Advertising

Discussion

J'ai pense comparer les publicites sur les glaces (magnum, solero...) qui sont parfois assez marrantes en France, en particulier au cinema.

J'ai pense comparer les publicites pour les parfums et notamment les differences de rapport a la pudeur.

Bonjour,

Je pense qu'il peut etre interessant de comparer les publicites sur la biere (qui, en general, sont vraiment marrantes), principalement les elements qui sont utilises dans les publicites.

Je pense comparer les publicités sur les articles de sport.

I think that comparing advertisements for alcohol would be really interesting, especially those shown during the Super Bowl (the championship game of American football). I think one of my classmates can explain this better, but basically commercials shown on TV during this game are especially entertaining because it is so expensive for companies to buy the time. Can somebody in my class help explain this better?

I agree with Tish that comparing alcohol advertisements could be really interesting, especially because the U.S. and France have very different attitudes toward drinking. There are restrictions on alcohol advertisements in the U.S., is that also the case in France? For example, here all the beer commercials have to say something like "drink responsibly" and also warnings about how it can be bad for you. There are a lot of cultural influences that would affect the commercials in each of the two countries, which would make the comparison really interesting. And about the superbowl, it is basically a huge deal all over the U.S. On the simplist level it is football game between the top two teams. But it is also a big deal culturally - for some people it is more of an excuse to have a party and get together with friends than watch the game. And because so many people watch the game, companies have to pay 2-3 million dollars for 30 seconds of commercial time! And since the companies pay so much, the commercials are usually really good and really funny, so there are people who watch the superbowl just for the commercials. its basically the best of advertising in the U.S.

Haha I agree that comparing alcohol advertisements would be interesting, not to mention highly entertaining as well. In general, I think that comparing advertisements for any kind of food or drink would be fun and interesting, especially since they are the sujects of a lot of our debates on the forums in the first place.

I think that the suggestion about alcohol or food advertisements could be interesting as well as about sports. I think something else that might be worth looking at is automobile advertisements in general.

I agree with everyone that alcohol advertisements would bring out very different cultural perspectives on drinking. Another suggestion I have is weight loss advertisements. I think there are some differences in body image conceptions between France and the US. Perhaps a good body image is defined by how attractive a person of the opposite sex finds you or maybe it's how confident you are about yourself the way you are. I think advertisements bring out the cultural perspective in such issues.

I'm also interested in the advertisements for food as well as those for sports. Beer commercials would be pretty interesting as well. Do people here know about the old Bud Light commercials? Real American Heroes and Real Men of Genius? Those were quite interesting and clever.

I was thinking that maybe you could pick a multinational company that has a branch in the U.S. and in France and see if commercials advertising for the same company are different in the two countries. I was also thinking that there are military commercials in the U.S. Do you have those in France? Another idea, is looking at political advertising compaigns. There is a lot of talk in the U.S. about reduction of smear advertisements (negative publicity of opposing candidates). I was wondering if negative advertising is also used in France for political compaigns.

Alcohol adds would be good to look at. Just to throw out other suggestions, I'd say consider computers or other electronics (iPods etc). These pretty heavily saturate the American market, and I imagine the French one as well.

I agree with Daphne- I think comparing political ads would be very interesting and relevant to both countries considering the French are in the middle of a presidential election and we are close to one ourselves.

I like the idea of looking at alcohol ads, or food ads because there seems to be a difference in opinion on the subjects in the US and in France. I also like the idea of looking at automotive ads, since the US has such a big car/ driving culture, it would be interesting to see the difference.

I think food and alcohol ads in general would be interesting to look at. It would probably be easier for us to really have a feel for those than political ads because as much as we should be, not everyone is completely up to date on politics.

I think that clothing ads would give an interesting perspective. I think it would be interesting to see the different appeals in those ads.

Political ads could be interesting too...

Also, in terms of what medium, I think photographs or online stuff might work well. Depending on the subject, there might also be billboards or magazine clippings that we could take pictures of.

Political advertising could definitely be interesting, especially if we including things like political cartoons. I'd be really into comparing things like that. Otherwise, I'm a fan of photos and online stuff as well-- it'd probably work rather well for the techies that we all are!

I've found many of the above proposals very interesting. Certainly food and alcohol ads are interesting to compare between two countries. I wanted to add something regarding political advertisements. Here in the US I have seen many tv ads which in a sense "negatively advertise" an opponent (I am not sure how to better explain this. If someone can help go ahead). I am mentioning this because in Greece there are no such types of advertisements. All the ads have to do with the "good qualities" of one side. Negative judgments on the other side is not common (and up to some extent I think prohibited, but again I am not entirely sure about that). Anyway, I would like to know if such types of ads exist in France

I agree that it would be interesting to compare alcohol, food, and automobile ads--because I think these are huge markets in both countries and would highlight some of the major cultural differences we've been exploring the whole semester. I also think political ads/promotions would be great to look at to get a perspective on things other than purely commercial venues. I agree that it is interesting to think about how American political ads almost always spend more time bashing opponents than they do highlighting candidates' actual agendas--and I have no idea what French political ads are like. I also think this is quite pertinent right now with the French elections and the American elections coming up.

Alcohol has been mentioned several times as a possible topic. I think cigarette ads could also be an interesting area to explore. In the US, I know that Phillip Morris has been required to create ads that are anti-tobacco because of court settlements. Cigarette ads could show differences in culture and government policy with regards to smoking. I also think apparel/ weight loss ads would be a good topic. For example, I know that nudity is less of a taboo in France and maybe these advertisements would reflect this difference.

I think that I am more into pictures than videos. However, since I sort of want to do poltical advertisements, I think we could include several mediums such as video, politlcal cartoons, posters etc. I was also thinking maybe clothing, the release of music (promotional videos are advertisements), introduction of new sitcom, tourism. I thought that tourism might be interesting because most American advertisements focus on luxury and relaxation. Perhaps, tourist agencies try to put a more cultural spin on vacation advertising. I was thinking a comparison beween IPOD commercials might be interesting.

It might also be interesting to compare the placement of advertisement. Such as when commercials are shown on TV or where posters and flyers are usually found.

I think it would be interesting to compare the same company, but their two different advertising campaigns. Apple is an interesting example, as I think it will have similar advertising, versus McDonalds, or perhaps an oil company. If we compare this way, we can really look at what the strategies the companies chose for advertising for the two different audiences, which might be less apparent in different companies. For example two clothing companies, especially if they compete will try and advertise themselves a bit differently.

I really like Helene's idea of looking at advertising of ice cream. From DQ and friendlie’s to Cold Stone to Ben & Jerry's. I know I have t-shirts from Ben & Jerry’s in particular, they were at a concert I went to over the weekend. In the past couple of weeks several companies have also had 'free scoop day' across the US. Some also have a day when it's cheaper. - - - If not Ice cream, it might also be neat to look at candy advertisements or soda. I feel like I see ads for these mostly on TV and on city buses. M&Ms & Coca-Cola also have their own merchandise and Hershey has an amusement park in Pennsylvania.

I think it would be interesting to compare the same company, but their two different advertising campaigns. Apple is an interesting example, as I think it will have similar advertising, versus McDonalds, or perhaps an oil company. If we compare this way, we can really look at what the strategies the companies chose for advertising for the two different audiences, which might be less apparent in different companies. For example two clothing companies, especially if they compete will try and advertise themselves a bit differently.

I agree that a food/candy/drink company that is popular in both countries could be really interesting. The difference in the ads in the two different countries could highlight some cultural differences. Plus it would be pretty easy to find ads since they are all over the place. We could probably find the ads online which would be easier than having to take pictures in person, though that could be interesting too ...

Whatever the topic, we may be able to collect media by going to nearby malls and taking pictures of different advertising strategies. For those of us in Boston, we can go to the Pru and take pictures of whatever. Other possibilities include visiting highly commercial streets like Newbury (Champs Elysee in Paris).

I like Daphne's idea of comparing military advertisements (which would lead to comparing how the two countries view "patriotism" in general), and also comparing political candidates and how they advertise themselves.
Another idea to throw out there is comparing vacation ads (since vacations seem to play an important role in French culture).

je trouverais ça amusant de comparer les pubs sur l'armée. Je pense qu'effectivement comparer les différentes campagnes de publicité d'une même marque dans les 2 pays serait très interressant (Mc Donald's me semble une bonne idée par exemple).

Les publicités pour les voyages m'attirent aussi, mais je pense qu'en général elles ne sont pas spécialement droles!

I also think that comparing the use of women in advertisements in US and France might also be an interesting subject to investigate on. In the US there was quite a comotion about one of the covers of vanity fair about a year ago, I don't know if this is also a concern in France.

Moi finalement je vais travailler sur la pub des voitures.

Je travaillerai avec David (voiture).

Hi David and Cheng! I am one of the MIT students who will be working on publicity for cars with you. We thought it would be interesting to compare advertisements for the same cars, and to see how they are different (or the same) in the two countries. For example, we could compare ads for Volkswaggen or Mini Cooper. Another idea we have is to share ads for our really big cars and your very small cars. What I mean is, we can share ads for our biggest Hummers and trucks, and you can share ads for the SmartCar, or other small cars. I think you will find the advertisements for our large SUVs to be very entertaining! Let me know what ideas you have and we can get started!

I've decided to check out advertisements for the army for this project. Seems like it will be really interesting!

I'll stick to the army idea as well.

I'll stick to the army idea as well.

I think I'll work on alcohol advertisements.

I think that the idea of cars seems interesting...and I agree with Tish that comparing large vs. small cars would be entertaining.

I'll also be working on alcohol (beer probably) advertisements

I'd really like to work on the idea of cars, the large vs small would be interesting. But I'd also like to look at ads for the same type of car and see what is emphasized, for example whether or not size or fuel economy is the main focus of the ad, etc

Samiksha and I wanted to do something related to food. It's pretty broad right now. We could talk about regular fast food restaurants, like McDonald's and Burger King. We could talk about frozen meals - like Lean Cuisine and we could also talk about weight loss things - like all the pills, etc. advertised on TV.

I'm in the beer group as well!

I'm working in the bear group too.

Je voudrais travailler la nourriture, je pense que faire une comparaison entre les fast food restaurants est une bonne idée.

Je travaillerai sur la publicité pour l'alcool et plus particulièrement sur la bière.

I think for the cars one, definitely comparing big vs. small would be interesting. We could do cars like Hummers, trucks, and SUVs and we could compare how car advertisers make these look appealing as opposed to how cars in France are advertised so that the population will want to buy them.

I'm in the car group and I also think focusing on a type of car is a good idea. Perhaps, we could also look at the way the car is advertised in terms of who its target audience is, luxury vs convenience, and its environmental-friendliness.

I'm working in the perfume group.

I am going to work on political advertisements with Yulia (I think). We were thinking that it would be interesting to look at different forms of advertisement and compare them between the two countries. For example, we would compare an American political comic and a French political comic. What message are they each trying to portray and is it humiliating, insulting, or just funny? How does it make the audience respond-positively or negatively? We were also interested in comparing political campaign videos. I'm not sure if we want to focus on political campaign material or general public sentiment towards politics. I think that they are very different categories and it would be better just to do one. Another medium that we could compare is political fliers. I just thought it would be interesting to take different methods of advertising and have examples of each from both cultures.

I'm going to be working in the beer group, and I'd like to see how advertisements are used to market alcohol. I'd like to see how the format is different and what kind of an audience they seem to target

I'm going to be doing political advertisements too. I'd prefer to compare adverts by the presidential candidates in elections out of Daphne's two suggestions, as it is extremely relevant with the French election just over, and with campaigning for the 2008 Presidential primaries beginning. I also think that's it a bertter defined and more managable comparison.

Team Beer: I think we should gather advertisements with the goal of comparing attitudes toward its consumption here in the United States and in France. I know a lot of advertisements in the United States portray beer as part of a relaxing time, with commercials often being a bit silly or even outrageous.

Also, to gather who is on Team Beer: Rachel Licht, Judy Ho, Helene Viatge. Add yourself to this list and repost it. Also, in terms of material, I think youtube is an invaluable resource, but also, if anyone has pictures for static advertisements around where you are living, that could add some variety.