Guinness, Coca Cola and Benetton ads......any comments???

MaryJ7

I'm a Graphic Design student and as part of the course I have to complete an essay relating to advertising as part of our daily lives. I have decided to take a look at some of the bigger companies and how they approach their advertising.

Guinness spend millions on their ads and most of the time with positive results. They're good ads but how relevant are they??? Also Coca Cola their ads have always caught the eye as much as I can't really stand the stuff and then Benetton (I know they're more in print but anyway) where were they going with their ad campaigns a few years ago?? Showing images of bloodied soldiers uniforms and a black woman breast feeding a white baby? Yes all very interesting and topical but what do they have to do with Benetton clothes which arn't very interesting or topical?

If anyone one would care to comment on the style of any of these companies ads or even other ads whether screen or print it would be most appreciated.

What I'm looking for is if these ads (or others) make you want to turn off the tv or keep watching. If you like their ads do you automatically have more time/respect for the product? that king of thing???

Please feel free to type, type, type.........

AARRRGH

I want to watch Guinness adverts as I like them - they interest and entertain me. For example, I love this Guinness advert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWfdbYbDVzg

Benetton ads are cynical and put me off shopping there - anyone can be outrageous to get attention.

The Coca-Cola ads are cute, but they don't make me want to drink coke! I guess they're probably aimed at children...

MaryJ7

thanks for you relpy its exactly the sort of thing im after..............

Yea I know I like Guinness Ad's too they're so different and they more often that not make me smile or just wondering how the hell they came up with it!! the one you sent i really like, well i love christmas aswell so anything christmassy im gonna like!

Benetton annoy me.... theres no doubt that the photographer (tuscani) is good and contraversal but what does it have to do with italian clothes??

Jmf

Diet coke ads are a bit different. The one I remember is the one with the girls in the office announcing their break time every day to go up and look out the window at the guy drinking diet coke! Maybe a bit sexist, but everyone remembered it. Wouldn't make you buy diet coke, but at the same time I think they were trying to reach guys so that diet drinks weren't just for the girls.

Wheels

I've always loved the Benetton advertising. It's fascinating. Tuscani unfortuantely doesn't work with the company anymore since the disaster that was the Death Row campaign. I've done a few studies on the Benetton ads myself and while yes they are exploiting issues, they still serve to highlight snap shots of society that we often like to pretend don't exist. The AIDS patient on his deathbed who resembles what many would consider to be Jesus is an incredible image.

Coca-Cola are very hit and miss. They get it right every couple of years and then spend years being bland. Their ads leave me feeling cold because I know they're the same ones rolled out all over the world. Nothing special.

As for Guinness, there is no doubt they are ambitious but they've become incredibly pompus in recent years and every ad feels like its throwing 'art' at you. That suddenly because of the horse/surfers ad they are beyond mere advertising.

qzak

Guinness - Good
Benetton - Ok
Coca Cola - Bad


Is that enough???

Muire do i really have to take this seriously???? WHYYYY?????

Ok sooooo the guinness ads for me basically reinforce the whole "guinness is good for you" or "guinness for strength", which i guess is the whole idea. They can´t say that anymore cause the hse and other gob****es won´t let them, so they subliminally enforce it, men trekking the arctic, men surfing monstrous waves, men diving out of the way of falling water towers (to the heavy beats of dj shadow no less) men being strong and manly playing hurling etc grrrr. (the message is simple ya see, guinness is not for girls!!). But its all very much marketed at men right? But the genius is it implies guinness is the sort of drink that might actually help get your fat arse off the beer stool and do something worthwhile with your life, so your first step to taking up surfing??? down the pub for a refreshing pint. Half way there already!!! Most of their ads are usually done in such a way to invoke mystery and ancient , erm, coolness, which us men also like to think we are. So we´ll have a pint of you´re finest (but none of that extra cold ****e). So does the marketing work on me then? well yeah, i think guinness is the tits (you can quote me on that!!!) but its ****e over here so does my opinion even count??? no!!

So on to benetton. Now these i´m not overly familiar with other than trying to focus on a plastic box covered in "faces of different races" while taking a piss (after a few too many guinness wha??), whereby benetton are trying to sell me condoms while also tellin me everyone in the world has sex. Regardless of their skin colour. Needless to say by this point i´m running out of the toilet as fast as i can to get my hands on benettons winter season collection of scarves. To match my colourful condoms of course.
The only other ads i know of from them are from a few years back, when they "controversially" had those billboards of all the different hearts and the race they came from etc. the gimmick being that all the, GASP!, hearts looked the same (who´d a thunk it!!!). But you can´t knock them for trying i suppose. Yeah to be honest, i´ve nothin against benetton really, they try, bless em. But i never go in cause the colours hurt my eyes. And they´re too ****in preachy haha

So onto coca cola. Well any opinion on coca cola´s marketing is pretty much obsolete right? Its officially the most recognised brand, word, anything, on the face of the planet, regardless of language, culture, race, whatever. So they must be doing something right. And i´ve never ever considered their marketing as anything other than keeping their name the most recognised thing on the planet. Its not like they have to work to win over customers. There´s people who like cola, and if they do they drink coke, end of story, and theres people who don´t like it regardless and no amount of marketing is gonna change their sense of taste is it? They don´t watch an ad and go wow maybe i DO like the taste of coca cola!! No more than people who do like it want anything else other than coca cola (piss off pepsi drinkers, you´re foolin no one!!!).
Of course every once in a while they´ll release an ad making coke look all refreshing and splashy and fizzy and icy, but that only makes regular coke drinkers think "**** i´d love a coke now"...
WOW STOP!!! All this talk of coke is making me seriously want a coke. Are you working for them now muire?? is that whats really going on??? Well in any case, there you have a perfect example of how well their marketing works, i think of the coke ads on tele, and now i really want a coke. you can´t ask for more than that now can you? Nuff said.

Hope my dribbling on is of some use to you, let me know how it goes???

P.s when did you start studying marketing??????

K4t

CocaCola are easily the best advertisers around. Nobody else comes close tbh. I don't know who works for them but they certainly earn their wages.

In the run-up to the world launch of the hugely anticipated GTA game last year, they brought out an ad of what the game looked like. It was genius. Great music etc. too.

They made the ad about the guy in the retirement home who drank the coke and then decided to do everything in life he'd missed out on.

They invented the myth of Santa Clause ffs!

They are simply head and shoulders above everyone else when it comes to advertising and marketing. They didn't become the most recognised brand in the world by chance.

Wheels

K4t wrote: »

They invented the myth of Santa Clause ffs!

They are simply head and shoulders above everyone else when it comes to advertising and marketing. They didn't become the most recognised brand in the world by chance.

They didn't invent the myth of Santa Clause nor did they give him his red costume colour. That's an ubran legend.

The GTA ad was lame. Their "Coke World" ads were fun but nothing has really set the world alight for a number of years. 'I'd Like To Buy The World A Coke' was perhaps the height of their genius but even that wasn't exactly awe inspiring and is only remembered for nostalgia purposes.

Barry Duffman

yo M,
guinness is seen as a lazy drink, a heavy pint, rather than "lighter" drinks like lager & cider, which weren't hit nearly as badly by the bad weather as guinness was in terms of sales during this summer & last - so what do they do? "it's alive inside", make it an "active drink" all these guys jumping & bouncing around in the middle of the pint, the dot running all round the place, basically pretending guinness is an energy drink. a few years ago they had that ad of the guy dancing to the mamba while he waited for his pint to settle, which was probably a stroke of genius, tie an ad campaign, especially for an alcoholic beverage) to a catchy piece of music, next thing you know, that music will be played on the radio in full, then in pubs & clubs, and bingo, you go up & buy a pint!
with the coke ads, they don't need to tell you what their product is, you already know what it is. so all they need is an ad that grabs your attention. the coke thing is young, cool, blah blah blah, the diet coke ads worked great even though i don't like it, or them, they made diet coke cool for guys to drink because then women will fancy them, obviously, and they made them cool for women to drink, because, well, you're drinking diet coke, you're obviously slim, yet full of energy.... it was a great ad campaign, the diet coke break thing. main coke ads probably not so hot, pepsi have got a load of celebs over past few years to appear in ads, britney, etc, and recently soccer-players, coke don't seem to do this for whatever reason, they have the do-your-thing bullshet, doesn't really work for me, but it's an attempt to tap into the gap-year world-traveller thing, which could have been a lot more fruitful.
benetton was just to grab your attention, make you talk about it. if you saw the billboard of the bloodied soldiers uniform on the street, you'd just take notice of a benetton shop more to see what billboards they have in there (they never had it in the shops though!) but they've a very striking corporate colour (bright green) so their shops are very identifiable, and they always use the back wall of the shop to put up their "faces of the world" crap they've been famous for for years..... very very cynical advertising campaign, but probably works, and at end of the day, that's the point.