The Anvil: May 2011

MEDI 323 Individual: Literary Influences

Edgar Allen Poe:
Though it may seem a little odd one of my biggest influences as a teenager in a literary sence was indeed Edgar Allen Poe. The bizzare stories thrilled me. I was never really one to feel fear but more a chilling sensation of awe. One of my favorite poems to this day is still 'The Raven' I feel it is one of the best poems ever and enjoy a few of the adaptations of it.

Tell-Tale Heart Animation:
I like this animation of the Tell-Tale Heart as I feel that it captures the phantasmagoria of Poe's works. My copy of the complete collection is a very well loved and battered book.

Lewis Carroll:
Anouther huge influence to me was 'Alice in Wonderland' The books by Lewis Carroll, the adaptations, the Disney movie and even the new one directed by Tim Burton (offical site here)
Both the 'Looking Glass' and the 'Adventures in Wonderland' and everything relating to them have inspired me. All the works Charles Lutwidge Dodgson published under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll are very important to me.

The Disney film:
I choose the Cheshire Cat scene for a few reasons, he is my favorite character, the scene includes one of Carroll's poems and also it is one of the scenes refering to madness.

The new Tim Burton Disney film:

The new film is much darker and has been dubed somewhat of a 'gothic' version owing to Tim Burtons dark and spooky fixations. I was at first aprehensive of the pairing but I LOVED this version.

Also something 'Alice' related I loved was a videogame I only got to play a few times. American McGee's Alice. It is a very warped and twisted version of the original wonderland and was extreamly dark. I think that the Tim Burton movie drew upon this in some ways as well as combining both books well.

MEDI 255: General Research (Media + Advertising)

I have been researching extensively for this project. I have researched into many aspects of advertising. during my research I found this online article about why print ads are better than digital adverts. It features a Pantene ad as an example of a print ad and I thought it relevant as they always have very effective print ads.

Also since one of my personal intrests is the actual psychology of marketing I thought it a valid avenue of research. My research lead me to this site that is about the actual neuro science behind effective adverts. It states that adverts that work on an emotional level are the most likely to give good returns in terms of profits.

One key point of this project is that my adverts are spoofs. However, I have seen more and more adverts (especially lately) cash in on spoof to great effect.

This car advert for example 'takes the mick' of the standard way to advertise a car using 'sex appeal' It is a brilliant advert and really sticks in your head because it is funny. The humor engages you on an emotional level. Humor has been a very important part of advertising and has been since advertising was just starting. According to this book I found humor in ads has been important since the 1700's. I also found that finding out about it is important enough to companys to warrent an analysis on humor in advertising.

MEDI 255: Research on Pantene

Whilst doing research on Pantene to perfect my images I came across this interesting article. In America in 2010 the company launched a campaign to find the first reality TV 'hair' star. I found it staggering that the celebrity they pulled on in this was a rock star. Rock as genre shares a lot of the same style and fan base that metal does. Although they were asking for women to be the star the prize was to go to a rock concert and other privileges. I do know rock is much more mainstream than metal but it was an interesting link.

I also found an extremely funny blog post about supposed research conducted by the company saying that women who use Pantene experienced "more joy" than others.

Pantene are actually very clever in their advertising they use either very original ideas such as their 'The Haircare Collection' campaign.

The very unique approach to the media norm, an attractive model selling you the 'sex appeal' of the product, is what makes this advert work so well. It is instantly attention grabbing and makes the consumer engage with the advert. This kind of ad leaves a lasting imprint in the consumers mind increasing the chances they will buy the product.

They have also used more traditional method in their ads such as going for just 'sex appeal' and the much less overt 'girl next door pretty' factor to sell their products.

These two adverts play on completely different elements of a female consumers psyche. When products for women overtly use sex appeal they are marketed at women via men. Men play a part in choices that a female consumer makes, if a product is perceived to please males she will buy it to achieve this effect, also some adverts that garner male attention may result in the male actually suggesting the product or the woman may observe the males attention to the advert and then link the product with male attention. The 'shine' advert is much more focused on how a woman views herself. The focus is much more on the face, hair and the smile. The message is clear, be pretty and happy like this woman by using the product. It is so simple yet staggeringly effective!

The normal layout of a hair advert in print:

There is normally a logo in the top right corner. The model is attractive with shiny hair. the actual bottles of the products are small and to the right but are still a focus point. There is normally a clever slogan to further add to the product image and appeal.