Old and new advertisements

Here is my old and new advertisements assignment. Granted, this is a day late, but better late than never right???

Advertising is a tool that is over a century old that has companies use to promote their products and get their name out in the marketplace. Every day, someone is exposed to advertising in some form and it begins to prominently influence their lives. Whether it be through the food they eat, the beverages they drink, the clothes they wear, the car they drive, the stores they shop at, and far beyond, advertising is something that touches the lives of millions, and has been doing so for over 100 years.
One of my assignments was to compare ads for three specific companies or products and discuss how they have evolved over time.

The first product that I chose to explore the ads for was Budweiser, which has been a familiar product since the late 1800's. The vintage ad that I found for Budweiser came from 1940. This ad featured what appears to be a hand-drawn image of two young children and their dog watching a bus drive by. The phrase that appears next to this image is "Their Hero Arrives on the Next Bus." You find out that the hero they are referring to is the children's father who will be arriving home from work shortly. This is written in one of the 2 paragraphs of text below the image. Under this is a very simple Budweiser logo with a promotional test for the product.

This ad features a lot of text and tells a story rather than just simply advertising the product. The target audience of this ad is very small and focused at attracting working parents (primarily fathers) who may want to come home and have a cold beer while spending time with their families. The logo for the beer is small and at the bottom of the page. This ad uses white space effectively, but unfortunately it is not very eye-catching. I feel like this ad would have been more effective without all the writing, and the imagery should have been more effective so people would have known right off that they were looking at a beer ad.

I liked the modern Budweiser ad much better. it was much simpler but I feel like it advertised the much more effectively. For starters, it features a very eye-catching product logo at the very top of the page, so readers are instantly aware of the product that is being advertised. The ad itself features an image of a large beer bottle with various party/clubbing symbols around it. Their slogan, "King of Beers" is featured in a small bubble around the other symbols, so it is still visible but does not dominate the page or take anything valuable away from the ad. The phrase "King of the Club" is featured in a banner at the bottom of the page.

The logo and two slogans featured in this ad are the only words that are used within the ad, and yet readers are more than aware of what the product is and the image that it is trying to portray. The color scheme consists of eye-catching blacks and reds, with a touch of white to break it up and make it stand out even more. The target audience that this ad is reaching out to is also consistently larger, as it targets both younger and older generations who still enjoy the clubbing scene. The ad is straightforward and to the point while still being effective. This is why it is well done.

The next product that I chose to explore the ads for was Barbie, a favorite toy of young girls since the early to mid 1900's. The vintage Barbie ad that I found appears to have come from around the 1950's or 60's. This ad is for a new, talking Barbie and features a hand drawn, humanistic image of a Barbie doll in a risque pink outfit. In a conversation bubble at the top of the page, the Barbie is telling you that she can say many "swinging" things. Under the conversation bubble, the fact that the product is new is emphasized along with the Barbie logo, as both appear bold and in color. The bottom of the ad features several short sentences describing the doll in small bold black print. The fact that the doll talks is mentioned the same way, 3 different times within the ad.

The colors in this ad were very dull, and the writing was plain and boring. The logo, and the fact that the product is new should be featured at the top of the article so that they are the first thing that people see. I also feel like this ad is not targeting the appropriate audience, as most little girls are not going to be interested in taking the time to read all about the doll, or may not be able to read at all. This ad is targeted more at parents who may want to buy the doll for their little girls, but it still doesn't give them much to look at, and takes away from the ad. I was not particularly impressed by the style of this ad.

The modern Barbie ad was very straightforward. it features a large image of a doll's face on a bright pink background with white stars and a large bright white Barbie logo. The logo is the only word that is used in this ad and I feel like this is more than enough as the imagery can speak for itself. A little girl is very likely to recognize a picture of a Barbie doll and the Barbie logo, and will be more interested in this than reading about the doll. The ad is also very brightly colored and eye-catching, making it ideal for attracting the attention of little girls. I feel as though this ad is more effective than it would be had it modeled the vintage ad.

The last ads that I chose to explore were for the jewelry store, Zales. The vintage ad that I explored looks to be at least 20 years old, and it was advertising a watch sale. This ad is black and white and had a lot of writing (which in this case was necessary if it was advertising a sale). The border and background surrounding the ad features images of various watches. This appeared to be an ad that came from a newspaper, and it attracted my attention because of the bold print and watch images. They made the most of the space that they had and were able to get the point across. If this were a full page ad, or an ad that were to be featured in color in a magazine, than I would have liked to see it be more creative. In this case; however, it served its purpose and I was okay with it.

The modern Zales ad that I found was my favorite of all of them. This ad was done using a solid black background. In the center of the page, there is an image of a beautiful diamond ring and the words "Love Rocks" written in bright white letters above the image. This is a very simple ad, but one that will initially attract the attention of females wanting a diamond, or males looking to buy a diamond for their girls. Nothing else is necessary, this ad is great as is.