Consumer’s Standpoint
I would have to say I don’t totally agree with a lot of the lecture this week. I will give examples to show why. According to the lecture, it says that Ogilvy’s understanding is that “The more specific you are, the more you generate an image in the consumer’s eye.” I would have to only agree with this some of the time. I think less detailed images that just show one thing, the main idea of the ad, just as effective and leave a more lasting image in the consumers mind. For example, take this ad from McDonalds advertising the Big Mac:
This is a very simple ad that I believe to be very effective. There is hardly any detail and there are no images except the text of “IG MA.” They even cut out the first and last letter. I think it’s brilliant. Don’t get me wrong though, I understand that detailed ads do put some kind of perception into a consumers head whereas this might not as much. I just don’t feel that detailed ads are always the way to go.
Another idea that I initially didn’t agree with at all was that long copy works better. The lecture suggests that it’s hard to find longer copy because it’s pricy to have larger ads. However, I thought longer copy takes away from the main idea that the ad is trying to present. I came to this conclusion because I just don’t see myself reading a lot of copy for a product. Then is started thinking about it and it might work for some products. Let’s take a car for example. I would want to know everything there is to know about a car before I buy it because it is so expensive. Therefore, if there were a lot of facts written about the car I might read it and it actually might help me decide if the car was right for me. Take this Lexus ad for example:
I think this a great ad and even though there is a lot of copy, I think the ad is still very effective and really builds an image of what would happen if you bought a Lexus.
One thing I do totally agree with is having a balance between not getting too caught up on specific but at the same time not being too vague and over impressive. I think this is a good example of an ad that has balance. I think a phone number maybe a little more effective but otherwise it works. 
