A new set of advertisements intended to get young people to sign up for Obamacare have been released online. Produced by The Colorado Consumer Health Initiative and ProgressNow Colorado, these ads are designed to be an antidote to conservative ads designed to scare young people away.
Rather than pay airtime or insertion rates, these ads are designed to generate social media buzz which, they hope, will drive traffic to the website. One way to create buzz is to push the envelope. The tactic has been used many times before. You might remember the GoDaddy.com Superbowl ads that were “too hot” for broadcast TV. Recently Kmart has been raising some eyebrows with a series of TV spots for the retailer. One recently played on the phrase “ship my pants” and another features an unusual performance of Jingle Bells.
What the Obamacare ads are attempting to do is to attract young healthy customers…the very demographic that is needed to fund medical care for the poor and elderly. Here’s a link to a video from HuffPo that provides running commentary on whether the approach will work with Millennials. What do you think? Are these ads effective and will they convince young people to sign up?
As much as the creators of the ad want to convince a young adult, like the intended audience of the article , to do something, like hop on board for Obamacare, it is in the end ultimately the viewers decision. By titling the article “Keg-Stands, Casual Sex and Scare Tactics: The Selling of Obamacare”, they assume it will immediately draw the young reader in due to the involvement of sex and drinking in the title which, to me, is just saying that we can’t be interested without something that young people are stereo typically into i college and higshchool. On another hand thought, the ad is reaching out to a completely new demographic which will in turn be needed to help: so is the article effective? I think so. But i also feel like the adults reaching out to the younger people of the generation don’t respect us enough to expect us to help them when they’re old and frail. Maybe that’s too harsh, but I feel as if our generation is a lot more advanced then they make us out to be.
This advertisement appears to be good PR in the works because it follows the very definition of public relations in that it is “a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics”. In today’s day and age, sex is rampant in the realm of media and sadly, the majority of my generation can’t seem to get enough of it. Therefore, good PR would be to use this common interest in order to gain more popular opinion and support for health care. From first glance, it appears that this is creating a mutually beneficial relationship between the younger generation and the healthcare providers because Obamacare is giving the younger generation what it appears to want, while at the same time selling their services. It is also very strategic, another characteristic of good public relations, because it utilizes the same techniques discussed in Ryan Holiday’s presentation. They started with a small media outlet in an attempt to feed the story to larger outlets.
As good as this PR stunt seems, to me it is really insulting. It is yet another media outlet assuming that my generation cannot become interested in political issues without sex being involved. It is also assuming that everyone in my generation only thinks about sex. There were so many other issues in the Obamacare act than sex, but the older generations figure that all we care about are the portions about sex. It is also yet another media outlet that is insinuating that all young women care about is birth control, and getting into bed with a hot man. What happened to our country’s intellect? What happened to relationships about more than just sex? What happened to our society that the only way they feel like they can get through to the younger generation is to post “sexy” ads like this all over the place?
Regardless of the tactics used in trying to persuade young people into signing up for Obama Care, it’s ultimately their choice. Not only is it the young persons choice to conform to the ad , the ad itself was directed effectively. When advertising a lot, ads like to compare and relate to the buyer one of the tactics used was sex appeal , which actively grabs the young persons attention effectively.
The ad was meant to catch people’s attention, mainly to the younger audience, and it worked. The first thing I noticed when searching for a blog to comment on was the girl holding a pack of birth control so I stopped to read what it was about. The ad may seem controversial but in this day and age that is real life. This ad will make young people aware that it is easier to get the birth control if you have the insurance rather than not having the option to get that protection before when they didn’t have insurance. So in other words they are manipulating their audience to seem like they can get birth control much easier if they have Obamacare. Manipulation was mentioned in the “Media Manipulator” slide show. The slide show also mentioned how to create a buzz in the media and that’s exactly what this ad did. According to the PRSA website, public relations is defined as, “a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics” I think the people who built this ad thought that they would make their target audience feel more comfortable about getting the insurance to help them if they were to ever find themselves in any of the situations they are shown in the ads.
I have to admit I clicked this PR case problem because of the title, “Keg-Stands, Casual Sex and Scare Tactics: The Selling of Obamacare”. Yes these advertisements are intended to get young people and may cause buzz but it works. I don’t like to admit it but our generation is drawn in with almost anything that has a photo of booze or parting or scaring us with having children right now and people who are working for Obama are smart to use that against us. Social media is what this generation involves around so we see one of these crazy ads tweet it, then one of our followers retweets it and it just keep getting passed on because we thought it was funny. What we don’t realized is this is exactly what the advertisers wanting instead of paying for TV time or air time we are doing it for free through our social media accounts. These aids are degrading to young adults by saying all we want to do is party and get laid and that generates buzz, good or bad buzz it doesn’t matter as long as it is getting talked about, which it obviously is. In the Confessions of a Media Manipulator he takes about how to make national news in three steps. The people who designed these ads rather than pay airtime or insertion rates, these ads are designed to generate social media buzz which, they hope, will drive traffic to the website and that’s exactly what one of the major steps was in confessions of a Media Manipulator.
In any sort of advertising, the advertisers try really hard to relate to the customer and give the customer what they want to hear and see. For example, with some of these Obama Care ads they are trying to relate to teens with using sexual appeal. Hoping that this will gain more of a younger audience to get Obama Care. Most of the ads are stupid but if it grabbing the attention of these consumers they are targeting then they have done their jobs. In most of these ads they are trying to manipulate the people by saying if you have Obama Care then everything will be fine. Manipulation is something that the “Confessions of A Media Manipulator,” the slide show touches up on the PRSA website. That companies will manipulate you and tell you what you want to hear and make the consumer trust them when in reality what they are selling or advertising may not be truly correct. That’s just the way business works these days. Advertising and business is based of manipulation and lies.
-Summer Bennett
The Colorado Consumer Health Initiative and ProgressNow Colorado used the same methods Ryan Holiday explained in his PowerPoint and used smaller social media platforms to attract the attention of Millenials to their Obamacare ads.Unfortunately, their efforts worked. By “trading up the chain”, the ads soon reached HuffPo, which according to Holiday would be considered a mid-level website. Even though these ads seemed to received a shocked response from their audience for the apparent exaggerations and inaccuracies, it cannot be denied that even negative attention is at least some form of attention. However, I am not sure that the visuals were really all that effective in encouraging younger Americans to sign up for Obamacare. If anything, they served as a humorous reminder, but they could have also dissuaded some others from signing up, for some young people could have possibly felt that these ads were not taking the issue of health insurance seriously enough. According to the PRSA definition, public relations is supposed to create a “mutually beneficial” relationship between organizations and the public. The public wanted to be informed about Obamacare, but the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative and ProgressNow Colorado took advantage of the ignorance of some Millenials and used it to create comical ads which did nothing to benefit the public.
This ad is very effective because it targets the young audience, not many other insurance companies target young adults, usually parents and elders. This is reaching a new untapped audience, The prsa website says that ads need to build trust in order to be effective, birth control is a concept that people need to trust. This blog is a perfect example of what the “trust me I’m lying” slide show was saying, these ads on small blogs like this first until they reached the national news.
Obama Care has been extremely controversial in recent years like most major overhaul proposals are expected to be. When controversy arises I believe some approaches to change consumer minds has to be utilized and in the world of marketing sometimes the bold are rewarded. The http://www.prsa.org website states that “modern definitions incorporate the concepts of engagement and relationship building.” The comical part of the advertisement I think speaks to the target market that the ad is intended for. It’s bold because normally government advertisements aren’t the least bit hysterical, but in the case for Obama care dramatic steps I think needed to be better received by young audiences in hopes of receiving their approval and participation. In the “trading up the chain” slide show it states that everyone (with exception of a few at the top layer) in this ecosystem is under immense pressure to produce content under the tightest of deadlines.” This speaks to the pressure Obama had for this bill to pass and one of the obstacle was to identify with young American citizens.
My opinion on this article is that, they are funny ads that I would never take so serious as to actually going to the site but it would give me a good laugh if I never just ran across this on the internet. I mean what the ads discuss are not really based fully on the truth but they do happen to a certain extent. In all I do not think people would actually go to the Obama care website to sign up, but these ads do get people talking, now whether they were talking about good stuff or not depends solely on each individual person. But in all their harmless ads that do their job perfect, which is make people talk about Obama care.
As far as my personal opinion is concerned, Obama’s approach towards Obamacare and the whole notion of standardized health care is pathetic. The idea of Obamacare as explained in the post is that our president wants the current ‘young healthy’ generation to pay for the poor and elderly’s healthcare. The ideology of me paying for someone else to live angers me to an extent I cannot explain verbally; however what I am alluding to is that the approach being taken is also pathetic. According to the PRSA website, public relations is defined as, “a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their public(s).” The approach Obama is taking, depicting citizens in their twenties who condone activities such as unprotected sex requiring birth control, claiming that Obamacare ‘covers’ the pill is blatantly insulting. I understand some people circumstantially need health care, but figuratively speaking, a box of condoms is far cheaper than healthcare; in addition, the way the Obamacare promoters are manipulating the media, as mentioned in “Confessions of a Media Manipulator’ slide show” is a reminder that Obama wants a very skewed picture painted of his health care. He rationally would not publicize the fallacies of his health care, however in doing so he defies the definition of public relations via media manipulation. The gap he’s attempting to bridge between health care and the younger generation does not create a mutually beneficial relationship, it just insults the generation that frankly needs healthcare the least.
I feel that the Obamacare ads for younger people to join are a perfect example of how a public relations is important. According to PRSA.org “public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.” The Obamacare knows that in order to get the attention of younger people that they have to push their ads to the limit in hopes of it going viral. Once young people notice the ads, they will their opinions on social networks and will have a snowball on the ad’s popularity from small to big web sites. An example of this would be the concept stated on the Confessions of a Media Manipulator video, the chains of smaller blog websites spread until they appear on bigger new websites.
I think the Obamacare ads are just ridiculous. I can why they are using such ads to try and get to college kids and get them to sign up but come on, some of these have gone too far. Maybe this is just my age talking here, I don’t know. I just see kids acting foolish and getting drunk, not an ad for health care. PRSA says that “Anticipating, analyzing and interpreting public opinion, attitudes and issues that might impact, for good or ill, the operations and plans of the organization.” Maybe they want to get a variety of reactions to the ad and this was the main reason for it in the first place. One that causes such an uproar is an effective one right? Even on of the slides in “Trust Me I’m Lying” says “How to Turn Nothing into Something in Three Way- Too- Easy Steps”, Isn’t this saying the same thing? They are turning what could be nothing into something huge by adding kids drinking and turning it into a health care ad.
I am agreeing with Heather on this one. Without catching the attention of the people your advertisement will not mean anything because nobody knows about the story being told. PRSA also talks about the importance of “relationship”. This video posted had to establish a relationship between the viewers and the girl, which brings them together. “Trading up the chain” ties in also because little blog sites are important to journalists and this helps facilitate the message being mass communicated.
I was really surprised at the angle Obamacare took to try to get people to sign up. They were clearly targeting a younger audience for the most part, and mothers. Using the keg stand ads almost portrayed it like drinking and doing stupid things is expected which it kind of is however, these ads made it seem like it was acceptable for the youth to do stupid things. However I think these ads do think if the goal of these ads were to go viral, they have the potential to because they are so unexpected from our government. All of the ads had various social media sites right above them so that there was easy access for people to promote them online which i thought was interesting, i think president realizes the role social media plays in today’s world, I’m pretty sure he is the first president to have a twitter on an unrelated note. I also think that this campaign followed a similar method that the “trust me im lying” slide show explained, they circulated their ads through the Huffington post and they certainly got their targeted audience being people in my age groups attention, i thought the ads were very interesting. However the ads in this campaign did abide to the PRSA’s code of ethics in all the categories so it was a very professional campaign even though they took an unusual approach of trying to draw in people for health insurance.
There is two main categories I have to touch on about my thoughts regarding the “Brosurance” campaign. As far the the marketing strategy of the campaign, I do believe it will spark a considerable amount of attention, especially among younger adults (which is what the ad is intended for). The thing is though, is that even though these ads may catch the attention of many younger adults, I do believe it will lead to them actually going and signing up for Obamacare.The reason being, young people already don’t seem to care about politics, with the lowest voter turnout percentage coming from the 18-29 year old age group at 45% in the 2012 election. If 55% of young Americans can’t even take the time to fill out a ballot, what makes the promoters of Obamacare think that young adults will take the time to undserstand and file for something that consisted of a bill that had roughly 11,000 pages? I for one may have a biased opinion because as a male, I’m not too worried about missing out on my chance for cheap birth control, nor have I ever left the soccer field on crutches or carved a pumpkin with a machete, but for some people those may be legitament concerns according to these ads. I stand on a conservative view in the fact that the government has no business regulating healthcare, especially when even the creators of this bill are exempt from it themselves. But as far as the advertising campaign goes, the ad will generate some buzz. Will the ad be popular and heard of? Absolutely… Will it be effective? Hardly…
Follow up-
The PRSA defines public relations as a “community effort” (http://www.prsa.org/AboutPRSA/PublicRelationsDefined/#.U1c1sFfgddE) as does Ryan Holiday in his short film “Trading Up The Chain: How To Make National News in 3 Easy Steps (Excerpt from Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator)” (http://www.slideshare.net/ryanholiday/tmil-slideshare-v19). Which goes to show that cathcing the attention and starting that dialogue is one of the most important parts of advertising and Public Relations.
I find the Obamacare advertisements a little ridiculous but still effective. Even though it is past the initial “Opt-In/Out” time frame the more conservative ad did make me think a little bit about the government’s involvement in our healthcare system. That being said I highly doubt the next time I visit an exam room a man wearing an Uncle Sam costume will pop out. The pro Obamacare ads are portraying the women in their ads in a poor light, but what else is new in advertising? Sex sells even in ridiculous settings as these ads show. While I and (I am sure) other women are not taking a lot of positives away from these ads, the idea of having healthcare to afford prescriptions is still a valid selling point and either way it got me thinking about it. I understand that the younger audiences are an integral part of the success of Obamacare, and that these types of activities are common or at least thought to be common and will catch their attention.
I think that the Obamacare ads are a perfect idea to snare the younger demographic. Although the text does mention that ads have a need to be ethical, I don’t think there’s necessarily anything unethical about advertising health care by showing why young adults need health care. Psychologically, young adults are the most likely to partake in risky behaviors, because they suffer from an invicibility delusion; 20 somethings tend to feel like they are impervious to damage. As such, it can be difficult to get them to have proper health insurance. So, what better way to point out this flaw in their logic than by showing them exactly -why- they aren’t invincible: overimbibing and unsafe sex, as two examples.
Turow, Joseph. Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication. 4th Edition. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print.
Presently new media advertising gives the idea of explicating young adults in a scare tactic to persuade them if they don’t sign up for the Obama health care plan or any health plan they may end up with a STD or worse. Mostly because I think youth in general are very gullible and have a lot to learn in life and about ethical advertising as mentioned on pg. 548 in Turow. It doesn’t matter how we see an ad if its directly pointed at youth or the elderly, research is the gate key to good truth about any product.
Turow, Joseph. Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication. 4th Edition. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print.
The Obamacare ads definitely catch people’s attention, mostly younger adults who use the internet a lot because they will see those ads, while the older generations don’t usually browse the internet as much using facebook and other social media. I think it could be effective because if people aren’t educated on a political issue, but they see it advertised a lot they think the ad must be right, or better because they see it more often. This is like how people put signs of political campaigns in their yard and hold signs on the side of the road promoting a certain candidate. The signs are most likely pointed to older adults and people who aren’t technology friendly, the opposite audience of those Obamacare ads. Sometimes, advertisements can go too far and offend some people; they can be inconsiderate (Turow).
Kami Shore
Turow, Joseph. Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication. 4th Edition. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print.
Turow, Joseph. Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print.
Advertisement is all about selling a product, and to sell a product there needs to be a big enough appeal for a consumer to buy that product. “Advertising practitioners try to make a particular target group of consumers feel that a brand relates to their particular interest and lifestyle.” (Turow) I do believe that obamacare advertisers are certainly attempting to reach the “average college student” but by explaining how health insurance now covers the pill by having a girl standing next to a boy saying “OMG, he’s hot! Let’s hope he is as easy to get as this birth control. My health insure covers the pill, which means all I have to worry about is getting him between the covers. I got insurance,” is in my opinion off putting and so far off from the regular college students attitude and lifestyle. This makes me feel like who ever is involved with Obama’s advertisement has a very misleading idea about college and I find it rude and just wrong.
Theres no doubt that these obamacare ads will get the attention of younger adults but i think that they will not be very effective. Sure these ads interest us but that only because they are a little edgy and we can relate to them as being the target audience.”A person who sees an advertisement almost always knows that it is an ad and so can be sensitive to claims and images that may be exaggerated or are unsupportable.” (Turow pg.587) Following up on this statement I don’t think they’ll be very effective because no one pays attention to ads as it is and we know when we are the target audience and know ads when we see them so i feel that these ads will just be looked passed just like any other.
Turow, Joseph. Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication. 4th Edition. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print.
the Obamacare adds definitely grab the attention of the younger generations because of its environment and where it is placed (Turow542). not only from the placement on the webs you can find these ads like on blogs or popular videos but because it is mainly an Internet advertisement and most people who use the internet frequently are the younger generations.
Advertisements like these, although they seem a bit extreme. They tend
to work at grabbing the attention of their viewers. The positioning, or
methods that are aimed towards a particular group of customers so that
they feel that the ad closely relates to their own interests and lifestyles, (Turow 540)
works exceptionally well here in my opinion. To grab the attention of
the younger demographic, they also succeed in funding for everyone else.
Patrick Schickle
— Turow, Joseph. “Creating Portraits.” Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication. 4th ed. New York [etc.: Routledge, 2011. 540. Print.
This is ad is effective, but I think it is effective in a negative way. This type of ad works in getting the point across. They did a good job at doing this ad in a parody, but I feel that this ad is targeted to a younger generation. A younger generation might understand the concept of parody, and mistake the ad. Turow states, ” In general, we accept ads as a given in our society and don’t think deeply about them. (548) Even though this ad is effective at grabbing the audience’s attention, they could have done it in a better manner.
Turow, Joseph. Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication. 4th Edition. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print.
Jada Ruiz
In this day an age, advertisements like this are going to be severely attractive to the younger audiences. They are “informational ads”, that are convincing to younger generations when saying things such as, “Get insurance so you can have birth control”. (52) Since the ads are looked at as being erotic, they have gained more attention. These Obamacare advertisements are definitely on the right track if they want to get some buzz going on. These ads have been effective, but I do not think that it is okay for heath care to be advertised in this fashion. Only time will be able to tell if these ads really did promote the younger generation to purchase Obamacare.
Works Cited:
Turow, Joseph. Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication. 4th Edition. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print.
Alex Moore
I think that these type of advertisements are wrong and sometimes disrespectful, but the whole point of them is to generate buzz in the community, and also to be funny to the younger demographic. I believe that these type of advertisements are a type of “parody”, using the general concept of another type of advertisement, but changing it to make it humorous. It can also get people to talk more about the topic that the parody was about, to get more popularity. On the other hand, it can also give people a negative outlook on a certain topic. This advertisement gives off a parody of obamacare ads, and it may seem inappropriate, but it get more people to talk about it, especially the younger people in America.
Works Cited:
Turow, Joseph. Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication. 4th Ed. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print.
These particular ads really show the importance of positioning. According to Turow, “advertising practitioners try to make a particular target group of consumers feel that a brand relates to their interests” (Turow, 540). This it exactly what Obamacare is trying to do with these ads. They want the younger audience to take notice of their “product” and then use it. With ads that display such vulgar hints, yioung adults are taking notce. They may not like what is being sold or the way they are being sold it, but it works. It works because of the positioning of the ads.
Turow, Joseph. Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication.4th Ed. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print.
I think this type of advertising has been proven to work. The people who created this advertisement followed Turow’s three basic functions of ad work: creative persuasion, market research, and media planning and buying (Turow). The marketing team knew who their target market was, young adults, and created an ad that appealed to their humor. They knew that most young adults see most of their advertisements while on social network sites. This is also a good place to put the ads because the older, more conservative generations would be less likely to see this ad than if it were on TV. These ads are risky but I feel like most of them have paid off. I never saw the “ship my pants” ad on TV but I did see it on Facebook and my dad and brother had to show it to me on YouTube. So if it doesn’t reach your intended target directly most likely someone will bring it to their attention sooner or later.
I believe that by going a bit overboard it has gained attention. While this move in advertising is a bit reckless it has succeeded in this one advertisement. Whether or not the advertisement got the message across is questionable though. Now a days people have dealt with advertisements like this from birth, it started with toys and went on to other products that are commonly used. (Turow)
Works Cited:
Turow, Joseph. Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication.4th Ed. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print.
With these ad’s being aimed at the younger “Millennial” audience i believe that they are doing right type of strategic moves. But although these moves may be strategic in nature, i believe that the ad’s are being made in the wrong way because of the way that they are stereotyping the millennial generation. With that said i believe that these ad’s will get the attention that they are meant to pursue, but at the same time might offend some of the people that they are trying to target. Turow the author of our lecture text book says ” But the work of the creatives does not take place in a vacuum.Copywriters and art directors generally do not concoct a print or tv commercial out of just any ideas that come to them. On the contrary they work hard to determine which ideas will lead target consumers to purchase the product”(537).
What Turow is trying to explain with this statement is that advertisers and marketers are not just making ad’s out of the blue, they are trying to make that will appeal to their target audience in order to effectively sell their product.
Works Cited:
Turow, Joseph. Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication.4th Ed. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print.
I believe that targeting a younger audience is a good move for advertising. In this case selling the idea of Obamacare to a younger group makes sense because they tend to be more liberal and open to the idea. Obviously not every young adult declares a political party to associate with or even votes for that matter but the idea of trying to hit a different crowd then the typical adult is a good idea. With todays society sex sells and it is not a secret to anyone, so why not use what our society has created to sell a product just like everyone else. “Using integrated communications, new media, and target marketing efficiently has for several years been a cutting edge concern of executives and creative personnel in the persuasion industries.”(Turow)
In this statement made by Turow it states how important marketing and targeting the correct audience is.
Braydon Kuiper
Edit: Turow Correlation
In the textbook, Turow defines publicity as “the practice of getting people or products mentioned in the news and entertainment media in order to get members of the public interested in them” (560). With this in mind, the controversial ads regarding Obamacare certainly have done their job of creating publicity for themselves. One thing regarding publicity is what you do with it afterwords, only time will tell how effective these ad were.
Citation:
Turow, Joseph. Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print.
The attempt to attract younger future health insurance holders, although is with good intentions; is not really effective. The government attempted to do what companies typically do which is”….making a particular target group of customers feel that a brand relates to their particular interests and lifestyles” (Turrow 2011); they tried to relate to college students concerning their lifestyles by only relating to stereotypes. Yes they tried to let young women know Obamacare offers birth control and yes the ad with the frat brothers party life was used but miss directed and misguided. Mostly because it looks at the way a supposed college student lives rather than getting to the message that the new health insurance offers birth control andways to get immediate medical care as an in case you need it. The add instead promoted you can keep living a care free lifestyle but on the government. The ad could have been more informative on what the insurance covers but still target young college students. Instead you have an ad that spells disaster waiting to happen.
Works Cited:
Turow, Joseph. Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print.
With people being able to fast forward commercials with DVR’s and being able to scroll past them on Facebook or skip them on YouTube, advertisers have to do something to get people’s attention (Turow 546). College age people like things that are edgy and funny. These ads certainly attempt to be those things. It’s hard to say if it’ll make people want Obamacare. For me personally, it does not make me want it. I feel like they are degrading young adults by saying all we want to do is party and get laid. They ignore the fact that many young adults are hardworking and wanting to do something to make a difference. For me it would be more appealing if it told me that it would help me in times of need. That it would help me when I get an injury that affects if I can afford college or keep being active. Not that it will help me and encourage me to be involved in reckless behavior by giving me contraceptives. It also makes me wary that I have to help pay for other people’s lifestyle choices.
One thing the ads have going for them is that they are easy to spot and has got people talking about Obamacare. Visibility in advertising means that the ad is in a place where it is likely to be seen (Turow 243). The ads are online and on Facebook which is where the targeted age group spends a lot of time. This is effective in getting the word out there and getting their ads seen. Advertiser’s goal is to make advertisements disgusting, funny, interesting, or cute enough to target audiences to want to see them (Turow 546). The Obamacare ads do make you take a second glance at them which makes it an effective advertisement. The question is if the advertisements will just be a conversation or funny to read or if they will actually make young adults want to get Obamacare.
-Sarah Zarr 12/2/2013
For me, advertisements such as the “Brosurance” one and its company seem to be walking the wrong line. It appears that they are trying to walk the line between what we expect from advertisements and an “edgy” advertisement that is supposed to be pushing boundaries. When faced with these adverts originally I could have taken them as right wing satire. I was bewildered to find that they were, not only serious, but meant to promote Obamacare. I fail to the see the scandal in these ads but I can see how they would generate buzz across social media. The real question being, how much buzz will actually translate into the purchasing of healthcare through the government.
The Obamacare advertisements are definitely on the road to success if their goal was to increase word of mouth about the service. By leaning on the “got milk?” campaign and using parody events, the Obamacare ads create buzz in all age groups including the targeted younger audience. Despite the talk factor, I am dubious that this will effectively persuade the young target group to go out and sign up for Obamacare. Turow mentions the millions of dollars spent on advertising and how the companies that put forth this money as well as the consumers should be concerned with the success of the investment (547). As it is the government that is backing the costs of the Obamacare and the marketing for it, the entire United States must be very critical of how the money is spent. The Obamacare advertisements may succeed in the knowledge of product aspect however only time will show if they have effectively encouraged young adults to subscribe to the medical care.
Turow, Joseph. Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication. 4th ed. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print.
When reading this ad, one cannot help but think of the branding and positioning that went into its development. Branding is “creating a specific image of a product that makes it stand out” and positioning is “making a particular target group of customers feel that a brand relates to their particular interests and lifestyles” (Turow, 2011).
As far as the branding goes, I would say that this ad is effective; it surely stands out. This ad is clearly aimed at 18-25 year olds, and the use of the familiar font text and style is effective. It helps the reader feel comfortable and like they have known the product for years. It almost places the subliminal message in the heads of its readers that “milk is good for you, so must be Obamacare.” As and ad designer, one would be forced to consider the long term effects of the “shock-and-awe” strategy that this ad presents. At what point will this generation stop being moved by such tactics?
In regards to the positioning in this ad, one is forced to wonder who exactly is the “target group” that this ad is trying to reach. 18-25 year olds should really consider what this ad is implying about them. If this ad is really trying to convey the idea that it is relevant to target group, then obviously the producers of this ad see our generation as many things. This ad implies that women are only out to get laid, totally obsessed with outward appearances, willing to jump in bed with anyone who is “hot”, and all around easy themselves. About men, this ad implies that they are just sex symbols, completely easy, only wanting sex with random women, and incapable of providing their own birth control. As a whole, this ad implies that our generation is all about parting, sex with strangers, and impulsive behavior.
At the end of the day, the only thing that really matter is if this ad will work or not. If our generation is as dense and shallow as this ad’s creator believes, then, yes, it will be effective. If our generation sees past the advertisers implication and insults, then, no, this ad will not be effective. Either way, until the Obamacare websites start working the way they are supposed to, even the most effective advertisements are a waist of money.
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Turow, Joseph. “Creating Portraits.” Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication. 4th ed. New York [etc.: Routledge, 2011. 540. Print.
I believe the Obamacare advertisements will only be effective to the younger generation. By putting ads on social media, it might bring a lot more students and young adults to the website because they will have most access to the advertising. I think the ads themselves are semi effective because they are targeting the students by calling one ad “Brosurance”, which makes students think they will save money with this insurance and have more money for beer. Another ad had two students standing together and the girl holding birth control and the ad saying, “OMG, he’s hot! Let’s hope he’s as easy to get as this birth control. My health insurance convers the pill, which means all I have to worry about is getting him between the covers”. I don’t believe they need ads like this one because it is very erotic and health care doesn’t need to be advertised like this. Some concerns that company’s worry comes from the awareness that people may not pay attention to ads, even if they are staring right at them (Turow).
Taylor Allen
The Obamacare advertisements are effective at catching people’s attention without a question. The advertisements seriously bring up questions of what kind of morals that people hold these days. Certainly the agencies that created them are trying or believe that they are using creative persuasion to speak to the “Millennial” generation by using a set up of imaginative activities to speak to that specific generation. (Turow) Although the ads are effective in catching people’s attention, it isn’t the kind of attention that is going to make people rush out to sign up for Obamacare. The ads are persuading people to engage in premarital sex, drinking to intoxication, and really stupid acts more than signing up for Obamacare or taking care of themselves to be healthy.