Creative Advertising & New Media

Socialisation now is a massive part of advertising today. This is due to the worldwide popularity of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, if you cant beat them join them.

The benefits of advertising this way is the audience is instantly world-wide and gives the opportunity for the public to get involved in ways they have never done before.

Gillette's social media campaign, 'Smooth v Stubble' is a campaign that lets the publics have there own say. They have the opportunity to upload there opinionated videos of which style they prefer. They also have the option to post their comments via Facebook and Twitter attached to Gillette's social pages. This campaign was created for brand and product awareness, as Gillette have products to suit both styles, smooth and stubble.

Gillette also created a reward system, in which they would run competitions through the social media sites. This included free Gillette products and sample give aways, also tickets for upcoming sports events from their sponsors, for the best videos/comments posted, you had to be in it to win it.

Another Gillette campaign was 'Masters of Style.'
This was an integrated campaign using all the traditional elements of advertising e.g. television, radio, print e.t.c. However their campaign also went viral. Here is another example of how social campaign's give it's audience the option to take part.

Gillette gave it's audience the opportunity to upload an image of themselves using various tools. The public could then choose a facial hair style template to go over their face. This gave them the option to experiment with different styles without having to attempt it on their own face. The images could then be uploaded through social media sites such as Facebook, which would then gain Gillette brand awareness. There is also a fun factor in this idea, to bring Gillette to peoples attention, even without a buying provocative. I mean who doesn't want to know what they look like with a huge Dali moustache.

Traditional advertising will always have it's purpose, however social medias have given advertising more reason to be creative and open's the doors to a worldwide target audience.

The Real Mad Men - Creative Advertising Revolution 50's & 60's

The reason behind the 'Creative Revolution' was due to the 1950s and 60's being part of world war two's post war effects. Many countries were still recovering from the war during this time, with total world-wide casualties totalling nearly 70 million. However America seemed to come out unscathed with the lowest recorded losses of the six power countries involved. With the U.K economy now in tatters and the enemy big guns involved, such as Germany and Italy, under prosecution, this lead to masses of people fleeing too America in the search of a better life. By this means, New York especially took on all kinds of new ethnic and social groups, boosting Americas social diversity. Advertising during this time was seen as dull and focused on conning the consumes into buying under false affectations. However with the introduction of new creatives from grieved countries after the war, gave ad agencies a new way of thinking, this is what sparked the 'Creative Revolution.'

The agency that largely instigated this revolution was Doyle, Dane, Bernbach (DDB.) They flipped advertising on it's head, constructing new creatives ways to appeal to their audience, using humour and witty slogans, which was almost non-existent at the time.

The 'Think Small' campaign epitomises the 'Creative Revolution' as it defines the change in attitude the ad agencies adopted. DDB's approach was the exact opposite that you would find in any advert during this time. The Beetle was a small, slow, ugly car, but instead of hiding this fact, they embraced it and promoted it to the world. However this wasn't the biggest challenge the agency faced, the Beetle was in fact built by the Nazi's in Germany, therefore first they was going to have to make it socially acceptable to a world that was still bitter towards this once immoral country. The agency did this by referring to the car as the V.W which took the focus off it's strong german title.

DDB's copy would first insult the German car with slogans such as 'Lemon' and 'Will we ever kill the bug.' This was used to shock the viewer, which would then grab their attention through curiosity. The copies tone of voice would then change through it's small print by promoting how well developed the Beetle was 'The V.W engine may not be the fasted, but it's among the most advanced.' DDB chose not to shy away from the Beetles downfalls, which were a lot in comparison to other cars e.g. speed and design, however would promote it's advantages.

The artwork of the ad campaign was just as genius as the copy. DDB used empty backgrounds to perceive the car in a new light, to look more fashionable. Also the artwork complimented the copy by sizing the car to almost a black dot, to emphasise it's simplicity.

This together contrasted all 1950's - 60's advertisements which portrayed the massive change the 'Creative Revolution' invoked and carried on to influence advertisements of today.

Creative Creates 1980's

The Levi's advert, 'The Laundrette,' by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, can be described as postmodern due to many factors. The main focus of the advert was it's over exaggerated sexual approach, which consisted of the model stripping down to his underwear. This action then brought all the women in the laundrette to flattery, in a parody fashion, which broke common social standards of the time. The advert was also shown in Europe with the intended target audience being mature teenagers. Hegarty appealed to this audience by playing with the idea of 'The American Dream,' basing the Levi's model on American superstars from the 1950's to 60's, such as James Dean and the famous Elvis Presley. This then linked Levi jeans too the hip, fashionable times of America.


The same postmodern ideas were used by Money Supermarket in their 'Crocodile' advertisement of 2011. This advert created by the ad agency, Mother, used strong parody to express the emotional benefit of saving money. The advert targets the common British family man by using their slightly overweight, middle aged character 'Geoff.' This character has saved £200 using Money Supermarket, which to a lot of people isn't a vast saving to scream and shout about. However that doesn't stop the agency, Mother, portraying him to now be a superstar. With this new financial confidence, 'Geoff' takes on the waves mimicking 'Abdul,' the fearless surfer from the 1999 Guinness advert 'Surfer.' However instead of a surf board, he attempts to ride the treacherous waves on his children's inflatable crocodile. Humour is used this way to show the positive effect that Money Supermarket savings can have on any kind of person, already financially stable or not.

Modernism, Magritte & The Problem Of Meaning

This is an advertisement by The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF.) The WWF is a organisation working on the research and restoration of the environment.

This advert is created to address the issue of climate change and draw our attention to how our every day habits are destroying the world as we know it.

Here the WWF have used a surrealist style, visibly transforming an individual's face to represent a fish. This is done to portray our negative effect we have on the environment. However cleverly, instead of showing the ill effects on the habitat, WWF have directly targeted the issue by placing a victim on the face of the character.




Rene Magritte was a Belgian surrealist artist, that challenged observants preconceptions of reality through his work. He emerged as an artist during the advertising boom of the 1920s by playing off the big industrial change of the time, which offered newly structured urban living. However advertising had added pressure to appeal to consumers during this post war era, as rationing was still a big issue. Rene dealt with this issue through means of connecting his copy and art work on the bases of surrealism to appeal to the consumers. With maybe the exception of the Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali, whose creativity resembles Magritte's; no painter had a bigger impact on the advertising industry at the time.

The Art Of Advertising - Modernism & Advertising - LMS

Charles Baudelaire was a French poet, from the 1800's, who produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. He once quoted 'To say the word Romanticism is to say modern art - that is, intimacy, spirituality, colour, aspiration towards infinite, expressed by every means available to the arts.'

London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company's approached Norman Wilkinson to create their modernistic adverts in 1924. He was a British artist that was a well known marine painter, however was also an illustrator and poster artist.

Norman Wilkinson adverts for LMS were typically modernist due to their flat, bold colours and simple shapes, which was rare to find in advertising in the early 1920's.

The LMS adverts mimic such famous modern artists, such as Salvador Dali and Raoul Dufy. Both incorporated a love of expressive colour and minimalist shapes.

Context Of Advertising Practice 1970's

The computer software company, Apple Inc was founded in 1976.

The creation of the first portable computer, including screen and mouse, was released around 1975. This revolutionised computers, as it meant they could now be used and kept in offices and within the consumers own home.

Years before computers were built very large, therefore could only be kept and used in factories and other large work areas.

The late 1970's advert on the left hand side, depicts a male using the new Apple portable computer in the comfort of his own home. To many viewers, of this time, it would be un-heard of for a computer to be small and compact enough to be kept in your own home. This was Apple's approach to this advert, to get the message out of the simplicity and ease there product creates. They have done this by sizing their product to only 1/3 of the advert, and focused on the happy situation it creates; now a man can work from home and spend more time with his family. 

Over time technology has grown tremendously and so has Apple's. Therefore their adverts of today are very much product based, such as the advert on the right which is promoting Apple Iphone's vast collection of 'Apps'. This is to show off to the public the wonders of their creations and to keep it's vast competitors at bay. During the late 70s-80s, this wasn't a real issue to Apple as there was only a small number of computer companies to compete with.