Halloween

Where I come from, Halloween is not celebrated a lot. A couple of years ago, it started that people had Halloween parties. However, it is not as common to party on Halloween as it is in the US.

I found a funny ad referring to Halloween!

And men always say that women 
go to the toilet 
together!!! 

If your friends will be gone on Halloween,

at least, you know where to

look for them!!!

Schema: Ice as Means of Explaining Cultural Differences

 

In our textbook Consumer Behavior by Michael R. Solomon there is an example of an American student visiting France and being surprised the water she ordered is not ice cold (p. 81).

This student has a schema that she applies to water. Being used to water being stored in the fridge and being served with a lot of ice cubes, she reacted repellent to water having normal room temperature.  

 I understand the opportunities of keeping water in the fridge when there are 95 degrees outside.

 However, the other way around it is very hard for me to understand, why somebody would want to drink his or her water ice cold with a lot of ice cubes in it when it is only 50 degrees outside. I am already freezing, why would I want to drink even cooler water, so that I am even colder? Being used to drinking water at room temperature I just cannot drink ice cold water because it really hurts on my teeth.

 

I came up with this topic, because it shows interesting cultural differences. Even though American and European cultures are not considered that different, I observe situations nearly every day where I cannot help myself wondering:

Yesterday an American friend of mine put ice cubes in her milk, because it was not cold enough (coming out of the fridge).

That was a situation where I realized that there are a lot of cultural differences in our everyday life.

Optical Illusions

I am fascinated by all kinds of pictures that are just… NOT RIGHT! 

Have you ever stood in front of a painting or looked at a picture in a book and there was something…STRANGE… about that picture?

Here are some simple examples:



The lines are exactly parallel

Moving circles: 

If the viewer moves for- and 

backward the circles seem to 

move.





Old or young woman?








Artists use optical illusions in their drawings. It is fascinating how perception can change!

Marketers use this kind of turning reality upside down  to get consumers’ attention. 

 

And as it concerns me, such advertisement works! 

I love creative advertisement that gets you thinking about it!

Barbecue

A barbecue grill can be very expensive! 

So why not be creative and look for something similar?

I must admit, that this improvised barbecue grill would not satisfy the standards of a grill master. But isn’t it better to start with a small business? Who knows maybe that is the idea of the century!

Reality

Who hasn’t heard Rose’s gasped words in Titanic:

"I’m flying Jack!"

When speaking about films we are not speaking about reality. Reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined.

We love films because they don’t portray us humans as we often are: 

• no supermodels,

• not looking awesome when we wake up in the morning,

• and in reality not everything works out! 

However, isn’t real live much more fun?

Adidas: Faster Than Your Shadow

I thought that after a couple of very critical blog posts, you would like to enjoy a funny one.

Nike has a lot of very successful advertising campaigns. Just think of the “Just do it” campaign. This simple slogan is certainly one of the best in the world. How many people do you see every day with a Just-do-it-T-shirt? A lot!

However, competitor Adidas does not sleep.

Personally, I find following advertising even more appealing:

I wish I could run that fast! 

Maybe I should get some Adidas shoes???

Smoking

Some people do it; some do not.

Some people love the taste; some people cannot stand the smell.

Some people would die to have a cigarette in special moments; some people actually die of smoking.

Some facts about Smoking:

Smoking kills more people in the United States each year than car accidents, alcohol, AIDS,

murders, illegal drugs and suicides combined.[1][1]

Smoking is one of the most controversial uses of legal substances that harm health and can cause major diseases. Smoking causes more than 440,000 deaths per year in the US, including 49,400 deaths per year from secondhand smoke exposure.[2][2] However, smoking is widely accepted in society. 

To raise awareness many anti-smoking groups have to create drastic advertising campaigns to increase smoker’s awareness of the danger of smoking they impose on themselves and their environment.

These advertising ads speak for themselves. 

They have ever- thing good ads need:

Simplicity, Creativity, Provocation!