Here is an interesting example of advertisement of a brand which makes a commitment for a social problem. Through the fight against the racism, Nike wants to show values of solidarity and brotherhood, and especially that the sport is over all this problem.
So, we can see that the stage setting is simple and purified, so that the message passes more easily. Here, the message dominates on the aesthetics.
Finally, the advertisement bases on the stars: it is a question of showing successful people in their respective domains, for whom the sport is most important itself. This endorsement is thus studied well to touch the fans who listen to their champions, and the others who have to recognize the value of these champions.
Here is an advertisement anti-smoking which amuses me:
It is necessary to know that the cowboy is one of symbols of the brand of cigarettes Marlboro, which is at present the cigarette the most sold in the world.
For the story, Marlboro had for target the women at the beginning of its creation, in the 1920s. However, in the 1960s, the company Philip Morris International, has which belongs this brand, decided to reposition it by targeting the men. The advertisement of Marlboro showed virile men.
Then, the brand strongly leaned on the image of the cowboy which represents well these new values. The cowboy of the advertisements of Marlboro became an advertising icon all over the world, so that we gave him the name of “Marlboro Man”.
So, the advertisement against the cigarettes above-presented seems to me very good, because it ridicules the cowboy, and attacks a strong symbol. By using this symbol, the purpose is clearly to deflect it to break the image of the cowboy in the thought of the consumers and to take the traditional advertisements for cigarettes with opposite. Good marketing idea, isn’t it?
As others, advertisements of the social marketing try more to persuade that to convince: we try to cause a stir! Because objectively, we are all right all on the message, but to know the dangers or to agree with messages is not enough for connecting them with the action. And in social marketing, the purpose often is to remind the truth, and especially to make really people act in its direction.
We saw previously advertisements which used the horror or the humor to get their targets…now I wish to speak about the love!
Indeed, each of these registers appeals to different strategies, and that of the love is fundamental. The love and the tenderness are often used for advertisements concerning serious illnesses. I viewed many advertisements against the cancer, and I often found the same elements when they treated the subject with emotion. To describe the main elements to you, I propose you an example:
The first thing which strikes me is the music: in this kind of advertisement, it is often classic music and always with a slow beat. Here we hear a piano, otherwise we find so a lot stringed instruments.
Then, it is children’s presence which I notice. The children convey much more emotion for people. It is partially due to their naivety and their innocence: they are more vulnerable and it is thus easier to raise the indignation of the spectator if something grave arrives at them!
To finish, colors are dark. Sometimes even, a part of the advertisement is in black and white! It is the climate which is created …
So all this is studied well to move us, and it is used as well for certain commercial products… then let us be informed, be carefull on the emotional manipulation, for me the most dangerous there!
Concerning the fight against the breast cancer, it is always about prevention but as it is not about a behavior we have to prevent, it is necessary to make sensitive people differently that what we saw previously.
So, advertisements for the prevention and the cancer screening use the other tools and the strategy to get effectively their target, as we can see below:
The common point of these advertisements is that the subject is funnily handled: indeed, the humor works better to hold attention and especially to take the drama out, because the subject of the disease and the cancer more particularly is difficult to approach.
Contrary to the other advertisements about which I spoke previous weeks, these have nothing shocking, because the persons who are reached by the breast cancer are not responsible for their state, he is not right there thus to hasten them. Furthermore, the purpose is to send people to make the screening, what frightens rather already because exactly they have no mastery on the fact of being sick or not: it is necessary to put them in confidence and the humor is practical for it.
Once more, I would like to underline that the support of the social marketing was got back by the fashion and certain brands of clothes:
We still use here the way of the humor to make the message pass.
These T-shirts with a target on the breast are sold by brands like Ralph Lauren, which put back profits for the fight against the cancer: it is a good way of improving its image, as it can concern everybody, people are more concerned by this kind of diseases than by certain humanitarian causes and I find that it is about an intelligent marketing operation and for a lower cost!
On the same subject, I found an Italian advetisement which seemed to me very interesting, because it deals as the same subject in a very different way.
“For ninety percent of breast cancer, there is a cure that leaves no marks. Prevention. Contribute to the fight against breast cancer”
This advertisement is very subtle. The track of missing strap represents the fact that the woman misses a breast that she underwent a mastectomy. So the message is that the prevention can prevent the ablation of the breast which is a mark left by the breast cancer if it is too late discovered.
So, with a beautiful image we succeed to deal with this subject, without needing to shock but by letting people imagine. Would the power of the imagination be more effective here? Maybe yes!
The anorexia is presented as one of the new plagues and it was the object of advertising campaigns recently. However, it is about a disease and we can wonder if the campaign has a real impact.
I want to show you the video below, because it seems to me very interesting. It is about a Swedish advertisement: Ad against anorexia on Dailymotion
In fact, we notice that the main target is the circle of acquaintances of the anorexic persons, to make sensitive them and make them take care of these. Indeed, the slogan “Help for people with eating disorders” underlines this will to address the eyewitnesses of such comportments.
I find that the discrepancy between the image in the mirror (symbolizing her interior mental image) and the reality is a good idea to explain with efficiency what is the anorexia. It is a good way of illustrating an idea, because we often need to visualize to understand.
Furthermore, this process which aims at creating this discrepancy between two situations is practical to surprise the viewer and to hit its imagination.
We can finally notice that as I said previously, this advertisement has still something shocking, because we show the bare reality to capture the attention of the viewer.
Another campaign against the anorexia seemed to me interesting: the advertisement against the anorexia of September, 2004, by the Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani (famous for the campaigns of Benetton). Usually his photos are beautiful and pleasant to look, but here, it is all the opposite! Look:
This campaign was supported by the Italian Ministry of Health but it is especially sponsored by a brand of clothes: “No-l-ita”! The most astonishing is that the girl is bare… amusing, no? We have here a good example of appropriation of the social marketing by this brand.
To explain of what consists the social marketing, I would like to begin by presenting an example known well by all: the advertisements of road accident prevention. Indeed it is a question of “selling ideas” to bring a social change.
Example of an advertisement of a road safety campaign in England:
It seems to me that this advertising is very well built, in particular because it shows all the aspects of an accident: the crash, the help and the hospital or the mortuary as well as the lawsuit…The viewer can put himself in the skin of any character. The interest is that everybody feels implied.
We notice that in this clip, the person at the origin of the accident is not seriously damaged. The message is clear: to drive dangerously, it is to take a risk for the others, and not only yourself. This message is recurring in the campaigns of road safety: sometimes, their own lives in danger is not enough for making people react.On the other hand, they are more sensitive to the fact than the others can engage their own lives.
So the ad use this fear as means of pressure: “I would not make it because I would not want that the other one made it to me.”
I also appreciate the fact that the advertising shows that the author has to take his responsibilities. Often, only the accident is shown, in all its horror: the main purpose is to shock to create awareness. As we can see, the advertisements of the road safety are most of the time very shocking, with violent images with lots of blood. But why? Maybe it is the only means which was found to make this message pass.
Be obliged to do that to make people think, what a sadness!! But it is the law of the mass communications…
Hello everybody! I am going to propose you here an analysis of the social marketing. This type of marketing is interested in the social, environmental or cultural problems. For example: the recent campaigns against the alcohol for the young people. There is no playful objective, no product to sell mostof the time: the main objective is the social progress.
I want to study tools and stakes in this marketing, which often requires an approach original and very creative.
