Then // Now

Advertisements that where allowed in the past, but wouldn't stand a chance today...

Attention?

Lynx are a huge brand across the world.
So why do they continue to create advertisements that the majority end up banned?
Is it for fun? Or do they like the attention?
When you think of a lynx add, you immediately think of woman chasing men, or something across them lines, so their advertisements are being banned, but we all still know what they are.

COOL AS FCUK

FCUK

French Connection United Kingdom, are a clothing brand.

They use shock advertising in a way that doesn't use image. But using text gets them the exact same attention.

You have to look twice.

The News

Relating to my post about how the Internet can effect our reaction to Shock Advertising, the News can play a large part also. The News is shown all day 24/7 on certain channels, children can be watching during the day, making them capable of seeing some of the Shocking news that is announced.

When you watch something on the TV that is shocking and we know is happening in real life, why would be shocked by the fictional Shock Advertisements we see.

Internet

Are we becoming immune to Shock Advertising because of the Internet? We are able to access shocking images and videos on the Internet without even knowing it, pop ups and viruses can cause us to see things we wish we hadn't... Are we just 'getting used to it'...

Cigarette Packaging

Are Cigarette Packets using shock advertising?

Is this classed as advertising? The NHS advert 'Get Unhooked' was banned for being to blunt and grim, however can we even class that as an advertisement? It had the exact same concept as the images and text we see on Cigarette packets, trying to get people to stop smoking. However these images are still on packets of Cigarettes, and seem to be more common than ever.

Text analysis 3

Why charity's should abandon shock advertising.

Regina Yau
Charity worker
Guardian Professional





Regina works a lot with charity, and she seems to express her opinion on how charity work should lead away from shock advertising, and stop the guilt trip.
Her article in the Guardian is very interesting, especially for me since I agree 100%, charities that use a guilt method to raise money could raise money in a much better way, take Comic Relief for example, they raise money for the exact same cause as Unicef, to help children in poverty, however Comic Relief do not make you feel guilty, their campaign is fun, they use humour and comedy to raise money, as Unicef show you depressing images to make you donate, almost as if you are being forced to donate, so you get this feeling you have donated money but after you feel depressed, as comic relief you donate the money, and you feel happy that you did due to the atmosphere of the campaign, Comic relief raised more than £10,000,000 over Unicef in 2011.

Regina also crated her own charity, to help prevent violence against woman.

"The charity I founded, The Pixel Project, works to prevent and stop violence against women. Right from the start, we stuck to using positive images, ideas and strategies to power our campaigns and empower survivors and supporters to take action. From music to photography to cupcakes, our campaigns make people smile while mobilising musicians, photographers and independent businesses to spread awareness in their communities and raise funds for the cause. One of our volunteers, Gia Ibarra, described our approach best when she said: "As a survivor of rape and domestic violence working to heal and help other survivors, I feel at home with The Pixel Project who showed me that activism can be fun and that you can help the cause without using or being exposed to the triggering images or videos that many anti-violence against women organisations use to raise awareness."

She states how she use positive images, it is good to see that she stands by her beliefs, and even thought it may not be as popular to use positive images in a charity campaign, she has stuck with what she believes and dont it how she wants it done.

Text analysis 2

When to use the 'shock' factor and why it works.

Melinda Varley

Melinda is a graduated student of Sunshine State University, she has been involved in business speculation since graduation, her specialism is how business works, and ways to really create a successful business.
She is known for posting online blogs giving out information about what is right, and what is wrong.
So after reading her article on when it is right to us the shock advertising method, I understand that she does not relate to the design itself, she relates to the business side of things, what works and when.

It is hard to really say if Melina is being biased towards either side of this article, she seems to be very opinionated  you would think from somebody who is trying to develop people's businesses she would use facts, but she seems to be very opinionated, such as in the first line of her article, she states how french ARE the best at shock advertising.

When it comes to shock advertising, the French do it best, as demonstrated last week by the release of its latest anti-smoking campaign. 

She states how shock advertising is not about text, layout or anything else other than the imagery, she says how you can't have a shock advert without imagery, personally I disagree, text can be very powerful in the design world, but at the same time I understand she does not know the design world.

I dont think Melina has done enough research before posting this blog, there is a lot more to shock advertising than just trying to shock people. It is not a way to just get away with putting abusive or sexual imagery into the public. As a business speculator she should be giving people the whole package, letting people know about how powerful it can be, and not to let people think it is just a way to make your ad's stand out.

A interesting point she does make is the warning label on cigarette packets, she classes this as advertising, is it? It makes me think, because they are not trying to persuade you to buy anything, they are not persuading you to do anything either, but at the same time I guess they are trying to persuade you to put down the cigarettes.

Text analysis 1

The effects of shock advertising.
The Advertising Club.

I looked into an article written by Kiran Manral, who is a well known author and blogger, she has a very strong interest in how advertising works, how a human can be influenced to buy or invest in something they don't know anything about, just a photo or a story.

Throughout the article she doesn't necessarily seem to be biased towards any side of the story, she speaks with a very neutral tone, explaining useful information about shock advertising, and also very inter sting facts within the shock advertising world.

However at the end of the article she does give her own opinion on positives and then negatives of shock advertising.

The article was written on the 15th november 2011, right about the time where the NHS released a campaign to help stop peoples addiction to smoking. The NHS had already created multiple campaigns to help people give up in the past, however they must have felt it wasn't enough, and something else needed to be done, something different, so they created a shock advertising campaign, with grim images of people with fishing hooks going through their mouths, with the slogan 'Get Un-hooked'.

These series of advertisements where all banned from being produced, people found it disturbing, and also I guess smokers could have been offended due to the fact it seems they are being treat brutally, and smokers may be worried about the fact they are treat differently because of something they do.

Kiran goes on to explain how a lot of people use shock advertising as a way to skip boundaries in their work, they feel they can put any shocking image onto their work and aslong as it shocks the audience the job is a good one. Well it doesn't work like that, at all. If your work is to shocking to even look at people are going to block it out of their lives, and what good is that for an advertisement, it does need to obviously shock the audience, but not to a sense where they want it out their lives, it needs to shock them mentally just as much as it shocks them physically, make the audience think about what they're looking at, and the aim is to make them or someone else make a change in or to their lives.

Shock advertising is a bad approach if you are trying to sell a product, or get your company higher in the charts, shock advertisements would be much more suitable for a campaign trying to help people, or a institution that is trying to make a change in the world.

The United Colours of Bennetton

"Benetton for instance used religious taboos (a picture of a priest and nun kissing), Cultural taboos (The visual of a black woman feeding a white baby), a death row inmate's thoughts, an AIDS patient on his death bed. These images are ones that force the viewer to confront and deal with their inherent biases and prejudices and can result in negative feelings for the brand. On the flip side, the advertising has resulted in positive feedback for the brand for talking about difficult issues and taking a stand on social and environmental issues."

IRN-BRU ADVERTISING

IRN-BRU ADVERTISING

IRN-BRU is known for its advertising techniques, using rude and humours adverts to get their Scottish drink known, however usually they are banned before they are ever seen in public. Personally I think they are funny, I wouldn't class these as shock advertising, just rude adverts.

Examples of shock advertising.

SHOCKING ADVERTISEMENTS.

This advert from WFF states how 100 times more people where killed in a tsunami in brazil than there where people killed in 9/11.

A obviously shocking advert considering people lives effect by 9/11, basically everyone. But also the image is so powerful, this vision of airplanes heading straight for the city of New York.

This advert is interesting for me as my current project is about climate change, and it is stating how powerful our planet is, and if we do not respect it, it will destroy us.

This advertisement is for elf engine oil, the point they are trying to get across is that their engine oil is the best, and is 100% clean. Using this shocking advertisement they have used an approach of using 2 people, in bold text it seems they have done something terrible, but in the smaller text you realise they did it for a reason, basically saying that they look like bad people, however on the inside they did it for a helpful reason.

This advert is aimed at pedophiles, saying how if anyone sees anything more from a child they are wrong, and they need help. Using powerful images of young girls on a grown woman's body, also stating in text how if anybody over the age of 18 has sex with anybody underage, it is rape. 

This advert is about animal cruelty, basically stating how we should not treat others the way we would would like to be treat. The shocking image of a dead baby is probably what makes this as powerful as it is, if a image of a man was laying dead on the image, I feel it would still be shocking, but not as powerful. In my opinion I believe the reason they are using a seal is to resemble global warming, and how we are melting their home and killing them.

Be Stupid : Diesel campaign.

BE STUPID!

The following campaign is from a article I read in Creative Review (March 2010).

Diesel - Be Stupid campaign.

 Creative Review March 2010

 This is the article from Creative Review. Posters and Website. Anomaly.

 Posters and Website.

So Diesel took a advertising approach with a campaign called 'BE STUPID' using photos of people basically doing stupid things. Using the word smart to be a bad thing, and saying being stupid is better. This works well as it relates to the actual work they are producing, taking a risk and making their designs feel fun and stupid.

The writer seems to be fairly on both sides of the equation, saying how it is funny and it does make you smile as you walk past this advertisement, adding the fact it states 'Smart people think with their head, stupid people think with their heart' (Heart over Head). This is humour and works well with any advertisement because people like to laugh, however I think it is very powerful in the sense that their is a topless woman in one of the photos, and also it could be seen as being very misleading to the audience, basically telling them to be stupid, or maybe people would see it as if you buy Diesel jeans, you are stupid.

Their seems to be a conversation in the article, and this is the reason I believe this is a fairly split debate between the positives and negatives from this campaign.

A very interesting part of the article is the following.

Kate:As a consumer I don't know if it works. What's the relevance? I wasn't sure what 'Be Stupid' was implying, does it mean be stupid and buy Diesel jeans?...

Ollie:Its the idea of never thinking that you're wrong, you have to let these ideas out, then you can do great stuff.

Ollie makes a valid point, I believe its very important in design to take risks and have no fears, try new things and come up with new outcomes and really get a taste for everything while you can. And this campaign expresses that.

Sawdust

http://madebysawdust.co.uk/

Sawdust are a design agencie in London that work 90% with typography, they have designed some beautiful posters however not many, and all use type.

This is a very interesting agencie for me to look into as I feel I can create and enjoy creating powerful type work.

Above is a very nice piece of work, once you look close you realise the text is made of copper wire, this is the type of work that inspires me to get more of a flavour in this specialism in design.

Also another great logo they have design for 'Print Magazine' was 'BEAT' this logo has been published onto bags and other clothing items.

Sawdust is the award-winning creative partnership of Rob Gonzalez and Jonathan Quainton. They are an independent design duo based in London, United Kingdom.

The disciplines they work in include custom typography, image-making, identity and art direction across music, art & culture, fashion, corporate and advertising sectors.

Their approach has earned them a worldwide reputation for creating visually striking work that is thoughtful, innovative and meticulously crafted.

Sawdust’s work has been recognised by some of the following publications and organisations promoting design excellence; D&AD, Novum, Lürzer’s Archive, IdN, Gallery, Computer Arts, Print, Creative Review, Icon, AIGA and It's Nice That.

http://madebysawdust.co.uk/profile/

Blue Marlin

http://www.bluemarlinbd.com/work/

Blue Marlin are a design agency that are based in a variety of places around the world.

London

Bath

New York

Sydney

And Singapore

Like any large agencie they had to have started somewhere..

Founders

Bluemarlin has plenty of stories to tell. But it all began with The Tale of Two Socks.

It was April, 1993. Two men sporting argyle socks sat at a kitchen table with a bottle of scotch and plenty of ambition. As the night wore on and the liquor began to dwindle, friendly shoptalk led to a singular vision of a design agency committed to delivering brave creative work all over the world. The two made a pact with one another to transform this vision into a reality, exchanging socks to cement the bond.

Two decades later, Andrew Eyles and David Hodgson's vision has evolved into an award-winning branding and design consultancy with 5 studios worldwide.

Andrew Eyles, CEO and Co-Founder

Andrew has been the driving force behind bluemarlin's success since that fortuitous night in 1993. With entrepreneurial instincts and astute branding sense, Andrew has tirelessly led bluemarlin from its beginnings as a packaging design studio in the southwest of England to its current incarnation as a global consultancy.

A champion of innovation, Andrew believes in the power of a big idea to bring about positive change to people's lives and to the world we live in. He is fully committed to delivering commercially effective design solutions to bluemarlin's clients, whether they are a global giant looking for reinvention or a local start-up looking to challenge the category.

As CEO, Andrew actively supports senior management in each studio on strategy, business development, procuring new business and global client management.

David Hodgson, Co-Founder

As the creative founder, David was responsible for setting the standard for design excellence that would influence the future of the bluemarlin group. After 14 years as Creative Director working on the world's most renowned brands, David shifted his focus to managing the creative talent of bluemarlin, serving as Group Human Resources Director from 2009-2013.

David continues to take an active role in driving the vision of bluemarlin forward as a significant shareholder and director of the group's main board.

They have done some work for some very well known clients. Such as..

Shell engine oil

Schweppes

Vaseline

Wonka

Weight Watchers

Re branding of Tango

Dettol

J20

Carex

and many many more successful brands.

Sandy Suffield

"Im not going to show you any work today, im going to show you everything in between."

The presentation given by Sandy seemed very professional and reliable, I KNOW this is a reliable source because of the fact she was invited by 'Creative Mornings' to show her presentation. This is a trustworthy reliable source that I can gather useful information from.

Her presentation seems to be in a university, the audience seem to be at a average young age (students). Also the equipment she is using seems up to date as you would expect at any university.

I found it really powerful how she begins her presentation by telling the audience that she is not going to show her work, just work she does in between. Which is I think is a great way for people to really see who you are and how you work. Instead of showing them work she has been told to do and has to do, she wants to show work that really expresses herself and the way she lives her life.

From this I have gathered allot of information about Sandy, the fact she likes to take something pre-owned and make it look beautiful. For example paper bags, plastic bags, clothes from charity shops and creating characters from items lying around her home.

Also she has a strong passion with working with people, peoples lives and peoples story's. On the other hand she does admit that some of her ideas to generally come from nothing, sometimes she doesn't understand where she gets her ideas herself, and other times they are accidentally thought of, for example, smashing a dinner plate on the floor, then deciding to create some amazing work from the broken plate instead of throwing it in the bin.

Using Black syrup, milk and fake blood she has given these small toy vehicles a matching meaning behind their story. This could be very powerful in an advertisement.

Here us sine stitching she has done to resemble her 'homes' The golden state of America where she worked for Apple, and then Great Britain where she was born and now lives, a red cross locating London to show her home town.

A paper bag from the chemist which she has re-used to stitch pills and tablets onto the bag, resembling drugs that would be collected from the pharmacy.