UNIVERSITY OF SURREY

SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

MARKETING COMMUNICTION

AMAN KANSAL6152235

INTERNATIONAL MARKETING MANAGEMENT

Introduction

Advertisements have been the way to reach the masses for as long as the human race came into existence. Since then the advertisements have been developed to portray the social culture and the technological changes that has have been evolving.

An advertisement does the work of conveying; pursuing and reminding its audience about the product or service.

There are different theories that talk about the way people react to the advertisements but they like AIDA and hierarchy-of-effect model but they are not able to judge complex reactions, so there are “covert” and “ostensive” way of analyzing the adverts and interpret them.(hackley, 2010)

The three advertisements that I have chosen use covert way of conveying the messages. The first one is the Krispy Kreem , second is goodparetns.pl and third is a very old advert printed during 1970, Mr. Leggs

Krispy Kreme

“Krispy Kreme-Chocolate Karnival” was the theme used to endorse ultimate chocolate lavishness by Krispy Kreme- Turkey (2011).

Looking at the advertisement it is very apparent that the ‘target audiences’ are the adolescence and young adults who are very fond of chocolates and are meticulous about

the accessories they carry in terms of color and design; like the colors of umbrellas is very vibrant with the matching strip towards the end.

For us chocolate tends to take many forms like that of happiness, sweetness, passion, love, pleasure and celebration (is the central focus of the advertisement. Like a festival has a food associated to it example for Easters people have hard-boiled egg, lamb or ham depending on location, country and family traditions, people have chocolate for different occasions.(Grivetti and Shapiro, 2009)

This advertisement highlights two umbrellas dripping chocolate droplets on to the floor as if it was raining chocolate instead of water from the place two people are coming.

The ‘Semiotic message’ of this advertisement is much deeper than it seems to be as the color theme used by the Creative Director Kerem Yavi, Art Grup (Adoholic, 2011) sustains a very sensitive issue of friendship and national peace.

Based on the theme of ‘active-interpretation’, the set-up with typical wooden flooring; wallpaper with wooden imprint and the light coming through the door depicts that two people have come home. The amount of chocolate dripped from the each umbrella notifies that they came in at the same time.

However, the color of the umbrellas that has been used is very unusual combination especially to be used on the internet, as the combination of blue and green creates a conflict between the mental process and by the very nature they conflict with each other to take the attention of the user. (Anthony, 2010)

This means that the two people who came in together do not usually live together; have different choices and experience conflicts with each but still live in the same surroundings as it rained at the same time there.

By this, the creative-head tries to interpret the current insurgent activities and disturbances in Turkey, where people living together in different societies are at clash with each other over the national issues.

However, the chocolate droplets try to ‘connate’ the message of peace and harmony; rewarding yourself (Dreams, 2004) and the paying attention to the others rather than fighting over issues and alarming the national peace.

The presumptions done for this advert are ‘ambiguous’ but it certainly does not follow the normal loom of conveying the deeper message. A person may not understand the creative directors’ clever execution of the ‘covert communication’.

Good Parent: Boy

Unengaged parents are parents in name only, claims W.Doyle Gentry (2010). Parenting without any common sense is as bad as domestic violence, which is “terrorism in home” according to DC. Donna Shalala, American Medical Association (1994).

The campaign launched in Poland in 2009 by “goodparent.pl” states “you can lose more than patience” with a picture of a child broken into pieces like a fragile object smashed on the ground.

The ‘deliberate audience’ is the parents’ especially new parents who need to be extra cautious while dealing with their children as their behavior can lead the child to a worthy life or a worthless life. (Callaway, 2000)

The advertisements’ ‘affective communication’ is that of fear, sadness and pain that the child goes through because of the odious treatment of the parents not compulsory towards the child but also the violence that goes in the home within the parents that can shatter the child(Reilly & Rittner, 1993)

The image conceives the severity of the campaign. The white color theme representing the deepest mourn in the house as it was during the 15th century amongst the European queens (Smith, no date). The vulnerability of the parents is ‘hyperbolized’ by fact that the broken child is hollow from inside symbolizing that the child is emotionally abused or neglected for a long time and is now finally shattered into pieces. There are no visible scars on the body of the child, which upholds that there is no kind of physical abuse on the child, but emotional abuse. (Shumow & Posner, 1998)

Additionally, the house seems to empty as there is no evidence of anybody around to monitor the actions of the child. The electric socket behind the child is open and can be a possible threat to the child’s safety.

Furthermore, the light coming from the door confirms that it is the morning time justifying that the day has started with a moaning atmosphere and nobody around. The white dress of the child, which perceptibly is the parents’ choice, expresses lament emotions of the parent towards each other or towards the child.

The ‘resonance’ of this advertisement is to attest that ‘emotional reactivity’ of a parent is the worst enemy when it comes to handling a child. The reaction of the parent can be so devastating that it can lead the child to stay in abusive situation as they have nowhere to go and lone could become their ultimate fear. (Maccoby and Martin, 2005)

Mr. Leggs Trousers

Launched during the 1970’s in the United States, Mr. Leggs trousers read:

“It’s nice to have a girl around the house.Though she was a tiger lady, our hero didn’t have to fire a shot to floor her. After one look at his Mr. Leggs slacks, she was ready to have him walk all over her. That noble styling sure soothes the savage heart! If you’d like your own doll-to-doll carpeting, hunt up a pair of these he-man Mr. Leggs slacks. Such as our new automatic wash wear blend of 65%

“Dacron®” and 35% rayon–incomparably wrinkle-resistant. About $12.95 at plush-carpeted stores.”

The advertisement certainly shows slavery but did a great job for the company (Mr. Leggs); it ‘rationally’ appealed to the young men because it shows the authoritativeness of men over women by wearing Mr. Leggs trousers.

The ‘visual Esperanto’ of the image is very pestering; “it’s nice to have a girl around the house” as the main tag line tries to articulate that women objects to use and throw away.

The woman of the house as a tigress propagates the fable that women are exotic, sex objects and callous. Moreover, regardless of the abuse by master (the man), the eyes of the woman engross desire and hunger; the standing-up tail of the tigress proves that she is happy, safe and comfortable(wikianswer, no date), which is shallowness on the part of the company (Mr. Leggs).

According to the ad, the “brutal heart” of the women has to be controlled by the men. Likewise, “Doll-to-doll carpeting” referred to, as a number of women ready to shatter themselves for a man at once are absurdity. Additionally, the assumption taken here is that the woman deep inside wants to be tamed and hunted which is again idiotic. (Glaser,Bane, Glaser & Malarkey, 2003).

The constitution of US, in 1787 adopted the ideology of liberty and human rights (The History of Slavery in America, No Date) but it indeed did not apply on the types of advertisements that transmitted to the print media until 1980’s.

Conclusion

The analyzed advertisements conveyed very different messages; they used covert approach to put across the viewpoint. The hidden meaning in the first advert i.e. Krispy Kream, was very strong and very cleverly put across. The second advert used the pain as the affective communication to convey to the parents to treat the children properly. Whereas, the last advertisement, did the work for the company but in no scenario, can work now as it is against the human rights to use such concepts to put the message across.

Over all we witnessed that the advertisements carry a hidden meaning and we as humans judge those meanings according to our thinking and mentality. These were just one way of analyzing these adverts but any other human may analyze it in a different way.

References:

Albers, E., Reilly, T., & Rittner, B. (1993) .Impact of parent training on family functioning. Child and Family Behavior Therapy, 23(1), 29–42.

divorce: Newlyweds’ stress hormones foreshadow relationship changes. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 71, 1, 176-188

Grivetti, L.E. and Shapiro, H.Y. (2009) Chocolate. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. GoogleBook [Online]. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=BxRbZ7fRs0kC&printsec=frontcover&dq=chocolate&hl=en&ei=dma9Tc7QNtXc4ga22I3lBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CEIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=true (Accessed on: 2nd May 2011).Hackley,C.(2010) Advertising and Promotion: an integrated marketing communications approach. 2nd edn. London:SAGE.

Kielcolt-Glaser, J.K., Bane, C., Glaser R. & Malarkey, W.B. (2003). Love, marriage, and Maccoby, E. E., & Martin, J. A., (2005). Socialization in the context of the family: Parent-child interaction. In E. M. Hetherington (Ed.), P. H. Mussen (Series Ed.), Handbook of Child Psychology: Vol. 4 Socialization, Personality, and Social Development (pp. 1-101). New York: Wiley.

Runkel, E.E. (2007) ScreamFree Parenting: Raising your kids by keeping your cool. USA: A ScreamFree Living Book. GoogleBook [Online]. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=pdchAzvBvN4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=parenting&hl=en&ei=2VS_TcK5NNCo8AO3ys3EBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CFQQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false (Accessed on: 29 April 2011). Shumow, L. & Posner, J. K. (1998). Harsh, firm, and permissive parenting in low-income families. Journal of Family Issues, 19, 438-507.

Smith, K. (No Date) Sensational Color. Available at: http://www.sensationalcolor.com/color-messages-meanings/color-meaning-symbolism-psychology/all-about-the-color-white.html (Accessed on: 29 April 2011). The History of Slavery in America (No Date) Slavery in America. Available at: http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/history/overview.htm (Accessed at: 3 May 2011).

W.Doyle Gentry (2010). Marital conflict, ineffective parenting, and children and adolescents’ maladjustment. Journal of Marriage and Family, 64(1), 78–92.

WikiAnswers (No Date). Available at: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_animal_runs_with_its_tail_standing_straight_up (Accessed at: 2 May 2011).