Ever made fun of a commercial, a TV show, or a romantic comedy? Of course you have. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel. But even shooting fish in a barrel can be done with style. Check out Info Mania’s Sarah Haskins’ Target Women spots in which Haskins dissects how the media types depicts we women types, especially when it comes to those matters so dear to the lady brain, like
Botox,
birth control,
chick flicks,
female political candidates,
number two,
cleaning,
jewelry,
diets,
aging,
skin care,
the Oscars,
Disney Princesses,
vampires,
The View,
Michelle Obama’s arms,
Lifetime programming,
chocolate,
lady parts,
laundry,
security,
weddings, and of course that official food of women,
yogurt. You can find a complete listing of Target Women spots
here.
posted by orange swan
on Jan 20, 2010 -
72 comments
"What if America wasn't America?" That was the question posed by a series of ads broadcast in the wake of the September 11th attacks, ads which depicted a dystopian America bereft of liberty:
Library -
Diner -
Church. Together with more positive ads like
Remember Freedom and
I Am an American, they encouraged frightened viewers to cherish their freedoms and defend against division and prejudice in the face of terrorism (
seven years previously). The campaign was the work of the
Ad Council, a non-profit agency that employs the creative muscle of volunteer advertisers to raise awareness for social issues of national importance. Founded during WWII as the War Advertising Council, the organization has been behind
some of the most memorable public service campaigns in American history, including
Rosie the Riveter,
Smokey the Bear,
McGruff the Crime Dog, and
the Crash Test Dummies. And the Council is still at it today, producing striking, funny, and above all
effective PSAs on everything from
student invention to
global warming to
arts education to
community service.
Additional resources:
A-to-Z index of Ad Council campaigns -
Campaigns organized by category -
Award-winning campaigns -
PSA Central: A free download directory of TV, radio, and print PSAs
(registration req'd) -
An exhaustive history of the Ad Council [46-page PDF] -
YouTube channel -
Vimeo channel -
Twitter feed
posted by Rhaomi
on Sep 11, 2009 -
69 comments
The evolution of the US presidential campaign ad, 1952 to 1996...
1952: Eisenhower-Nixon (
We Like Ike,
The Man from Abilene)
vs Stevenson-Sparkman (
I Love the Gov [apologies for the intro],
Ike... Bob..., Vote Stevenson/The Music Man, (
Remember the Farmer, Back to the Days of '31).
Bonus: Newsreels dealing with the campaigns.
1956: Eisenhower-Nixon (
Eisenhower Answers America: The Cost of Living [excerpt],
Corruption (california spot))
vs Stevenson-Kefauver (
How's that again, General?,
The Man from Libertyville [same annoying intro], Ad-lee, Ad-lie).
Bonus: Election Day newsreel, including a santa Claus arriving in a flying saucer;
Eisenhower, Suez, and hungary in 1956.
[more inside]
posted by flibbertigibbet
on Aug 22, 2008 -
46 comments
Blacklisted! The
bankruptcy of the liberal
Air America Radio Network is old news. What's new is a leaked ABC memo to affiliates (.
pdf original) listing 90 corporations and major advertisers that stipulated that their ads not be aired during the broadcast of Air America content.
Is there any hope that radio or television news in the United States can report stories that do not uniformly support the goals and viewpoints of the S&P 500?
There are of course,
alternative models. Is it time for a
PBS Newschanel?
posted by washburn
on Nov 4, 2006 -
58 comments
Breaking News: Pop-up ads suck. Wired has a little op-ed piece about the netizens' extreme dislike of pop-up and pop-under ads. Using such choice quotes as, "A study conducted last year by Dynamic Logic found that almost 80 percent of those surveyed had a 'very negative' opinion of pop-up ads," the author goes on to chastise mainstream sites that still make use of them. Of course, his advice would be taken a great deal more seriously if his column didn't sport a massive pop-up ad for
Blockbuster Online.
posted by LondonYank
on Mar 3, 2005 -
30 comments
The Indiana Supreme Court
scolded personal injury law firm Keller & Keller for their television ads that "create an impression that the claims they handle are settled, not because of the specific facts or legal circumstances of the claims, but merely by the mention of the name of the respondents' firm to insurance companies." Interestingly a search for this turned up
Network Affiliates
Incorporated, a company that sells advertising to lawyers.
Television ads are evidently
not the
best way to find competent legal council and are considered to
be
unethical
in parts of Australia. (Just to provide four different points of view on this issue.)
posted by KirkJobSluder
on Aug 9, 2003 -
14 comments
Sony writes 'article' for Salon. In an effort to find new revenue streams, Salon has published an ad/article written by Sony Corp.
National Geographic and
Parent Soup have also published ad/articles, though
the New York Times said no. While the articles do not directly reference Sony products, the feature people who do fascinating things with technology... technology which, it just so happens, is advertised conveniently right next to the technology featuring passage.
Is this sort of thing ever ethical? If so, what sort of disclosures are necessary. Clearly the ad/articles are intended to appear to be regular content.
posted by 4easypayments
on Dec 2, 2002 -
29 comments
'Is media bias real?', part two: Left-leaning media criticism folks
FAIR have produced a report detailing some examples of of publishers, advertisers, and government officials killing stories they don't like and placing stories they do. What about the Chinese Wall between the business of news and the actual newsgathering? To quote a CBS news producer on the distinction between entertainment and news, "That line was over a long, long time ago....That line is long gone."
posted by snarkout
on Feb 25, 2001 -
18 comments
Is this annoying to anyone else? I usually get most of my news from either ABCnews.com or CNN.com, then this morning I noticed that every time I load ABCnews, an annoying ad banner pops up for AT&T over the browser toolbar. I know that big sites have used popups before (usually as announcements or something else), but an ad popup on such a major site seems like an even further blurring of that line between media and advertising. I guess I'm switching news sources.
posted by almostcool
on Nov 28, 2000 -
18 comments
I approached
this review expecting it to be of the "major media providers are the problem, not the solution" sort, but discovered something somewhat different:
"It’s not that the medium of the modern political campaign–television advertising–failed to do justice to men of substance, but that men of substance failed to adapt to television advertising..."
posted by dcehr
on Aug 7, 2000 -
3 comments
Advertising on Your GPS Reciever It looks like advertisers are already dreaming up new uses for the higher quality GPS signals.
"You're walking down the block, your phone goes off as you pass every store and tells you that there's a 50-percent-off sale."
Someone remind me why it was a good idea to deregulate the GPS?
posted by darainwa
on May 27, 2000 -
4 comments
