Author Archives: Kevin Roldan

Beats and Bose

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The message of Beat’s ad campaign is to promote the headphones by using famous athletes and using glamour shots of them wearing them as well. Beats decided to take close up profile shots of their subjects in order to show the product in different lightings. Judging from the consistency in their choice of models, its safe to say that their main target audience is the African American community in the age range of young men to middle age men. The strength of the advertisement lies in the use of well known people during a time when they are still relevant, which hurts it in the long run.

The Bose ad campaign on the other hand relies on visual metaphors to get their message across. Their subjects are known for having one thing in common and that is being noisy. Each subject was shot from the front and is well lit from being shot under diffused lighting. Their intended audience is people who are fed up with loud and are looking for a way to cancel those sounds. Bose’s ads were successful because of their clever message and relating to a larger audience.

Yelp/Foursquare Ad

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Although both companies offer the same services, its obvious that Yelp is dominating over their rival, Foursquare, when it comes being the preferred business review site. Yelp makes it clear that their target audience is those people who want to make the best of an unfavorable situation. The strength in their ad campaign comes from not only being humorous but also the way the actors are asked to pose for the video. They’re engaging with the audience looking straight at them, almost as if they’re talking directly to them, and keeping their faces brightly lit even while they’re in a dark area.

The  Foursquare ad on the other hand aims their ads towards the general audience.Their ads feature two people, both with different ideas of what they want to see, do or eat. There is less humor and they try to use word play as their niche to keep the audience interested. I personally fin the campaign to be much weaker than Yelp’s since it fails to explain the importance of their service, and having a tagline that doesn’t resonate with the photography, or the people in it.

Shaving Ad Comparison

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Before the photographer, Tim Tadder, took the picture of the athlete he manipulated the lighting to set to mood for the audience. The use of short lighting along with the athlete’s expression creates is a very manly and aggressive atmosphere. The lighting also allows helps Gillette get the message across  to their audience by emphasizing the smoothness of his skin by using this lighting setup. The overall message I get is using Gillette’s razors can give you a close shave while still keeping a masculine appearance.

The Schick advertisement on the other hand is aimed  towards the more casual audience with a humorous message. Troy Goodall wanted to capture the image of an average man and used broad lighting to create a photo that resembles more of a profile picture. Thanks to the use of of the lighting, the details of the hair on their models face is able to standout more and become the focus of the ad. The message I get from it is, people with beards are seen are seen as having an animal on their face and their product will be able to “free their skin.”

Dance Photography Comparison

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Both Greenfield’s and Silver’s advertisement did a great job of capturing their companies’ brands with the use of ballet dancers. They understood that their dancer’s pose could express a wide range of emotions and ideas depending on how they were positioned. This is why taking the photo at eye level was key to both of their success. Capturing the right kind of diffused shadows was also important to make sure that it wasn’t too distracting for the viewer.

Although advertisement for Raymond Weil and Pantone both decided to use dancers as subjects for their ads, they do not necessarily emphasize the same idea. Raymond Weil’s ad uses their dancers to give the advertisement an elegant atmosphere, and their sharp poses is a metaphor for precision of the watches’ mechanical hands. The black and white tone and its use of a high key also helps promote another feature of the watch, which would be its classical and bold appearance.

On the other hand, Pantone’s use of their dancers convey a completely different message. Instead of using dancers to promote mechanical features, it is used in harmony with the lighting to showcase the creativity, fluidity, and energy of the company. The dancers aren’t stuck in poses that are straight or rigid, and in fact their poses are more curved and artistic which helps get the message of their brand across. The use of full scale colors and contrast does exactly what the color company wanted to promote, it’s understanding and wide selection of colors.