Advertising just like hip is always changing. Reinventing itself, to meet the needs, of consumers, the product, the company and the ever-changing trends. This growing market is worth billions, and crucial for any business. Fortunately for the advertising world there is every medium possible to deliver these messages, including: television, radio, movies, magazines, newspapers, the Internet, billboards, spam mail, product placement and word-of-mouth. Below I have described three of the most influential forms of advertising and how they maintain their hipness.

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The original form of advertising is paper advertisements. This style of advertising had been around for hundreds of years and it is considered hip, because it is constantly changing and because it has been around for so long. Its success is partly due to the constant need for them in magazines, newspapers and periodicals.
The idea of what makes a magazine ad hip is constantly changing as well, but there always seems to be something new. Some trends in print ads that I have noticed recently is the need to personify the image or compare it to something else, for example this Fresh Scoop ad for cat litter, where the cat has a look of worry on its face and is holding itself in the way a small child would if they had to use the bathroom, Another example is an ad for Oreo cookies where the cookie is wearing a snorkel mask and the caption is “Milks favorite cookie”.

Both of these advertisements give human qualities and actions to seemingly normal objects. Another similar form is depicting products to resemble animals, Fruit of the Loom portrays its new colorful women’s underwear as a butterfly, Rayovac batteries compare the power of their batteries to Rudolf and his reindeers.

Whatever the ad is selling doesn’t really seem to be important as long as the image is cute and memorable. There seems to also be an importance in humor in current advertisements. Like the Sunsilk ads where police wanted sketches are only of the women’s hair, or the Christmas time M&M ad where the red M&M is strapped to Rudolf’s nose.


Companies are also mocking other companies traditional images or trademarks, i.e. Burger King using the Marlboro Cowboy in their new campaign. They may fool you at first but if you look closely you’ll notice they are not cigarette ads, but burger ads. The surgeon general warnings are pretty funny as well.



It’s a competitive market out there for products and using simple gimmicks like, childlike humor will only help keep the product on top of its game. Designers and companies want their products to relate to people of all ages and they’ll do what it takes to get there.

Commercial Advertising

Probably the most important and successful form of advertising this day in age is the TV commercial. Unlike most others forms of Ad design, commercials can reach thousands even millions of viewers at once. The most notable example of just how important TV advertisements are is the Super Bowl. An event that takes place once a year with probably the highest TV viewer ratings of the year. To hold a commercial spot during the Superbowl is pivotal for any company. Only the best of the best, most entertaining commercials are aired, but not without a price. Thirty seconds of time during the super bowl can cost upwards of $3 million, a hefty tag for any company. This is particularly why certain multi-billion dollar companies dominate this airtime with their products. For example Anheuser- Busch; would you ever expect to watch the year’s most important day in sports and not see a Budweiser or Bud-Light commercial?
It’s on this day that some of their most successful Ad campaigns were launched, like the Wassup commercial. Probably one of the most annoying commercials of it’s time, but hugely effective, because it was memorable and spawned the craze of saying “Wassup”
Animals are also frequently used in Budweiser commercials. Who could forget the “Bud-Weis-er” frogs or those crazy chameleons? Characters like Louie the Chameleon and the Ferret, were so popular that Budweiser used them in 18 different commercials in an on going series over many years. Most notably though are the Clydesdales, who are often humanized, and portrayed playing in football games, and having snowball fights, there is even one of a donkey aspiring to one day be a Clydesdale.
The creators of these commercials maintain the hipness of Budweiser, because they keep the commercials simple, sweet and funny. They are designed to be understood by the general public, not matter what the age. Who couldn’t relate to a football game or a snowball fight? Budweiser just makes it that much more memorable because they personify animals.
Budweiser was not the first to use animals in advertising and certainly not the last. Other popular animal commercials are the Geico Gecko. Catchy ridiculous ads were this little lizard goes on talk shows, like a celebrity, and talks about car insurance.
Geico also uses another advertising tactic to sell its product, and that is the annoying approach. Generally people tend to remember Geico commercials just based off the stupidity of them. For example their newer campaign, which involves cavemen or some other ridiculous ads involving stupid reality shows and Little Richard.
A really fun new animal commercial by Adidas is an Ad involving a pair of sneakers running around the city by themselves. What people don’t realize till the end is that there are snails in the shoes. A cute way to portray that these Adidas sneakers will improve your performance, because they can even make a snail fast.

The idea of improved performance in advertising is nothing new, especially in the athletic world. Companies are always trying to pitch to the public new ways to improve their lives and their personal health, but some are just better at reinventing this idea.
Gatorade is a great example of a company that pushes it advertisements to the limits. If you want to be healthy, successful, an athletic star, you will drink Gatorade. Their ads depict the best of the best, drinking Gatorade, sweating Gatorade, and then performing to their highest potential. Football players, runners, golfers, you name it, no matter what your sport, Gatorade is their to improve you, or so they say so.
Sports will always be hip and capitalizing on them will always be hip.

Nike’s Ads are just as innovative as they appropriated. Like the Ninja Vs. Soccer ad, which plays off the theme of a heist to steal something valuable from a museum, but for these athletes it is a soccer ball. Other successful campaigns by Nike are their Freestyle commercials, which portray incredible athletes performing ridiculous skills and tricks with soccer and basketballs. The commercials are catchy because they’re fast paced, have loud music, and are filled with athletic talent that everyone wishes to achieve. The commercials are hip because; they are innovative and take sports to a new level, giving the game new meaning and attitude.

Target campaigns are unbelievably successful because they take their commercials to a whole new degree. The designers behind Target corporation make Target hip because they do something new and creative with every commercial. Producing advertisements that are fun to watch, are well executed, and easy to associate with Target stores. One way they achieve this is by incorporating their symbol (a target) and their signature colors, red and white through out their commercials. It’s a fairly simple concept but it yields great results, for example when they merged their signature colors into a Christmas theme, to advertise their gift cards, it put a modern, fresh spin, on the classic North Pole scene. Another way they use color is in a monochromatic theme. Depicting rooms with all the same color products.
In my opinion Targets most entertaining commercials are the ones when they incorporate products they sell in innovative ways. One particularly cute one is the Zoo commercial in which the animals and people are shaped out of random items you can buy at target. Another way the designers from target utilize this, incorporating products idea is, by switching human body parts, and actions with various products with a similar nature.
Target advertisements for the most part can be considered “something new under the sun” because they don’t seem to have appropriated any earlier movements, or older trends. Based on the success of these Ads I believe that this style will be taken over, but I don’t see it fading away anytime soon.

Celebrity Endorsed Advertising

Celebrity endorsed products are a huge part of the marketing world. For some people seeing their favorite actor or a beautiful singer using a particular product is that extra boost they need to go out and buy it. Celebrities are generally successful, talented, and beautiful, many people aspire to be like them, and live the lives they do.
On area of advertising that is greatly influenced by celebrities is the athletic world, because it plays off of that whole improved performance mindset, only it takes it to the next extreme, because famous athletes are the best there is. And if someone out there wants to play ball like Mike and sees him drinking Gatorade, it could influence his or her decision on whether or not to drink Gatorade.

At the same time designers mock this whole celebrity endorsed advertising, i.e. another Michael Jordan commercial, but this time for Hanes, which depicts young men in a locker room copying the style of underwear Mike wears. Some other commercials that poke fun at celebrity status are, the Heineken Commercial with Jennifer Aniston, where she is reaching for beer, but a young man takes it from her, also the target commercial with Heidi Klum and Darth Vader.
A new form of advertising that’s been coming into play is commercials set up like mini movies. They’re a little longer then traditional commercials but they have a plot and a storyline.
Nicole Kidman’s mini movie for Chanel No. 5 perfume is set up like an old Hollywood movie, glamorous with over the top dresses, fancy cars and flashing lights. The storyline is she’s running away from her fame, and finds a man that she falls in love with, that loves her for who she is, and not her status.
Time after time female celebrities are used to endorse beauty and cosmetic ads. Carmen Electra modeled for a campaign for M.A.X. Factor cosmetics where she appeared in numerous ads,
and Cover Girl always has a range of celebrities modeling for them.

Perfumes also use celebrities frequently, i.e. Sarah Jessica Parker is the face behind the perfume Lovely, Britney Spears and her newest scent Midnight Fantasy, and Charlize Theron is the face of Dior J’adore.

The act of using celebrities as campaign models is nothing new, especially when it is for cosmetics. Celebrities are generally beautiful and look their best at all times, average people want to relate to that, so they use the products these celebrities endorse.