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Camera usage/Cuts/Pans/Angles--Anna S. Music/Soundtrack-- Amy Who is featured in the commercial? Celebrity endorsements?-- Melissa Tone of each commercial (Lighting, Humor, etc.)-- Bill Dialogue/Text of the commercials--Anna N.

AT&T Advertisement: Audience and Approach  Our inspiration came from our enjoyment of the new AT&T advertising campaign, particularly the BFF Jill commercial. From this interest, we located three commercials from the new campaign, each featuring a different AT&T product, and a sampling of an advertising campaign from 1993. We analyze each of the commercials for text, tone, camera usage, soundtrack, and particpants in the commercial. We chose these elements in an attempt to ascertain the target audience for each commercial and to compare the approaches used to connect with and to entice the intended audience to purchase AT&T products. We originally hypothesized that the target audience would be different for each of the commercials and that humor would be the primary approach used.

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From the text, the commercial is aimed at families with adolescent children who have limited plans and are constantly subject to overage fees. The mother’s use of English would be considered Standard English, while the daughter speaks only in text-speak, and each of her text-speak statements end with the up-pitch that indicates a question, but is commonly associated with Valley Girls and the youth of America. (Could it indicate uncertainty with what they are saying?) The mother, in an effort to make her child understand the situation or to appear “hip,” moves to text-speak at the end of her last sentence. Camera angles throughout the commercial accentuate the dynamic of the mother-child relationship. The camera looks up at the mother adding to her position of power. Likewise, the daughter is always looked down upon by the camera taking power from her. The daughter also has tight shots on her face to emphasize the emotion of her dialogue. After the first frame, the daughter always appears in wide shots with her mother reinforcing the relationship and providing context for the power structure of the relationship. The pace of the commercial is very quick connecting to the text-speak in the daughter's opening dialogue and highlighting the speed at which an AT&T customer can communicate when using text messages. The pace slows as the mother struggles to communicate with her daughter and leads to the introduction of the company logo and tagline. Movement in the graphics keeps the attention of the viewer and draws the eye away from the fine print and disclaimers. “My BFF Jill” commercial also has no music for a realistic effect except for the ending which uses a light and slightly upbeat instrumental music that includes the phrase “your world” highlighting the tagline. The music is an attempt to help the message that text is associated with youth and that AT&T will help families with adolescent children make it without the high payments. Humor in this commercial helps it appeal to all audiences, not just the apparent target audience. When the announcer comes in, he too is using text-speak. The unlimited texting option is “just $5 more a month” indicates that the cost should be considered minimal, though the unlimited option costs $5 per line per month. The addition of the free LG phone offer only sweetens the deal, though the fine print states that you have to pay for the phone, then send in a mail-in rebate to receive a refund, which will be sent up to 60 days later in the form of a debit card that may only be used for the purchase of AT&T products.Then, to accept this offer, you must obligate yourself to a 2-year contract with AT&T. The words “the new AT&T” indicate that the company has gone through a dramatic change and is significantly improved. The “your world” statement implies that communication technology is an integral part of the modern world and that AT&T specifically should be made a part of your world.However, the use of a white, middle-class family makes me question exactly whose world they are claiming to be.

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This commercial features an average Caucasian American functional family. Two parents and two teenaged boys chat while eating cereal for breakfast. The actors are commonly dressed. The mother is wearing modest clothing and modest jewelry. The dad is wearing common clothing with the sleeves rolled up on what appears to be a flannel shirt. His wristwatch has a leather strap, which tells the average viewer that he is just an average guy. The two teenaged boys are clothed in the typical American Eagle/Abercrombie/Old Navy style of clothing. This appears to be a busy working family because they are eating a quick bowl of cereal for breakfast as the mom stands in the kitchen ready to push them out of the house for the day. The mom could possibly be a stay-at-home mom, but if she is she’s a soccer mom for sure!!! The mom’s warning that “someone could use those minutes” indicates a concern about excessiveness. The commercial is edited with quick cuts and no pans. This underscores the pace of the life of this family. The quick pace also accentuates the humorous exchange between the mother and father. Camera angles are used to emphasize the power of the mother at the beginning of the commercial; all angles are up at the mother and down at the father. However, when the father says "lactose intolerant," the camera angles level showing the shift in power from the mother to the father. When the logo and tagline appear, the cuts slow considerably, and the graphic rolls mimicing the product "rollover minutes." The movement in the graphic serves to reinforce the main product being sold as well as keeping the viewers eye on the AT&T logo. The Milky Minutes commercial has no music to provide a more realistic setting. The mood is darkly domesticated with a slight tension in the air. The frustration the father feels when he soils the clicking minutes is reflected in his wife’s response. She forcefully reminds him to be thankful for his blessings. That, in fact, her sister would gladly take milk soaked minutes. The tone is set as strong and sturdy by virtue of the fact that kitchen is relatively dark and the table, chairs, cabinets, picture frame, and stairs are all wooden. Every visual image represents a depth of family values. The attitude of the father and mother are solid and reflect a definite tone of Americana. The humor is obvious. The joke is in the fact that the needy sister, so starved for rollover minute, would even love to have rollover minutes covered in milk, which she is allergic to.

   Again, we are presented with a white, middle-class family: Mom and Dad and two kids. Their humorous rapport with each other reminds many middle-class people of their own families. The language used here is all Standard English. The repeating of the idea of the wastefulness of not saving the milky minutes indicates that AT&T has the same philosophy and that the company appreciates the economic difficulties faced by the American family. If you are using another company and losing your rollover minutes, a perfectly good “resource” is going to waste at the end of every month. The idea that it is a “Family Talk” plan implies that AT&T is a family-oriented company, which implies that other companies do not cater to or care about families. The announcer’s proclamation “It’s the best value around” explicitly means that you won’t find a better price for the services that are being offered by AT&T. You may add a line for $9.99, which means that it doesn’t matter how big your family is, AT&T can accommodate them. Just as with the BFF commercial, there is an offer for a phone at a discounted rate, and the idea that this phone is “exclusive” makes the consumer think that they may only have such a phone if they get their phone service from AT&T. After you read the fine print, you realize that you have to pay the list price for your “discounted” phone and will only be reimbursed as long as 2 months later with a debit card that can only be applied to AT&T products. You also realize that to accept AT&T’s offer of a discounted phone, you must obligate yourself to 2 years of their phone service and fees for services that go beyond the standard basic service of AT&T wireless plans. media type="youtube" key="vJz_dsubWAU" height="344" width="425"

 This commercial features a young, attractive, dating couple having a casual lunch at a casual outdoor restaurant. The girlfriend has beautiful long blond hair and is applying shiny lipstick to lips that appear to be naturally shiny on their own. The boyfriend is muscular and is wearing hip clothing purchased from either Abercrombie or American Eagle. The girls walking by are beautiful and saunter by while attracting the attention of the handsome boyfriend. One is wearing short-shorts and the other is wearing tight blue jeans. The target audience is the young 20ish college students. The intended message seems to be that all cool people should have an LG Shine phone. The pace of this commerical is much slower than the previous two. The focus tends to be more on the product as well. The commercial integrates the use of the LG shine in a variety of settings, and the phone appears in almost every shot. The camera does not angle above or below the product or the girl but is slightly down on the boy. In the last shot of the girl, the camera tightens on her face to emphasize her disgust at the boy's attention to the passing girls and to underscore the content of her text message. This is the only commercial of the three from the 2008 campaign that we analyzed which contained visual effects. Slow motion camera work was used to draw attention to and to add importance to the two girls who pass by the table. The contrast of the slow-motion and the real time images is used for storytelling purposes. Through the contrast, the audience understands the attraction of the boy to the passing girls even before he watches them walk away in the reflection of his LG Shine. The Mirror Phone commercial clip uses the music more directly to portray a message that is accompanying the actual dialogue and characters’ action. The song [|“Heaven”] off the [|debut album of Warrant] is an 80’s power ballad with lyrics suggesting Heaven (or a place of sheer bliss) “isn’t too far away.” It abruptly stops as the girlfriend sends a text informing him she knows how he uses the mirror phone. As the product and its information are shown to end the commercial, the repetitive verse repeating “heaven,” plays as background music. AT&T is trying to communicate that the phone will bring its owner sheer bliss and a heavenly feeling through these lyrics. This one is set outside, on a sunny day, on a busy street, in the metaphorical endless summer somewhere in Beverly Hills. We all know that the young and the beautiful never grow old and always have the latest cool accoutrements. The bright sunlight permeates the mood as youthful and light hearted. Even the girl does not get mad at the philandering actions her date. Nothing is going to spoil this endless summer supplied by AT&T technology. The tone is carefree and happy. The tone is young and playful. The tone reflects the obvious, that AT&T can put you in the exact position of the existing carefree customers. Almost anyone could find humor in a guy trying to check out lovely voluptuous young girls while his date drones on about inane topics. But, the real laugh is in her catching him in the act.

This commercial is more appealing to a younger audience, since it correlates with a popular TV show, //The Hills//. The featured people are still white, so though the age demographic may have changed, the ethnic focus is the same. The woman talks about having to meet with “all these LA designers,” which indicates the social circles she is meant to appeal to. He pays her no attention while he checks out the pretty girls who walk by. I have a feeling that her message to him, “OMG UR A PIG” relates to their relationship on the show, but the use of text-speak further connects it to a younger audience. As with the “Milky Minutes” commercial, there is an offer for a discounted phone with strings attached. After you read the fine print, you realize that you have to pay the list price for your “discounted” phone and will only be reimbursed as long as 2 months later with a debit card that can only be applied to AT&T products. You also realize that to accept AT&T’s offer of a discounted phone, you must obligate yourself to 2 years of their phone service and fees for services that go beyond the standard basic service of AT&T wireless plans. media type="youtube" key="TZb0avfQme8" height="344" width="425"

The intended audience for each of the four commercials is the middle to upper class consumer. The prevalent actors featured in each of the commercials are working business persons or professionals; possibly with a consistent travel itinerary. The characters featured are dressed nicely, attractive, and happy. Each appears to be either in college or college educated with advanced degrees. The use of “prediction” in these commercials was, I imagine, very effective for the audience of 1993. The use of the clause “You will” sends the message that these predictions will without a doubt come to pass. In fact, many of the innovations that are mentioned have come to pass, and the ones that haven’t are in the foreseeable future. All four of these commercials operate on the basic premise that AT&T will be the company that brings all of the important innovations to America and the world. These commercials actually have some diversity, unlike their modern counterparts, implying that at that time, the company felt like it was catering to all of America, not just the white middle class. Having Tom Selleck as the voice of the commercials was clever, especially since these commercials came out in a lull in his career, approximately 5 years after his role as “Tom” Magnum in //Magnum P.I//, but 3 years before his role on //Friends// as Monica’s boyfriend. But the inclusion of his voiceover adds a familiar element to the ideas that, at that time, were unfamiliar and, most likely, hardly believable. The use of voiceover in this commercial also creates continuity as the viewer is guided through a variety of situations as well as focusing attention on the images being presented. Unlike the 2008 commercial, humor is not used which impacts the viewer's attitude toward the ideas and products being presented. The dialogue and format of the commercials serve to focus the consumer on the company providing these marvelous futuristic technologies rather than the technologies. This is effective because the technology mention in the commercial series was so outlandish to the viewers of 1993. The majority of the shots are wide with a balance of people and products showing the relationship between the products and the people using them. The pace of the commercials is much slower than the 2008 commercials creating a less overwhelming and more comfortable feeling about the technology being presented. Few quick cuts and more pans create a sense of continuity and reemphasize the connection between the happy people in the commercials and the technology that they use. These commercials are still about the common man as shown through the equality in the camera angles. “You Will” commercial clips have a light and cheerful violin and piano type instrumental background. Other instruments are included that give it a futuristic tone instead of a normal modern or old-fashioned symphony sound. This connects to the “You will” aspect that things are changing. These four clips are set anywhere one can imagine, at least in 1993. The things we use as a part of our daily lives were not available at that time. From an office, to, of all things, a credit card reading payphone, to something as archaic as fax communication from a beach, a toll booth pass card, a video phone call, a voice activated security system, a memory chip for medical records, video conferencing from remote places, to movies on demand, to unlimited information availability, AT&T painted a picture promising the use high technology from every facet of on the go people. This ad was set everywhere. The futuristic introductions are almost voyeuristic with dark foreboding and visual angles. The mood is dramatic while building toward a need. The need is, of course, a way AT&T “will” supply you with emotional security and convenience in your future life. The tone reflects an urgency that can only be satiated by the use of AT&T technology. The multitude of images with the background tempo of the music ratchet the tone up to a level of urgency that makes viewers desire AT&T. 1st commercial: The first YOU WILL commercial features a Caucasian attractive business woman, men in suits, a college student, and a traveling Caucasian couple. A faceless business man sends a fax from a lounge chair on a white sandy beach using his notepad computer (this could be you). A studious African-American student reads a virtual book from an on-campus personal computer. A Caucasian couple locates directions using the navigation system. 2nd commercial: The 2nd commercial features a faceless businessman using wireless technology to pay a toll without even stopping at the booth. Two happy, attractive Caucasian women purchase concert tickets at a cash machine. An attractive working business woman is able to perform a virtual tuck-in of her baby from a pay phone. 3rd commercial: The 3rd commercial features a nicely dressed business woman coming home from work to her penthouse sprawl opening her front door using a voice-activated interactive voice recorder. A Caucasian white collar male attends a virtual meeting through teleconferencing from his laptop while walking barefoot through his beach bungalow. A woman receives medical treatment from an educated African-American doctor all because her medical history is embedded on an insurance card she carries in her wallet. 4th commercial: The 4th commercial features 3 male children—two white and one African-American…all settling in to watch a movie on TIVO. The T.V. is a massive plasma with huge leather couches the boys bounce carelessly upon. A bright-eyed and eager African-American student watches a virtual presentation by an educated African-American college student. Final Thoughts: While the actors featured in the ads do not appear to be celebrities, they are attractive, middle to upper class, privileged, college educated or on the way to being, and happy. The target audience is obviously the same. “YOU WILL” is directed toward those “WHO CAN.” <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif"><span style="font-size: 110%; color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif"> Teaching with AT&T Commercials: <span style="color: rgb(8, 8, 8)"> Peruasive writing is a standard addressed in grades 3 to 12 in some form. Varying based upon the age and ability of the students, these commercials can be use to demonstrate effective persuasive and propaganda techniques through the media. In addition, students can learn how, why, and for who the advertisers create commercials. They should consider questions such as: What audience is being targeted and is this the products usual audience or is the company braching out? How does the angle, dress, or people used portray a message to the audience? Is this completely accurate, exagerating or hiding the truth, or out right misleading? This type of discussion and lessons in the classroom connects to critical thinking skills of the students as well. If the youth of today are not taught how to analyze and evainformation through the mass media, then as adults it will be easy targets for scam artist and possibly buy without regards to their finacial situation. Regardless of the writing a student is asked to create, the understanding of audience, tone, and appropriate language is vital to the progression of a student. Analyzing these aspects of commerials help visual learners understand those concepts. Transfering the understanding to readings and their own writings will ultimately be easier for them to identify and use.

Conclusion: <span style="color: rgb(3, 3, 3)"> While all of the commercials are similar in terms of the general audience they work to attract, it is interesting to think about the packaging being offered to each subgroup of the population within the target audience. Consistently, the working middle class families are being offered the cell phone with “extra texting” and “rollover minute” capability. The simpler cell phone commercials are geared toward the working middle class, adolescents, young adults, and the working middle class families. On the other hand, products such as the notepad computer, navigation system, virtual textbooks, teleconferencing, and TiVO are all targeting the upper-middle to wealthy class of college educated white collar individuals and families. This speaks to the extent to which companies go to package and market a particular product. We realize through our research that there is much more than just the product being offered that works to attract the intended audience. Special consideration is given to the minutest details from lighting, to camera angles, attire, music, ethnicity, sex, and age of the actors. Absolutely nothing is left to happenstance when it comes to creating advertising. Some areas for further consideration: • Examining the extent to which companies will go to reach their intended audience…..web-based behavioral advertising, which opens opportunities for discussion about ethics in advertising. • A growing trend in advertising is to target specific subcultures such as the growing Hispanic population in the U.S. (use the linked website to examine AT&T’s approach to such). To neglect to target subcultures would be an injustice to the product and the company. It would be interesting to examine to the process through which companies go to tap such an audience…..thinking in terms of the background of the person hired to take on such a task. This opens up a whole new opportunity in the workforce, which is good news for our up-and-coming students. Are our students prepared for the future in consideration of such information? • Music in Advertising: A powerful tool that could open discussion regarding subliminal messaging in advertising (use the linked websites to support discussion). • Question for consideration: In what ways do advertisers set the trends, and in what ways are they simply following the trends?

<span style="font-size: 110%; color: rgb(246, 37, 35); font-family: Georgia,serif">Music in Advertising Extension: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_in_advertising Wikispace on Music in Advertising http://parlorsongs.com/insearch/vanitymusic/vanitymusic.php History of Music in Advertising http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/electronic-publications/stay-free/archives/15/timeline.html Timeline of Music in Advertising http://adage.com/century/index.html The Advertising Century home page – links to a list of top 10 slogans, top 10 jingles, and top 10 ad icons. Also links to list of top 100 campaigns. http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20030227/songs-stick-in-everyones-head Article from WebMD that addresses the top 10 jingles that get stuck in your head

<span style="font-size: 110%; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-family: Georgia,serif">Link to AT&T Milestones in History: AT&T History http://www.corp.att.com/history/milestone_1885.html

<span style="font-size: 120%; font-family: Georgia,serif"><span style="color: rgb(246, 54, 49)">The latest trend of behavioral advertising....tracking individual internet use and patterns: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Internet Advertising http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2328070,00.asp Web-based Behavioral Advertising http://ivebeenmugged.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/09/att-promises-to-do-behavioral-advertising-the-right-way.html Behavioral Advertising http://www.switched.com/2008/08/15/atandt-would-like-to-track-your-web-use-for-advertising/ <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 233)"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 233)"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif"><span style="color: rgb(3, 3, 3); font-family: Georgia,serif"><span style="color: rgb(18, 8, 17)"> <span style="font-size: 120%; color: rgb(248, 25, 22); font-family: Georgia,serif">Tapping the multicultural market: <span style="font-size: 110%; font-family: Georgia,serif">Multicultural Advertising http://www.thinkmulticultural.com/2007/09/27/att-in-the-hispanic-market/