| Advertising |
Robin Andersen writes
frequently about advertising and marketing, keeping up with new trends in
design and imagery, and tracking the industry as it developments more powerful
techniques of persuasion and marketing strategies.
"New trends in the advertising and marketing of alcoholic beverages to Young People.”
The New York State Assembly
Standing Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse
The Public Hearing took place on October 22, 2002, and Dr.
Andersen’s remarks were presented in the morning session and entered into the
record.
Current alcohol advertising campaigns are “kid-friendly” using imagery that appeals especially to a youthful target audience. “According to a recent study, nearly half of all teens in this country have tried one of the new, sweet-tasting, malt-based colorfully packaged alcoholic beverages referred to as “’alcopops.’” Products such as Mike’s Hard Lemonade and others are designed to appeal directly to young people, a great many who would otherwise reject the “adult” taste of alcohol, especially hard liquor. It is clear through the design, packaging and distribution strategies that young people have been defined as a marketing segment and that the alcohol industry is attempting to create a new generation of alcohol consumers…...full text
“The
Thrill is Gone:
Advertising,
Gender Representation, and the Loss of Desire”
In Sex and Money, Eileen Meehan and Ellen Riorden (eds.), University of Minnesota Press:
Minneapolis. 2002
How do advertising persuasions target men and women
differently and what promises do they make about Romance, Love and Sexuality?
Robin Andersen analyses a range of ads from current and past campaigns to
explore “advertising’s disconnections of sexual desire from fulfillment, its
projection of sexual fulfillment onto consumption, and it’s use of
postmodernist irony to frame as hip images that are sexist, misogynist, and
violent.
From the
Introduction, Sex and Money
“Selling
‘Mother Earth’: Advertising and the Myth of the Natural”
In Reclaiming The
Environmental Debate: The Politics of Health in a Toxic Culture, Richard Hofrichter (ed.) MIT Press:
Boston. 2000.
The world of adverting often presents a beautiful and
pristine natural world that inspires awe in all who gaze at the images, yet
such images compel a type of consumer behavior that is proving to be
increasingly problematic for the environment. Pollution, waste management,
resource extraction and global warming are all issues demanding social,
economic and political solutions. The scientific community understands the
necessity for action on a range of conservation issues, yet production and
consumption continue unabated.
This article looks at specific advertising campaigns and the
use of environmental issues within marketing strategies. From major appliances
to bottled water, the natural world is used to sell even as the commodities
sold increase pollution and a consumer ethos immune to environmental warnings.
What do commercial narratives teach us about the natural world, and “mother
earth”? How can those narrative reflect an attitude that would lead to
conservation?