XII: 21st Century Advertising

In this era for advertising the words "Technological Revolution" seems the most appropriate to describe today's society and advertising.

With the introduction of New Media due to a higher dependency of internet sources in society, it is understandable why change has come quick for creative industries. It's best said that advertising has become more based in socialisation rather than integration due to the popularity and demand in social media networks on the internet such as Youtube or Facebook.

New Media inherently has shifted the focus from singularly focusing on a particular and aiming strongly at that audience to shifting to a more wider audience where popularity through a new form of Word-of-mouth or "Sharing" is the key for success. In today's market it is all about popularity to generate an impact and so creatives today have to grasp the technology and innovations around them to stay ahead of the rest and in this we are rich in the latter.

Through these changes birthed the Social Media Campaign, interactivity and socialising being the key to success. These campaigns are produced on social networking websites (i.e Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, etc) the placement making it what it is.

Here are some examples:

X: Creative Advertising in 80's

The culture of the 80's was quite troublesome.The UK and US were in a Conservative high politically with Thatcher and Reagan in power; this was also the beginning of a more business and capitalist formed society with companies introducing privatisation and financial deregulations. Even though there was a financial growth within the service sector unemployment was at a high causing public outrage.

The look and culture of the era had its iconic images, there was an idea for the "New Man" or "New Woman" for society to latch on to. The "New Man" was more androgynous by being more feminine and showing more emotional sides, this also allowed a more liberal attitude to the homosexual community through music and other art forms; the New Romantic trend in music is a good example of this.

"New Woman" showed a new status as well as confidence, women are more in control with their work lives showcasing independence especially with the image of a female Prime Minister present in that culture. With this trend came a change in women's fashion with the introduction of more masculine clothing such as the Power Suit.

With this present in the background there came a post-modern shift for the world of advertising in terms of production and style.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the ad that redesigned advertising for the 80's era. Levi's "The Laundrette" ad showing a direct snapshot of 80's advertising culture and how it has evolved from it's predecessors. Mostly seen as a template for post-modern advertising utilising what came before to make something new and in this case it was the coolness and style of the 50's. The Laundrette is often seen as a game changer within the industry...

With it's composition lifted from 50's style, music and film composition (seemingly a popular era for young adults at the time) as well as the focus on the male figure playing both to the straight (female) and homosexual audiences this is a great showcase in understanding an audience's interests. A blog post on how BBH developed the ad can be found here: http://thisisnotadvertising.wordpress.com/2012/11/22/levis-501-the-story-behind-launderette/

IX: Creative Advertising in 70's - Context

This is an ad for Burger King during the 70's:-

And this is the same brand advertising in today's market:-

Notice the difference?

In the end it's all about the context of the time that shapes the ad.

VIII: Creative Advertising in 50's & 60's - The Real Mad Men

To a person invested in the advertising industry this period is often seen as the golden age of creative advertising as it was the era in which advertising had it's "boom" moment. Through economic changes came an important moment in advertising history, a moment generated from the minds in Madison Avenue, New York.

DDB (Doyle Dane Bernbach) The agency's first ads were for Ohrbach's department store and they typified the new "soft-sell" approach using catchy slogans and witty humour in contrast to the repetition and hard-sell advertising that was in vogue until then. The new agency was initially successful in winning business for clients with small budgets. Their campaigns for Volkswagen throughout the 1950s and 1960s were said to have revolutionized advertising