BEATS BY DRE TAPS PINOCCHIO FOR LESSER STRINGS.

“This is a celebration of life without strings. With Beats Wireless there’s nothing to hold you down, make you fret, or make you frown”- BEATS by DRE. I really like this commercial. Maybe it’s because I’m a fan of ‘Pinocchio’ the original film and the “Got No Strings” song. BEATS by DRE were genius to combine this vintage song to their latest release of wireless headphones. This commercial stars a bunch of current celebrities struting around the streets and dancing while rocking various style headphones and earbuds by BEATS. One of my idols, Pharrell Williams, is featured in this commercial which I feel make it more relevant. Pharrell is a tech gadget individual and he pays close attention to details. Having this wide range of celebrities featured makes this commercial appeal to a wide range of audience memebers.

I award this commercial as CULTURE. It’s hard to determine why I feel it’s culture, but the combination of new products and a vintage song can engage a bunch of generations to this commercial. Youtube comments by many subscribers said they only came to the page to listen to the song. Other Youtube subscribers mention they only came to this page due to their favorite celebrity being featured. This type of engagement level tells me that people had a positive reaction to something in this ad. I still won’t buy one of these headphones even though I very much like this commercial. My reasoning is the price is still the same and I think they’re too expensive for an average college student.

Watch the video and tell me your thoughts…

 

NEW ‘SANDY HOOK PROMISE’ AD CONTINUES THE FIGHT AGAINST GUNS!

You won’t find the typical boy meets girl love story here my friends! This is the story of a lovely lady…who probably won’t ever forget this day. As well as many other people in the U.S. who remembered that Sandy Hook day back in 2012. From that event, an organization formed called SANDY HOOK PROMISE which helps bring awareness and prevention towards gun violence with kids. A few days ago, SANDY HOOK PROMISE released their latest ad commercial which give us an eye opening example on how to detect a potential troubled individual. The video starts off innocent, but is a prime example showing how we often are blind to the undercry for help from people around us.

I obviously award this commerical advertising as for the CULTURE. There was no reaching for attention, but hoping you were already paying attention to details. Nothing  was for sale in this ad and the person of it was to educate our society. This ad seems to have done a good job. Almost all comments regarding this video has been positive since it’s releasing. “Thanks for powerful vid.I work in behavioral intervention and this is helpful” someone commented on Twitter. People are using this video content to change their behavior and it’s inspiring a reaction out of people. I actually first saw this video from a friend who retweeted the video and wrote “powerful”. I agree with the messaging of this video and feel the whole world needs to watch it. Since 1999 events like Sandy Hook elementary doesn’t seem rare anymore.

 

Watch the video above by clicking on it and let me know how you feel afterwards!!

APPLE Released A New Ad Humanizing Frankenstein.

Even monsters need love too around the holidays! Right before Thanksgiving, Apple has released a new commercial ad to fast forward people to the Christmas spirit. Honestly, I haven’t seen this commercial until I went digging for new material. Maybe the TV airing hasn’t been as heavily yet as we approach closer to Christmas Day. I’m not a big fan of Frankenstein nor can I hardly remember everything that took place in the old Frankenstein films. From my memory, Frankenstein was a science experiment grown out of control, even for his creator. In the film, Frankenstein is looked at as a monster, but this creature has human wants and needs as well. In this holiday ad, Frankenstein leaves his isolated home to join city folks to sing Christmas carols. His confidence isn’t up, but he is soon accepted in, as the people come around him to sing along. This all happens while Frankie plays music off his iPhone. LOL

It’s hard for me to decide rather if APPLE went REACHING with this commercial or they represented our current CULTURE well. It’s hard to decided for me because APPLE had a powerful and deep message in this commercial, but how does that make me want to buy and explain to me the quality of an iPhone. At the end of the commercial, it says “open your heart to everyone”. This sounds like a political statement to me. I agree with the statement due to a lot of hate going on in different parts of the world in recent times. APPLE wins on the moral and messaging strategy. It’s almost impossible to get an audience’s reaction to this commercial as I discovered APPLE doesn’t allow commenting under the video post on Youtube. I went to APPLE’s verified twitter account which they have a large following, but the account has no tweets listed. APPLE’s social media communication seems to mainly be from their APPLE MUSIC accounts. This is a different social media presence coming from a multi-billion dollar company.

To check out APPLE’s latest commercial ad and to create your own opinion, please click on the video below:

ADIDAS Wants To Keep Creating That New New!

One of Adidas’ latest commercials feature basketball’s most exciting athletes, James Harden! In this commercial James Harden talks about the “what ifs” of losing creative aspects of yourself little by little. What would the world be like if we all were more alike? What if we were controlled by from to do and what not to do? James Harden and Adidas doesn’t seem that they will give up their creativity skills to be more like their competition. Also in this commercial, other sides of life is compared to outside of basketball. We get the kids joking around in school, of course more basketball players, and the fashion world, all from the perspective of be uniquely different.

I award this Adidas advertisement as for the CULTURE! From my perspective this commercial is connecting more than selling shoes and apparel. I feel Adidas was trying to connect on the lifestyle point of view of an individualist. Just like Adidas competitor’s slogan, “Just Do It” by NIKE, Adidas marketed this ad towards people who’s always been asked “why are you doing that?”. I called this culture also due to the fact Adidas didn’t want the commercial to be solely about them, but how we must keep the culture of creativity flowing. An example of that is the new fashion trend of wearing running sneakers. Adidas’ new “Ultra Boost” line has been the most newly sought after sneaker since the signing of Kanye West to designer deal. Online most people are liking the commercial saying it’s cool and inspirational. Someone commented “This is inspirational even for people outside of basketball. Like, when I was taking art classes my teachers would try to remove any kind of originality to my projects and expected everyone to have the exact same thing. Same for other classes when I tried doing things my way. When I read a book and I learned a lesson but the teacher said that the meaning behind it was something else or when I found my own way of solving a math problem. Even when I got the right answer, I had to do it their way”. This person’s quote inspired me to think about all the times I and my classmates were instructed, but not allowed to express what was in our minds. It will be a sad world when there’s more than five people in one place that are just alike.

Check out the Adidas commercial and let me know what you think of this article afterwards:

CITY HARVEST Takes Care of The Big Apple

I was leaving school and came across this ad at the 135th St. train station. What caught my eye was what looked to be two boys from different backgrounds stopped their game of basketball to pose for the camera. It wasn’t clear, but I had to read on why they decided to pose for. On the left side of the ad were a group of fruits and statements comparing the fruits to looking out for NYC kids. I felt the message was powerful enough to be a representative of a worldly concern.

I award this ad as for the CULTURE! With a few thousands followers on Twitter and Instagram, not much is being commented on regarding helping to feed the less fortunate or our youths. I’m not sure if people don’t really care or it’s a sensitive topic to just make a comment on social media, but I know restaurant food wastage is big in many cities. Most of the comments are only single words like “awesome” and “great!” based on what’s in the picture posted. I call this ad “culture” because CITY HARVEST is being honest with facts and didn’t go straight to the celebrity spokesperson route. Other cities around the US can relate to this ad as well. There are wealthy Midtown area supermarkets, also local mom & pops shops and youth centers in the same city. The diversity of NYC is reflected by the two boys hugging it out, showing how the wealthy, the not so rich, and all individuals effects one another. I find interesting in an over populated state, you don’t see many ads like these around wealthier locations. Who’s really getting the message? It’s like telling the working class about the importance of having a job. Maybe as Americans were only in the mood of giving back and helping only during the holiday season!

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Ice-T!

It’s never too late to give my opinion! A commercial ad I’ve been seeing on TV for a while now, has finally gotten me to finally saying something. This GEICO commercial has the former hip-hop rapper “Ice-T” supervising two kids selling lemonade drinks on a front lawn. After neighbors constantly ask if is that ice tea or ice-T, they get turned down reading the sign.

I’m awarding this commercial as REACHING for the stars! First of all, after watching this commercial for weeks and weeks now on television, seeing an extended version on Youtube opened up a few more questions from me. The GEICO’s Youtube account plays an extended version of the commercial, which on TV they only play the last 20 seconds with Ice-T already in the scene. I prefer the extended online version just because there’s a build up to what has these people so confused. This commercial was released in early September, which also seems a bit odd for a summer time feel so close to the autumn season. This commercial is still being aired to this day! My main issue with this commercial is that I see no clear purpose for the kids selling lemonade to reflect car accidents. I felt this commercial was reaching because it seems to me that the top marketing strategy was to get a celebrity figure and try to be funny around him. Plus they used a typical ice tea joke SMH. A person commented under the Youtube video saying “great commercial. Although it won’t effect who I buy insurance from. I go for the cheapest possible, I don’t care about anything but price”. I couldn’t agree more with this person’s comments. I feel a majority of car owners get insurance that best fits their lifestyle and mostly a plan that saves them monthly fees. Interpreting realistic life concerns with car owners might have engaged more for customers to consider GEICO. They didn’t even show any cool cars to grab car lovers attention.

CLICK BELOW:

Judge for yourself by watching this GEICO car insurance commercial.

The ‘Come Out of Nowhere’ NIKE commercial narrated by ‘King James’.

Late October 2016, Nike debuts one of its’ latest “Just Do It” commercials depicting the power of where having self-confidence and determination can take you in life, starring and narrated by LeBron “The King” James. This commercial kicked off the start of the new 2016-17 NBA season, following the championship win by The Cleveland Cavaliers last season. The best person to have a main role in this commercial was nobody better then LeBron James. The highlight of this commercial was the infamous block LeBron did late in the 4th quarter of game 7, to help seal Cleveland’s historic win.

I’m awarding this commercial as for the CULTURE! After watching this commercial, I feel NIKE tapped into an emotion many people, young to older adults, experience no matter if it’s in sports or in the business world. The emotion of never giving up and working pass “hating” individuals to get to where you want to be. The words you hear along your quest can be a deterrent on the mind, but always know why you started the journey. When NIKE released this commercial on Twitter, they included the caption “your circumstances don’t determine your outcome. Come out of nowhere like @KingJames“. What I liked most about this commercial that reflected culture are the scenes of a young black male playing basketball at a predominantly all white school, the Asian teenage boy getting knocked down during a pickup game, and the smallest kid on the court coming up with the steal/assist against grown men. These are all parts of real life that nobody really mentions, but we kind of accept. The feeling of being out of place, but you enjoying what you’re doing can seem like a self conflict. There are individuals all over the world struggling to keep proving themselves worthy of their skills. I will admit there were times I would be the only black male in a particular class or neighborhood and having the awkward feeling. At the end of the day I was in these places for a purpose and a goal. One Twitter follower commented: “Always ten steps ahead of your competition. Great commercial as always”.

 

Check out the commercial and judge for yourself on if NIKE did too much reaching or represented for the culture!