by nico102698

The Power of Andy: Art or Ad?

Coming out with one of the most controversial ads of this year’s Super Bowl, Burger King aired an Ad in the beloved advertising event for first time since 2006.

The ad featured the famous pop-artist Andy Warhol eating a Whopper with their logo and the hashtag #eatlikeandy. 

Image courtesy of Burger King

The ad was a 45-Second uninterrupted clip with no music or voiceovers of the documentary ‘66 scenes of America’, directed by Jørgen Leth. One of the circumstances of the negotiation between Burger King and Leth was that the video could not be changed or touched in any way. 

Warhol was one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, so a video of him eating a burger like everyone else was a rare humanizing moment of this extravagant, larger-than-life artist. The ad was meant to be allusion to the Warhol quote “What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too.” 

This ad was promoted by a cryptic video of the burger king painting a picture in a similar background as the picture above and the date 2.3.19 in the end. Many critics lashed out over the use of Warhol’s image being used to sell fast-food while others praised Burger Kings marketing campaign on keeping the integrity of the original video while honoring a legend. Fernando Machado, Burger King’s global chief marketing officer said in an interview with AdAge “We believe that it’s kind of cool that he did a lot of art that looked like advertising and that we are using his art to advertise,” says Machado. “It’s like a silent assassin in the clutter of the Super Bowl.

For more information, check out Jessica Wohl’s Article “Why Burger King Showed Andy Warhol Eating a Burger in its Super Bowl Commercial” on AdAge

Link: https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/burger-king-andy-warhol-super-bowl-ad/316498/

by gabrielaharmon

International Scandals

Amazon CEO Bezos: “Thank u, next, Mr. Pecker”

Within the American business arena, the buzz is currently surrounding Amazon CEO’s Jeff Bezos modern version of the Reynold’s Pamphlet. Posted on several social media platforms yesterday afternoon, Bezos published emails providing evidence that the American Media, Inc. (AMI) attempted to blackmail him for political reasons. In the emails, the AMI demanded that Bezos publicly state that he has, “no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AMI’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces,” and in exchange the AMI would refrain from posting personal photographs exchanged between Bezos and his mistress. [Bezos, “No Thank You, Mr. Pecker’] Bezos explained that despite his embarrassment of the photographs, he refuses to validate this lie and participate in the AMI’s, “well-known practice of blackmail, political favors, political attacks, and corruption.” [Bezos, “No Thank You, Mr. Pecker”] The AMI is currently facing speculation for politically motivated actions taken on behalf of the Trump campaign and the Saudi Government.

International Plots against the American Government?

Another scandal that has made international news is the recent arrest of the CFO of Chinese technology giant Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, in Canada. The United States requested that Canadian authorities arrest Wanzhou based on charges against the executive for plotting to steal testing equipment from T-Mobile laboratories in Bellevue, Washington and for an elaborate bank fraud that helped Huawei profit by evading Iran sanctions. The two indictments are a part of a “broad and aggressive campaign by the United States to try to thwart China’s biggest telecom equipment maker.” [Conger, “Huawei Executive Took Part in Sanctions Fraud”]

American Paranoia of Foreign Governments

As discussed in last week’s publication, the scope of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has increased under recent legislation. Before this measure was taken, CFIUS only reviewed large, foreign investments including takeovers and controlling stakes in American companies. Now, CFIUS additionally reviews foreign joint ventures and smaller investments in American industries that are considered “strategic” by the Chinese government – including aviation, biotechnology and alternative energy vehicles. The obvious distrust in the Chinese government by the US government has caused Chinese investment to fall more than 90% from the 2017 to 2018.

Concrete Effects

Whether or not Chinese investment in the United States is motivated by strategic, political goals or goals of economic growth is unclear. It also unclear what the effect that the preventative measures against Chinese investment taken by the US Government will have on national security. The negative effects on the US economy, however, are very clear. Going forward, the United States will need to decide whether or not the threat of the Chinese investment is great enough to sacrifice American economic growth.

Unstable Relations

Amid scandals surrounding the business and legal arenas, international relations are unstable. The US Government’s corrupt relationship with the AMI and declining relationship with the Chinese Government due to paranoia has created American distrust in both foreign governments and their own.

by Kea

Black Panther Needs a Cool Ride

Black Panther

Image Courtesy​ of Walt Disney Pictures and Marvel Entertainment

Ever thought about taking a trip to Wakanda?
Well, don’t forget your Lexus.

In the spirit of true collaboration, Lexus partnered with Marvel’s Black Panther in what proved to be a highly lucrative product campaign for the redesign of its flagship Lexus Sedan and other Lexus Brand vehicles.

The runaway success of the film allowed Lexus to launch a successful global marketing campaign that had the added bonus of connecting the Lexus brand to a multicultural and multiethnic consumer-base.

Writing for Automotive News, Laurence Iliff notes that Marvel has a long history of working with the automotive industry in their films, and it is a relationship that requires faith in the potential success of a film and trust in the Marvel brand to guarantee success and brand exposure.

For Lexus, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. The film premiered on February 16, 2018, which all but guaranteed a premiere Superbowl ad slot, adding to the exposure for both Lexus and the film.

The continuing success of the film, and its subsequent appearance at the 2019 Academy Awards, all but ensures that we will continue to see product collaborations like Black Panther and Lexus in the future because, as Cox Automotive’s vice president of marketing, Greta Crowly notes, “…you start to build a relationship with that audience, […] it gives you the green light to be able to start talking to them outside those platforms.”

-KRW

For more info, check out Laurence Iliff’s “LEAP OF FAITH.” Automotive News, 3/5/2018, Vol. 92, Issue 6819.

by Kea

Upcoming Works

For the next few days, there will be several posts from students (and me), and we will be posting our trade-press release/journal observations on this blog. This assignment is designed to get students in the habit of reading trade magazines from their respective fields, and it helps students practice the strange and mysterious arts of the press release and the blog post.

Here is essentially what you can expect: students will observe/analyze an article about a marketing strategy or ad campaign and write a press release or blog post about it. There will be an emphasis on brevity, especially if it is a press release. It’s about conveying information effectively. The journal/blog post can be a bit longer. I encourage students to choose one or the other: the press release will give students much-needed practice on this valuable skill, but the blog post can help them exercise their writing muscles a bit.

This is, at heart, a rhetorics class, so we are most interested in understanding the different approaches to writing and how these approaches help us learn the most effective way to inform readers on a given product, service, or subject. The rhetorical conventions and strategies necessary for a press release are very different than what is needed for a blog post.

Oh, but what if the press release is the blog post?

Or, what if you are writing specific blog posts for specific reasons?

Each writing is accompanied by its own set of strategies. It will be fun to see what the students come up with.

Until next time,

-KRW

by camronlunn

It’s Me

Hello fellow classmates and Gators, My name is Camron Lunn and I am a third-year college student, but this is my first year at my dream school, The University of Florida.

I was born in Gainesville but grew up in Starke which is about 30 miles north. My favorite hobbies include watching movies, marching band and watching sports. Ever since I was young I have always known that I wanted to be on television. I decided to add on to that thirst for mild fame with my love of watching sports and that turned into the career field that I would like to go into, Sports Broadcasting.

I feel that I would give a fresh perspective on the sports world. Since I enjoy both movies and sport I feel that I could combine both things in a way that provides that ultimate form of entertainment. I also would like to bring a spotlight toward marching band in the realm of athletics because the majority of collegiate athletic bands put in a lot of effort and I feel that they should get more credit than just a quick pan over as the camera cuts to commercial.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to an awesome semester! Go Gators!

by awr21

I Am Who I Am.

Hello, my name is Anthony and I am 4th year Food and Resource Economics major here at the University of Florida. The most important thing to know about me is my family because they are everything to me. I have an older brother who is currently in Kansas City for medical school, I have a twin sister who is currently at the University of South Florida for health, and I have a younger brother who is turning 13 in two weeks. I spend a lot of my time hanging out with friends as well as playing and watching sports. Throughout my life I have always been someone who likes to just sit around and think. I believe it is imperative to have a firm understanding on different subjects in life and to actually think about your decisions before you make them. As my time here at UF is approaching the finish line it is time for me to get a yearly salary using my degree. I am not exactly 100 percent what I want to do with my degree but I have different areas of interest. One job I would be interested in doing would be medical sales for different hospitals which basically would be me selling doctors and nurses medical equipment. No matter what the future holds I believe success will come along with it because if I am determined and love what I am doing then anything and everything is possible.

by sarajamhour21

Here I Am. This is Me.

My name is Sara, but you can call me Sara for short! I am a third-year public relations major here at the University of Florida and that’s what lead me to take this very course. So far, I’ve taken many PR courses, especially writing, so it’ll be nice to be able to use what I’ve learned previously and then create a portfolio in this class.

I also served as an undergraduate research assistant last semester while I helped a PR graduate student the effects of death-related fear. We asked people to think of their own death in either a conscious or unconscious way and saw how different types of death-related thoughts affected people’s helping behavior toward different groups of people.

I’m interested in volunteering, reading, tv and entertainment, meeting new people, and, as of recently, fashion. I’d love to pursue a career in healthcare PR or entertainment PR. I think it would be really cool to work for Cartoon Network!

As my major is public relations, I’m thinking that most of the work I will be doing on this blog will be related to the PR industry, up-and-coming trends, and potential careers. I’d like to expand my horizons as well and tackle PR issues on a larger scale such as international/global PR issues and how they are being dealt with within individual countries.

blank business composition computer

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

by nico102698

Quick Intro

Hey guys, im Nicolas Ospina, but everyone calls me Nico.

I’m was born in Colombia which is why people call me Nico (it’s the nickname for Nicolas in Colombia). I moved to South Florida when I was a three with my family and we have lived here almost all my life. I’m a sophomore advertising major interested in working with brands and non-profits to improve their advertising campaigns. I grew up fascinated with the campaigns of companies like Apple, Ray-Bans, and Nike and how simple they were into introducing you to a way of life and convincing you that their products brought you closer to that lifestyle. Throughout high school I was involved in DECA, which is a marketing club, and created advertising campaigns for movie theatres, social campaigns, and my own entrepreneurial products. My senior year I finally cemented my thoughts on if I wanted to do this as my career and applied as an advertising major at UF and got in. Last Fall I worked with an Adoption agency to work on all their social media marketing and print and merchandizing campaigns. Working all that semester really made me fall in love with advertising and the power it has on people; I also loved how I was using my talents on something I was passionate about and hopefully made a change in someone’s life by considering adoption as a solution of love instead of a backup plan. 

by Aregar

Andrew’s Introduction

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Hello everyone, my name is Andrew, and I’m a 4th year Statistics major from Clearwater, FL. This is my last semester as an undergrad at UF, and I’m considering graduate school after this semester. I plan to use my degree to pursue a career in Data Science and Analytics. A few of my professional skills include statistical and financial analysis and computer programming.

Overall, I plan to use this class and blog to practice my business and professional communication that will be used in the workplace.

My biggest side hobby and passion is music. I started lessons in 3rd grade, and I play a number of musical instruments like piano, trombone, baritone, and tuba. My main instrument is trombone, and I played it all through middle school, high school, and college, participating in the UF Gator Marching Band for 4 years.  I also enjoy personal music composition and have many songs I’ve written in my free time.

by lydiarykard

Who is Lydia?

Dermatology word cloud

Hello,

I’m Lydia. I’m majoring in nutritional sciences at the University of Florida. I am currently a sophomore at the University of Florida. After I finish my bachelor’s degree, I aspire to go on to medical school to become a dermatologist. I’ve been interested in skin ever since I was a little girl. In ninth grade, I decided dermatology was the field  I wanted to be involved in. Ever since then, I have been working hard in school and now I’m at UF continuing to work hard. I spend a majority of my time studying. At other times, you can catch me working out in the gym or volunteering for non-profit organizations. I love giving back to my community. It is so humbling, which is another reason why I chose the health profession. Helping others is truly so humbling. My goal is to one day open up my very own dermatology practice.

The work I will be presenting on this blog will not only be about the new products or treatments used in the field of dermatology but also about the advertising and marketing of businesses because owning a dermatology firm requires not only the medical side of knowledge but also the business knowledge too.