Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty :)

Dove started a movement to educate women about their bodies. Celebrities may be skinny and size zeros, but Dove wanted women around the world to know that everyone is unique and beautiful not matter what color, shape, size and age. I support the message Dove is trying to spread, but I think its interesting that Dove is also the maker of Axe products for men. In the Axe ads women's bodies are made a spectical of the male attraction. I find it interesting that while Dove promotes self love and acceptance for Dove products, they are at the same time doing the opposite with their Axe ads. However, if young girls can all learn to love their bodies the way the are and not look into the mirror and hate what they see, then they're helping everyone. If one less young girl develops an eating disorder, then they're doing what the are setting out to do, but I'm sure they've helped more than just one.

In this ad the woman is laughing. Laughing is a sign of happiness. Happiness includes with herslef and her body even though it may not be the smallest size, its beautiful anyway. Laughing is a universal sign of enjoyment and happiness and this ad portrays just that. It shows that you can be happy even if you aren't what beauty magazines may consider to be perfect!

Semiotics! Ad analysis

Everything has a meaning. Even the slightest color or placement of a hand can have a meaning.

For this vintage Budweiser ad (which I love!) it has several meanings.

The hammer in this ad that the man is holding signifies the man's masculinity. Its made of two components that are considered to be strong materials, wood and metal. Hammers themselves are strong tools; you need a hammer to places nails to build a house and traditionally in older days (and still today as well) the man built the house for his family.

The pink of the woman's shirt is a sign of her femininity. Pink is a womanly color. Pink is a soft color often associated with baby girls, so its shows pureness.

The glass isn't your typical "beer glass", so since it is a more "fancy" glass this shows their social class. They are probably of the middle class.

The catch phrase "Where there's life .. there's Bud" implies that this beer, Budweiser, can be enjoyed by the average man.

The fact that the man is working shows that he could probably be classified as a "blue-collar" man. He's working in his shop. His shirt shows that he probably isn't the suit and tie kind of man since it is a work shirt, but he's not poor because it is still nice and pressed.

Semiotics breaks down every aspect of something, so this could go on and on forever. Youc an find just about anything you can pick out that can mean something in an ad.

Phone Ad

The ad that is geared towards tween girls was our weakest ad. I think it needs to be a little more eye catching and have more color. I think the concept is there, but the eye appeal is not. The 2 periods after the You could be removed since it was not included in any other ad of ours.

Social Media Campaigns

I recently read an article called "The Best Ever Social Media Campaigns" on the Forbes website. I found the attempt by the makers of Skittles to get people to their site to be less than helpful. It failed because there was really no reason to look at their Twitter like website unless you wanted some entertainment due to the foul language laced tweets that mentioned Skittles.

Being an avid user of both Facebook and Twitter, I see social media ads everyday that catch my attention. My Facebook has noticed that I'm a part of a Greek organization and placed ads on my Facebook that are for clothing companies that make Greek t-shirts and other items. My Facebook also noticed that I like to shop so they placed ads for modcloth.com on my homepage. Mod Cloth was successful in catching my eye and I soon browsed the online clothing store's page. I also followed them on Twitter soon after.

Mod Cloth's campaign isn't really a physical ad that I can place a picture of along with my post. They do something that I find very interesting that can't be shown with an image. Mod Cloth created their own hash tag on Twitter called #ispythursday. Upon creating this hash tag they also created a game that is played every Thursday on the Mod Cloth Twitter page. This game is rather simple, but can cause you to get off track. Mod Cloth posts a distorted or up-close picture that is usually just a bunch of colors and patterns, every Thursday at 4 p.m. The object of the game is to find what item they are showing and tweet the answer to Mod Cloth and include #ispythursday in the tweet. The fifth tweet with the correct answer wins a gift certificate. The gift certificate is usually $25, but has been more in Thursday's past.

When you participate in this game it is very easy to end up browsing other items on the website. One Tweeter even said "Just realized how strategic @modcloth's #ispythursday is.. I got too distracted looking at apartment decorations to play!"

Another plus to Mod Cloth's social media promotions, they usually respond if you mention them in a tweet. A friend of mine tweeted that her "@modcloth watch came in" and the person managing their Twitter page responded to her later that day. They're engaging in feedback and conversation with their buyers.. very smart they are!

Advertising & Imagery

Well here's to another semester at Shepherd! Hopefully not too many more left till I'm a grown-up. Or maybe I'll stay in school until the economy becomes more promising, I'll ask my dad. I have a feeling Papa Weav (that is what some of my friends refer to him as; he likes it, I think) would not be thrilled with this question and will give me a look followed by another "What do you think?" response.


Now time to talk about what I'm expecting from this class. I hope this class makes me more literate when it come to photo shop and similar programs. I already ordered my "Photo Shop for Dummies" book, so hopefully I won't need it by the semesters end. I would like to become exceptionally skilled in the advertising aspect. I just began interning at a PR firm and this class is going to, I hope, help me at my internship. If I decide that PR is where I wish my degree to lead me, then this will also help me for my future, if not, at least I'll have acquired some skills that others may not have.


I am excited about this class. I'm already interested in this whole blogging thing. This could become a very interesting relationship between myself, my keyboard and this blog of mine!

My Favorite Ad Campaign

I really couldn't say I had a favorite ad campaign until today. Ads are just something I look at breifly and then move on to what really made me buy that particular magazine or newspaper. Today I was getting news clipings for work (I'm an intern at a PR firm) and I came across an ad for Grey Goose Vodka.Considering I am unable to purchase any beverages containing alcohol until June 5 of this year, ads for alcohol are definately not projecting to my under-age demographic.

I am, however, one of "those people" who enjoy meaningful sayings and quotes in certain doses and thats why this ad had me at hello, err.. page turn. The meaningful saying is a toast. Now when I think about a toast I think alcohol is the primary drink when giving a toast, just ask any bride who has been witness to an extremely inappropriate, highly intoxicated best man speech at her wedding while her little 80 year old Granny was present. Sometimes alcohol can make people do embarassing things, anyone heard Brad Paisley's song dedicated to the stuff? The man sings the truth.

Now, if I had to give a toast at a wedding or family gathering and if I was of the legal drinking age there's a pretty good chance I'd slam a few before speaking in front of people who are staring at me (I don't like being the center of attention. Yikes!). There is also a pretty good chance that I would rip this ad out of my magazine and use it, so ladies if your hubby-to-be's best man isn't the second coming of Shakespeare go Google this ad! This ad works because it pulls at the little heart strings of the readers, or it's convincing them that getting slammed off of Grey Goose is going to help them sound as great as this toast. It was a 2 page ad, on the left a simple picture of a bottle of Grey Goose, the other page had the toast centered in the middle of the page. In all seriousness, this is a great ad that certainly caught my attention. Read it, you'll like it!

And I'm not going to rip off this other blogger that I got this picture from

so photo credit to JerzyGirl45 via Grey Goose ad in Vanity Fair magazine