One advertising campaign that has stuck with me since for quite some time now was the Always “#LikeAGirl” campaign. I can still remember the first time I saw it was when I was 14 at an all-girls camp. The message was so inspiring to all of us at that time and still is today. At the time of the first release of the campaign, ‘Always’ had been falling behind to competitors and needed to revamp and reach younger girls. The brand released a few statements about the campaign that said, “We set out to champion the girls who were the future of the brand,” and “Girls first come in contact with Always at puberty, a time when they are feeling awkward and unconfident-a pivotal time to show girls the brand’s purpose and champion their confidence.” The campaign showed that women tend to lose confidence as they go through puberty and tend to forget all that it means to be a girl. The brand wanted to change the way it means to do something “Like A Girl” and take the negative connotation away from it. The response to the ad was more than Always would have ever thought. They received over 85 million youtube views from countries all over the world. The campaign won numerous awards and even went on to become a halftime segment at the Super Bowl. The fact that the ad came out in 2014 and is still being talked about today shows just how relevant it is in our lives and just how much of a hit it was. This ad was extremely cool and unique to me because it showed just how important the creative team behind the production was. They are who came up with the idea, supported it the entire way through, then executed the idea successfully in the end. #LikeAGirl is an ad that, I believe, will continue to be shown for years to come.

I work for an advertising agency on campus, Morris + Mitchell and this semester we were assigned to market the company TimelyMD. It is a company that provides telehealth via the internet. This means that you can “facetime” a doctor from the company at any time and they will diagnose you and write a prescription for you. TimelyMD was started by 3 ACU alumni which is why they want to specifically target ACU college students as their market.

One of our biggest contributions to the company this semester was putting a giant billboard displaying what the company offers directly outside the Campus Center. They wanted it to be clear to students how to schedule an appointment, call the doctor, then steps following. They also wanted to specifically focus on the new counseling sector they were offering. We worked the entire fall semester on the design and processing of the billboard then this semester we finally got to see the finished product on campus. While the billboard is huge and looks amazing, I wonder now if it is actually being noticed by students. I, personally, noticed it because it was my project but when I asked around to a few of my friends (who walk past it daily) they had no clue what I was talking about.

This leads me to the idea, is print advertising dead? We are so used to online and digital advertising that we don’t notice print as often anymore. So what comes next for print? Will the entire next generation know of anything besides digital advertising? Experts believe that there will still be a place for print advertising in the future but it will more so be in local markets. I think it will be extremely interesting to see the future of advertising.

Council, Forbes Communications. “Does Print Still Have A Place In The Future Of Advertising? 10 Experts Weigh In.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 2 Mar. 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2018/03/02/does-print-still-have-a-place-in-the-future-of-advertising-10-experts-weigh-in/#77ca21525fc6.

The FCC Commissioner is recently fighting back against advertising done be e-cigarette companies. The Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act of 1969 prohibited cigarette advertising on television and radio. However, this law did not prohibit any advertising against e-cigarettes (because there was no such thing). Advertisements geared towards the e-cigarettes are everywhere and are aimed at teenagers. By using things like the Juul, teenagers are using e-cigarettes twice as much this year as they were at this same time last year. The FDA recently made a new law where you must be 21 to buy e-cigarettes, however, they cannot get involved in the advertisement side of things. While the companies would never say directly that they are aiming to get the attention of youth with their bright, fun advertisements it is pretty easy to see. They offer various flavors which have caused a nicotine addiction outbreak. Even though the company says the aim of their advertisements is to stop cigarette smoking it has been proven that the e-cigarette is just a gateway into actual cigarette addiction. The FCC is concerned that they are about to see the next generation have a huge nicotine addiction due to how advertisements encouraged and normalized it. E-cigarettes are being advertised heavily in retail stores, television, the Internet, and print media such as newspapers and magazines which means that youth are likely to see advertisements about it daily.

As a 20-year-old girl, I can say without a doubt that I personally see advertisements about e-cigarettes quite frequently and I definitely think that is a problem. It is especially scary to me because we do not know the long-term health effects of them. I believe that there does need to be a law banning the advertisement of e-cigarettes for our generations sake.

“Smoking & Tobacco Use.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 15 Nov. 2012, http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/by_topic/policy/legislation/index.htm.

Rosenworcel, Jessica. “FCC Commissioner: We Need to Crack down on e-Cigarette Advertisements.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 13 Feb. 2019, http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/02/13/federal-communications-commission-e-cigarette-ads-addiction-juul-tobacco-nicotine-column/2632905002/.

“Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 15 Mar. 2018, http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6710a3.htm?s_cid=mm6710a3_w.

Love is in the air with Valentines Day coming up quick but sometimes finding the perfect gift is so hard but this year it’s being made much easier. Have you ever had an ex that gets on your last nerve? One that you somewhat despise in the nicest way possible. The El Paso Zoo ran an advertisement last week that has since gone viral that gives the perfect give for each of our special exes in our lives.

This is an example of an extremely successful advertising campaign that used its social media platform to gain awareness of it. The zoo posted it and got over 7,000 shares within a few days. People commented on it and tagged their friends who also shared it and tagged more friends.  The advertisement displays cockroaches and hearts and says that if you pay a certain amount of money they will name a cockroach after your ex then let a meerkat “devour” it. Oh, also did I mention they will be broadcasting the entire thing via Facebook Live? The campaign has been so successful that they had to stop taking names. Ad Age even sent out information on it in their weekly email calling it, “Cockroaches vs. red roses”. I think the reason this advertisement was so successful is that you don’t have to be in “love” to celebrate this Valentines idea. In fact, you can be extremely bitter towards love and still participate. People are tired of the typical roses, chocolate, and cards. Having an edge on advertisement and being new and original is really putting new ideas on top of old, basic ones. I also think this form of advertisement is so interesting because it did not cost the El Paso Zoo anything. I believe modern advertisement is moving more towards this way because social media is so huge for our generation.

Worth, Dallas-Fort, and Nbc. “Zoo Receives ‘Overwhelming’ Response to Cockroach Promotion.” NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, 11 Feb. 2019, http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/national-international/Forget-Chocolate-Name-a-Roach-for-Your-Ex-Lover-505565471.html.

Lewis, Sophie. “This Zoo Will Name a Cockroach after Your Ex, Then Feed It to a Meerkat on Valentine’s Day.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 8 Feb. 2019, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/el-paso-zoo-name-a-cockroach-after-your-ex-feed-to-meerkat-valentines-day-feb-14/.

A huge story in advertising this week was Adidas releasing a new brand campaign strategy in honor of February being Black History Month. Initially, the campaign would have been thought to have gone over smoothly and even increase sales but unfortunately, this is not what happened. Adidas released an entirely new line inspired by the Harlem Renaissance but the company made a crucial mistake when they put an all-white shoe in the line. Social media completely blew up of people angry about this mistake and wondering how it ever got approved in the first place. This seems to be happening all too much recently with different brands releasing items that just make absolutely no sense. After receiving tons of backlash Adidas quickly removed the sneaker and released a statement that read, “Toward the latter stages of the design process, we added a running shoe to the collection that we later felt did not reflect the spirit or philosophy of how Adidas believes we should recognize and honor Black History Month,” and also, “After careful consideration, we have decided to withdraw the product from the collection.” I believe this was a wise decision on part of the sportswear company, however, I am shocked that they released the shoe in the first place. Adidas obviously had good intentions in releasing their line in honor of Black History Month, however, the execution was poorly done. I think that in the future the company will be much more careful with the items they are releasing and what they are saying.

Pasquarelli., Adrianne, and Adrianne Pasquarelli. “Adidas Pulls Black History Month Shoe after Backlash.” Ad Age, 4 Feb. 2019, https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/adidas-pulls-black-history-month-shoe-backlash/316523/