Big Game Advertising

Pepsi has just released a video hyping its sponsorship of the 2015 "big game" halftime show.

Katie Perry is to be the featured performer. In Pepsi's video, Katie takes us on a tour of possible creative directions for her show. Glitter, unicorns, dancers, drummers, kittens... all are possibilities she considers and rejects.

Advertising sales for the 2015 "big game" appear to be running behind the usual curve. The rate for a single 30-second commercial is $4.5 million. This is 12 percent more than the 2014 rate.

Given these costs, Pepsi is smart to begin promoting its halftime show now, two months and a week before the game.

Indeed, fewer "big game" advertisers are waiting to debut their commercials on game day. They see earlier engagement as a way to maximize the return on their investment.

With increasing commercial costs, rising public concern about violence, and the challenges of creating content that will satisfy audience expectations, there may be something to that jumping shark visual after all.

Copyright © 2014 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved. 

Advertising's Role As Truth in Modern Media

In November of 2014, the journalism world was all abuzz about a widely viewed viral video purporting to show a Syrian boy rescuing a younger girl from gunfire. The video is dramatic. Indeed, at least one YouTube source showing almost 4 million views within a few days.

Unfortunately, a number of major world-wide news organizations featured the video as though it were real. That they rushed to show this video without verification is a powerful statement on the current status of journalism.

This video is not real.

It is a fake video made and posted by, of all organizations, the Norwegian Film Institute. Here is a photo of the production crew. They produced the video on the island nation of Malta, on the set of the movie Gladiator. The photo shows the boy actor (blue shirt) alongside the young actress he was presumed to rescue.

This unfortunate scenario is revealing about the status of truth in the mass media. The extreme pressures to garner audience attention (or "hits") has turned the media businesses, including traditional journalism, into a "hype" industry.

Indeed, attention has become the most valuable commodity on the Earth. Every organization supplying media content is aware of this priority. This recent comment comment demonstrates the manner in which the pressure for attention affects organizational behavior. In this connection, truth becomes what attention requires.

Significantly, commercial advertising remains the only form of media communication that must be truthful by law. Commercial speech has a long tradition of regulation by government agencies and in civil and criminal courts.

It is important to recognize there is only one media information source that must withstand the legal test of truthful claims. It is advertising. As the public continues to search for relevance and veracity in the media, this fundamental distinction will become increasingly important.

  Copyright © 2014 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved. 

A Tale of Two

Airline advertising is destination advertising. The goal of this service is delivery, to a new time and place, to promise and possibility. Hopefully, to pleasure and success.

Here we see British Airways calling our attention to two of the most wonderful destinations in the world. The commercial artfully presents the similarities and differences, welcoming the audience to step into each scene.

Political advertising is often a tale of two alternatives. Would that this genre of advertising could become as intelligent and respectful of the audience as this admirable airline commercial.

 Copyright © 2014 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved. 

The Gift Of Advertising

The reward theory of communication is based on the idea that audience members are to be acknowledged for their time and effort.

Message reception takes time, a fleeting portion of seconds to minutes to sometimes even more. Comprehension, realization and retention also call for effortful attention. For their efforts, audience members are owed a return, an enjoyable and informational experience.

This John Lewis commercial is notable for its depth and complexity. The boy matures before our eyes. The commercial celebrates youth and imagination. Gifts are seen as more than items, they are gestures representing deeper thought.

John Lewis holiday advertising is known for its storytelling.  My students will also recognize the work as demonstrating the reward theory of communication, attitude toward the ad, and the cognitive theory of emotions.

Copyright © 2014 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

Spectacular Advertising

The first question in effective advertising is attention.  So, cease your rabble rousing and listen carefully.

When it comes to advertising, or really any form of communication, there is no need for the audience to devote precious time to everyday repetition of familiar information.

To secure attention, message designers must take intelligent risks, to present their information in unanticipated and enjoyable new ways. That approach is known as the reward theory of communication.

Here, in this in-flight video, we see Air New Zealand showing us what advertising can be. Epic.

   Copyright © 2014 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.

Sophistication in Advertising

When it comes to apparel, everyone wants to be "appropriately sophisticated." Here, sophistication means a person can feel "right" in the moment in the places that matter most.

This is a particularly compelling motivation for Millennials, today's most sought after age cohort.

Here we see The Gap presenting its apparel as a reliable pathway to comfort in your own time and place. That's sophistication in the moment. The copy line "Dress Normal," held against the stories told in the latest Gap advertising, allows for quirky individuality with the reassurance you are not likely to go wrong at The Gap.

This commercial is one of four in the The Gap's new campaign.

It is also an outstanding example of the unifying role music can play in storytelling. The rocksteady rhythm integrates the movement of the actors with the action of the pinball machine in an intriguing time and place. The wearer of The Gap apparel owns the moment. Genius.

   Copyright © 2014 by John Eighmey. All Rights Reserved.