What makes it a good ad? (Wed 11th)

What is the difference between Design and Advertising? One is "pretty" and the latter is "evil." According the the class discussion on Monday (Jan 9th, 2012), the class agreed that advertising is manipulative. Some ads are better than the others due to using different tactics.

I found this ad from google search and I consider this ad to be effective. The reason for that is because it shows you what could happen if we don't take care of our environment. Below the picture there is a statement: stop climate change before it changes you. Together, the image and the statement creates a successful ad that convey the message to us all.


Here is another ad I found off of google search. I consider this to be a not so effective ad. This ad is featuring Emma Stone (an actress) to promote Revlon lipsticks. The ad shows the image of the actress using one of the lipsticks while the other half of the single spread shows the product. Although the ad shows you the product, it does not convince you why it is great or why you should buy it. The ad uses a celebrity to promote a product but that is all with this concept. Also, it is not memorable and can be easily mistaken with other cosmetic ads.


A good ad should consist of context, audience (demographics), one thing, tone/mood, concept, and image/headline. I find myself attracted to ads that have cleaver headlines. However, the hardest concept to do is humor, especially on purpose.

The class and I had to find 3 ads from magazines that we consider to be good ads along with a statement of why each ad is effective/good. We discussed strategy and campaign and the sample that we used are the Old Spice ads (both images found from google search).


We discussed how the second ad cannot exist without the first ad (image on top) because the first ad represents Old Spice. It is the tone of that product. Old Spice is selling the alpha male image to consumers. The ad below focuses on a nerdy guy who wants to be like the alpha male. The concept is to strive to be the ideal man although it is shown differently.

Advertisement, in my opinion, is about ideas and how one can convince another. It is the power of persuasion. However, the be smooth about it is a hard thing to do. I believe that practice can only get you so far in this business. I truly believe that you need to have that special eyes for this business in order to survive.