Advertising and the Arc of History

In any era, advertising is a compelling window on the economy and society. You can see this for yourself in my exhibit of admirable print ads since 1890.

Using Pinterest, I've organized almost 300 print ads with a "board" for each decade. Each decade begins with a brief narrative about the economy, technology, and society. Read them and see how the ads inform you about the direction of the times.

See the personal imperative in this 1919 Oreo cookie ad as the archetypal woman of the post WWI era uses the latest technology to call her neighborhood grocer with her delivery order.

Follow the arc of history all the way through to our current decade to see how personal imperative gives way to themes of equality, sustainability, and new ways of thinking about what self-realization can be. This 2011 Peace Corps ad exemplifies the arc.

Take this link to go directly to my exhibit named AdmirableAds.

Read my introduction for the site, and be sure to note the brief narratives on the economy, technology and society of each decade.

Once you have made this journey, you will realize the centrality of advertising as an indicator of who we are and where we are going.

Let me know what you think.

     Copyright © 2013 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

PepsiCo Victimizes Mountain Dew

For years, PepsiCo has portrayed its Mountain Dew soft drink as a highly refreshing pick-me-up for youth engaged in spirited activity. The heyday of Mountain Dew advertising was its “Do the Dew” campaign focused on the boost of energy and acuity needed for extreme sports.

Now comes the company with a viral advertising campaign launched on YouTube and intended for distribution by social media audiences.

They got the attention sought, but not the kind of attention they desired.

The last two days have seen a flash of fury concerning this viral advertising campaign for imagery that is being called both racist and promoting of violence toward women.

There is one more injured party in this saga. PepsiCo has victimized Mountain Dew.

The main character in this three-part campaign is actually a male goat – named Felicia – who in Part 1 of the series encounters his first taste of Mountain Dew when it is forced upon him by a waitress in a restaurant. The goat strikes the waitress in the face cutting her when she urges him to taste Mountain Dew.

The goat takes a first sip, hallucinates, and demands more as he continues to strike the waitress. 

Felicia then runs away under the influence of Mountain Dew, saying “You neva gonna catch me.”

In Part 2, an errant sedan is pulled over by a policeman. The sedan is driven by the fleeing Felicia, the goat. Felicia attempts to hide a can of Mountain Dew from the officer, as though it is a controlled substance.

Acting upon his suspicions, the officer opens the trunk to find it full of empty Mountain Dew bottles and cans. He remarks, “This is a clear case of ‘Dew-U-I’.”

In Part 3, police detectives ask the injured waitress to identify her attacker.  Felicia, the goat, is shown in a standard line-up setting along with five others who appear to be “stereotypical ghetto hoods.”  Therein lies the basis for the first level of outrage and complaint about racism. Subsequent concerns have been raised about violence toward women.

PepsiCo acted swiftly to withdraw this social media campaign. However, companies lose control of content in social media and the videos are still available from many sources to anyone who searches.

Moreover, better advertising is based upon respect for consumers and audiences and the products being sold.

In this case, PepsiCo has revealed its advertising strategy to be premised on a message argument about addiction. With his first sip, the goat hallucinates, acts badly and runs off. In the second episode, goat is shown by the officer to be under the influence of a common addiction the officer names. In the third episode, the impairment potential is so substantial it even leads the detective to act with unprofessional judgment as he drinks Mountain Dew and encourages the waitress to pick one member of the line-up and then another seemingly at random.

The very selling idea of this campaign is “nothing matters, just Dew it.” 

Viral campaigns can be amusing, funny, and even irreverent. Such campaigns allow brands to act more informally and not take themselves too seriously.

But, advertising campaigns nevertheless must be grounded in core values that respect consumers, audiences and the product being sold. Truly, that is the responsibility of people who are marketing and advertising professionals.

       Copyright © 2013 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

Facebook's Flawed Business Model

The most valuable commodity in the world is attention.

Yet, despite it's substantial and active reach, Facebook appears puzzled about how to create value as a company.

The recent introduction of Facebook "Home" demonstrates their conundrum.

To extend its already substantial reach, the company is employing an Android app that essentially places Facebook on the normal introductory screen of certain smartphones.

The whole idea is to have the face of Facebook right there on the front of your phone. The benefit to consumers, of course, is that the faces they really want to see are those of their friends.

The company has employed a series of commercials to introduce this new service. One shows a Facebook employee ignoring a Zuckerberg shop talk to view mayhem from his friends on his phone.


A second features an airplane passenger ignoring a steward's instructions to put the phone away for take-off so he can see the latest flights of fancy on his phone.


And, a third tells the story of young woman ignoring family members at dinner as she covertly keeps up with her friends.


So, one might ask, just what is the desired response to this advertising? Are we to understand that Facebook is an addiction? Are users so consumed that they cannot be troubled with the everyday expectations of their immediate circumstances?

This may be the truth of it. And, this truth points to the reason why Facebook is encountering difficulties "monetizing" it service.

The flaw is the "addiction" concept the company is employing for its "business model." For the users portrayed in these commercials, the addiction is to their friends, not to Facebook, importantly not to the advertising content Facebook would so dearly like its users to notice.

Wall Street analysts often scrutinize national advertising for clues about business acumen. It is an important window into business decision-making, leadership and vision.

Copyright © 2013 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

Strategic Power of the Theory of Planned Behavior

The "Theory of Planned Behavior" is another useful psychological approach for thinking about advertising. The power of this model is derived from its focus on three distinctly different directions for constructing message arguments.

In the view of this theory, our intentions to buy a product are primarily affected by attitudes toward the product or brand; our attitude toward the social norms of what others think our intentions should be; and, our perceptions about our own capacities to successfully control or act on our intentions.

For example, consider the product category of home improvement stores in the United States. The three leading brands are Home Depot, Lowes and Menards. Each company, for specific reasons, has chosen a different strategic direction in this three-part model.

Home Depot, the market leader, smartly focuses on a message argument designed to bring more people into this product category. The primary concern of people who have not yet purchased from such a store is whether they are up to the task. Can they successfully act on their intentions to use tools and materials to improve their homes?

Hence, the Home Depot message argument "You can do it, we can help." And, in the current economy, they have extended this argument with related language, "More doing."

Lowes, with its up-scale concentration in the marketplace, centers its message argument on the idea "Improving home improvement," and most recently "Never stop improving."

The family and female household head are at the center of the Lowes story, signaling the normative social context and expectations of improvement that support purchasing of premium products.

Menards, with its down-scale concentration in the marketplace, bases its message argument on "Save big money at Menards." In this approach, frequently purchased products are placed in the classic retail mode of continuous sale prices.

For Menards, its all about attitude toward the product and price, the social context and percptions of self efficacy are not in the picture.

So there you have it, a well known psychological theory informs our critical thinking about the marketplace. We see the human factors involved in thinking strategically about marketing and advertising.

For more perspective on psychological theory and the development persuasive arguments in advertising, please see Strategic Power of the Theory of Trying.

    Copyright © 2013 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

Posting Progress and Role of Pheed

Pheed is a somewhat new social community that allows for greater versatility of expression, particularly when it comes to a creative topic such as advertising.

Blogger has become a bit of a disappointment. The video posts often no longer play the actual video, and the reader has to imagine what the spot looks like or go find it somewhere else.

So, in the weeks to come I will be making use of Pheed to show you the latest work, especially when it comes to video.

You'll easily find this information at Pheed.com/eighmey.

I'll continue making use of this blog, but I will begin linking comments to work that you will be able to see to greater advantage on Pheed.

Sign up now to begin using this versatile new means of communication.

To learn more about how psychological theory can inform the development of better advertising, please see Strategic Power of the Theory of Planned Behavior.

The Magical Possibilities of Facebook Search

Recently, Facebook added me to the ranks of those who can use the beta version of Facebook Search.

I was skeptical. My first search for "friends who like cats" had momentary charm, but was not all that useful.

Instead of obvious questions, you need to ask questions that go to the notion of "the strength of weak ties."

"Friends of friends who grew up in my home town" is such a question.

I keyed in this question. Facebook responded with a few names. Among them was a gift.

This gift was to name someone whose parents lived four houses down the street from where I lived as a teenager. He had left town two years before we moved to that street. But, everyone knew he was the boy who went to go make movies in Hollywood.

In my youth, I was inspired seeing his name as the director of so many episodes of the leading television series of that era. One was the "Printer's Devil" episode of Twilight Zone, staring the great actor Burgess Meredith. I always thought this episode marked the peak for that landmark television series. He also directed the hallmark episode of the Waltons, "Grandma Comes Home."

For a youth, growing up in a small mid-western town, seeing the name Ralph Senensky listed as director in the credits for so many wonderful television programs and movies was my realization you could go other places and do interesting things.

Before last week, I had never been able to communicate with Ralph. But now I have, and have been able to tell him how much I admire his work. Ralph was an inspiration in many ways.

So thank you Facebook Search for finding Ralph. He is someone I was not looking for at the moment, but really needed to find.

This is a true story. It would make a great commercial, don't you think?

For additional perspective on psychology and the development of better advertising, please see Strategic Power of the Theory of Planned Behavior.

  Copyright © 2013 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

Ad Meter Outcome Less Than Clear

This morning, USA Today reports that Budweiser has returned to the top of it's Super Bowl Ad Meter ratings. The "Brotherhood" Clydesdale commercial scored a 7.76 (out of 10).

The "Miracle Stain" commercial for Tide was second with a 7.75 score. In fact, you could say that Budweiser and Tide tied at the top since there is no statistical difference between these two scores.

Chrysler's Dodge Ram "So God Made a Farmer" commercial came in third with a 7.43 score.

This is the first time since 1989, which was the first year of the Ad Meter, that the winning commercial did not score over 8.

It is worth noting that USA Today completely changed the nature of its polling procedures this year. Instead of it's traditional in-theater tests with quota samples of the viewing population, the newspaper opted for a social media approach that invited everyone to participate.

The poll began taking votes at noon before the game. The newspaper reported that 55,000 votes were cast by 2,500 people three hours before the game even started. Indeed, about one-third of the 7,500 total participants appear to have voted before the game. Clearly, study participants were allowed to vote more once. So, what this poll means is even less clear than previous years.

In my view, the Dodge Ram commercial won the day. So, I'm really not arguing about the overall Ad Meter outcome all that much. I really thought the Tide commercial was "spot on" too.

  Copyright © 2013 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.