The Wonders of Advertising

This semester, I'm lucky enough to be taking a "Media Effects" class for my communications major. This class is super interesting and fun and the teacher is really entertaining, funny and smart! And the best part? He literally sounds exactly like Jack Black when he talks.

Gif retrieved from http://giphy.com/gifs/jack-black-school-of-rock-bDQcYdKix5gxq

Anyway, in class the other day we talked about the power of advertising...which basically turned into an hour and a half of us watching our favorite commercials and discussing them. It was the best class ever. 

Some funny gems:

Video retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I07xDdFMdgw

Video retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGb8pMIeY6w

Video retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGeTjzTgB-c

And some tear-jerkers:

Video retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V-20Qe4M8Y

Video retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlA9tXYxD8g

Video retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eubWYPhcEEo

These commercials all made me smile. And I hope they made you smile too. 

Being in a lot of PR and business classes this semester, I've been thinking a lot about promotion and the fact that advertising is powerful. I believe it can be used for good or bad and it's really neat for me to see the ads that go deeper than simply a product—the ones that really dig into the heart of a brand. 

In short, great advertising makes you feel something.

"The work of an advertising agency is warmly and immediately human. It deals with human needs, wants, dreams and hopes. Its 'product' cannot be turned out on an assembly line."

- Leo Burnett