Online+Ad+Critique

The two online ad campaigns that are going to be discussed in this paper are, firstly the Dove Evolution ad Campaign and secondly the Tipp Ex “Shoot the Bear” ad campaign. media type="youtube" key="5XF66Ku4a9U" height="390" width="640" align="center"

**__Dove Evolution Ad Campaign: __** The Dove Evolution Ad Campaign is an extremely interesting ad campaign for several reasons. Firstly the ad was made in Toronto by a Canadian advertising agency by the name of “Ogilvy and Mather”. The ad was directed by two Canadian directors as well. Their names are Yael Staav and Tim Piper. This ad campaign was first made to be released as an online model. However it had been released in certain countries such as the Netherlands and the Middle East in the form of a television ad campaign. This campaign did go on to win many awards, laurels and was highly acclaimed by all critics. In fact a really interesting thing about this ad campaign is the fact that a spinoff of this ad campaign which was actually a parody called “Slob Evolution” went on to be nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award on its own.

The ad was created in order to promote the companies campaign called “Dove for Real Beauty”. This campaign was launched by the company in 2003 however the evolution ad campaign was released on 6th October, 2006. The narrative of the ad is quite simple yet brilliant. The ad uses an average looking girl in order to show that she is just your regular neighbourhood girl. They then begin to gear her up by applying makeup and styling her hair, before sending her off for the photo shoot. This is how any photo shoot would normally be conducted. However once a single picture is selected from the wide array of pictures it is then put into a photo editing software. This is where the proportions of the very basic feature of a girl are shifted around with. The ad is trying to showcase an unrealistic and unreasonable approach towards an idea of beauty, which inevitably messes with the social idea or attitude towards beauty. The ad ends with what I feel is a brilliant catch phrase that says, “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted”.

If we were to measure the success of the Dove Evolution ad campaign, I would say it was a pretty successful ad campaign. Not only did the campaign manage to make an estimated revenue of $150 million. (Wikipedia) It has won several critically acclaimed awards for not only it’s brilliance in terms of an ad design but also in terms of sending out a message to the audience that was very well received.

 The reason why this ad is extremely important in my eyes is that it gives people a very important message, and that message is that no one should be made to feel ugly. Society has a less ideal perception of what “beauty” should be. People should not have to conform to these ideas of beauty. We must learn to appreciate people for who they are rather than the way they look, and people should not obsess over the way they look, because all said and done going down that path would lead to more harm than any good. This is not simply an ad campaign this doubles up as a social message and that is where the brilliance of the ad lies.

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**__Tipp-Ex Shoot the Bear Ad Campaign: __** The second campaign that I chose was the Tipp Ex “Shoot the Bear” ad campaign. The reason why I chose this ad campaign was that when I was first shown this ad on YouTube I found it very amusing and it kept me pre occupied with it for quite a long time. At that time I wasn’t very familiar with Burger King’s “Subservient Chicken” ad campaign and so I was very much impressed with the concept in general. The reason Burger King’s subservient chicken ad campaign is mentioned here is because the Tipp Ex shoot the bear ad campaign is quite similar.  This ad campaign was meant to go viral over the internet via YouTube. The campaign was designed by a French agency that goes by the name of “Buzzman”. It has an interactive design that allows the viewer to decide on the outcome of the scenario presented in front of them. What the scenario basically is, is that a hunter is in a forest minding his own business when all of a sudden he is confronted by a bear. Then the choice is given to the viewer on whether or not the hunter should shoot the bear that makes it interactive for the viewer. Upon making a choice the hunter uses the Tipp Ex white out from the nearby ad to remove the word “shoots” from the title and allows the viewer to fill in the scenario they would like played out. There were over 50 scenarios that were filmed with several really interesting entries, which overall made the ad campaign thoroughly enjoyable and extremely amusing to watch and keep replaying over and over again.

Where I feel the charm lies in an ad campaign such as this is the fact that it is a very interactive ad campaign and requires for the audience to be active and involved. Not only is it proving to be effective in terms of getting people to notice the product involved but it also keeps the viewer continually pre occupied with the ad and ends up adding to the ad’s stickiness.

If we were to measure the success of an ad campaign such as this, the key would be to see how viral the video became. In those terms the success of the ad campaign was quite huge as it managed to secure 4 million views in over 200 countries in a matter of 5 days. On average, each user spends 6 minutes viewing the campaign, as opposed to the usual average time of 2 minutes. Again on average, a viewer will typically suggest 15 different actions during a visit. With this kind of response, it is easy to see why some are referring to the campaign as “innovation showing YouTube’s future.” (Ewing, 2011) Not only does it suggest some room for innovation but a proven fact that this could act as a sticky video for people to visit repeatedly. ** __Conclusion:__ ** In conclusion, the way campaigns attract audiences is by having a competitive advantage. This can be done by being innovative like in the case of Tipp Ex ‘Shoot the bear’ campaign or being conceptual like in the case of Dove Evolution Ad campaign. So in order to have a successful ad campaign what is required is either an innovative design or conceptual idea that keeps the viewer intrigued by what they are watching.

**__Works Cited: __**  · <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">"Evolution (advertisement)." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_(advertisement)> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 24pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> · <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ewing, Christie. "Tipp-Ex âShoot the Bearâ Campaign." //AAF Illinois Ad Buzz//. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. <http://aafprofessional.wordpress.com/2011/01/28/tipp-ex-“shoot-the-bear”-campaign/>.

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