ethics and advertising

BLOG 4: FLAT EARTH

I do not particularly agree with the target market of this product, at least as far as the commercial is concerned. There is a chic, 20-30 year old girl just lounging in a chair in her yard and then she follows a pig into her modern meets 1970's home? I understand this chip is supposed to be healthy and it is to provide consumers with half of their daily vegetable or fruit needs, depending on the flavor purchased. But I think their target market should be someone on the run, who may not have time to buy, cut up, pack and eat real fruit or vegetables. Flat Earth chips should be replaced with the chips in the vending machine at universities and offices. Yea, I think this commercial would make much more sense in an office setting, (possibly featuring the cast of "The Office") because then it would be easier for people who are actually working, not lounging around, to get more servings of vegetables/fruits. The lady lounging around her yard and house obviously has plenty of time to go to the grocery store and cut up real vegetables to eat, instead of veggie chips, with a ton of processed ingredients.

If this ad were targeted toward a female college student, I would imagine her running late to class, and she's struggling with the decision of which snack she should choose. The adorable pig could catch her eye and lead her to Flat Earth chips, and the narrator of the commercial would fill her in on the purchase she should make (I think the narrator should be a female instead of the male on the original commercial, don't females targeting to females help sell more products through empathy?). Flat Earth will probably be positioned next to the chips, and the fact that Flat Earth chips has a half serving of vegetables or fruits will likely appeal to the female college student because she is probably trying to be healthy with the least amount of work, like most people, especially college students.

I think it is great that Flat Earth crisps include a serving of vegetables, but I also think eating the real deal is better. I am quite a health nut/snob..I try my best not to eat food with preservatives or overly processed ingredients. I have looked at the ingredients on the back of these crisps and they have at least 20 ingredients, with preservatives and corn syrup and hydrogenated oils. I consider it to be better for people to eat organic chips or natural chips with about five ingredients or less, made with un-skinned potatoes and healthy/natural/plant oils like olive, sunflower or canola, natural herbs or flavors and a limited amount of sea salt. But, if someone is to choose between Doritos or Sour Cream potato chips, Flat Earth crisps are definitely the better and healthier choice.

BLOG 3
Advertising and ethics aren't the best match. Advertisers are generally known for crossing too many lines, thus making their marketing schemes and tactics seemingly unethical. But I feel ethics in advertising is in the eye of the beholder; unless companies are making outrageous and untrue claims (think Upton Siclair's The Jungle). If someone really believes product after product will infact, "Change their life!" as some advertisers promise -- and their life continues to go unchanged, then it would be best for said person to stop making purchase after purchase of "life changing" goods.

American Apparel's Brand Identity

What started as a vertically integrated t-shirt company, making quality t-shirts made in American factories with American materials, and not overseas in sweatshops, has developed into an international go-to store for staple items such as t-shirts, tights, leggings, sweatshirts, shorts, and now even pants with buttons and a zipper, all in a wide variety of colors.

Candace Matthews thinks: Hipsters and V-necks. She also thinks of New York. And nylon leggings.

Hannah Samper: They have good basics/staples.

I think of most hipster girls in Greensboro. And all over, but specifically, Greensboro.

They both think of the ads and how racy they are. But now they think maybe they're too vulgar. She heard that one of the photographers asked a girl model to masturbate, and the photographer took a picture of her face...