My respect goes out to all movie editors...

OH MY WORD! Windows Movie Maker, as amazing as you are, and as much as I love all the cool things you can do, you are as diffiicult as all the teenagers I know. We were up late AGAIN, making the video clips and pictures into something presentable. It was nice because we took turns to do different things and built on each other's ideas to make our ad just that little bit better, but geez...sleep would be nice...

Xx
Rayne

Lights! Camera! Action!

We made our second ad, which AGAIN took many hours and went waaaay into the early hours of the morning.  I blame this on the kitchen...and 2 key words:  procrastination and food, ‘nuff said haha.

With Hannah providing the props, Saarah’s mom providing the wardrobe, Saarah providing the shoes, Laylah providing the laughs when she complained about walking in heels and the neighbour’s son, Suhail, being our bar man, we were ready to go! Saarah was camera man, Kristin and I were the bad example and Hannah and Laylah were the good example. Kristin and I got play-play drunk and disorderly-which was a lot of fun haha. And H and L were what our campaign wants the world to be like-responsible.  We used the neighbour’s bar as our venue. And don’t worry! We used Appletiser, not real alcohol...

Ciao for now

Rayne

Johnny does a radio ad =D

The night before last, our group spent the night and most of the morning (until 04:00 to be precise) making a radio ad for our campaign. Laylah, wonderful Laylah came up with the script and the idea whilst the rest of us were ad analyzing and researching different things. Saarah wil attach it for all to hear.  It was really fun to do!  But also a lot of work. We used 3 cell phones and an ipod for the recordings and an ipod and speakers for the background music...there was a little karaoke time as well hahaha. We experimented with a lot of sound effects and found that clinking glasses just doesn’t work at home no matter what, it sounds like a bell clanging lol. So we got sound effects down to 2 things:  laughter-as in laughter in a pub/bar and water being poured into a glass with clinking ice-which was my job! We went through 3 trays of ice, a litre of water and you would not believe how easy it is to miss your cue when you’re as tired as we were and had been at it for what felt like a thousand years. There were sooooo many hilarious moments, A LOT of laughter and ridiculous mistakes, but never any bad vibes between us, our group dynamics are superb=) Thank you group! You made it tolerable.

I have to admit that after spending so many hours with you all, the most valuable thing I have is the memories and the stringer friendships.  I hope Johnny walks forever=)

Xx

Rayne

Morgan puts his foot down!! Hello beautiful people =) Another sleepover has come and gone and honestly,I'm sitting at school tired beyond the meaning itself. Lastnight's session was so intense, but didn't we just all have fun? I know I did! (^^,) The shooting of our advertisement was absolut(e) crazyness. Saarah your neighbours are the best... Perfect "club" scene,=) working straight through the early hours of the morning.We definitely worked our butts off at this project. I know we are all dead to the world today. [Group hug] Anyway,my thought for the day is us women putting our foot down. We are all familiar with the Captain Morgan logo and as I was practicing for fashion show, I realized how precious we are not only as human beings, but as women. We should value ourselves as being a cut above the rest, elevated from the negatives of society! (Oh shhh, I know you are all probably laughing at me). Why should our gender be degraded in alcohol advertisements for over 3 decades? I would love to hear your opinions on this before I get carried away with this post as you know how passionate I am about women being treated with respect...So, do you all think we should put our foot down too? If Captain Morgan can have his proudly angled, we can have ours the complete opposite...Firmly standing on the ground based upon our own beliefs. Remember ladies, if you satnd for nothing, you'll fall for everything and guess what, falling for these advertisements and accepting them combined with over-indulgence, will actually put us to the floor. Is this really what we want? If it is, society's perceptions will never change! So, as amazing as we worked our killer heels in our ad lastnight,we have definitely worked our project. Thank you for the fabulous night you guys, it was beyond extraordinary. Looking forward to seeing you all soon. Much love Kristen VG

Our Johnny has a campaign!

I think it is important for me to mention that I've been blogging in a wordpad on my computer and am merely copying and pasting them to this blog. So I haven't just done them all in a day=)

Apart from the fact that I can't find my teddy bear, I am content.  Why? We have decided on a campaign=) Our campaign encourages  people not to over-indulge and get "wasted", but to be responsible and sophisticated and to drink in moderation. This way people get to keep more of their brain cells. And people get to see an alternative lifestyle to the stupid ones advertised=) NO glam, no ''a party's only a party when there's Jack on one arm and Daniels on the other...'', no sirree...

We are PRO responsibility.

Xx

Raynis

Absolut harmonic advertising...

Harmony: The natural blending together of sounds.  Peaceful, perfect, just right. The epitome of beautiful things existing together to create a blend of something simply heavenly. The climax of amazing objects intertwined. In music, there are notes that have threads of other notes in them-these are called overtones.  When a harmony-a blend of sounds is perfect, these overtones vibrate and literally sound like heaven to the ears. It is rare sound, difficult to achieve, each instrument or voice has to be completely in sync and completely devoted to making a beautiful sound, there is no technique to getting it, it is something felt with the heart and played with the heart. It is music for the heart. There are times when the music rings so perfectly in your ears that you almost can't bear to hear something so pure...it almost hurts. 

In this advert, Absolut Harmony by Absolut Vodka, the picture is implying that having this vodka is everything I described above. And I like this advert for 2 reasons, 1:  it isn't lying to the consumer-this may be what it feels like to be drunk-so it isn't false, and 2:  it isn't using women or children or a type of lifestyle (the if you have this product, this is what your life will be like) to sell the drink.  It is quite simply-smart advertising. Which is what I can say since the beginning of this type of this idealistic advertising of Absolut Vodka began.  It has been running since 1980 and with more than 1500 adverts in it's name-it is the longest running campaign advertising has seen, and needless to say-it is equally effective , it's the 3rd most sold alcoholic beverage in the world.  And!  It's proudly South African, the idea came from S.A man, Geoff Hayes=).  Another clever strategy of the brand was to have gay-themed ads, not promoting, but supporting the gay population, making their advertising effective in the sense that more and more people, not only gays lent their support to Absolut EVERYTHING.

I quite admire the Absolut ad campaign.  I think it's absolut genius.

Xx

Pioggerellina aka Rayne

Negative advertising...hmm

Why isn't it effective? It's nasty! And sadly, a reality of the morning after. We all know this. I often hear people say things like: "Ohemgeee...my head hurts so much, I feel so sick and contaminated...So that's IT! I've had it! I'm never drinking again!" (at least until next weekend?) Why don't they ever advertise reality? (I do know why, I'm not challenged, they really just need to make money off us so they aren't going to show us what really happens...sigh...if only hate speech wasn't punishable.  Then! There could be campaigns that would do the opposite of the glam ads) I think it would open peoples' eyes and then reality would change.  Indoctrinate the masses with the reality that they may experience is soooo the way to go! Scare them off I say!

Well...:) I can only dream, right?

Yeahp...

Xx

Pioggia aka Rayne

Gimme some gender equality (at least) you sexy beast!

Why, why and why again are women always subject to attracting men to products that have nothing to do with sex?! If anything, alcohol contributes to making alcohol about sex, or rather, the advertising thereof. Ok. Obviously it does. And the topic of: "Hey! Stop exploiting womens' dignity in advertising, it contributes to bad treatment of them!" never ever stops growing. It gets more interesting every time.  So I'm going to focus my energy towards being sarcastic instead.

 

What if this guys dreams are to be a serial killer?  Or a paedophile? Or something worse? Or even worse than the previous worse, he drinks a bit too much and becomes the enforcer of somebody elses nightmares? Daydreams are supposed to be lovely, innocent, clean and good!  What are we saying? 'Yes, son, make little pornos in your  head to your doused in alcohol little heart's content:)It's chilled, go for it."  So, no, fineprint in the bottom left corner, "Drinking Responsibly" does not feature in pervish daydreams where half-naked women are wrapped around your body.  Reason? She'd have to be out of her mind drunk. Which is the problem, is it not? Research has shown that alcohol ads do not draw more people to indulge in knocking a few back, but to drink more, and it is true.  The ratio of binge drinkers and alcoholics does not depend on the amount of adverts. Drink yourself to intoxication til' the party GETS fun is how the mense do it these days.

Xx

Storm

Half full, half empty, but definately twisted.

Back when Jesus was on the earth, the greatest gift God bestowed unto us sinners was the gift of choice. We choose what we want, where we go, who we associate ourselves with, our values, our oppinions. This is a scapegoat for advertising companies! Do not be fooled!  Ofcourse it's our choice to actually go and purchase the product, ofcourse it's our choice to allow the propaganda to override our best interests and ofcourse we don't have to belive everything we see.  But subconsciously, we do. Why? Not because we don't know what the effects of alcohol are, but because we don't know what the effects of advertising are. It's all very well and good to see a bunch of gorgeous people having a blast because they're drinking coupious amount of intoxicating beverages.  But what we don't know is that those people probably have hectic problems, are looking for attention, have herpes or something and are likely to suffer an eternal bout of kidney problems:) So all alcohol does is increase our chances of dying sooner than later:) Charming, I know:)

All advertisng does is persuade us to buy the product that is being shoved in our faces.  And I'm aware that people need to make money, advertising creates jobs and so does selling the product. But why make it look integral to having a good 'jol' or gathering of people,  or the well-earned reward at the end of a hard week's work? We don't promote drinking and driving, why promote drinking at all?

Xx

Mia aka Rayne

OUR JOHNNY JUST STARTED WALKING:) (yaaaaay johnneeeeeeee!)

JOHNNY being our group ofcourse:) We met today with that NO LOGO book and made our focus the history of the advertising of alcohol.  After reading the book, we found that bouncing ideas off each other was more productive. We shared our favourite alcohol ads and the messages we thought they were sending, which later gave me something to chew on during the car ride back home.

 The advertising of alcohol doesn't differ from the advertising of any other product really.  It makes something harmful look glamorous and intrigueing and makes you think that there is no other way to have fun when you're out or that after a hard days work. Society thinks being a real man means you deserve a good ole manly beer, but ladies and gentlemen, let us ask ourselves: WHY?! Beer is gross no matter what! Geez...And, in my opinion, it makes you smell like the floor of a dingy bar in a dark little somewhere.

Back to our Johnny though:) Pumped with excitement and ready to conquer the world (or at least our English class), sporting thoughtful frowns and and overflowing with attack-the-alcohol-ads energy, we were stopped dead in our tracks when we tried to do some digging.  NO alcohol websites would let us in unless we were 18! Double-you-tee-eff?!? For real?!! Yes, for real...maybe they were advertising some old school brothels as well, I don't know...but being honest, 16 year olds, we didn't even attempt to find out. Need I mention how easy it is to lie about age over the internet? It's not like there's a huge bouncer-man checking how high your heels are, thick you make-up is and how busty you made yourself look while he tries to decipher whether you really did leave you ID at home or not:) No, we're better than that.

So we just found a way to start our presentation instead:) with one of the all-famous Peroni ads.

Ciao for now

Raynicle

 d(^-^)b

More excitement yet again... We are preparing for the television advertsement. Of course, since we are highly dramatic female teenagers, we need to prepare both mentally... and physically. No, we do not need to warm up but we do need to get all beautiful for the camera. Even if it means we have to raid through Saarah's mom's cupboards (cough cough - don't tell) (:

So thats exactly what my teammates are doing right now. Rayne, Kristen and Hannah changing clothes and trying on different coats (this IS a crucial part of the process, no doubt) and Saarah is helping them choose which shoe to wear. (no seriously, i just heard her say:"Guys, which shoe?")

So we need to go over to her (not chinese) neighbours because they have the correct settings for our ad. But first they have to sophiaticatisize (new word!) me. I don't even want to know how they're going to do it(??). Well, my director is beckoning me. Time for: LIGHTS, CAMERA & ACTION!!!

*very pumped*

Laylah

So, we've done something... (yay!)

Last night was amazing. Just shows- you can have fun without alcohol. I'm not saying we didnt have caffein (lots of it) (: , but we were absolut(ly) sober. After my extreme brainstorming in my last post i didn't really come up with anything. At all. So, today i figured we needed something pronto.

So yesterday I left my group doing the analysis and I took some time out with my aMazing iPod to think. Selfish as it may seem, I took time out 'for the greater good'. I had to think of a campaign and could only do it while listening to the ultimate band: Billy Talent. Armed with a pen and lots of paper my mind's cogs started whirring. *whir-whir* :)

After repeatedly smirking to myself, crossing out a lot of things and finally getting the plot, I was content with the result. When I got my groups' attention, evertbody was happy with the rough sketch of our two groups advertisements: a radio ad and a television ad.

We decided to do the radio advert as we had everything we needed right there. The television ad - well, we needed alcohol for that one. No, really. After choosing the necessary background music (which lead to kareoke, obviously) and equipping ourselves with the sound devices (we decided to add the sound in while recording, not editing it in later) we went into the recording room (saarah's TV room). We played around with the different sounds a lot, as we wanted to create the right atmosphere of a sophisticated club using sounds of laughter, pouring drinks and glasses clinking. We then had to decide on which recording device was the best - which proved to be my aMazing iPod. We took about 50 takes of the same recording and then decided that we needed to change the song! *sigh* Indecisive much?

But finally, at four in the morning, we completed the advertisement and, to tell you the truth, it was really good. By then we had tons of bloopers and were pretty tired.

Well, at least we have one ad and the analysis down. Lots still to go. But right now: I'm going to sleep. Or at least try.

xoxo Laylah

We made progress!! Sitting up at 3am making voice recordings for an alcohol advert... one can imagine how entertaining that must have been! But the voice recording is done :) We played sassy, civilized music in the background and played around with sound effects quite a bit. We learnt that sounds don't sound quite the same on voice recorders and we had to figure out how to make the sound of water pouring into a glass not the sound of a flushing toilet, but we managed in the end. Rayne made excellent sound effects and Laylah said "vodka" with such flavour, and Saarah said "enjoy" with such passion that it makes one stop to appreciate the attractiveness of vodka. [Good advertising skills ladies!] So as you can see, we decided to advertise vodka; 'Absolut' vodka. We really liked the adverts that this company produces, because they are not discriminatory or demeaning to any particular group of people, and are catchy, simple and effective. They also don't encourage customers to have indulgent lifestyles and to drink for the wrong reasons. A few examples of Absolut adverts:





haha they are very clever :)
xx Hannah

Provodkative much?

How do advertisers use peoples desires and weaknesses to persuade them to buy their product?

Lets look at a few examples...
As you can see, almost all of these images contain women in provocative positions and/or clothes. This is because sex is another one of those 'indulgent habits' that are very appealing to people, and more often - men, and alcohol is often seen as a way of making women 'easy' because they begin to lose their self dignity the more drunk they are.

When we researched 'alcohol ads', most of the results that came up in google images were similar to these - encouraging people to drink in order to live a certain lifestyle, which looks appealing to many people - the hedinistic lifestyle.

xx Hannah

Hedonism :)

"Hedonism is a school of thought which argues that pleasure is the only intrinsic good. This is often used as a justification for evaluating actions in terms of how much pleasure and how little pain (i.e. suffering) they produce. In very simple terms, a hedonist strives to maximize this net pleasure (pleasure minus pain)." - taken from wikipedia

As we see here, Hedonism is a belief that pleasure is of utmost importance in life. People who believe this strongly, tend to place it above other values, and therefore end up endulging in the material and selfish pleasures of life. These pleasures can be good for one in the right amounts at the right times, but once the persuit of these things becomes ones purpose in life, they can become quite dangerous.

Alcohol is an example of one of these pleasures, and advertisers acknowledge this when reaching out to their target market.

So why is the idea of indulging in alcohol so attractive to so many people? We were discussing this in our group yesterday, and we decided that here are some of the main reasons:

1. It takes away bad feelings (stress, sadness, guilt, fear) and replaces them with feelings such as happiness, power, peacefulness and enjoyment. It is therefore used as an escape from the bad things in life.

2. It is a social thing to do, it helps people to feel more relaxed and more confident.
People don't feel as self concious when they are drunk, so they do things they wouldn't usualy do in front of other people. In this sense, it is used to break free from the limitations in ones personality. When they are drunk, they can be whoever they want to be.

xx Hannah

ABSOLUT Awesomeness* Goodmorning ladies So none of us are on the alive side of life this morning due to a very hectic night and early-hour morning...=) The sleepover at Saarah's house was not only productive but so much fun too.Although I fell asleep (apologies once again), I could hear the excitement of the radio-making advert,which is *absolutely* amazing. Despite our extreme need of sleep, I'm once again looking forward to our sleepover tonight.Hopefully we will put Johnny to rest. =) Catch all you monsters later "Absolut excitement" KVG

Above: Everyone's so-called picture perfect

*Kristen VG*

Jose Cuervo - to be 'shot' or not?

Hi ladies...yet again :)

I'm addicted to this blogging business now, worse than mxit and facebook put together. =) But lovely ladies, our project seems to be coming along really well.

As I'm sitting on the couch watching Saarah and Rayne attempt to make supper, I thought of something that definitely deserves a blog post.

"SHOTS"

Why is there a constant hype about tequila and the whole idea of "shots?"

Why is it the cause of an almost 18-year-old's excitement for being alive another year?

Why is so much thought put into the presentation and consumption of Mr.Cuervo?

Looking at young, beautiful women, like ourselves, I realised that we too are very much aware and a part of the contributing factors to keeping Mr.Cuervo at his peak of fame. We know about "shots," we know the negative consequences of endulging into this extreme social satisfaction of so-called fame, but are we ready to take him down and say NO?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there is anything wrong in having fun and experiencing new things but should it not then be done out of choice rather than impulse? Research shows that approximately 89% of teenagers between the ages of 13 and 16 consume alcohol purely for the illusion it creates and in doing this project, we see the implications advertising has on society.

Gender and sexual orientation is a major component too. Beer advertisements for example are mostly directed towards men whereas other spirits are conveyed and sold through sex with the images of women. I never really thought of this before until now. Alcohol advertisements single out certain groups sometimes, for example, 'gay' men are supposed Cosmopolitan drinkers as such are very feminine women. Do we realise this though and should we not then wake up and smell the coffee, therefore enforcing positive 'spirit'?

WE DO NOT NEED ALCOHOL TO HAVE FUN!! In most cases, those who drink to get wasted, often have issues with themselves or in their every day environment. But how I ask you are they suppose to overcome their difficulties by helping themselves if advertisements oh so often tell people that life can be great and "it all comes together"(Castle Lager advert)?

People, indeed this is a subject that broaches deep emotion within me to make our advertising campaign positive rather than negative. =) Move over Mr.Cuervo, you're about to be shot!

Let's get working ladies (^^,)

"Yipeeeee"

*Kristen VG*

SPINNING, SPINNING and more SPINNING Hello everyone :) Since my last post, I have visited my dearest father's office at Brandhouse.It is the leading alcohol company in spirits and the sparkling green-bottle beers. However, let us get one thing straight, I went there purely for our project research purposes...nothing more =D I have titled this post according to my exact mental state and no ladies, not because I've fallen for the intense manipulation through alcohol advertisements.I've been brainstorming on how we can present our fabulous project and guess what??? I've gotten us all t-shirts. =D On to some serious business, our due date is nearing soon and we should all be extremely excited.We are working methodically and smartly at this you guys. It's so awesome how interested we are in our topic and how hardworking we all are towards it. Hopefully this evening we will have all our group members present...really looking forward to it you crazy people =D. Catch you later little blogsters Much love *Kristen VG* =)

Fame in the Name Goodevening beautiful group members :) Firstly, I have exciting news... [DRUMROLL] The Manager I emailed a while ago concerning our interesting advertising project has replied! Not only has he replied but also provided us with magnificent, rather shocking but much needed information. The advertising business world is even more indepth than we have discussed in our previous group meetings (think we need to stop with the snacks everybody-just =] joking). Focusing mainly on our topic of alcohol advertising, it is always evident in these advertisements that a specific message about a life of utter bliss and paradise is offered as the 'winning prize' in various aspects.

Looking at the above ladies, we are all very familiar with Absolut Vodka (Hint* Serena wins a drinking competition in Gossip Girl for consuming the most of it) :) just thought I'd add that in. In this advertisment the 'Fame in the Name' displays a so-called prize of fantasy, but not just any fantasy, "Absolut Fantasy."Fantasy is associated with life, relationships and something every woman dreams of living in. This project is definitely opening our eyes as young individuals to the intense manipulation of avertising, especially of our focal topic, as it is something that has an enormous impact on society. I cannot wait until our next meeting... Passion = Productivity = Puntuality of our Project :) Catch all you blogsters later *Kristen VG*