Why?

Undertoad · 02-19-2002, 10:02 AM

Why do we ask questions with such vague answers?

Why do we sell things by showing pictures of entirely different things?

Why do we not explain the product itself?

Why do we spend millions to sell a concept without tying the concept to the product?

Why has nobody been fired yet for this stupid campaign?

Welcome to mlife.

Nic Name · 02-19-2002, 10:10 AM

Because we wouldn't be talking about it otherwise?

jaguar · 02-19-2002, 04:17 PM

.................................................?

Quote:

Why do we sell things by showing pictures of entirely different things?

Marketing...Association - that new shaver/softdrink will obviously instnatly surroudn with you amazingly attractive women.

Quote:

Why do we not explain the product itself?

Time? Becuase its apile of crap?

warch · 02-19-2002, 04:41 PM

The tease? The illusion of depth? The illusion of artistry?
Is this the commercial with the horrible, relentless squeeking swing? I dive for that mute button....

Quote:

Why do we not explain the product itself?

The product is boring, its the need, desire, drama of a life fully lived that is the focus and drives one to buy.

Nic Name · 02-19-2002, 04:51 PM

For those who don't use TV anymore, here are the mlife spots.

SteveDallas · 02-26-2002, 10:52 AM

Because it's all about branding... it's not enough to have a good product. There's some evidence it's not necessary to have a good product!!!

Also, I think advertisers have been seduced by the idea that an advertising campaign can become bigger than its product, and once in a while we see some kind of dumb excess like this.

By the way, if anybody liked that monster.com spot ... "I want to be a middle manager when I grow up" ... Check this out. I thought I was gonna die laughing when I saw it at a conference.

http://www.itc.virginia.edu/pubs/doc...deos/home.html

Undertoad · 03-09-2002, 10:32 PM

I could go on. And I shall.

Motorola's latest ads -- you've seen 'em, you just haven't associated it with Motorola. It's the "MOTO" ads. A quick-cutting blur of images, a mix of changing styles and spoken words and music. The ad confuses. You try to piece it together - what are they saying? What is this MOTO theme? Are there little sub-plots in the images?

The first question I asked myself was: what Japanese company is hawking their wireless phone line now? Samsung, Kyocera, and other such companies use ads that reinforce their Japanese style and especially their Japanese name. They want you to know they're Japanese companies.

Nokia, I've read, has benefitted from the confusion. Hearing a Japanese-sounding name, everyone assumes they're a Japanese company. (They're Finnish.)

So: by coming up with this "MOTO" branding, does Motorola want us to think they're Japanese?

elSicomoro · 03-09-2002, 11:03 PM

I remember when Motorolas were really the main game in town. Now Nokia seems to be the king. I guess Motorola is trying to reposition themselves. From what I've seen, the newer phones ARE sharp, as are their phones for Nextel.

But why WOULDN'T they want to boast that they are an American company, especially right now?

warch · 03-10-2002, 12:09 PM

Hmm. Here's something I just happen to be reading at work about the year 1900 by Patricia McDonnell- and her quote by Taylor:

"The frenic and disjointed turn-of-the-century American city had, as noted, an intensely visual aspect, one that derived largely from the culture of consumption that now seemed to pervade every facet of urban life. Consumer culture relied on the mobile urban denizen, one who assimilated the display of products and attractions through his or her eyes. In the larger city marketplace, a commotion of shop signs, dazzling electric billboards,advertising posters on kiosks, immense plate-glass shop windows framing alluring displays, fashionable wares in encyclopedic department stores- all jostled for attention. This kind of visual display was novel and resolutely modern, a part of "a culture marked by an accelerated proliferation...of sensations, fashions and styles." As the historian William R. Taylor observes, "each new genre of commercial culture compressed a representation of city life into its format. These new genres had in common a seemingly random, potpourri organization that continued to dramatize the discontinuity, the kaleidoscopic varitety, and the quick tempo of city life, as in the vaudeville review."

Its fascinating to look back at early 20th century advertisement and the first narrative films to see how they were constructed and understood. Continuity, overlapping time,multiple perspectives, flash back, montage,... Perhaps the accelerated fragments, distant references and inferred associations in the mentioned ads are where we've landed 100 years later, reflecting an even more visually based contemporary consumer culture - linear communication blasted further apart.

russotto · 03-11-2002, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Undertoad
I could go on. And I shall.

Motorola's latest ads -- you've seen 'em, you just haven't associated it with Motorola. It's the "MOTO" ads. A quick-cutting blur of images, a mix of changing styles and spoken words and music. The ad confuses. You try to piece it together - what are they saying? What is this MOTO theme? Are there little sub-plots in the images?

The first question I asked myself was: what Japanese company is hawking their wireless phone line now? Samsung, Kyocera, and other such companies use ads that reinforce their Japanese style and especially their Japanese name.

Samsung is Korean.

02-19-2002, 10:02 AM	#1
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	Why? Why do we ask questions with such vague answers? Why do we sell things by showing pictures of entirely different things? Why do we not explain the product itself? Why do we spend millions to sell a concept without tying the concept to the product? Why has nobody been fired yet for this stupid campaign? Welcome to mlife.

02-19-2002, 10:10 AM	#2
Nic Name retired Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 1,930	Because we wouldn't be talking about it otherwise? Last edited by Nic Name; 02-19-2002 at 04:20 PM.

02-19-2002, 04:51 PM	#5
Nic Name retired Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 1,930	For those who don't use TV anymore, here are the mlife spots.

02-26-2002, 10:52 AM	#6
SteveDallas Your Bartender Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Philly Burbs, PA Posts: 7,651	Because it's all about branding... it's not enough to have a good product. There's some evidence it's not necessary to have a good product!!! Also, I think advertisers have been seduced by the idea that an advertising campaign can become bigger than its product, and once in a while we see some kind of dumb excess like this. By the way, if anybody liked that monster.com spot ... "I want to be a middle manager when I grow up" ... Check this out. I thought I was gonna die laughing when I saw it at a conference. http://www.itc.virginia.edu/pubs/doc...deos/home.html

03-09-2002, 10:32 PM	#7
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	I could go on. And I shall. Motorola's latest ads -- you've seen 'em, you just haven't associated it with Motorola. It's the "MOTO" ads. A quick-cutting blur of images, a mix of changing styles and spoken words and music. The ad confuses. You try to piece it together - what are they saying? What is this MOTO theme? Are there little sub-plots in the images? The first question I asked myself was: what Japanese company is hawking their wireless phone line now? Samsung, Kyocera, and other such companies use ads that reinforce their Japanese style and especially their Japanese name. They want you to know they're Japanese companies. Nokia, I've read, has benefitted from the confusion. Hearing a Japanese-sounding name, everyone assumes they're a Japanese company. (They're Finnish.) So: by coming up with this "MOTO" branding, does Motorola want us to think they're Japanese?

03-09-2002, 11:03 PM	#8
elSicomoro Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 12,486	I remember when Motorolas were really the main game in town. Now Nokia seems to be the king. I guess Motorola is trying to reposition themselves. From what I've seen, the newer phones ARE sharp, as are their phones for Nextel. But why WOULDN'T they want to boast that they are an American company, especially right now?

03-10-2002, 12:09 PM	#9
warch lurkin old school Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Minnesota Posts: 2,796	Hmm. Here's something I just happen to be reading at work about the year 1900 by Patricia McDonnell- and her quote by Taylor: "The frenic and disjointed turn-of-the-century American city had, as noted, an intensely visual aspect, one that derived largely from the culture of consumption that now seemed to pervade every facet of urban life. Consumer culture relied on the mobile urban denizen, one who assimilated the display of products and attractions through his or her eyes. In the larger city marketplace, a commotion of shop signs, dazzling electric billboards,advertising posters on kiosks, immense plate-glass shop windows framing alluring displays, fashionable wares in encyclopedic department stores- all jostled for attention. This kind of visual display was novel and resolutely modern, a part of "a culture marked by an accelerated proliferation...of sensations, fashions and styles." As the historian William R. Taylor observes, "each new genre of commercial culture compressed a representation of city life into its format. These new genres had in common a seemingly random, potpourri organization that continued to dramatize the discontinuity, the kaleidoscopic varitety, and the quick tempo of city life, as in the vaudeville review." Its fascinating to look back at early 20th century advertisement and the first narrative films to see how they were constructed and understood. Continuity, overlapping time,multiple perspectives, flash back, montage,... Perhaps the accelerated fragments, distant references and inferred associations in the mentioned ads are where we've landed 100 years later, reflecting an even more visually based contemporary consumer culture - linear communication blasted further apart.

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