Brands

The last lecture of the history of advertising was interesting to me. Leaning the history of advertising means as same as learning history of technology because latest advertising is strongly influenced by the technology such as YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter. I realized I even do not watch TV, but I see so many advertisements  through YouTube, and I learned how technology and advertising are strongly connected.

In the field of advertising, brands are significant. Some people may think brands and logos are same, but they are different. I  am sometimes confused the difference between brands and logos if the logo became more popular than brands. According to the lecture, however, logo is just using  to communicate. "A product provides functional benefits plus added values that some consumers value enough to buy." For instance, MacDonalds  is the one of the successful brands, and they spread around the world. What great brands do is that they know themselves, in other words, they know what consumers want by them. Importantly, brands always have to be relevant, or consumers never get any products. Brands can be significant more than advertisements!

Stereotypes

Stereotypes negatively exists in everywhere, but I do not think it is right to use racial stereotypes in the ad. The use of these ad shows that racism still exists. For instance, this ad below shows racism. The six black runners bowing in front of a white man wears suits with "maximize the power of your employees." This headline exactly revealed it meant slavery. In American, there are lots of ads which meant slavery like this, and it should not be published because ads have strong impact to audience.


This Sony's ad is to promote black and white portable PlayStation. The strong looking white woman gripping black woman's jaw. It shows the domination of white woman over black woman.


Personally, the use of  negative stereotyping is totally bad, but why advertisers try to put it into the ads? Because it sells products. These ads can get people's attention although it is wrong. I've realized that there are lots of negative stereotyping in the United States. In my country, Japan, people never see these kind of ads because people do not accept its issue in public. Thus, America is more open to this issue compared to some countries. However, I do not hope to use negative stereotyping in the ads anymore in order not hurt someone in the world.

Semiotics

Semiotics are continually used in advertising to decode an advertiser's message through the use of signs or symbols, and it enables us to make sense of visual imagery and associated advertising messages.



 This is an advertising of Dettol, an antiseptic cleaning products in the United Kingdom. The signifier in this ad is a woman holding a hands from the hand rails. The signified is the feeling of sordid and dirty. This ad shows a normal young woman wearing a white shirt and good make-up in order to bring out how dirty to use public hand rails. I like "Whose hand are you holding" at the bottom because it makes the message of this ad more clear. Also,  This ad is effective because people can get thorough the message directly. As people cannot avoid ignore this situation if they use public buses or trains, this ad shows is effective to let those people use the hand sanitizer.



This is a billboard ad of 3D King Kong. The signifier in this ad is young girl and boy are holding on tight to the Universal Studio bus which almost crushed by King Kong's hand. The signified is the feeling of thrilling and exciting. Since this is the ad for 3D so that it achieved to show how 3D works to guests. I like the way this ad uses people. The use of stereoscopic acuity increases a thrill.

This is a Crystal Geyser commercial in Japan. In the commercial, over all, Beyonce with holding a Crystal Geyser singing a song and dancing. She wears a spangled dress and diamond pierced earrings. The signified is a feeling of gorgeous. Crystal Geyser is not an expensive water, and does not have an image of high quality, however, this commercial successfully shows a high quality.

Dietmar Dahmen

My very first of the advertising course seemed so much fun, so I am excited to learn a lot of new things in this class. The presentation by Dietmar Dahmen was totally great, and I learned a lot. He used some terms that I have never heard before, but I am clear because he explained clearly. Technology is always around me, and I cannot live without them. I am pretty much sure I depends on technology everyday. Even though my home county, Japan, is so far away, technology enables me to have a strong connection with people in Japan. I am very thankful that we have free apps which give free talk and text. Thus, laptop and iPhone are necessary in my life. Moreover, he mentioned that we need to know the history and date in advertising. The ads, Dietmar used in the presentation, was effective in order to explain lots of thing to us. Now I am interested in Advertising, and also want to know how the technology was changing.