A Mad Men Survey!

To my loyal readers,

I'm currently in the process of writing a thesis at Appalachian State University on the nature of product placement in modern entertainment media. I plan to use the products in Mad Men as the primal case study for indistinguishably intertwining advertising and entertainment media.

WITH THAT BEING SAID, I hope you'll take a couple seconds to fill out the following survey about products subtly and purposefully placed in Mad Men.

Products in Mad Men Survey

Advertising Portfolio: Str-AD-tegies

Introduction

This blog post is a portfolio of ads which I’ve rhetorically analyzed to uncover hidden layers of meaning and intent behind the messages. By using this approach, we gain a deeper level of meaning behind the messages, and ultimately are able to read between the lines of persuasion.

The modern era of advertising attempts to persuade us with how we feel about a product more so than what we think about it. (Considine & Haley, 1999) Also, within a modern media-saturated culture, advertisers have met us at a point at which we have a vetted interest in the message; through forms of entertainment. In 2011, the FCC addressed this fusion of entertainment with public interest and determined that regulatory measures could not be taken because often the entertainment form and the advertising measures are too intimately linked to identify as separate entities. (Cain, 2011) Advertising is therefore a hybrid of entertainment, and private interest messaging which employs appeals to emotional and subconscious thought, in order to yield beneficial action from the general public.

Baad Sells

Salem Cigarettes

This print ad from Salem cigarettes is a perfect example of rebellion from the very popular and unanimously recognized belief that smoking is bad for your health. The argument made by the text is that you don’t have to look past the surface to get the ‘happiness’ this product offers. “I don’t analyze smoking. I enjoy it.” It’s followed by a longer, colloquial paragraph giving a simplistic and seemingly rational argument from a charismatic looking individual. He says you can stand against the overwhelming majority with a cigarette, and be different and happy. Much like the gun example in Considine & Haley’s piece, this ad functions with the rationale of “It feels good, buy it!” (Considine & Haley, 1999)

Pitches and Persuasions

Celebrity Endorsement: Matthew McConaughey Lincoln

This ad features well-known actor and movie star, Matthew McConaughey, talking about his connection with Lincoln cars. In addition to his claim in the commercial that he’s been driving Lincoln cars long before people payed him to, he starred in a 2011 movie called “The Lincoln Lawyer.” (The Lincoln Lawyer, 2011) The use of McConaughey talking about Lincoln makes him a personal advocate for the brand, and associates his coolness and success with Lincoln Motor Company. Therefore, this ad is aimed at anyone who likes McConaughey or his movies as he not only has credibility, but here acts as a salesman.

Negative and Comparison: Sprite Street Basketball Commercial

I loved this commercial as a kid, just because I thought it was super cool. It shows a group of street youthful (18-25) pick-up basketball players feeling heat exhausted on a ramshackle court. Then, one of the basketball players takes a sip of Sprite and casts himself into Sprite’s world of thirst quenching delight. The basketball court becomes a pool which all of the players can swim in. The commercial ends with a buoyant bottle of Sprite coming to the surface of the pool/court with the slogan “Freedom from Thirst”; providing a solution to the negative problem of being a thirsty individual on a hot summer day.    

Plain Folks: Dale Peterson for Alabama Agricultural Commissioner

This ad romanticizes Dale Peterson as an upstanding member of Alabama, and hopes to promote himself to the agricultural/ farmer market that makes up a large portion of his state. Peterson also utilizes romanticized props like guns and pictures of the constitution to his advantage by associating these deep held traditions with his candidacy for Agricultural Commissioner. He also criticizes his opponent calling him a “dummy” for bragging about gaining illegal contributions on his Facebook page. He then raises a gun to the camera and says “We’re Republicans we should be better than that,” which could easily qualify as some sort of veiled threat. All in all, this ad is representative of the core values of a large chunk of Alabama, although to the rest of the world it seems pretty humorous.  

Alcohol Advertising

Heineken- Sing It Out Loud

"Sing It Out Loud" by Heineken simultaneously brought the ideas of quirkiness, coolness, sex appeal and cultural equity to its product in this single 90-second commercial.

• Type of alcohol- Heineken beer
• Age group- It depicts a white male in his late 20s or early 30s interacting with people of all age groups and ethnicities, with special emphasis on his interactions with women.   
• Takes place at a party/jamboree, which this guy is a guest of honor
• The main character man is making an entrance to this high-class get together/gathering.  He does special handshakes with all of the pre-existing party members. He also subtly and smoothly interacts with the attractive women he runs past while in the process of his grand entrance. At the end of the commercial, he gets up on stage with the bad who’s singing the background music and toasts to the crowd holding a Heineken. Essentially, the ad makes him look really cool.  
• A party is a hip and exciting environment which the viewer automatically associates with Heineken. The white male lead has a goatee and a unique white coat in the end of the commercial, making him a prototypical protagonist with his own unique spin. Moreover, his apparent regularity as what can only be described as “normal dude” makes him accessible to a male-dominated beer-buying population.
• Most of the interactions start as serious confrontations, like a standoff, and then become a playful handshake or some form of flattering fake-fighting.  The best example comes when an oriental looking character begins performing martial arts on the opposite side of the room from our protagonist. After coming face to face with our protagonist and exchanging quick karate-style hand movements juggling a Heineken, the man smiles as an impressed subordinate being handed the beer.  
• The socio-economic group in the ad are at some sort of ball, so I would imagine upper-middle to high class individuals, which in a way matches the price bracket of Heineken. For a mass distributed beer, it tends in the upper-middle price range of mass-produced beers comparable to Corona or other imported light beers.  
• For one, the commercial shows the excitement and pleasure experienced during the time you drink Heineken instead of the lack of pleasure and excitement experienced the morning after. Also, I think it romanticizes the idea of making a grand entrance to a party, because in reality, no one could ever make an entrance like this guy.

Women In Advertising: Veganism Body Scan Ad

“Women use and need products to attract the attention of men.” (Considine & Haley, 1999)

To play devil’s advocate for my criticism, I think the producer of this ad might say that this is highlighting this as a specific benefit of veganism. However, that implication cuts both ways. It implies that if you aren’t vegan you won’t be proud to get body-scanned and potentially be ashamed of presenting their body to men, or society as a whole.

I would also like to ask this ad producer if their potentially vegan market is dominated by women. And I don’t think the answer would really matter, because women who are open minded enough to go on a very restrictive and relatively expensive diet, are probably also literate enough to be able to see through ad campaigns like this. In my favorite show Mad Men, they perpetually use the phrase “Men want her, women want to be her” as an excuse to put a sexy woman in an ad.  However that phrase was essentially just an assumption created by advertising executives who believed that women wanted to be the complementary accessory to the egomaniac men that they were. Even if this ad were effective with females, I don’t think they would resort to the drastic dietary restrictions of veganism. I imagine all this would do is create a greater discomfort in women with their own bodies.  

Product Placement:

30 Rock: Cisco Telepresence

Telepresence on 30 Rock from ITP Telepresence on Vimeo.

30 Rock uses humor to get around the fact that they consistently incorporate product placement into their show. This example (although poor quality) explicitly identifies Cisco as a product placed into the show, and uses humor to make it a prop rather than a product. So while it is an advertisement, the way that it's written as a joke makes it seem like part of the show. This is critically important when it comes to product placement. No viewer wants their program interrupted by some plug for a company or product. This ruins the entertainment for the viewer, and makes it apparent that the program is no longer an entertainment program but rather a commercial. However, if the product is integrated subtly or with humor as it is here, serves to achieve the opposite effect and actually intrigue people in its role in the program.

OK Go Needing/Getting Music Video: Featuring Chevrolet Car

This is a music video from the band OK Go, which uses a microphoned and gadget-ed Chevrolet car to interact with objects in the physical realm as it drives by to create tonal noises that match the instruments on the song they’re performing. OK Go is famous for their ambitious and creative music videos which are extremely intricate and require intense planning and preparation. However, many of these videos are so impressively complex, they require a corporate sponsor to pay for all of the production and then the video can be used as an entertainment ad for both OK Go and the sponsor. This video’s corporate sponsor is Chevrolet. The car is the focus of the entire video. As the car hits barrels and other trinkets which in turn vibrate individual notes, the members of the band sing acapella style in the cab of the car. Both OK Go and Chevrolet are happy about this project because OK Go achieved it’s creative vision with the help of Chevy, who gained a commercial which people online will actively search for to watch over and over.  

Free Choice

NBA Playoffs: Kobe Bryant Los Angeles Lakers

This ad takes an incredibly exciting moment, like the final moment of an NBA playoffs game, and juxtaposes it with slow dramatic music, and slow-motion black and white video. After NBA superstar Kobe Bryant hits a game-winning shot, it zooms in to Kobe at mid-court fist pumping and his teammates ecstatically hugging and celebrating the win. For all intents and purposes, Kobe composure during the scene makes him seem “amazing.” The tagline becomes, “Where will amazing happen this year?” Followed by an NBA Playoffs Logo and the final tagline "Where Amazing Happens."

Dodge George Washington Commercial

This commercial uses romanticism to paint Dodge as an American company. It’s humorously romanticized as something that helped the patriots defeat the British in the American Revolution, and I think people enjoy it all the more because it’s so ridiculous. The tagline goes “Here’s a couple of things America got right: cars, and freedom.”

Works Cited:

1. Considine, D., & Haley, G. (1999). Visual messages: Integrating imagery into instruction (2nd ed.). Englewood, Colorado: Teacher Ideas Press.
2. Cain, Rita Marie. (2011) Embedded Advertising on Television: Disclosure, Deception, and Free Speech Rights. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing: Vol. 30, No. 2, 226-238.
3. The Lincoln Lawyer [Motion picture]. (2011). Distributed by Entertainment One Films.