Beginnings - A History of Creative Advertising

The establisher of Sunlight Soap, William Lever, used many factors of the late 19th century and onwards to his advantage in his advertisements, in which to appeal to consumers.

Lever knew that the majority of his consumers would be women, therefore a lot of his adverts were created to attract them. The majority of women of this time were working-class house wives, in a male-dominated world. However house wives of this time all had a ambitions of their own and Lever took advantage of this by empowering women in his adverts, regardless of the times current social structure. Lever represented women in his ad images as 'sensual, classical goddesses' to appeal to the aspirations of the common lower-class housewife.

During 1914 the start of the first world war began and Lever used it to his advantage. He ran advertisement campaigns urging families to place a tablet of his Sunlight soap in their packages bound for their loved ones on the front-line. He backed up this idea in his advertisement with 'while quality exists, victory is assured.' Exploiting the worrisome families left behind, into thinking his soap could actually effect the efforts of our soldiers.

The image on the right-hand side depicts his idea, as it shows a British soldier being helped to aim his gun by a Sunlight soap box supporting his leg. This related to the public as it show just by sending a Sunlight soap box to the front-line, you can be doing your bit to help the war effort.

Myth (Lynx)

The Lynx 'Angels Will Fall' campaign sprung to my mind almost instantly on the subject of myth and ideology. Lynx for years have use these tools in their campaigns, appealing to their male target audience, that with Lynx they will seduce all women. However with this new campaign Lynx have taken it one step further by stating with their products, even angel will be attracted to the distinct scent. Of course no heavenly women will be falling from the sky for any males. However gives the message that the product is so effective it will attract even the purest and most beautiful women.

The crash landed angel in the advert above is portraying the message, with Lynx you have the power to literally have women falling into your bed, with ease.

Semiotics (Honda)

I have chose to use Honda as my chosen brand as their ads are extremely creative and unique, which is very unusual for a car brand.

Honda have associated their car to how a biro writes on a banna, 'it works like a dream.' By using a fruit to advertise their cars, makes honda stand out from it's competitors, as it is very rare for a car brand to advertise their range of models without showing them. This shows the companies playful side and highlights how much fun the drive in a Honda is, as writting on a banana in pen is a very child-like action.

'Have you ever written on a banana in biro? It's crazy but it works like a dream.'

Message - If you haven't driven a Honda before, you need to, it works like a dream.

'You wish all writting could be this way, it flows, it's smooth, it's sensual'

Message - Honda makes driving this way, it flows, it's smooth, it's sensual.

'A strongly worded letter of complaint is impossible. Its makes you realise that everything can be improved.'

Message - With Honda you will have nothing to complain about. Honda is improvement.

'Do you believe in the power of dreams.'

Message - Honda is what dreams are made of. With Honda anything is possible.

Aston Martin (India)

Due to brief having a one-hour time constraint it was difficult to create a substantial campaign, as a lot of research was needed to combine the two aspects, product and place together.

The most challenging aspect of this brief was finding a link between this luxurious sports car, renown for it's sheer speed, power and style, to a country that consists of one third of it's vast population living under the poverty line. Aston Martin's carry a heavy price tag and new models easily exceed the £100,000 bracket, so just creating a campaign to make the Aston Martin desirable to India wouldn't be enough; it would have to clearly appeal to a wealthy target audience.

While researching the country I was very surprised at the fact India is in the top ten wealthiest countries in the world, although the country holds a large poverty rate due to its great population, the wealthy population are indeed very wealthy. This gave me much more confidence is being able to create a successful campaign.

India is well known for it's beauty in architecture, such as the Taj Mahal, which is known as the masterpiece of India. Therefore my idea was to link the Taj Mahal to the Aston Martin, by both their beauty of shape and superiority. Superiority being what the Taj Mahal has over many of the buildings in the world, the same as what the Aston Martin has over it's car and engineering competitors. The Taj Mahal is a statement of great wealth and linking this with the Aston Martin will appeal India's wealthy population.

Art & Copy - (George Lois)

Throughout the film, George Lois's approach to advertising literally blew my mind. His aggressive, egotistical attitude is something that really surprised me, as I always thought, keeping your clients happy is rule number one in advertising. However George Lois really inspired me as he showed time after time his arrogance is simply pure genius.
He quoted, 'I've always had this reputation I'm rough with clients, and I have been.. I have big ideas and I show it to them, and I try to sell it to them, I'm trying to make them rich and I have to drag them into being rich, it drives you nuts!'

George Lois's work with Tommy Hilfiger almost had my hands over my face, peering through my fingers, due to the George's sheer pretentious approach. His idea to create a campaign linking this unknown designer with the three greatest male designers, Ralph Lauren, Perry Ellis and Calvin Klien and stating Tommy will be the next, seemed berserk. George Lois even quoted, 'who the hell knew what T H is, Tommy's mother didn't even know,' which showed even George Lois knew the high risk he was taking, however he still had the ability to maintain confidence in his idea, which is truly remarkable!

The best part is, from the start Tommy wanted nothing to do with the campaign and the only reason it was happening is due to George Lois somehow convincing Tommy Hilfigers business partner to run it.
The adverts sparked an uproar of offence that this unknown designer can be linked with these greats, which gave Tommy Hilfiger no choice but to work harder than ever before. Tommy quoted 'George turbo charged my success and then it just took off...my business burst into a multi billion dollar global business.'

This story in itself is truly astounding, that George Lois can take such a big risk but at the same time still have such strong belief and confidence that his campaign will be successful. Not only did his campaign have impact, but being able to create power over the designer, to make him work harder than ever before, is remarkable. George Lois is truly inspirational.