Anti-Drug Advertisements

Have you recently seen any anti-drug advertisements on television? I feel as though every time I turn on the television I see anti-drug advertisements and most are different and ever changing. I have seen a variety of different anti-drug, anti-drinking, anti-smoking, etc. advertisements in the last couple of days and certain components of each have captured my attention.

First of all, I noticed that each of the anti-drug advertisements targets a different audience. During the Superbowl an anti-drug commercial aired that involved a dirty looking man (the drug dealer) saying that sales are down and business is decreasing. This decrease was because kids no longer need a drug dealer when they can just go in their parent’s medicine cabinets and get high off of their prescription drugs for free. The commercial ends with the drug dealer saying that next time something goes wrong parents can’t blame him because it is their fault (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY5Css5U82E). This commercial is primarily targeted at parents. Another commercial involves a teenage girl walking to school when she gets an embarrassing picture message of herself from the recent party she attended. What’s worse everyone else around her has received the same picture message. What’s even worse is that she does not have any recollection of this party because she was so drunk. This advertisement is targeted at teenage females. Another similar advertisement includes a teenage boy who took a girl to a party the night before where he took part in smoking pot. The next morning he calls his friend and asks what happened that night because he has no recollection and the friend says he abandoned the girl and that they are no longer friends. This advertisement is targeted at teenage males. In addition to this, I saw an anti-drug ad campaign that used cartoon like graphics that showed a stick figure kid doing drugs and he asks his dog if he wants a hit. The dog replies by saying, "you disappoint me" and walks away (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPs2pm4eKW8). Commercials like this are targeted at smaller children, namely preteens and younger.

Secondly, I noticed that each of the anti-drug commercials has something different that captures ones attention when watching television. I saw one anti-tobacco commercial that had a man with a tracheotomy hole in his neck singing that you do not always die from tobacco. This commercial was a little disturbing and I am sure it captured a lot of people’s attention (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRHvZazd4IM). There are other anti-drug commercials that use an animal to communicate the message about how their owner has changed as a result of their use of drugs and alcohol, which captures many peoples attentions. Many of these anti-drug commercials and ad campaigns use testimonials of people who have had life altering events happen to them as a result of drug and/or alcohol use. I believe that these testimonials make the advertisements appeal to people and capture people’s attention on a personal level and makes them think about what is being said. As a result of this, anti-drug campaigns are effective forms of advertisements.

Local and National Advertising

What does a marketing plan consist of? The marketing plan of any business or product contains the four P’s, namely product, price, promotion, and place/distribution. When looking at the advertisements around me on a daily basis, I find many national and local products being advertised to me. Many similarities and differences can be found between national and local advertisements.

Take newspapers for example. My local newspapers are The Springfield Sun and The Chestnut Hill Local. Occasionally we get The Wallstreet Journal, a national newspaper. I found that local newspapers tend to be less expensive to purchase a daily subscription to than national newspapers. This makes people more likely to subscribe to their local papers than to national newspapers such as The Wallstreet Journal. In addition to this, in terms of distribution, local papers are distributed business to business and also distributed by townships. Similarly, many national newspapers are distributed business to business. Furthermore, in terms of substance, local newspapers tend to primarily cover local news and events, whereas, national newspapers focus more on national and international events. National newspapers have to target the nation, which consists of many different regions and different people. National headlines have to capture the attention of all of these different people for the newspaper to survive. In addition to this, local newspapers tend to be distributed weekly, whereas, national newspapers tend to be distributed daily. National newspapers tend to have more up to date, current, and factual information than local newspapers.

Another example can be sports. Local sports teams and sporting events take place daily. Local teams such as the Phillies, Flyers, Phantoms, Eagles, and Sixers at the beginning of the season will use commercials to promote the team by offering family packages of a certain amount of tickets, food, and drink for a certain amount of money that is significantly less expensive then it would cost to purchase separately. These offers are also occasionally distributed in schools to encourage kids to read or do community service. National sporting events, such as the Superbowl, the World Series, the Stanley Cup finals, etc. are often nationally broadcasted through commercials reaching far more people. These national events also tend to be significantly more expensive to attend than local events and they occur only once a season. Marketing directors of these sporting events have a difficult job to do in that they must not only appeal to the fans of teams who are in the finals, but also appeal to the fans of those teams that are not in the national sports finals.

The similarities and differences I find when comparing local advertisements and national advertisements are that national products, promotions, and events tend to be significantly more expensive than local products, promotions, and events. This is due to the fact that national marketing plans have to appeal to a larger number and variety of people than local marketing plans. Also, national products have to be distributed to more people in a greater variety of states and regions, whereas, local products usually do not have far to go to reach the intended consumer. Both national and local advertisers have to develop a marketing strategy that not only reaches intended customers, but makes these customers want to have their products.

Society vs. Advertisements

The question: What came first the chicken or the egg? has sparked a lot of thought and consideration. How could the egg come first because a chicken would have to lay the egg, and how could the chicken come first because it had to have hatched out of an egg? Similar to this is the question: Does society emulate advertisements, or do advertisements emulate society? In response to this question, I would say that society and advertisements emulate one another in a sort of circle.

Society has a set of wants, needs, expectations, and standards that have been put into place over the years. Society began, however, with basic needs for survival such as food, water, and shelter. As new products were developed, advertising came into play. Advertisements created a false need. People began to believe that they needed a certain type of food, clothing, shelter, etc. in order to survive. Therefore, advertising was beginning to shape society’s wants and needs and began establishing these expectations and standards.

After seeing these advertisements promoting new products, new technology, and new body images society began to change and emulate advertisements. People believed they had to look like, act like, and possess the same things that people in the advertisements had. Society began to change in response to these advertisements. In response to this, advertisements had to change to attract and target their new and changing audiences and live up to society’s new expectations for new and better products.

I believe that society feeds off of advertisements and advertisements feed off of society. Society establishes standards and expectations and advertisements define what society wants and needs. For example people do not need cars, but society and advertisements make it seem like a person can not get anywhere without a car. Also, society and advertisements make it seem like a person can not live without a cell phone, whereas, in earlier years there were no telephones. Furthermore, women do not need make-up or cosmetics, but society suggests that women are ugly or unappealing without make-up and advertisements suggest women can look ten times better with make-up on. As a result of this, I would say that advertisements and society go hand in hand in a vicious circle and base their standards and expectations off of each other.