With Father's Day coming up so soon, the annual flood of special sales and ads are showing up everywhere. Here are some unconventional Father's Day ads from a condom company that I found to be a little amusing...

I saw this ad when I was sifting through the mail this morning:

Since we've been talking a lot this week about targeting and segmentation, it stood out to me because of the huge word "MEN" at the top. I thought, they have to be really going after a male demographic. But in reading the rest of it, it seems as though it's actually targeting both men and women, like an inside joke or something.

Here's an interesting strategy Kotex uses to get customers to switch to their product. This commercial along with a few others, uses sarcasm and humor to make fun of how tampons are traditionally marketed. They're hilarious and have been extremely successful without ever even mentioning what makes their product better than the competition. It's all about image.

Negative Advertising

While watching TV last night, I saw a commercial for T-Mobile that basically said AT&T sucks and T-Mobile is awesome. I started thinking about the differences and similarities between ads like this and political ones that attack opponents. I mean, it was pretty smart of T-Mobile to take advantage of the negativity surrounding AT&T right now for their slow service, especially regarding iPhones, as a way to get consumers to switch providers. This tactic is something that politicians do all the time - identify a weakness in the competition, and display it to the world in hopes that a few voters will be convinced. I did a little searching and found an interesting article on how voters respond to negative advertising. It's weird to think about politicians using the same marketing strategies as cell phone providers and brands of paper towels and soft drinks...Here's the article and the T-Mobile commercial, as well as a few more examples of comparative advertising I found just for funzies:

http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/05/15/attack-ads/

http://www.youtube.com/user/tmobile?v=pczODHEO23I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDGORiD82rQ

I find it really interesting that Peta more often than not, uses over-the-top provocative ads to promote their values. Maybe just for shock value or to appeal to a specific age group...

Here's an ad that really stood out to me when I saw it for the first time. I think the concept is really creative.

The Pitch: Intro

Close the door, have a seat. Welcome to my BUS-341 blog! This is my first ever blog so please pardon the cheesy Mad Men references. I am obsessed with the show and thought it might be fun for this blog to incorporate something I love and that, coincidentally, revolves around marketing. Enjoy!