Taos Advertising

Video (6min 40sec): Derren Brown: I invited two members of MBA, an advertising agency, to a secret location to propose an unusual task. Those who work in advertising are masters of persuasion.

They subtly weave there images and slogans into our daily lives knowing that we will register so much unconsciously.

And then we walk into a super marke and feel a sense of familiarity with a product we think we've never heard of.

Millions of pounds a year are spent on it. It's brilliantly calculated and we all fall for it.

So, I though I'd turn the tables on the advertising experts.

A Brief Look at Analyzing Techniques of Advertising. In the world of advertising there are many techniques to bring the consumer in. n fact there are dozens.

This video (6min 59sec) brings you a few - ads using 'weasel words', ads which are different and unique, endorsement ads, and scientific or statistical ads.

Different and unique ads are those that grab the consumers attention by being, well, unique. These ads can contain flashy pictures, bold texts, and costume characters, plus so much more.

Weasel word is a term used a modifier that make advertisements nearly meaningless. Weasel words seem convincing at first, but upon closer examination turn out to be empty.

"How the Internet is Changing Advertising" video (4min 36sec) is a short history of communication and how the internet is a new medium that has thrown out the old rules of communication.

Why do we keep using outdated tools designed for TV to reach an interactive audience on the Internet?

If history has taught us anything, it's new technology demands a new way to communicate. What could this look like?

You must have a look at this funny video (5min 40sec) if you are in the advertising or marketing industry.

In this case 'truth' means 'lies'.  It's all over the internet now and it's really hilarious.

"So, I'm gonna tell you, I 'DJ' on the weekends, when really I que up outside China White's begging to get let in before I get a night bus home to my Mum's for a quick wank and a Horlick's...."

"Ah Katie, how's things at the Really Really Extreme Adventure Channel? Great!

So, I've got a massive client and since I'm too lazy to write my own brief, I'm gonna throw in all the usual phrases that everyone pretends to understand.

I need a three-sixty with some serious c-sweet ROI..."

Do subliminal messages in advertising and other media really exist? This video (6min 4sec) points out that subliminal messages exist everywhere. Some are very sexy and some are just telling you to 'buy, 'eat', 'consume'.

Benson & Hedges: Look at this ad. See anything strange? The man that's has his arms around the beautiful woman in the evening dress? What's that he's grippin? What does it look like he's holding in his hand? Oh my God! And the ad even has the words, 'try our hard pack.'

The subconscious can see things, even upside down. Blush, blush.

Look carefully at the people's positions. What are they doing? Is that a bottle she's putting to her mouth, or something else?

This video (6min 36sec) Advertising's Image of Women, shows Jean Kilbourne's pioneering work which helped develop and popularize the study of gender representation in advertising.

Her award-winning Killing us Softly films have influenced millions of college and high school students across two generations and on an international scale. In this important new film, Kilbourne reviews if and how the image of women in advertising has changed over the last 20 years.

With wit and warmth, Kilbourne uses over 160 ads and TV commercials to critique advertising's image of women.

By fostering creative and productive dialogue, she invites viewers to look at familiar images in a new way, that moves and empowers them to take action.

In this video (7min 18sec) Deadly Persuasion: The Advertising of Alcohol & Tobacco, Jean Kilbourne exposes the manipulative marketing strategies and tactics used by the tobacco and alcohol industries to keep Americans hooked on their dangerous products.

This illustrating her analysis with hundreds of current advertising examples from mainstream and trade sources, Kilbourne presents a compelling argument that these cynical industries have a clear and deep understanding of the psychology of addiction, an understanding they exploit to create and feed a life-threatening dependency on their products.

Deadly Persuasion casts a critical eye on the corporate interests that lie behind the industries whose products kill more than 450,000 Americans each year.

“I think if anyone wants to understand our culture and our society, they’d better come to terms with the role and power of commercial Images.” Advertising & the End of the World video (5min 35sec) features an illustrated presentation by Sut Jhally of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the producer and writer of the award-winning Dreamworlds II. Focusing directly on the world of commercial images, he asks some basic questions about the cultural messages emanating from this market-based view of the world: Do our present arrangements deliver what they claim-- happiness and satisfaction? Can we think about our collective as well as our private interests?