Advertising and Public Relations

Topic1: Twitter/Facebook and Advertising/PR

One of the  organizations I follow on facebook  is "Keep Oregon Well". This site helps fight the stigma against mental illness and focuses on awareness and education of mental health.

http://www.KeepOregonWell.com

The targeted audience for this organization is everyone, because its purpose is to approach and inform those with mental illness and educate the general public about mental health. This site does work, the whole set up of the Facebook page is appealing, especially when your main background photo is a picture of people dressed in a Star Wars theme holding up signs that read, "Fight the Stigma" and "Mental Health Matters". This organization's facebook appeals to both younger and older audiences. This page is also filled many posts such as; local information, videos, articles relating to mental health and even news clips about upcoming events and activities, that are put together by this organization. Keep Oregon Well promotes themselves exceptionally well, their page is; fun, quirky, serious, and well informative, there is nothing I would recommend to better promote their service they have done it all. 

Topic2: Persuasive Techniques  

ASPCA

I am a huge animal lover and advocate, but I have to admit I change the channel as soon as I hear, "in the arms of the angel" this ASPCA commercial is extremely depressing, they have definitely nailed the appeal of emotion. Then there is usually a celebrity encouraging the viewers to donate to this charity, while sad animal videos and images flood your TV. This commercial appeals to all animal lovers like myself, who want to help out anyway we can. The two persuasive techniques used by the ASPCA commercials are emotional branding and famous person testimonial. Emotional branding is when a company triggers an emotional response in the consumer, for example, if enough animal lovers watch this commercial they might become sad enough that it will trigger them to want to take action and therefore, donate money to the organization, or if you're like me, change the channel to prevent any sort of crying.The famous person testimonial is also used to endorse this company so the audience is reassured that whatever funds they donate will go directly to the animal's health needs, and not into the pockets of some random individual. These techniques work up to a certain extent, because not everyone can donate money on the spot, even though it is being indorsed by a celebrity who has already more money than the average folk. Furthermore, it would be nice to see the animals who have been used in the same commercials for years finally find a home, these commercials don't have to be 100% depressing. I believe they would have better donation rates, if they showcased the animals who have been helped and who have found good homes, due to the donations that have been received.  

Secret Hair Extensions

I cut my beautiful long hair a few years back and I am still reaping the consequences, so I pay extremely close attention to all hair extension advertisements in hopes of finding a set of natural looking hair for a reasonable price. While watching TV a commercial came on called Secret Extensions, endorsed by Daisy Fuentes.  This commercial consists of women wanting longer voluminous hair, then in comes Daisy Fuentes with her secret hair extensions she claims she wears any time she wants longer hair, this caught my attention since her hair looked beautiful. This advertisement is advertised towards middle aged women since it is harder to get thicker longer hair the older we get. The appeal that is used in this advertisement is definitely famous person testimonial because Daisy Fuentes swears by the hair extensions and even takes hers off during the commercial, making these extensions look amazing and credible. This appeal did not work because, Daisy Fuentes is a celebrity and definitely spends more than $29.99 on her own hair extensions, making this a fake testimony. In addition, all the women used in this commercial were hair models, not your average woman, also, not all of them put the extensions on themselves, and I'm positive they had a hair stylist in hand in order for the hair to look perfect and evenly blended.