Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Burger King took it to the next level... of weird.

All credit goes to Burger King
 Burger King packages its greasy goodness with the phrase "have it your way", but what exactly is the way they are implying? Controversial ads such as these address want the company is trying to sell, but are indeed thought provoking while doing so.

On the surface this ad contains:
  •  A woman with nice red lipstick and a shocked/surprised look on her face
  • A large, relatively appetizing looking sandwich
  • Another, smaller sandwich with text underneath 
  • A large group of text saying "It'll blow your mind away"
  • A picture of fries and a drink with a 6.25 dollar price tag next to them
The intended meaning of the advertisement was obviously to sell their sandwich and the use of the woman was to show her surprise in the large size of the sandwich and that it can be obtained for such an amazing price of $6.25.

The interesting aspects of this advertisement come into play
when one looks at the possible cultural or ideological meanings. This picture is full of relatively explicit sexual imagery and wording.
  • The sandwich has a relatively phallic shape to it
  • The sandwich is positioned on the level directly parallel to the woman's mouth
  • It does not appear that the woman is wearing any clothing, or at least clothing can not be viewed in the picture
  • The female model has her mouth open as to insert the "Sandwich" into her mouth
  • The sandwich is referred to as the "Super Seven Incher"
  • The phrase "It'll blow your mind away" has obvious sexual connotations to it
Overall I find this to be an effective ad as it gets its point across and effectively presents the product , yet I definitely see it as being controversial and even offensive to many people/ I personally find it a little funny.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

A look at advertising.

Advertisement comes in many different shapes, sizes, and colors. The various forms of common advertising medium include:
  • Television
  • Internet
  • Magazines
  • Billboards
  • Product placement in movies and shows
My favorite form of advertising comes through product placement in movies and films. I think this is a less in-your-face form of advertising as opposed to the constant commercials on television or ads on every other page of a magazine.

An look at some  prime examples of product placement in films can be found here .


Although to some it may seem cheesy or cliche to have pseudo-advertisments implanted into their favorite films, I think it is a unique way to reach the targeted audience without getting in their face.

credit goes to CarbonNYC