Culture Code - The Code for America

      Speaking of America, many Americans can immediately think of the term “American Dream”, of the land of freedom, the land having a gamut of scenery, congregation of people from different countries and cultures.

      In regard to America, the American Culture Code for it is also DREAM as per Rapaille’s research result (Rapaille, 195). By applying this finding, the Brand USA created the global tourism campaign for the U.S and the commercial “Land of Dreams” in April 2012 to encourage travelers throughout the world to visit the U.S. The TVC was said to air in U.K, Canada, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, etc. 

      In the commercial, audiences can see typical American people and things, such as a cowboy at the beginning, tough motorcycle riders, a big family gathering right beside a forest, a marching band right on a street, a same-sex couple in a bus, the Color Run, a pile of crawfish, an eagle landing on a skydiver, and especially a group of diversified people singing and playing harmoniously beside the Brooklyn bridge. Moreover, the commercial briefly shows the magnificent landscape of America, such as a California beach, New York’s Times Square, New Orleans, and Grand Canyon. Those are just some of the uniqueness that can be seen, heard, and experienced in the U.S only. Especially, there are variety of people in terms of their races, ages, and nationalities featuring in the commercial. They all smile, laugh, play, run, walk. It exemplifies the Americans’ dream of being forever young (196) and the optimistic side. It illustrates the notion of a free, beautiful country full of delighted citizens.

     Besides beautiful shots of American locations and people, music also plays a critical part in the commercial. It’s a very typical American one, a country song performed by Rosanne Cash. The artist was surrounded by musicians with various types of instruments and representative costumes. As American folk song is easily to be played along, America is open to anyone to join in.

     The commercial not only emphasizes the dream and beauty of America and its people but also taps into the desires of people all over the world which are freedom and joyfulness. By employing the key word “Dream”, the commercial achieves the “America’s mission to provide dreams to humanity” (198).

Culture Code: LOVE = FALSE EXPECTATION

One of the most commercialized and marketing symbols of love in American culture is that of the diamond engagement ring. We are constantly exposed to billboards, magazine advertisements and commercials with catchy tag lines such as "a diamond is forever".

Raptille's Culture Code for LOVE is FALSE EXPECTATION. In our country, 50% of marriages end in divorce and maybe of us associate the word “love” with heartbreak or let-downs.

Here are some examples from the 2003 ad campaign by the Diamond Trading Co. that aimed to increase sales of engagement rings over the holiday. The ads are obviously targeting men to buy engagement rings or even just jewelry for the women in their lives. I think the ads are also meant to target women who want their boyfriends to propose or buy them jewelry, which plays on the “expectations” code.

 

This ad is insinuating that you, as a boyfriend, don’t deserve your woman and also sends a subtle message to woman that says “your relationship or boyfriend doesn’t live up to your or your friend’s standards, so he should buy you jewelry.”

 

This one also has an undertone of buying an engagement ring to prove something or to justify or reaffirm your relationship.

Both of these ads, as well as pretty much all of the ads in the campaign use the “FALSE EXPECTATIONS” Culture Code to sell their product. Buying their product is both a financial and personal commitment, so by using the idea of a false expectation or the idea that love “rarely reaches fulfillment”, they can persuade he idea of their product as a means to fix or enhance a relationship (Raptille, 41).

Production Elements - Color

The 1999 film, But I'm a Cheerleader is a satirical romantic comedy about an outwardly happy heterosexual high school cheerleader whose friends and family think otherwise. They stage an intervention and send her to a conversion therapy camp to help cure her homosexuality.

The film seems to have a fairly low budget and did receive a lot of negative criticism, one thing that sticks out is the film's use of color. You can't see it as well in the YouTube video as you can if you watch the movie on a DVD, but the film makers used different types of colors in the scenes during the main character's normal life and when she is at the conversion camp. In Megan's home, the color scheme is very brown and could probably be described as dead colors. The lighting is somewhat subdued also, which adds to the feeling of sadness or dullness in Megan's normal environment. But when she's at the camp, all of the colors are brighter and more vivid. There's also more light and the environment feels more positive overall.

Production Elements - Scale

An oldie but a goodie. In thinking about how scale plays into production elements, I wanted to reference the ad campaign "Think Small" created for Volkswagen Beetle during the 1950s. "Think Small" is a highly regarded advertising campaign that is said to have changed the advertising industry as a whole.  Looking at the production elements used in the ad, scale is certainly a major player. Emphasizing the unique small size of the car was accomplished by scaling it down to an unusually small size in comparison to the amount of white space in the ad. Instead of trying to market the luxuriousness of a car like most other car brands, Volkswagen choose to instead sell the idea of its simplistic and minimalist value through scale. 

Without such an effective use of scale, the ad and the Beetle would have likely been lost among many of its more traditional competitors and their more established 'American sized' cars. The "Think Small" campaign is a great example of how a well-executed production element can drive the success of a piece of media.   

Production Elements

In the picture, the tree stands straight with a solid grip on the ground.  The girth of the tree is noticeable and the two branches, one on each side with green leaves, suggest that the tree is living. More importantly, the green leaves on each of the branches represent the nature and liveliness which is appealing to the audience.  The relative position of the tree, being in the center of the picture and its dark background makes it a focal point.  There are no distractions to the audience’s view from any objects in the background.  Among the two branches, the right branch resembles the arm of a mother holding a baby.  In the western culture, it is a tendency to place objects of more importance on the right side of a picture where they can attract more attention.  In this picture, the baby is an important part of the picture; and therefore, is placed on the right side of the picture in the branch.  Light is shining on the right side of the tree which also brings more attention to the branch on that side and the naked baby nestled in the branch.  The portrayal of the baby soundly sleeping generates a positive, warm and emotional reaction from the audience.  Overall, the picture depicts a deep relationship between humans and nature.  The caption at the bottom of the picture summarizes this idea more accurately that “Our destinies are linked.”

Production elements

I'm a huge fan of movies and how they are marketed. Movie posters can be super effective in presenting a lot of information about the plot and theme of a film. A good poster can use multiple production elements to play up its purposed message. Posters are more than just still pictures letting you know a movie is coming out this summer. The poster i looked it was for the highly anticipated Dark Knight sequel.

When the poster was released fans new that the villain would be one of Batman's most iconic foes, Bane. A large portion of the fan base also knew that in the comic, Bane beats Batman nearly to death in their first encounter and breaks Bruce Wayne's back. With this being the third and final movie in Christopher Nolan's trilogy the creators of this poster use relative position to convey the danger batman faces this time around. The design of the poster also lets fans know that somewhere in the film batman will have that iconic face off where Bane man handles him. The broken cowl of batman placed in the fore front of the poster and Bane in the back ground walking away allows you to draw the conclusion that batman is over matched this time around. The angle of the photo gives me a feeling as if im on the ground as a loser of a fight and Bane is walking away as a confident victor. The copy across Bane's back reading "THE LEGEND ENDS" creates another feeling that Batman may die attempting to save Gotham.

Production elements - Point of view

Even though I don't have any Apple product, I'm a fan of Apple advertisements because of the consistency, simplicity of the communication message and execution with the corresponding product brand positioning.  
The newest iPhone 5 TV Ad - Photo everyday is one of the examples.

Throughout the TV ad, I can see the world through the eyes of "third persons" who are iPhone 5 users. Apple's agency, TBWA, uses "third person's point of view" to tell the story of a skateboarder capturing his peer's jump, a jogger taking photo of a beautiful scenery, an audience snapping at a concert, and so on. I've done the same things (with my Nexus instead of iPhone) as they do. I find myself in their stories.
The ad doesn't focus on apps, playing games, but rather the philosophy that got Apple the first place into smartphone market, experience, in this case, from camera. It's very simple and subtly emotional. It sticks to Apple aesthetics, revolutionary and simplicity.

Production Elements

If you’ve ever driven past a T-Mobile store at night as I do each time I drive on Loughborough to my apartment, you have noticed the distracting hot-pink lighting inside of the otherwise dark store. This use of unusual pink lighting is interesting to me and I wonder about the marketing strategy behind it. I also remembered T-Mobile’s advertisements, both commercial and print, also reflect this “pink” theme and thought it would be worth looking a little deeper into, especially when talking about production elements.

You probably recognize this women form print ads, billboards and in T-Mobile commercials. They call her “the 4G Girl” and she wears an eye-catching striped pink and white dress.

In this commercial for the T-Mobile MyTouch 4G, “4G Girl” stands against a blank white room (in her pink dress of course) next to a man giving another man a piggy-back ride, who represent the iPhone and AT&T. The men are wearing dark, heavy clothing and are struggling as “4G Girl” says “that’ll slow you down”. The men give off an almost dirty and dark vibe when juxtaposed against a tall, pretty woman in a breezy summer-y dress and heels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7gaPWeZMdw

Towards the end of last year, T-Mobile launched a new campaign promoting LTE expansion and a faster network and premiered the sweet, bubbly “4G Girl”’s alter-ego, who rides a motorcycle and is dressed in a tight black (with pink accents) leather jumpsuit. The line after "No More Mr. Nice Girl" (below) reads, "Time To Set the Record Straight" and goes on to tell you a website to "test drive" T-Mobile's new services.

It's interesting to me how T-Mobile highly depends on color to convey their message. Originally, they used pink to be eye-catching and convey a fresh, put-together and vibrant image. "4G Girl" looks approachable, happy and care-free. In the "Alter-Ego" campaign, T-Mobile switches to black, a harsh change to the all white background of their previous ads, and "4G Girl" now rides a motorcycle, symbolizing speed for their new network, and also wears black (her hair is straightened now too). Even though the black is noticeably different to anyone who is familiar with the original campaign, the splashes of hot pink is present to help you remember the branding. You don't even have to see the commercials or hear the sound to be able to compare the two vastly different images of their spokesperson and feel the vibe they want you to feel. I also like how the pink images from their advertisements is mirrored in the physical lighting in the store. It's important when branding to carry over themes from your advertisements to the actual experience customers get when interacting with your product.

In-class assigment 1 - Toyota Camry in the U.S & Vietnam

Hello everyone,

I take the print ads about 2012 Toyota Camry in the U.S and Vietnam to exemplify advertisements of one product targeting different audiences.

Background:

• U.S is one of the developed automobile markets. Car use was encouraged by infrastructure and laws. It becomes the de facto standard for passenger transport. In 2008, Americans owned 137,079,843 passenger cars, or a little less than one car for every two people (Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistic)
• Vietnam automobile market is still in the developing stage. Car market was officially opened in late 1900s. Due to limitations about infrastructure, high import taxes leading to triple pricing compared to U.S or Japan ones, owning car is a dream or a symbol of status for many Vietnamese. In 2012, there were 18 car owners per 1000 people only.

Findings: 
2012 Camry in the U.S

Since Americans know car and have variety of choices in car brands, Camry is positioned for male and female, 30-35 years old. Toyota launched “It’s Ready. Are You?”, an integrated advertising campaign promoting the 2012 Camry model. The campaign demonstrates how the seventh-generation model addresses "changes in consumers' vehicle needs, expectations and driving habits through the combination of new innovations and improvements to interior and exterior vehicle styling" (Source: http://www.autoevolution.com/news/2012-toyota-camry-commercial-its-ready-are-you-video-39623.html).
One of the ad in the series features the image of strong yet elegant gentleman enjoying his original coffee, plus images of car moving, audio system, rear front to highlight improved points of 2012 Camry. 
The copy centers around new features of the car "Voice-activated search available on the Reinvented 2012 Camry". 
The bright, warm color tone conveys modernness, happiness associated with new functions, improved design of Camry and its target consumer.

2012 Camry in Vietnam

In developing Vietnam market, Camry is tailored to male, aged 40+, successful businessman, high income. With 2012 Camry, Toyota targets to Toyota loyal owners who are current Camry customers wanting to upgrade their car. 
There is no model in the ad to draw attention to spacious, comfortable rear passenger seat. The only and special talent is the relaxing, still parrot to emphasize quietness brought by 2012 Camry. 
The headline "The Class. The Camry" simply conveys the class/privilege is Camry. It especially is used in English to enhance the luxury feeling from the brand itself. 
The cool, calm color tone has the same task. 

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Khanh Vu