It’s that time of the year when the “Best of…” lists come out. My favorite so far is Ad Week’s top 10 commercials of 2011. Some of them you’ve seen and some you have not.
My two favorites on the list actually promote European brands and are outstanding examples of the strategic use of a concept that advertising psychology expert John Eighmey calls “Attitude Toward the Ad.” Simply put, if one “likes” the ad, it will affect one’s attitude AND their beliefs and expectations about the brand and the product. The Super Bowl each year is ground zero for brands which rely on this expectancy-value mode approach to advertising.
One of the ads that effectively uses this concept mashes up milk with cats and Leonard Bernstein. The ad for Cravendale milk asks us to think: What would happen if cats actually had opposable thumbs?
The other ad is a wonderful demonstration of taking a well-known metaphor and bending it into another. In this case the schema is that of a mad-cap movie director, but viewers soon discover all is not as it seems.
The implicit message here is that the Canal+ movie channel can bring out the “inner-director” in you.
Both ads are wonderful examples about using the power of creativity to establish positive attitudes toward a brand. Now, where is the glass of milk and the TV remote?
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