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Category Archives: Assignment 3
N.F.L.’s Official Air Freshener Aims at Female Fans, and the Cleanup
This New York Times article is about market segmentation in which women are the targeted viewers. Febreze is an official sponsor for the NFL, therefore they use their commercial time to sell their product to women showing a video of a group of men who are watching a football game in lady’s house. The commercial shows the mess and stench the guys leave behind and give the solution of Febreze that will get rid of the unpleasant smells.
“Earlier today your living room was game day central — a place for friends, family and your husband’s trademark victory dance,” says a voiceover, as attendees are seen celebrating. “Now the crowd is gone and all that remains is the stink. But you’re ready, because Febreze Air Effects cleans away tough game-day odors in the air — sweat socks, chicken wings, garlic dip — and leaves a light, fresh scent.”
The commercial is a clever one to make women turn to this product even though the NFL is mostly viewed by a male audience because apparently there is a stereotype that women don’t like football. “Scott Beal, brand manager for Febreze, said the line of air and fabric fresheners was directed at women, especially mothers, and that the brand ‘reaches our core consumer in a contextually relevant way’ through the N.F.L.
This the link of the video: N.F.L. Febreze Commercial
Children, Adolescents and Advertising
We’ve been discussing advertisement and its effect on children and through reading this article it really makes me wonder where advertisement will take the future generation. Every household owns a television and when parents don’t want to be bothered with their children they choose to preoccupy their children by putting them in front of the TV. I was amazed by how many commercials a child watches in one sitting.
It doesn’t help that times are changing, the things we were sheltered from when we were kids are now being casually thrown into any advertisement that a child may see. There is no limit to what a child may be exposed to. It’s as if everybody chooses to look away and not see what kind of culture we’re creating. We familiarize them with things they shouldn’t even have to think about for another decade.
Many advertising agencies see how it could be harmful for children but not enough care to take responsibility for the effect they may be having on them. I was surprised to learn that some countries ban advertisement to children until they turn a certain age because they see it as harmful to children. The fact that children don’t fully understand what an advertisement is makes them such an easy target, it’s as if they are being taken advantage of. There’s not limit to what they could want. In a way, they are being taught who they should be by being shown that it’ll make them cool and popular. Children have vulnerable minds that advertisement agencies jump to take advantage of.
Posted in Assignment 3
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Smoking Ads Aimed At Kids – Downside of Child Marketing
We have been watching a lot of videos and reading a lot of material regarding marketers targeting children. We heard a lot of different voices and opinions, but the general tone of the conversation in my opinion was that companies go overboard and take advantage of children, and also put parents in a very vulnerable and somewhat defenseless position, because they cannot always afford every item on the child’s list. The dolls with the very provocative outfits, the girls in the movies and the girls in the songs, talking about and acting out very serious adult sexual situations all have affects on little girls in a negative manner. We’ve all seen the eleven year old girl walking down the street in a mini – skirt tank top and high heels, completely inappropriate attire for a anyone let alone a prepubescent girl. Also all the movies and video games with all the violent images of shootings, stabbings, murders desensitize kids to violence, and condition kids (mainly boys) to think that that is how they are supposed to act and make them more predisposed to being violent themselves. It doesn’t end there, companies even go as far as marketing lethal products like tobacco to children. They will put cartoon characters on the cigarette displays, and associate characters that the kids are familiar with, with tobacco. They call this building brand loyalty. These kids don’t stand a chance, and then people wonder why they are smoking at twelve years old, because this crap has been pumped into their brain since they weren’t even old enough to understand what was being done to them. The clip I am showing is an extreme, but its really not as far fetched as people may think. 2 year old smokes 2 packs a day
Inappropriate Marketing for kids
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/aug/15/pressandpublishing.genderissues
The link here shows just how much every company tries to aim its marketing to children because they recognize what a powerful market it is. There are a few retailers around the world that have begun to sell Playboy merchandise aimed at young children. And the products aren’t just limited to clothes, but also include pencil cases, notebooks, and pencils that these children are supposed to bring to school.
The article condemns the fact that pornography has become a mainstream topic, and people don’t take into consideration that it may be harmful to children later in life. This, of course, is true, and should be studied. However, the reason that this clicked with me is that advertisers are recognizing that children are a huge market and that they are more likely to be in charge of the buying decisions than the parents are.
Since there is a huge amount of media being bombarded at children, it is likely that they may encounter Playboy in many ways. For example, if an older sister is watching E!, the topic might be more sexual than a kid would encounter in media that she chooses to consume. Therefore, there is already brand recognition for the Playboy name in all ages. Marketers see this, and then take advantage of it.
Like Consuming Kids showed, Playboy is very likely using the latest psychology to convince children that their products are harmless fun and cool to own. Then, the children who are truly in charge of the purchases, convince their parents to buy them these sexualized products.
Posted in Assignment 3
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How ads get kids to say, I want it !
Children are experience as consumer in this today’s world. They are being confronted by commercial every place they go; such as school, park, play ground and so on. According to this article, it revealed that parents are being pressurized today to buy things to fulfill their kid’s desire. The reason I choose that article, because this article finds the related idea that we watched movie in the class on child consumer. Industries are spending so much money on kid’s appliances and objects. TV station, newspaper, radio station, magazine and many more other sources are out there which making kids demandable for their products. Advertizing company and marketers are making a target toward youth society to expand their markets. Ads industries are being acknowledged about children attention and their want. There fore the commercial by marketers are easily making children to how to want and demand for their objects. In addition, food industries are taking place in these processes as well. For example: McDonalds are always offering gift with their meal which always catches kid’s attention. On the other hand, it has seen that some commercial is violent and inappropriate and later this type of ads causing boy’s to act violent and girls to act their self worth by their appearance.
Based on psychological knowledge, the industry and marketers are making these kids feel that owning something causes feel better and happy. These ads and commercials are trying to manipulate children’s behaviors. Children are often being stubborn to get their products. Parents are loosing control on their children. Children’s preferences are increasing day by day.
Posted in Assignment 3
Tagged how to ads get kids to say, I want it!
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children and consumption
From the beginning of the 1900’s marketers realized the potential to sell their products and services to children. The Children’s market became a very lucrative market for corporations in a very short period of time. The effect of this phenomenon is enormous. It has affected not only the children but changed society and with it changed the way family functions within.
From the moment the child is born, it is bombarded with commercials on a daily basis. Therefore, the child grows up consumed by it. As it is stated in the YouTube video, “we are creating super consumers”. Children grow up being consumed by brands and products that are reaching them anywhere and possible at any point of the day using multiple different channels. Big corporations spend a lot of time and resources in order to research and analyze children’s psychology. For example, children’s behavior that interactions with others, what they like to eat or what they want to wear and etc. This research helps them to target children and influence their consumption habits more precisely. Marketers that reach children from the infancy stage are trying to create brand loyalty for life and attach children emotionally to their brands.
In my opinion, this phenomenon is problematic for the children as well as society as a whole. US has no regulations for children’s commercials, therefore companies take advantage of the deregulation to their fullest extent. I believe parents should be involved in creating values and ideologies in their children’s lives and not corporations, by constantly pushing their brands on children. From my personal observations, the lack of time spent with the children and the guilt parents have due to time scarcity, influences the constants consumption of products and services that children demand from the parents. I believe by doing so and allowing children to have everything that they ask for, parents feel less guilty for not spending enough time with their children; therefore parents are as accountable as marketers in children’s consumerism. I believe, buying products and services doesn’t replace the lost time with the parents and children grow up feeling empty and lonely and the only way they know how to deal with it is, to consume more material things.
Media & Advertising
According to the above article MySpace, Facebook and Twitter have become the world’s leading social media for not only networking with friends and family but a prime way to promote businesses and product lines. These social networks have developed ways that browsers can click on links to see companies’ ads on their Facebook or either Twitter without having to actually leave their page also viewing commercial links from YouTube posted on their walls etc. They refer to this as a “cold-based ad platform”. Social Network is absolutely one of the best ways to advertise companies due to the increasing use of these networks by billions of people worldwide on an everyday basis. It has said that users spend at least 30 second consuming time on ads. In addition to that companies are looking into making ads more accessible to consumers on these social networks.
Kontera is a media and technology company that is taking a very similar concept with its marketing in today’s technology. They have actually developed a way that advertisers pay for keywords to be hyperlinked within its blog or article. So basically when consumers click on the words of their choice it often takes users to the advertiser’s website. Kontera also uses a system called “In text ads”. For example Verizon does not promote their business over social networks like Facebook or Twitter accounts instead they advertise using their sponsor Will Power, the race car driver who competes in the Indy Racing League.
It thus shows that we are in a new era of marketing with the new online social media that is increasingly becoming popular, companies are capitalizing on this audience in order to gain a better advantage of increasing their market share.
Young Consumers
The reason for childhood obesity in America is due to the way in which junk food is being marketed, at least that is what the article from the New York Times states. Corporations such as General Mills, McDonald’s Pepsi, Coca Cola, and Burger King are just few of the many companies that use multimedia games and puzzles on the internet and cellphone apps to advertise their unhealthy and sugary products to children. Through these games kids are able to then e-mail whatever products or characters they created in the game to other friends, making children not just consumers to these products, but marketers as well.
Some of these companies had vouched to be ‘less aggressive’ with their advertising for children by only advertising the foods that are “better for you”, but this was just a something they said to make food critics a bit more comfortable. The food in actuality was not good for you, becasue all the food companies like the ones mentioned previosly do not have healthy food to advertise anyways.
The artcile also mentions how “children have the power over spending in the household” and it’s true, not just from what we have seen in the youtube video clip in class, but I’m sure any of us who have been exposed to children whi whine, kick and scream, until they end up getting what they want. Parents are not entirely to blame when they end up giving in to tantrums becasue what working parent wouldn’t give in time to time.
Posted in Assignment 3, Uncategorized
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19th century Household Technology
Searching through Google I found a video relating to household technology of the mid 19th century. This mini documentary comes from the Library of Congress titled “The History of Household Technology”. I, like most of you know that life for these women during this period wasn’t easy. Household work would take all day and it was arduous work. I have never been so grateful for the advancements in household technology until now. The video portrays some innovations regarding laundry, ironing and the stove. Today these chores have become so efficient regarding time, we often forget that each of these activities took a day each back in the 19th century. In the documentary they mention some excerpts of reading materials provided to housewife by other housewives. These were advices and tips on how to become a better housewife.
It is quite interesting on how these women first started doing laundry by hand and then decades later, trying to find easier, less strenuous ways to do these chores, technological innovations came up with a product that resembles a washing machine.
Even the clothes iron was something to dread, due to its weight and its capability to burn your hand or even worst explode.
This reminds me a great deal of how 
many of the authors of the readings we do for class, make the argument that all these technological innovations although great have did not take the women out of the kitchen. I agree with them but at the same time it is hard to not grasp the importance of how much these innovations have diminish the laborious work endured by the women of the 19th century. It is interesting to note that these women did think their work was difficult and at the same time the network of housewives around them served as motivation to continue working hard everyday. I also was a little bit curious on how they manage to do the chores like cooking,cleaning and taking care of the children,all daily activities if each of these took a day. I concluded that they had to have had help from their children and servants.
Chore Wars
This week we were discussing how household work changed in 20th century. In the article “Twentieth century Changes in Household Technologies.” we traced how housework changed qualitatively and quantitatively. We also discussed how technological sphere in household becomes another field of work. In our days people bring their household chores into internet space! The game Choir Wars is free online game that allows to turn real-life chores into points that are used in the game. Players can make a list of chores together and then game assigns certain rewards for them.
As one father was saying in his blog, the game helped to motivate kids in doing their house chores. He mentions that even though kids still got the same tasks and rewards as they did before the game, now they felt as they earned those rewards more then before.
I think what can be interesting for our class is that transformation that game makes of routine physically performed tasks into online game. It shows how much technology means in modern households and how it can be used in stabilizing relationship between family members. Players report that they have less conflicts about who should do what and in what time. for those who have kids this game became powerful motivational tool.
The Choir Wars also can be seen as an epiphany in child marketing. It manages to “sell” kids work that they usually don’t want to do. It employs media of computer game to make housework cool and attract kids by experience points and rewards they can redeem online after they finish real-life task.
P.S.: If you know kids who spend all they time online, this may be the way to make them do something for their family on chorewars.com.
Posted in Assignment 3
Tagged chores, Family, game, household roles, internet, marketing, media, technology
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