiterated about yourself.

In the segment "The Science of Selling" I learned about the codes, or unconscious explanations of why we buy what we buy. I found it particularly interesting that a single word can capture someone's attention, interest and then favor and sell so much better than another word. I liked the example of cheese, being marketed as alive over in European countries, yet here in the United States it was marketable once you considered it "dead" being put in a "body bag"(plastic wrapping) and then placed in the "morgue"(refrigerator). I learned that what one needs is truly disconnected from what one buys and that when asked why you've bought what you've bought, the rationale doesn't make all that much sense.

From watching the film, I kept finding myself nodding in an understanding with a lot of the points that were made. As far as brands being considered colts, I see myself as member to a number of "colts." Products no longer market what they do or how they are the best at doing it, but now emphasize more what the product means. This big idea convinces buyers that you are getting more than quality, you are now belonging to a new community. I personally have a mac and can admit to buying it for just that reason. I also find that whenever I go into New York City, I will end up at a Starbuck's because I think it's fun to fit in with the city stereotype of walking the streets with a Starbuck's coffee in hand!

"The Persuaders" begins by questioning the increase in the amount of advertising we typically encounter in our daily lives. How would you assess the amount of advertising you see? Too much? Too little? Just right? In your view, what difference does it make to know that people today see much more advertising in their daily lives than people 20 or 30 years ago?

As an advertising major I now pay closer attention to the number and content of advertisements I encounter on a daily basis. We absolutely see much more advertising now compared to 20 or 30 years ago and in many different forms. Essentially every medium somehow directly or indirectly advertises brands and products. I can recall watching a segment on E! about celebrities tweeting about products without saying it was an advertisement and they were being paid to do so. It was controversial because so many fans faithfully follow celebrities and trust their brand preferences, but they deserve to know what is a real preference and what is a paid endorsement. As opposed to 20 or 30 years ago, our society has become more materialistic as consumerism has skyrocketed. Naturally if more people are going to keep buying more things that they don't really need, advertising agencies and companies are going to continue advertising more and more. We probably see advertising much more than we should, but personally it has become so discrete we hardly know we see half the advertisements we see.

As an advertising major I look at these ads more with a critical eye and it is amazing that so many attempts are useless but also that so many are truly effective and influential. Advertisements; commercials, billboards, print ads in magazines, direct what we buy, create cultures, and set the bar for social standing. Twenty or thirty years ago I don't think the ads had to be quite as creative and abstract as they are today to stand out amongst the many competitors.

Front Line: Digital Nation Part Two

Watching Digital Nation was an informative and eye-opening experience. I wasn't surprised to see the woman commentator's family, all wrapped up in their technologies, whether it was the father and son on their laptops at the kitchen table or the two young children playing around taking pictures on the mac. However, the effects that this technological revolution are having overseas in Asian countries were until now unknown to me. I was familiar with the video game craze over there, but to hear that there are actual giant rooms where you can go and play video games all day long was surprising. Most of all, the fact that someone died doing so because lack of food and water was pretty disturbing. The intervention camps for children showed how addicted these kids really are! The disconnect from the real world is crazy.

Furthermore, the U.S. army recruitment took me by surprise as well. Of course most children playing know that the game is not real, but being present in that environment and receiving praise for how well they play could subconsciously influence some of the young minds to believe this is their calling or spark an interest in the army. I don't find this to be moral or ethical in any way. As seen in another segment of the video, if some kids can come to believe they actually swam with whales due to a virtual simulation, how can we contradict ourselves and say that the virtual war simulations aren't having some effect of those who play.

Finally, I found the U.S. all digital schools to be really interesting. It was really weird to me that the assistant principle could tap into all of the kids' computers and watch what they did, even if they were using their camera as a mirror or taking pictures. Kind of creepy actually. I think that integrating computers into the younger generations' educational lives as a learning tool is a good idea, however there should be some separation from the computer otherwise all childhood activities such as playing around outside with other kids will be lost to technology.

Front Line: Digital Nation

Today's society proves to be very different than past times. I honestly can not remember what it was like to not have a computer or cell phone or i-pod. The upcoming generations have these electronic devices at their disposal. Though these technologies make us more accessible and provide for a quicker and easier lifestyle, in watching the first few clips of digital nation it is clear that with the positives come some negatives as well. The video spoke of multi-taskers, which I can admit I am guilty of, and how they honestly believe they can handle all they take on. In watching those kids who claimed to be multi-taskers score poorly on the experimental tests it made me realize that I too am probably not as good of a multi-tasker as I believe myself to be. It was also very interesting to see the perspective of the professors and how they face the struggle of keeping their student's full attention. Not only must that be frustrating but in watching the video it seems so disrespectful to waste time on anything but the class you are showing up for. Being there physically just isn't enough. I wonder if I would just focus on one thing at once if I really would retain more information and get more done. I definitely am going to try to keep my cell phone out of reach while in class and see if it makes a difference.

McLuhan Collage

For my collage, I chose the Kindle. The Kindle is Amazon's latest electronic book which features newspaper, magazine as well as book access through a light weight book sized product. My collage represents both what the Kindle offers as well as what it gets rid of. In the center, the garbage can is filled with books, magazines, and newspapers, which can be considered the content of a kindle, and is spiraling towards extinction along with a tomb which reads "Print Media is Dead." In each of the four corners is the message the Kindle delivers. The lower left corner represents the introduction of the medium itself. The upper left corner represents how the Kindle is environmentally friendly by saving paper, therefore acting as a green product. The bottom right corner shows a negative impact of the Kindle demonstrating the struggle of employees to keep the print media industry alive. Finally, the upper right corner represents the speed, ease and accessibility that the Kindle offers, generating a faster, simpler reading experience.

Web 2.0 Definitions

User-generated Content: refers to various types of media content which are produced by end-users, those who use the product, and are publicly available. Its applications range from news to gossip and its content includes all digital media technologies, such as videos, blogs and wikis.

Long Tail: is a retailing concept in which a wide range of unique items are sold in relatively small quantities, usually in addition to selling a few different popular items in large quantities.

Network as Platform: is the concept of turning what used to be desktop services on the local computer into services run on the Internet. The network allows for the development of a universal Web operating system which is unique because it is independent of the traditional individual computer operating system.

Folksonomy: is a system of classification derived from the practice of collaboratively creating and managing "tags" to annotate and categorize content. This practice is also known as social or collaborative tagging.

Syndication: makes website material available to a number of other sites. Most often, web syndication makes web feeds available from one site in order to provide others with a summary of that website's recently added content.

Mass Collaboration: results from large groups working independently of each other on a single project. The collaborative process is mediated by the content being created, not by direct social interaction.

Computer Supported Collaboration: is technology that affects groups, organizations, communities and societies, such as voice mail and text messaging.

Hosted Services: allow individuals and organizations to create and publish their own websites to the world wide web.

Web Applications: are applications which are accessed online through a web browser rather than applications which run on the operating system. The term may also refer to a computer software application that is hosted in a browser-controlled environment.

Social-Software: are software systems which allow users to interact and share data, such as social sites like Facebook, media sites like Youtube, along with commercial sites like Ebay.

Video-Sharing Sites: are websites which allow users to upload and share digital video content with other users, such as YouTube.

Wikis: are websites which allow users to collaboratively edit and produce online content via a web browser, such as wikipedia.

Blogs: are websites, usually maintained by an individual who regularly posts commentary, descriptions of events or other material such as graphics or videos to be viewed by other users.

Mashups: are web pages or applications that combine preexisting content from two or more external sources to create a new service.

Medium 1:Blackberry Voice Notes- These voice notes are made up of audio, and basic messaging, which can be further broken down to speech and language. Voice notes are basically a spoken text message, so they are more fun to receive and allow for the recipient to personally hear the tone of the message.

Medium 2: Bluetooth Device- The introduction of the bluetooth allows people to talk on their cellphones and be hands-free. It's content is audio and wireless connection. It positively reduces the distraction of being on your cell phone while driving, therefore lowering the number of car accidents.

Medium 3: Kindle- The Kindle is an electronic book. It's content includes text, digital images, as well as speech, language, etc. The message is that it allows for more people to read since it compacts a number of books and newspapers into one. It also may decrease profits of the print media industry.

Medium: YouTube