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.