Letter to the Tommy Hilfiger Advertising Manager
Dear Tommy Hilfiger Advertising Manager,
“Just be you!” I’m sure one experiences a bit of their own nostalgia at the sight of the following phrase; anything from making new friends in preschool to being on a difficult job interview, “just being yourself” has always been said to be the best way to approach any uncomfortable situation. This is why an ad of yours that I have recently come across has significantly astounded me. The ad that I speak of pictures a flock of sheep standing in front of an American flag (the obvious symbol for Tommy) and, displayed at the bottom, a slogan that reads “follow the flock”. I was perplexed that a company of your stature and prestige would want anyone to just “follow the flock”. So I asked myself: “Would wearing Tommy Hilfiger really make me fit in?” and “Would I rather wear Tommy Hilfiger and be ‘like the flock’ or would I rather be the individual I have been brought up to be.” If the intention of the advertisement is to simply have everyone wearing your clothing line, then I suppose your slogan suits this purpose, but being one who was targeted
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I have been wearing your clothing line for as far back as I can remember so I had to frown upon the thought that all these years I may have only been “following the flock” instead of being myself. Being an 18 year old who has recently embarked in my first year college, I have found it difficult enough to stand out among a student body of well over 35,000. With the modern day misconception that the media has for what every man or woman “should” look like, individualism is something that is not only hard to find, but also hard to keep. So as much as I have marveled over your clothing line for the past decade or so, I can honestly say that I will think twice before buying a pair of your jeans over
In the article, Jesus is a Brand of Jeans, by Jean Kilbourne, we get an insightful look into the effects of advertising on us, as human beings. As we all know, humans let us down. We are imperfect beings, going about life interacting with each other, good and bad. It seems though, over the past 50 years advertising has taken away from human value, and brain washed us into thinking stuff is more important than people.
The Kenderian family was sweet and wholesome before the Turks took everything away from them. Vahan is worried when his father hasn’t returned (13). This is a strong indicator that he loves his father, even all the unwanted discipline couldn’t make him bitter towards his daddy. Vahan is not concerned with money, school, or health, as the Kenderian’s are one of the richest Armenian families in their part of Turkey (4). The irony of Vahan surviving out of his entire family is that he goes a full circle. In the beginning of the book (4), he scoffs at beggars as if they are trash, and near the middle of the novel (103), Vahan is the beggar. This shows how different reality is from what Vahan thought his life would be. His father told him to never be a beggar, and then he dies and Vahan is the beggar. Before the genocide starts, Vahan is considered the “black sheep” for standing out in a not-so-great way. Vahan is a rebel; he speaks out of turn, falls asleep at school, and gets in trouble often (5-6). His rebellious side keeps him alive through the massacre. All the other Kenderians conform easily, but Vahan doesn’t die as easy. While people are dying all around him, Vahan stays strong. If he gave up his hope, he truly wouldn’t have anything left.
In the 1997 article Listening to Khakis, published in the New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell effectively paints a vivid picture of the thought and science that goes into advertising campaigns. Gladwell begins his paper by focusing on the Dockers’ advertising campaign for their line of adult male khaki pants, which he labels as extremely successful. This campaign was the first line of successful fashion advertisements aimed directly toward adult males (Gladwell, 1997). This campaign was cunningly simple and showed only males wearing the pants being advertised with the background noise filled with men having a casual conversation (Gladwell, 1997). This tactic was used because studies showed that Dockers’ target market felt an absence in adult male friendships. (Gladwell, 1997). The simplicity of the advertisements was accentuated as to not to deter possible customers by creating a fashion based ad because, based on Gladwell’s multiple interviews of advertising experts, males shy away from being viewed as fashion forward or “trying to hard” (Gladwell, 1997).
Have you ever made any friends via Facebook, Twitter, or Snapchat that you have never met before? I know I have through Twitter due to having the same interests. Some may say those friends are not really your friends, but virtual ones instead. In the article, “The Limits of Friendships,” by Maria Konnikova, she talks about friendships that are made virtually and in reality. The author argues that the use of social media has hindered friendships and face to face connections within one’s social circle, however, she does not address that they have met their closest support group through social media. Face to face connections help identify who one’s true friends are and they are more realistically made when it is in person rather than over social media, but there Konnikova fails to address the fact that social media has allowed many to connect
It is evident that today’s advertisements for teen clothing are neither healthy, nor ethical, to use as a way to attract teen consumers; however, companies are getting away with this behavior, because their effective and inappropriate advertisements are merely innuendos. The modern label placed on teens is said to be the primary contender for the cause of eating disorders, suicide, bullying, and depression. Fortunately, groups of teens are getting together to put an end to these unethical advertisements and the messages the ads give off to teens; because of their efforts, the amount of effect that advertisements have on teens now, may dramatically plummet sometime in the near future. In my opinion, it is crucial that us teens make a profound alteration to the way teen merchandise is advertised, which in turn will end the knavish behavior of clothing companies, and cease our judgmental society.
We here at More feel it is time to change the representation of older women in the world of advertising, starting first with our own publication. In order to find answers to the problem of women over 40 lacking a voice and presence in magazine advertisements, we have enlisted the help of several advertising agencies. Each company was asked to devise a unique plan of action to better included mature women in our ads. The following three advertising agencies—GSD&M, Kaplan Thaler, and Dimassimo—have been selected because their individual approaches to our dilemmas were most successful in their accurate portrayal of older women. So read on and discover how these creative advertisers were able to not only solve our advertising problem, but also how they were able to expand and diversify our world of advertising by including people that look and think like you.
The makers of this commercial intended the audience to be teenagers and young adults. The values used were sex appeal (of one of the...
Specific Aim 2: To estimate the effectiveness (in terms of QALYs) of implementation of a norovirus vaccination program.
In “The man behind Abercrombie and Fitch.” An interview conducted by Benoit Denizet-Lewis displays a glimpse into the life of Mike Jeffries and his views of his company only hiring “good-looking” people and targeting “good-looking” people to wear his clothes. This has been done in order to force his audience to recognize that the issue of acceptance one’s peers and exclusion of a community mentioned by Mike Jeffries, is a result of cultural perceptions and individual self-image. Denizet-Lewis skillfully shows that while Jeffries remarks of not wanting the “not-so-popular” kids to shop in his stores, it poses a question to consumers asking what change in our attitudes will come or if there will be any change at all. Thus comes the issue of how consumers today have a shift in the reasoning behind why one buys clothing and the motivating factors that influence one to buy certain clothing. Denizet-Lewis also demonstrates the different messages that controversial advertisements and statements affect different groups of people and how what they project is really what people desire, though deemed by many people as unacceptable or inappropriate. The author also examines how in the news media, the image has become more important than the message and how images have taken precedent over actual issues and character. As a result of this, various communities have formed by the construct of selling to “beautiful people” and how popular appeal has become an extension of a person.
Adam Briggle also talks about how on online friendships in his article Real friends: how the internet can foster friendship. He states that we can sell our best quality and hide or not show the weaker side of ourselves, whereas in face-face friendships we may not be able to hide those negative traits about ourselves and they may just come out without our knowledge. This being said gives us or the internet user full control on how and what they what to share with other individuals online. (Briggle, 2008, p.
When someone “friends you” on Facebook, it doesn’t automatically mean that you have some special relationship with that person. In reality it really doesn’t mean that you now have the intimacy and familiarity that you have with some offline friends. And research shows that people don’t commonly accept friend requests from or send them to people they don’t really know, favoring instead to have met a person at least once (Jones). A key part of interpersonal communication is impression management, and some methods of new media allow people more tools for presenting themselves than others. SNSs in many ways are podiums for self-presentation. Even more than blogs, web pages, and smartphones, the atmosphere on a SNS like Facebook and Twitter enables self-disclosure in a focused way and permits others who have access to ones profile to see their other friends. This merging of different groups of people that include close friends, family, acquaintances, and friends of friends, colleagues, and strangers can present issues for self-presentation. Once people have personal, professional, and academic contacts in their Facebook network the growing diversity of social media networks creates new challenges as people try to engage in impression management
However, the moment they guy went out from his house you can see clearly that he’s wearing a Nike T-shirt and of course at that moment you guess that is the ad indicating a specific brand of cloth which is Nike. As a result, I believe I can say that the ad hit two birds with one stone which is get the attention at firs then show the product brand which the main
"We believe that more relationships provide more opportunity." (Source 2). It has gotten into the minds of avid Internet users that the more people you have retweeting you, liking your pictures, or your status, the more social you become. How many of these followers are actually their friends? The more notifications you have on social media does not equal the amount of friends you have. It does not make you social, it just makes you another active user on social media. Receiving notifications does not help you make friends. Even just having a little chat with people online does not mean you are friends. More relationships with people online do not provide any opportunity of creating any real friendships. Friendship are not created by liking someone's status or retweeting someone's picture. ". . . online Americans tend to have 644 ties on average." (Source 1). There is more focus on making connections, than making real friends. A casual conversation does not automatically create a real friendship. Online you can create a larger group of connections, but this does not make you social. The social ties that the internet offers do not create a real bond between people. Social media connections do not help you create a real relationship with another person. More social ties do not mean you are interacting with more people, it just means you have connections with a larger group. I don’t agree with the belief that
Online friends are not really too different from real friends. For some people, friendship is all about affiliation, intimacy, or close relationships. It is
After receiving thoroughly honest feedback from my writing group members, it was obvious that one of the main obstacles restricting my essay from conveying the true nature of my advertisement was the misconception of disdain towards the particular audience I was attempting to appeal to, which was initially the “preppy kids” of Instagram. In order to fix this problem I subsequently removed the word “preppy” from my entire essay. This was due to the bias that it created in regards to the target audience. I exchanged the adjective “preppy” with“young adults” to better describe who my advertisement was meant to appeal