Lynx Excite

The video above is the new advert for Lynx Excite, 'Angels will fall'.
Could you please comment on my blog about this advert and about the whole Lynx Excite campaign:  http://melaniedn.wordpress.com/

Thank you

Product Placement in music videos

The Power of Product Placement in music videos!

I was watching the new video from Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez and I just had to blog about product placement in music videos. I will be posting these music videos at the end of this post.

Music and advertising have been mixing together for a long time, starting with the famous driving his Chevy from Don McLean in ‘American Pie’ to the song ‘Pass the Courvoisier’ from Busta Rhymes. One of the main reasons for this is that artists depend on advertising money to support their career.

More than often, the money these celebrities receive from product placement in music videos will pay for the video itself. The deal with advertising can help to reduce the continually increasing cost of music video productions. The most expensive music video ever made being Scream by Michael Jackson, which cost 7 million dollars so maybe you can understand why they might need every bit of extra cash.

Why is this important for PR professionals?

Research has shown that placing products in music videos have been increasing gradually. It was found that from 1979 to 1997 rap music with brand name mentions increased from 46% to 71%. This shows that product placements in music videos is not new, however the effectiveness of the product placement is still not clear. If musicians decide to include your product you can have very little control over its usage and this could have a positive or negative effect.

This could be very useful to PR professionals because it has been stated that the pairing of brands with characters may facilitate the transfer of evaluative meaning from artists to embedded brands. Through music videos the artist is also subtly selling a lifestyle, not just the music.

Music Videos are now full with product placements. A recent example is Lady Gaga and Beyonce’s track ‘Telephone’. I’ve posted the video below and there are nine product placements:

1:34: Heartbeats earphones.
2:06: Virgin Mobile.
2:17: Diet Coke.
4:15: Virgin Mobile (again).
4:24: HP Envy ‘Beats Limited Editon’ laptop from Monster.
4:28: Plenty Of Fish dating site.
4:44: Chevrolet.
5:37: Polaroid.
6:24: Wonderbread.
6:36: Miracle Whip.
8:31: Polaroid (again).

When do you think product placement get ‘too much’?

When does it cross the line and become ‘unethical’?

 Or, should it just continue to increase more and more?

I’ve posted another two videos below Jennifer Lopez’s new song and Britney Spears. Spot the product placement.

This morning at 11.00AM?! They say it's time to talk about sex?!

This Morning at 11am discussed the results of a sex survey on the show.

Phillip Schofield and Ruth Langsford looked lost and didn't seem to know where to look when sex therapist Jo Hemmings and Dr Pixie McKenna showed up on the show with vibrators on the ITV program to chat about keeping things 'hot' in the bedroom.

With the soundtrack of sexual healing in the background and a breathy voice over the results of This Morning’s sex survey 2011, were shown to the viewers at home.

Philip Schofield staggered over his words whilst discussing that 20% of male respondents to the survey had admitted to faking an orgasm.

Viewers watched a couple demonstrating a sexual position, he joked: 'Glad she's kept her stockings on, there's only so far we're allowed to go.

At one point during the show another couple sat on a bed with handcuffs, a feather boa and blindfold, demonstrating how to use role play in the bedroom.

Inapproriate? Close-up of bedroom scenes were shown.

What are your thoughts about todays program? Is 11am a time to be talking and discussing sex?

SEX sells: Dita Von Teese strips off in a provocative new Renault Clio TV ad

World renowned burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese has a new role and raises eyebrows playing a stripper in the new TV advertisement for the Renault clio.

The flashy commercial, which also co-stars French footballer Thierry Henry and Rihanna, shows so much skin, it's hard to believe it's meant to sell a Renault clio.

The advert, which Renault is calling its Va Va Voom commercial, opens with a montage featuring Audrey Hepburn in a clip from Breakfast at Tiffany's, the late Marlon Brando and David Bowie.

Dita then begins to strip off as Thierry Henry, who plays a strip club regular, ogles her through a peep hole.

Dita removes her corset and bra and is topless while Thierry marvels at her assets.

Rihanna then flashes on screen in a clip from her BANNED video s&m, inter cut with a clip of Marlon Brandon speaking the famous line 'I coulda been a contender' from the 1954 film On the Waterfront.

Finally after all the skin and the superstars leave the screen, several shots of the car pop up.

Renault unveiled its sexy new campaign last night on ITV.

Is this advert too provactove for TV?

Watch the advert below:

Overnight sensation..Amazon Eve

The worlds tallest model stands at 6ft 8inches, amazon Eve has become an overnight sensation since November last year when a magazine put her in a bikini on a cover of a magazine.

Eve, from Turlock, California, is a full time model but also wrestles with men for $400 an hour. Take a look at some of the pictures below:

Please share your comments below.

Race row over Elle's front cover shoot after Bollywood actress' skin is 'whitened'



Elle magazine has come into a race row after supposedly whitening the skin of a Bollywood actress on its cover. Many readers are angry and upset after it was ­suggested that the fashion bible might have digitally ‘bleached’ the skin of Bollywood actress ­Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

The 37 year old appears on this month’s cover of the Indian edition of the magazine. Though, her skin appears to be much lighter than her normal colour (seen left).

Inside the magazine, she has a series of shots which again all show her with pale skin. It’s not the first time that Elle has been accused of appearing to lighten the skin of its non-white models.

In September this year, black actress Gabourey Sidibe appeared on the cover of an American edition of the magazine with a much paler skin tone. On that particular time Elle said they had not altered the star’s skin.

Skin lightening is a controversial issue in India and those with a lighter complexion are perceived to be rich and successful. Skin-lightening products in India aimed at young men and women now form a multi-million-pound industry.

Elle is seen upon as a fashion bible and should not be lightening models skin. They are portraying to their readers that lighter skin is always in fashion and this is wrong, and they should not be sending out this message.

Please share your thoughts and opinions on this subject. Do you think its right for magazines to lighten model’s complexions?

CIPR Awards 2010 Counties South Gold winner

Title of entry: The Butterfly Effect
Client Name: Holland and Barrett
Agency Name: Pegasus Public Relations

The CIPR Pride Awards are a yearly award given to great PR campaigns all over the UK.

For my PR Strategy, Campaign Planning and Evaluation unit, I was asked to give a presentation to my class on a Pride Award winner from 2010 from Counties South region. I looked through all the winners and i decided that 'The Butterfly Effect' was the one that stood out in my head.

Background

Linking the banning of plastic bags into a 25 year support of a butterfly project positioned Holland & Barrett on the way of a major environmental concern that spoke directly to their target audience of green conscious customers and threw down a challenge for the rest of the high street to follow them. The campaign delivered a news splash across the media reaching an audience of 55 million championing the health food chain for being the first major retailer to ban plastic bags and showcased their green credentials to a consumer, business and industry audience.

Strategy

• A campaign theme ‘Butterfly Effect’ playing on a well known phrase to show how small changes, such as those Holland & Barrett’s is making as part of Plan-It-Green policy, can have a big effect.
• Increase profile of key spokespeople and develop Holland & Barrett environmental credibility among their eco target customers.
• Utilise range of media activities to ensure campaign is made relevant.

Implemention

The campaign ran in October- December 2009 in the run up to the plastic bag ban on January 1st 2010.

Butterfly Effect Press Briefing: 12th November 2009

• London Zoo was chosen as the venue for the briefing allowed interviews and photos to take place in the Butterfly paradise enclosure to tie into the butterfly effect theme.
• The venue was used earlier by Gordon Brown to deliver manifesto on Global warming and would therefore be familiar to target audience.
• High profile business, consumer affairs, environmental and industry journalists were invited to the briefing were Holland and Barrett's CEO Peter Aldis unveiled the retail chain's Plan it green strategy and introduced the new butterfly bags.
• Professor Jeremy Thomas discussed his conservation work the large blue butterfly and how Holland and Barrett supported his project to bring back the species from extinction in the UK.
• All attendees received exclusive signed copies of Sir David Attenborough's book 'Life Stories' inside with the new jute butterfly bags with a full press pack.

Evaluation

The campaign met all the objectives which were stated in the strategies:

• Using independent media evaluation, the three month campaign created over 55million opportunities to see through 26 items of coverage with an equivalent PR value of £554,623 representing a 18 to 1 return on investment.
• Two distinct waves of press coverage followed the press briefing in mid November and on the 1st of January.
• Press briefing was attended by 13 broadcast, national, business and consumer journalists including the Daily Mail and Radio 4’s The Today Programme.

Raise awareness of Holland & Barrett as an environmentally aware retailer and communicate social responsibility.

· 70% of the coverage cited Holland & Barrett as being the first major retailer to ban plastic bags.

· Grabbed attention of Dimoldenberg Labour Group leader at Westminster council who commented about the ban.

Increase profile of key spokespeople and develop Holland & Barrett environmental credibility among their eco conscious target customer.

• Holland and Barrett CEO Peter Aldis was quoted in 3 quarters of the press coverage.
• Eight articles across eco and environmental specific media congratulating Holland and Barrett for banning plastic bags.
• Numerous tweets were seen across twitter again congratulating and supporting the ban at Holland and Barrett.

Utilise range of media activities to ensure campaign is made relevant for health pages, business targets and consumers to maximise campaign reach.

• Coverage across a wide variety of media from daily national newspapers such as The Daily Mail and The Guardian, to specialist eco titles such as Green My Style, business titles such as Real Business and industry publications including Health Food Business and Retail Week.

I believe that this was a great campaign full of creativity which matched the strategy and deserved to win a Gold award. Well done Pegasus PR.

My questions to you are as follows:

• Do you think it deserved a Gold award?
• What did you think about the briefing being held in London Zoo: Butterfly paradise a good or bad idea?
• Did you like the creativity of the campaign?
• Finally, what would you rate this campaign out of 5? And why?

Your comments and feedback please.

Thank you.