Well this is discouraging

I'm not going to update this blog on any sort of set concrete schedule, only when the whim strikes me. The whim struck me while I was driving home tonight, so I decided that I'd post again. Why is this discouraging, you ask? Well, no one has read my first post. Yet, I must press on.

The Toyota Tundra... I think the message Toyota is trying to put out is that the Tundra is the manliest truck ever. This wouldn't bother me so much if I didn't think that the ads make no sense at all. There are two ads I would like to look at particularly.

1- The tie-down ad- Now, maybe it's because they are pitting the Tundra up against my favorite truck ever, the Ford F-150, but I hate this ad. They strap a dirt bike into the bed of both trucks, and then proceed to shake, rattle, and then roll the trucks upside down. When will a truck ever roll upside down. This position is not safe for trucks. If my truck were to roll over, I would fear not for my cargo, but for my life. This is their USP, their truck can flip over, and your dirt bike won't be damaged, they hope. They could have shown their tie-down clips any number of ways, on an actual road, but they use a robotic arm instead. The ad just upsets me.

2- The one with the train- (Can you tell I don't know the exact names of the ads) The chain breaks before the chassis. WHOP DI DO!!!! It's a chain. The chain is made of metal. Your chassis is made out of metal. Way to make a big chassis stronger than a small couple links in a chain. AHHHHH! OK, I've gotten that one out of my system. I apologize.

Now this is not to say that I hate the Toyota Tundra. Quite the opposite, I think they are nice looking trucks, and being made by Toyota, they would probably run forever. The ads are just horrible. Bring back the strange ads where the truck is going down that incline see-saw thing, I like that one. But these two need to stop.

Well I think that is enough rambling for today.
Peace

A Start for Things to Come

I'm starting this blog in an attempt to earn some extra credit for my Comm 332 class, Media Strategies in Advertising. The requirements, it has to be about communications and/or advertising. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to ramble on about here, but hopefully I'll learn something, as will you the reader, I'll become a better writer, and I'll get a little bit of extra credit for my work.

This week my professors have been shoving game advertising down our throats. I think it's a perfect platform for advertising, and have been saying this for the past three years since I became aware of product placement. To me, product placements in games makes the world of the game come alive. In real life, when I walk down the street, I see billboards, flyers, and other advertisements. When I walk down the street in a game with these product placements, I see the same thing. It adds to the realism.

In one particular game, Rainbow Six Vegas, for the Xbox 360, there are actual products throughout the game's world. Axe body spray billboard's, movie posters for an upcoming release, and every car is a Dodge. Some of these are loaded into the disc (Dodge) others are updated through Xbox Live (the movie posters). This game specifically shows the applications that smart advertisers can use to tap into the audience of the gamer. The best part of these ads, is that gamers will seek them out. Their game's environment will change, and they can look to find out what is different.

Well I think that is enough rambling for today.
Peace