The idea of reverse engineering is that you look at an item, take it apart, and then make it again yourself. My Marketing teacher used this word to describe our next assignment: reverse engineer an advertisement aimed at your age group. She easily could have said analyze an advertisement...but I digress.

Does anyone here subconsciously "reverse engineer" advertisements? For example, do you find yourself examining the rhetoric, the setting, the colors, the music, and so on in an attempt to figure out why the advertisement chose that choice over another? I find myself doing it...but I find myself doing this more to political debates and newscasts than advertisements. I really think its humorous the type of words politicians use to convey their 'image'. Advertisements...not so much. At most, I look at the colors in the ads to see what its trying to tell me. To that end, I find it remotely humorous that my marketing book is red.

Yeah, I do this. I look at the advertisement and try to see why the hell it's like that. It never ends well for the advertisement. Even something as innocent as Air France ads... "Oh, wow, I can find my inner me if I fly with this specific airline! How exciting!" (or something along those lines, usually wittier, I'm just apparently really out of it). I stopped recently, though. It's an on and off thing, I just don't notice ads right now.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Mar 1 2010, 5:33 am by Centreri.

I do it consciously. Ads are dumb.

I do with ads that I find are pretentious. Typically "green" commercials.

Quote from FatalException

I do it consciously. Ads are dumb.

This.

If I'm not buying it, there's a good reason. No stupid gimmicks are gonna make me buy something useless, just because it's on sale or "new and improved". I am not a female.

if the ad made you lulz or made you remember it a few days later then it succeeded =)

I only really notice ads that are really bad, because I want to figure out how they got away with putting it out in the first place.
Ex: Cash for gold(or something like that) "I sent in the ring from my first marriage, and got money right away." Now pair that with a nasally, bored, woman's voice and you have what I'm talking about.

I always do this, but it sort of freaks me out. I keep seeing creepy subliminal messages hidden in the ads.

What about this one, whats freaky about this one?

If you can "see" subliminal messages, they're doing it wrong.

I do that for absolutely all media content and information I acquire: literature, radio, TV, music and other forms of art. I also do it for human actions, body language and social behavior.

Quote from samsizzle

I always do this, but it sort of freaks me out. I keep seeing creepy subliminal messages hidden in the ads.

BUY OUR STUFF!!

yeah, pretty hidden.

Or the Envirophone advert: 'WONGA!'

So if you go to buy fast food, like from McDonalds or Buger King or whatever, and they have a new promotional burger that's been on TV, or you even just see it on a sign in the store. Do you buy the new burger, or buy what you would normally buy?

If you buy the new burger, then their advertising succeeded.

Hahaha. That guy made me laugh. Mind you, they do need to appeal to more groups of the general population.

On the topic of commercials, don't you guys think that price comparison websites have the most amazing commercials ever? Stuff like compare the meerkat, money supermarket ("It's a hatchback not a limousine, she's not paying for that! You're having a laugh!") or GO COMPAAAARE. I lol'd at all of them. I guess if you make something ridiculous beyond belief, it suddenly becomes awesome.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Mar 4 2010, 11:06 am by JaFF.

Actually if you just walk in as a result of the advertisement, they succeeded.

Yes, but that's obvious.

I'm talking about the people who say "adverts never affect me at all", when actually they probably do. You might not've specifically gone to McDonald's because of the ad on TV for the new burger, you're just going because it's late and you can't be bothered cooking, or whatever. But when you're there, you see the new burger and decide to buy it -> advertising worked on you.

Same principal applies for shopping at the supermarket - you see the new flavour of XYZ so you buy it because it's new and novel, or you go to buy a soft drink and one brand has a promotion on where you might win $20 instantly and another brand doesn't, so you buy the one with the promotion.

Basically I'm talking about the situation where you have already decided to spend money on some type of product, and it is the advertising that tips you towards buying one particular product over a similar, non-advertised one. That is really what adverts are trying to do - ads on TV for new cars by Ford aren't trying to make people who had no intention of buying a car, buy a Ford. They are there so that people who are thinking about buying a car at the moment, might decide to buy a Ford instead of a Toyota. If you're not actively in the market for something that is being advertised, then it is highly likely the ad will have no immediate impact on you.

Well, since I make the website for my school and the ads that go with it, I always look at an ad and see what should be changed on it. (Same thing with movies, I see which characters have no purpose or what part of the story was useless.) And when I see something that can catch my attention, I compare it with one that doesn't. Most of the time, it's only a slight change that does the whole difference.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Mar 5 2010, 8:32 pm by apos. Reason: English mistakes...

I'd have to disagree. I still want a Hyundai Genesis even though I have no intention of buying a new car based off of an advertisement I saw a year ago.

Reverse engineer this advertisement, it's the best advertisement ever.