It's actually kind of funny how quick our society is to jump on the bandwagon, and to conform to what everyone else is doing. I wish people would just go with their gut instinct and make the right decision based upon their own beliefs and knowledge, but the truth is, no one wants to be the odd man out. This slightly rational but also slightly irrational human behavior can be of favor to different brands. For example, if a particular company has a ton of positive reviews or Facebook friends or Twitter followers, they will most likely get more business than a competing company that has way less followers/friends/reviews. Many companies and brands buy these friends, followers, and reviews, just so that it appears as though they're very popular and successful from the outside. It's lying! And it makes us as the consumers look like fools. I actually find it quite humorous. Brands will do whatever it takes to get more business/awareness, and yeah I guess this is a good strategy. All this generation wants is 1,000 likes on an Instagram picture, and as shallow as it seems, it's a good way to lour in customers. I'm taking a class this semester called Persuasion and Attitude Change, and we talk about similar things. We're reading a book about how to go about change, and just the other day we read about how people are more likely to do a particular action if they know that other people are doing it as well. For example, in class we watched a video of a study done where a class of elementary students are shown a few lines, and they're supposed to say which lines are the same size. Everyone in the class, except one clueless student, is in on it and gives an extremely untrue response, but they all give the wrong answer. In almost every single case, the student that isn't in on it will go along with what everyone else is saying, even though it is so obviously wrong and they know it. They just don't want to be that one person that is going against the flow with no other followers. This week, so many brands jumped on the Back to the Future bandwagon because of the amount of publicity it was receiving. Nike released the notorious self-tying shoes, for example, which they probably could have came out with long ago if they pleased. But suddenly, this is such a cool, huge thing because of Back to the Future Day. They strategically planned it so that they would get the most publicity and attention possible, since so many people were paying attention to Back to the Future Day. Funny and smart. I guess what I'm saying is I don't really have a problem with bandwagon brands because they're just trying to go along with the way our society acts. We're weird and don't like going against the crowd. It makes sense that brands would want to appear more popular than they really are to draw in business. It works because that's the way we're wired. While it is somewhat deceitful, it's getting these brands business, so in that way they're successful. Here are the cool self-tying, Back to the Future-esque, Nike shoes:
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Edelman is the world's largest PR firm, so that's pretty neat. This company stood out among the list of the best Los Angeles Public Relations Firms & Agencies. Not only is it the leading firm overall, but also in categories such as Entertainment and Beauty and Fashion, which are things I am interested in. They also value honesty and a mutually beneficial relationship between the public/ client and the company. They also care about current events and philanthropy. For example, the American Lung Association turned to Edelman to help them with their campaign to increase their diminishing relevance and funding. Together they launched Lung Force, which kicked off in New York City, May 2014. This initiative is trying to spread awareness to the public-- to inform them and encourage them to donate. I included the American Lung Association's Lung Force vision video below that shows a woman's personal battle with lung cancer, and shares some shocking statistics such as the fact that more women die each year from lung cancer than from breast cancer, and yet breast cancer receives more awareness. I admire that Edelman shows interest in movements such as this-- the issues that deserve more attention than they are receiving. I also looked through some of the jobs available in the United States for Edelman, and there was a particular internship that stood out to me. The internship is for Social Media Analytics. I'm interested in this not only because I am very active on social media, but I also believe it's an extremely powerful way for awareness and news to spread. The internship is for post-graduates and is full-time, so I couldn't apply for it now, but it is definitely something I'll keep in mind. Overall, I appreciate the values of Edelman, and they appear to be genuinely interested in helping spread awareness for causes that go unnoticed. They are using their power in the PR world to help start initiatives such as Lung Force, and I think that's very admirable. Could it be possible that there are traces of early PR in the Bible? This seems like a super weird thing to even consider, but... I can kind of see how this could be a thing. What I'm thinking is, since there was no media outlets or anything back then, PR was different-- it had a different definition and context. In a sense, Jesus' disciples and prophets were running PR campaigns for Jesus, trying to make him "viral" and spread the good news of a Savior that came to earth to save all of mankind! Through the telling of Jesus' parables and miracles, His name was spreading like wildfire, and people became curious and wanted to know more and see this Jesus for themselves. Another Old Testament example is Moses. This is kind of a 2-in-1 PR example. For starters, Moses used PR to tell of God's mission and served as God's medium to show signs and miracles. Also, Aaron used PR for Moses, since he couldn't speak very well. He was literally speaking on his/ His behalf. PR was kind of like Evangelism back then. By spreading the news of Christ, His name was becoming more and more popular, and more and more people were trying to see Him and hear His teachings. This is still true today. The more people spread the joy and good news tucked within the Bible, the more people hear about it. Simply proclaiming the news isn't enough, however. As Christians we're called to act it out by loving everyone, not being judgmental, and wholeheartedly following Christ in everything we do by obeying His commandments and worshiping Him with all of our being. We have the advantage of social media, though. We can share our testimonies and stories of His wondrous grace on whichever social media platform we choose. Even though the times have changed and technology has rapidly evolved, He remains, and that's what is so special. Check out this cool video: Volkswagen has really gotten themselves in a pickle. (Which is such a shame, because I love the Darth Vader kid commercial). Basically what happened is they cheated, lied, and got busted. The company somehow included a "defeat device" into the Diesel engines, so that the vehicles would enter a type of safety mode, and the engines wouldn't run as normal. In turn, the vehicles would pass their emissions tests, and everyone would walk away content. They didn't plan on getting caught, though... and now that they have... It's not looking so good. The cars produce 40% more pollutants than what is allowed in the U.S. and this "defeat device" was implanted in about 11 million cars. Yeah. Why they even thought they could get away with this, I don't know. But, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) busted them, rightly so. As a response to getting caught, America boss Michael Horn said, and I quote, "We've totally screwed up". Wait, yeah, I'm sorry. Do you think? And the chief executive Michael Winterkorn bowed out gracefully, resigning, and saying they had "broken the trust of our costumers and the public" (BBC News). Overall I think they're handling themselves pretty well. The fact that Winterkorn left the company was probably pretty wise for not only his own health and sanity, but for the company as well. The whole scandal made Volkswagen's image change drastically, and they lost a lot of trust and support, and that also effected Winterkorn's image. Volkswagen is now being lead by Matthias Mueller, the previous boss of Porsche, who said, "My most urgent task is to win back trust for the Volkswagen Group-- by leaving no stone unturned" (BBC News). Nice. I wish him well. He has a lot of work to do, and it will likely take a long time for Volkswagen to gain back the public's trust. Just recently even, Volkswagen withdrew their application for their model year 2016 diesel vehicles. They will not be releasing a new line, and announced recalls will likely begin in January. Although they really made a mess for themselves, I have faith they'll clean it up and continue to treat the situation with poise and caution. They know people are, well, pissed, and they'll want to correct that, so I trust every move will be strategic and well thought out. When thinking of epic ad campaigns, for some reason my mind automatically wanders to the epic split video that Volvo produced with the incredibly bendy Jean Claude Van Damme in 2013. In this video, Van Damme manages to stand/ literally split himself between two Volvo trucks, while driving in reverse and while slowly drifting apart. It's set to some very dramatic music during a beautiful sunset in the middle of nowhere, and the whole ad has a very tranquil, harmonious feel. Which actually, makes it quite comical. I can't watch the ad without laughing because of how serious it tries to be. As odd as it seems, the video has over 80 million views on YouTube and is still talked about to this day. I've seen clips on Vine, and there are tons of people that have tried recreating Van Damme's epic split. The point of the ad was to show off the stability of the power steering on the Volvo trucks, but Van Damme's crazy flexibility is what made it so memorable. I'm not so sure this ad campaign actually worked for Volvo, because there aren't really any Volvo-specific factors in this ad (besides the dialogue and text at the end). I think the public is probably more likely to just remember Van Damme, and won't necessarily associate it with Volvo. But nonetheless, Volvo got a lot of views and publicity for this ad, so in that sense it definitely worked. Maybe if they made more commercials with a variety of epic, gravity defying acts, the public would be more likely to tie it to Volvo. But overall, it was very memorable and it peeked a lot of public interest, so that seems pretty successful to me. Check out the ad below! |
Bailee KussrowI have many thoughts. I have many passions. Archives
June 2017
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