Adverts-flora gold

This advert like many other butter ads is a family kind of ad, it just has a really weird feel to it. The basic concept is that the dad has got the butter and is cooking dinner whilst singing and the children film it and laugh at him. I just think it is a rubbish concept for an advert. You can see that they have obviously tried to make it comical but it just doesn't work, it comes across very cheesy and it seems to scripted. He pulls the butter out of the fridge and reads the description but it doesn't seem like something you would say when pulling butter out of the fridge even if it was a new type. Also the way he turns he stops singing and turns when he notices people watching is to rehearsed you can see that he stops and turns to much like he knew they where there. I think that they could have came up with a better advert. I feel that the music was the only thing that worked in this ad 

adverts-Skoda cake ad

This is an old advert but around the time this ad came out Skoda didn't have a  very good reputation, they where seen as an uncool car to own. This advert was really creative and a unique idea, I like that the car was made out of cake and that it showed you the process of it being made and the music went really well, its quite a happy feel to it. I just thought that it was something a bit different and also the bright orange attracts attention. It also gives you the sense of friendlyness because you can see the people making it and they all look like the are having fun.

Creative people-YouTube

On YouTube I came across a channel called Ten second songs and basically he recreates a song so that it is as if sung by 20 different artists but all of these are done using his own voice. It's really cleverly done because although he is using effects it's interesting to watch because it makes it hard to remember the lyrics when it's in a different style. It's something a bit different and obviously it must take hours for him to film and edit what turns into a 4 minute video.

The person who makes the videos is called Antony Vincent and his channel currently has 1,040,915 subscribers and his videos have 40,275,543 views. He  only has 11 videos and has only been running the channel for 8 months, it's incredible how fast his channel has gown and it shows that real talent can get you out there.

Link to his channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urzWY6sqVGw

Adverts-Sainsbury's Christmas ad

Sainsbury's this year had the idea of making the truce of World war one into a Christmas advert  but there has been a few different opinions on it. The first is that is a nice advert and that everyone should be remembering the soldiers who fought in the war. The other side is that they shouldn't be using a topic like war to help sell Christmas turkeys. When you look at it like that you can kind of see why there where so many complaints about the advert. One good thing that does come out of the ad, is that the chocolate bar shown in the advert they have actually made and they are available to buy but half of the profit goes to the families of past and present soldiers.

Campaign ads- NHS stop smoking

You may have seen pictures like this around on billboards, TV adverts, leaflets or on cigarette packets and the picture look pretty disturbing but do they actually work? The idea behind these horrible images is to shock people who smoke into seeing what they are actually doing to their bodies. 

In my opinion I don't think it works, now the images are on cigarette cartons and they are just as bad if not worse than the one's you see on TV, this is obviously because people who don't smoke don't need to see this kind of images. But as for those who do more disturbing images are needed but the people who buy them seem to ignore the warnings and the affects of smoking, they seem to think it won't happen to them and seem to be in a state of denial. 

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These adverts have also gotten to the point of using children in their ads to show parents and other people that smoking not only harms you but harms your family too. Still though it doesn't make people stop and it makes you wonder how far these adverts can and will go to actually affect people. 

Recycling-Green phone boxes

In London recently the old mistreated red telephone boxes have been cleaned up and revamped into solar boxes that you can use to charge your phone, they have solar panels on the top so they are environmentally friendly and free to use. In return people will watch adverts while their phone charges.

It is a short term fix if your battery is running really low or if you are waiting for someone and you want give your phone a little boost of power. This was created by Some newly graduated students from the London school of economics.Also the boxes are cleaned often so that they don't get all vandalised. 

I think that this a really great unique idea and will go down really well and be a great help to people, it's a nice creative way to stop the old telephone boxes being a waste of space. The adverts are also a really good way to pay for the maintenance of the solar boxes.

Print ad- Asda kim kardashian paper recreation.

This advert featuring Kim Kardashian has been a massively popular recently and although it has no purpose it does what it is supposed to do and goes viral to the point where it's ridiculously well known. Kim Kardashian posed for this in a magazine called paper just to create a stir and  keep people talking about her.

Asda saw the big deal with this and recreated it into an advert for people to buy they champagne for Christmas, it's quite a clever idea because although it may be controversial a lot of people will know and talk about the Paper ad, this will then generate the conversation about Asda remaking the advert and then this will also be quite well known. They have kept as close as they can to the original advert finding someone who looks a bit like her, they have also used similar type faces. It's also strange how their may be adverts or thingd in maagazines that you don't agree with but if it's what's popular and it works, then that's what is going to get your advert out there.

John lewis advert 2014

Like every year we see the John Lewis christmas ad which comes out in early November and every year they find some way of pulling on your heart strings and making their adverts so beautiful. They always have a really nice narrative and are executed really well. 

This one if you haven't already seen it is about a penguin that wants a partner to love him and he goes around with his owner and see's all the couples that are all loved up. He is obviously sad because he hasn't got anyone and so for Christmas the boy buys him a partner. You can see how happy he is and the boy is happy that his friend no has someone.

The message at the end is nice too, this advert is really clearly conveying the idea that John Lewis is the place to go to find gifts that people dream of. I just think that everything about this advert is amazing and I wouldn't change it at all, the song called Real Love by Tom Odell. It is quite slow and the piano makes it seem more intimate and personal. I like the way they have used a child actor for the ad and that he doesn't understand what the penguin want's but then he gets what he keeps looking for. It's nice the way he wants to give something back to his friend.

Iconic places from films

A lot of people will know where Platform 9 3/4 is from obviously the harry potter films and this is in Kings cross station in London, this is now a massive tourist location when I went to kings cross station there was a huge que just to have a photograph taken with the sign and half a trolley. It generates a lot of tourism to the area just because of the fact that it is so well known. There is also harry potter world in London in the Warner bro's studio's where people go to see the making of the film. It's amazing the amount of people who actually want to see it.

Hive advert

This is an advert that is trying to get people to want their new technology which is an app and thermostat that link the heating in your house to your phone so that when you are not there you can control it.

It's a really great concept and I bet the other gas companies are kicking themselves that they didn't come up with it first, the idea of controling your heating while you are out is amazing so in the winter you can turn the heating off when you are out at work and then put it on an hour before you get home so that it's nice and toasty when you get in without wasting gas or electricity during the day

The advert itself is quite random but the message that it is trying to convey is that you can be out doing anything and hive will control your heating so you don't need to worry about it. It's quite revolutionary and also a great step for British gas in being more green.

Argos Aliens

Argos started with this alien family idea which is really interesting as it shows how we live from a different perspective, It's clearly a family advert and has a humorous twist showing the aliens adjusting to life on Earth. The message of the adverts is always really clear, so Argos is a quick and easy way to shop and even aliens can do it.  I like how they have made a story out of it and they bought the new baby alien into the adverts, they have done a really good job of the adverts by adding little jokes here and there for instance the dad alien says that he brought a nose hair trimmer for his aunt. Then there are the adverts like the one where they find out they are having a baby and the role is reversed so that the dad is the one who carries the baby and it becomes funny because you see the different stages and they are exaggerated like the cravings and the first baby scan. Then at the end you see the baby and they have managed to make it look really cute by making it's eyes huge. Little things like adding a story line people can relate to helps to make adverts successful. 

Green flag advert

This advert is interesting because it's quite true the way that you imagination works to make up silly situations when you make a mistake. It starts off with the man and the realisation that he has put the wrong fuel in his car, then naturally his imagination makes up the most bizarre and far fetched scenario it can possibly come up with, because we always think of the worst possible outcome and in this scenario his girlfriend is upset about him missing the date and writes a song called piggy eye's which is quite out there and silly. It makes the advert funny and a bit more light hearted and then it finished with green flag saying they will cover you even if you fill up with the wrong fuel and their little ending says green flag no matter what. It makes you feel safe and want to choose them for your insurance company. 

This was made by Chi and Partners.

Orange ad campaign

Orange worked with Lucas film and the idea was to create an ad to promote the new star wars film, for this orange created limited edition phone content, collectable figurines and limited edition cargo boxes. The ad looks visually appealing. sticking with the sleek black white and orange colour scheme I like the way they are communicating that the phones are powerful but also they are linking it back to a film which people can relate to. Even people who haven't watched star wars will know what the characters are from. The ad is consistent and obviously use the type face that orange always use.

The ad was successful with some of the items becoming collectables and the phones sold out. I think it was a really good way to reach a large audience and get them engadgd with the brand.

Anchor cheddar advert

This is one of those adverts that you see on TV and actually watch. I like the way it's presented as you can clearly see that the target audience is adults and people with a busy life style. The way that they have put the message across about, slowing down and spending time doing nothing and enjoying being at home with a free schedule makes the advert quite relaxing but at the same time there are children running around. It seems quite contradictory but it's nicley presented as a day spent with family. And the simple idea of cheese on toast as it is a quick and nice meal that you can have any time of the day. 

Another thing that I like with this advert is that it has picked out two things that people like to watch the most, cats and babies which you can find all over YouTube and people love them. It was quite a smart idea to put them into the advert. It has some funny parts like the baby on the ceiling and the man who had his make-up done by the child and it's kept interesting. The shots of the bubbling cheese on toast are nicely added in so that you don't forget what the ad is about and it has been time lapsed so that the ad doesn't go on for too long and people don't lose interest.

Films- Disney's Melificent

This a film that has recently come out on DVD and I really liked it, Obviously it is a family kind of film with it being Disney, but it is great because it also has quite a good plot twist.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!! 

So in Sleeping beauty the film in which Melificent is the evil one, she places a curse upon Aurora so that on her 16th birthday she will prick her finger on a spindle of a spinning wheel and die, then the fairy changes the cure so that she only falls asleep and she wakes when kissed by her true love.

But In this film you see the story from Melificents perspective, she places the curse upon the child because she was betrayed by someone she loved, he cut off her wings to become king. 

Over the years she watched the child grow and the child believes that she is her fairy god mother, in the end Melificent grows to love Aurora and tries to undo the curse, but it couldn't be undone.

So Aurora pricks her finger and falls into her sleep, so Melificent finds the boy who Aurora met in the woods, unlike sleeping beauty Aurora doesn't awake from his kiss but from a kiss on the fore head from Melificent. 

What I like about this is that it has a dark feel behind it kind of like Tim Burton's films, but this was directed by Robert stomberg, he directed other films such as the pirates of the Caribbean , The hunger games and the golden compass which are all amazing films. I really like the modern twist and the different perspective that this film gives. It's one of those that make you want to watch more.

Advert Trends.

Recently there have been a couple of adverts on TV that have had elephants in them, this has become a sort of trend. Animal CGI has become quite advanced in the past year which you can see in recent films such as dawn of the planet of the apes, they look really good and although you can still tell they aren't real it won't be long till the advancements make it so you won't be able to tell the difference. The Money super market advert is one of the first to use the elephant, it looks pretty realistic apart from the dancing. This ad was made by Mother London who made a boring topic like car insurance entertaining and funny.

The next ad that uses a CGI elephant is the Mr Kipling ad it's got the same concept of a dancing elephant. The difference with this advert is that it's made more fun and more for a younger audience, also the elephant is pink this is probably because Kipling make things like French fancies which are pink and batten berg. I really like the playful nature of this ad. I at first thought the two ads where made by the same person but they weren't. This one is made by JWT London, both the companies have made their ads with similar points, such as they have iconic and catchy songs and also both of the adverts have a fist bump in them. 

 It's quite interesting the similar points in the two adverts that work so well and so they have been used in both and are successful without being to similar. It's also great how two different companies have managed to create a good advert for topics that are completely unrelated.

Television- The Apprentice week 5

This week the teams had to make a coach tour and fill 25 seats and sell them to make the most profit.

Team Summit and team Tenacity both had the same kind of idea of a history tour but the approaches where quite different. 

Team Tenacity's tour seemed more like a tour you would actually go on, their pricing was more realistic and the team seamed to know what they where doing. Although the team manager Daniel who is supposed to be a good sales man sold none of the tickets. They won in the end because they made the most profit and this was due to selling their tickets for higher prices and getting the best deals. So although they didn't sell out they did well. Also their tour was better because Lauren spent a long time studying the night before and delivered the information really well. The team also had a good idea to make custom bags with photo's on for the tourists which was a nice little extra cash maker.

Team Summit didn't have the best of starts at all Sanjay who is supposed to have managed a bank just randomly plucked a price for the tickets out of no where without a thought process and well he should have written out a rough idea to where the pricing point was going to be and what would cost what. The team didn't win because although they sold all their tickets they sold them for too little and didn't make as much as the other team despite selling off extras at the end. One of the team members Blanca made a big mistake by saying to the last group that they where their last change which made it so that they got played a bit and the price was dropped from £60 to £40 for 9 places which was a huge loss.  The tour they produced was not as good as the other's groups, it seemed quite childish and they didn't really know that much about the places and for the amount the guests paid it was a poor standard.

What I liked and learnt from this episode is that you should stick to the brief you are given and plan, if you deviate from the brief it won't be what had been asked of you and ultimately you will pay the price and in this case you get fired

Music

There isn't a day that goes by where you don't hear some kind of music weather your listening to it on your phone, iPod, laptop or even on the TV through adverts. Music can change the way you feel through the words the notes or the tempo, if you look at adverts such as the John lewis the hare and the bear the music really brings out the emotion behind the story. 

I also love the nostalgia it brings back when you listen to old songs or songs you haven't heard in a long time, it's like certain songs can unlock memories and bring them back. Music is also a huge communicator it connects people all over the world through festivals, concerts and shows.

Adverts use music to make the ad stick in your mind, if it has a catchy tune or a song that you might like then you are more likey to remember that advert, it all plays a role in the way we live and it's a great way to reach people. If I where to create an advert aimed at children for a company such as Argos I would use a song from the Disney film Frozen called Let it go. It was a huge hit with children but also an older audience liked the song too, it would be a way to get people to like and remember an advert.

Television- The apprentice week 4

This week on the apprentice the challenge was to create a YouTube channel and post  2 video's within 48 hours and the team with the most view wins.

Team Tenacity had the idea of a fitness theme but I feel that they really had a bad idea and a lot of people would find the fat daddy thing offensive. Anyone on YouTube will tell you that if something can be taken the wrong way, it will be and that's when you are in trouble. The whole thing just came across as bullying, but at the same time Felipe was the one who volunteered and put forward this idea. Ella wasn't a very good team manager, she just jumped on with the first idea and her team mentioned to her about it being offensive but she didn't want to know. A good team manager would have made sure all the team members where happy with the idea. The colabaration with the Lean machines I think is where they got the majority of views.

Team Summit had Solomon as the team leader, I think they had a better idea from the start, but I don't think it would have gone so well without the collaboration with Oli White, The idea of food challenges is a popular thing on YouTube and has been for a while so I think they did a good job on this one. If the people in the video didn't look so uptight and uncomfortable then I think they would have a lot more views.

Overall team Summit won with the most views and the better concept, I think what really helped team Summit out was the fact that they had done a lot of research into who to collaborate with and what theme to go with but they should have done a bit more research into their target market as the video was a bit silly and more for a younger audience than they wanted. 

Television- The Apprentice week 3

This weeks task was to make home fragrance products and sell them for the highest price and to win all they had to do is make the most money. Lord sugar decided to mix the teams up so a few people from team Summit moved over to team Tenacity and vice versa.

  

Team tenacity split into two and one half went to gather market research and the other half went with the team leader to decide how to make the candle and what ingredients to use, where they went wrong was the fact that they ignored what they found in the market research which was to not colour the wax and instead the coloured it yellow. They're design was good but I think that because of the black packaging it looked quite high end and so they found it easy to sell.

Team summit had a good design with their candle Beach dreams it was packaged really nicely they didn't colour the wax and used soy wax which is more organic and doesn't leave that black dust, it looked high end but not intimidating to the public so the selling of their product to the public went well, but they went wrong because the team didn't stick to a price point and where just selling for whatever they could. The team also made a mistake which could have been what cost them they're positions, this was the fact that the man at the luxury hotel wanted to buy the candles and the reed diffusers and yet the deliberately sold all the reed difusers, which lost them quite a bit of money.

Team Summit managed to sell all their stock while team Tenacity did have stock left over in the end team Summit lost because they didn't stick to their price point. 

Television-The apprentice week 2

This week the challenge was to create wearable technology and Lord sugar put froward Roberts name as the project manager because he is more fashion orientated he didn't end up being project manager and then he kept pushing the team on what to do even though it wasn't his decision. 

The person who ended up being project manager was Scott, straight away you can see that he wasn't going to be a good team leader because when they didn't like his idea he completely withdrew and then said that he wasn't going to take the blame. 

The boys team had the idea of making a jumper with a screen on so that you could upload any photo you  wanted, when they went to make the prototype the idea had already had been done and would take to long. The group of boys that went to make the prototype had to come up with a new product on the spot and had no clear direction as the project manger went off to pick fabric, when really he should have been with the others making the decisions. They created a jumper with a camera and some lights on which didn't look great and the team members tarnished any chance they had by saying "I wouldn't wear it in public" if he wouldn't then how could they expect anyone else to want it.

The girls team had the idea to make a jacket with lights a phone charger and a heater, the problem with this was that there where to many components the management seemed okay with this team but when they went to the clients they didn't like that there where to many things. Also when the prototype came there where solar panels on the shoulders which didn't really look appealing. They should have stuck to one or two of the idea's they had and developed them.

In the end the girls won but not by much this was due to the fact that their idea was better than the boys but it still could have been better. One thing the teams could have done is tailored their product to fit the clients they where meeting, such as JD sport they could have made sports wear or something that would fit in with sport. I think if the teams had worked better together then they would have both done a lot better.

Television- The apprentice week 1

This was the first episode of the new series, usually in the first episode of each series Lord sugar gives the candidates a product in which to sell and the team that makes the most money wins. This time he gave them all of the products from the past 9 series to sell. 

The teams are split into boys vs girls and this year Lord sugar has taken on an extra 6 candidates this year so that he can make the show a bit more juicy because of the fact that he can fire more than one each week. This has made the show much more interesting than previous years.

The boys team went wrong straight away because they didn't work out what had the highest value and in the end they weren't able to sell the T-shirts they also spent to much time faffing with gourmet hot dogs and Lord sugar stated later on that they would have sold just as well without all the extras but the T-shirts was the main reason for losing the challenge.

The girls team although they only sold the T-shirts for a small amount making no profit they did manage to sell them and all the other items for a good amount, they seemed quite focused and where productive on this challenge. In the end the girls team won and they showed that they where able to sell a range of different products to different markets.

The show is particularly interesting because of the mix of personalities this year, already there has been conflict between the team members. It's interesting the way it shows what each person is like and as the show goes on week by week you see what people are really like and how they handle each situation.