Pick a market, any market

This class I have on Tuesdays is called "Dynamics of Media and Mass Communications". We apparently are going to learn how to appeal to consumers by using different programs such as TV, radio, magazines and what not to integrate a brand campaign.

Uh-huh.

Well anyway, my first assignment was to analyze some YouTube videos, specifically the last Super Bowl commercials. The rubric we had to follow included choosing a best and worst ad, supporting our point of views with facts and examples about the target audience and the product and also being able to use proper grammar in our memo form paper.

Here is mine, tell me what you think:

Week Two Homework: Super Bowl Critique

            An assignment to watch YouTube videos sounded exciting at first, but to get into the head of the target audience was challenging to me, in fact, figuring out who was the target audience was challenging to me as well. It’s a good thing I like a challenge.

            In watching the commercials for the 2014 Super Bowl, I felt the best was Bud Light’s “Up for whatever” series of ads that tied everything together with the whole commercial showing at the conclusion of the game. At first we are shown a number of 30 second spots which somehow appeals to and yet seems to slightly pique the interest of young men ages 21 to about 31 by showing celebrities like Don Cheadle with a llama and Arnold Schwarzenegger in a ping pong outfit. So, throughout the whole sporting event, when a piece of the ad is shown, viewers are wondering, “What the heck?” At the end when all the segments are put together after Ian, a young, single guy and a prime example of Bud Lights target audience, is offered a Bud Light then led in a genius unscripted romp through the night, the message is clear: If you drink our beer, cool stuff like this could happen to you. The execution is unorthodox and memorable, just like an unexpected night of partying might become and that definitely strikes a chord with the target.

            The worst for me was Maserati in their “Now we strike” ad. While most Maserati vehicles cost well over one hundred thousand dollars, the car advertised here is their more “affordable” model. Still, the product appeals to those who can afford it or aspire to one day obtain one: the young and rich and I do not feel this commercial hit the mark at all.  First of all, the ad starts out as if we should all be saving the Earth from something, but blathers on like we’re coming upon an apocalypse, then a revved up engine precedes Maserati’s new offering and the tag line is “Now we strike.” Huh? I think the young and rich audience are left wondering “Strike what? Who’s striking? What are they striking?” The whole ordeal is fluff and only memorable in the way of waiting to get to work the next day so you can ask

co-workers, “What the hell was that all about?”