Vintage adverts!

Just looking back at adverts 50, 40 even 20 years ago and you really can see what a fast-changing industry advertising is. I have become a little fascinated with vintage advertisements and honestly, some of them are pieces of art!

Now a days, I would never dream of putting any of the posters on billboards you see on bus stops or billboards in my house, but I truly think these are worthy of an artistic accreditation!

Here are two of my particular favourites:

Can you believe this is for toilet roll! It looks angelic and the height of luxury. Of course, people who buy the product won't receive this beautiful lifestyle, however the product will make them feel like they have a tiny part of it. I think it's beautiful and extremely eye catching without being too in-your-face!

I looked at this advert for such a long time as I love the detailing in each shoe! I think it's an awesome example of appealing to female emotion and delight and taps into that feeling you get when you try on a beautiful pair of shoes! 

I think modern day advertisers could take a leaf out of our ancestor's books when it comes to the beauty within advertising!

Steph

Sentimental KFC Advert

I wouldn't say KFC are my favourite brand in the world..... in fact I would say they are one of my least favourites from an animal cruelty/ healthy eating/ quality point of view. However their marketing campaigns and specifically their TV advertising does interest me....

When you think of the brand 'KFC' what springs to mind? For me it is the 'bargain bucket' adverts, the family sat around a table on a Friday evening munching on a chicken's leg, a huge bottle of Coca-cola and a pot of baked beans. The mother with a huge grin on her face stood in the background after picking up the entire family's dinner for "ONLY £9.99". Correct?

This has been KFC's advertising of choice for many years and one which targets families on a low budget who like a treat meal. I think that most people can immediately identify a KFC advert based on these characteristics.

Therefore I was shocked to see this new KFC advert by Bartle Bogle Hegarty at Blink Media Production:

Which you can watch here

The advert is sentimental, very creative and serious- not usually KFC's style at all....

It's based on a love story and is 20th-century USA themed- based on KFC's early heritage. I love the story-telling behind the advert, it's pleasant to watch and I love the spin at the end! I would expect this advert to be advertising something more premium- it makes you think and the fact they are launching "slow pulled chicken" through this campaign fits in with the little story of the man pursuing a female he has been admiring.

To understand how the story relates to the product, you have to almost think over the story over and over again in your head which I think is extremely clever as it makes the advert stick in your mind which is of course every marketer's intention when trying to build a memorable, thought-provoking advert.

However, I am interested to see how this advert is received- KFC's target audience are used to very simple, light-hearted advertising and I feel as though KFC have taken a risk in trying this new type of marketing! Let's hope they understand the message the brand is trying to ommit!

I love interesting and thought provoking marketing!!

Hope you enjoyed this post!

Stephanie

Career Choices

I was lucky enough to be able to volunteer to work at the Bristol University careers fair on Tuesday representing IBM and inspiring students to apply to the internship, placement and graduate schemes that IBM offer. 

 The careers fair looked awesome in the University Great Hall!

As a UWE student I found this quite daunting, the two universities are historically and brutally, rivals. I was pleasantly surprised that everyone I spoke to was extremely friendly and even when asked what I studied and where, there was no judgement! I feel like the two universities are very different in what they offer, the courses people study and the types of backgrounds the students come from- which isn’t necessarily a bad thing! What I did expect (frown upon me for my stereotypical attitude) was for the students to be very career-driven, headstrong and to have done plenty of research and be very sure of what they wanted to do in life.

I was very surprised to find out that most students had no idea what career path they wanted to follow, what opportunities were available to them and what they wanted to do after university.

I would say I have known roughly what career path I wanted to take for about 2 years now. I want to work in Marketing as it is my passion (hopefully you have gathered that by reading this blog) and something I seem to do well in (according to my exam results/coursework/ability to get a job in said field….).

However, this has not always been the case…

When I was doing my GCSE’s I had my heart set on a Journalism and French Degree, I loved English and I knew I wanted to do something creative that involved writing, I also enjoyed French and loved the idea of studying abroad for a year. When it came down to choosing my A-Level options I went for English and Photography for the Journalism aspect, French and Drama (just because I had no idea what else to choose).

Then I decided to visit Sheffield University on an Open Day as I really wanted to go there and I saw they had a Journalism and French Degree course. I liked the University and decided to go to a talk on Journalism… I am so glad I attended that talk, it was one of the biggest eye openers I have ever experienced in my life.

The lecturer explained that if I wanted to apply for the cause then I had to be 100% committed to Journalism and I had to work extremely hard in a competitive job market, where graduates usually start on a salary of £10,000 if that. He said it was extremely hard to find a job in Journalism as it was, never mind one that pays well.

I decided that from that moment on, I had made the wrong choice and I didn’t want to go into Journalism. After my first year in A-Levels I failed French so that was languages out of the window too!

I do remember being stuck at this point and having to seriously consider what Degree I wanted to apply for as if I remember rightly you have to choose your degree discipline quite early in A2.

I knew it still had to be creative and to do with writing, as I was doing really well in English A-Level. I looked at Public Relations and thought that it was something I really found interesting and wasn’t too far from Journalism, but might be too specific.

Then I looked at where the jobs were at the time, and what percentage of each set of graduates from each course got a job in their chosen field after university. Marketing seemed to rank fairly highly and there were lots of Marketing Graduate jobs available when I did a search.

So, that was it! I risked everything and just went for Marketing, without doing an AWFUL lot of research I must admit. I feel like if you ponder over something for too long you might be put off the idea, I’m the kind of person to say yes and then stick to it, whatever the consequences might be.

I’m so lucky the risk paid off as I really do love Marketing and now I’m lucky enough to be working in it, I’m so glad I made the right choice. I was initially so worried, as I had never studied Business or anything similar, and when we arrived at uni a lot of people had done Business A-Level and therefore knew lots about the degree. I also squirmed when I saw the timetable and “Finance”, “Stats” and “Economics” were on the list. I had absolutely hated maths at school and I was certain after I left that I would never have to do it again.

Well Finance turned out to be my favourite module (Admittedly, economics was my worst) but what I’m trying to say is that you should CONSIDER THINGS YOU MAY NOT HAVE CONSIDERED BEFORE. Take a leap of faith in an uncertain direction!

So I would say the same applies after university, take risks, try new things and even if you aren’t sure what you want to, make sure you know what options are available to you.

Sorry about my life story!!
Steph