What is ... Mimicry in Advertisement?



          However embarrassing it may be to admit this, I am a huge fan of the game show Jeopardy, and any night I am available to watch it, you can catch me answering the questions right along with the contestants. But the more I watch Jeopardy the more I notice the sneaky ways that one advertiser specifically has wriggled its way into avid watchers' minds: mimicry. During the commercial breaks on the show, Jeopardy's partner, I'm assuming seeing they're their main advertiser, Geico will play ads perfectly based on the game show, as linked below. Throughout the breaks, there will be about 5-second shots of the contestants thrown in amongst the commercials, there to grab the watchers attention to stay hooked on their screen and keep viewing. While this is a sneaky way on Jeopardy's behalf to get viewers to watch all advertisements, Geico uses a similar tactic by disguising their advertisements like the show is back on, grabbing viewers' attention and therefore tricking them into watching their advertisement. It's almost a reversed Madison and Vine situation, where instead of a company or product being slipped into a movie or show, a company is slyly incorporating the show into its ads. I have to admit that it is quite a tricky move and I've been caught more than once by these ads, seeing the familiar colors and the beginning of a clue being delivered. But the more I'm caught by it the more immune I get.
        I suppose that this displays the exact reason why companies are even using these types of tactics in the first place. As was delivered in Frontline's documentary "The Persuaders," in order to break through the "clutter" of advertisements circling around us, companies try to find creative and original ways to trap consumers. While I wouldn't necessarily consider what Jeopardy and Geico are doing an example of guerrilla advertising, it is extremely sneaky and definitely an unused way to advertise seeing as I've never encountered it besides on Jeopardy.
        While it is frustrating to be fooled by a company, especially one that I, a minor, would not have much interest in, through their advertising, I have to hand it to Geico that I am quite impressed by the originality of their method. At least for now, it is doing its job in breaking through the "clutter."

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/wRQS/geico-jeopardy-15-minutes

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2018 at 8:14 PM

    I used to watch Jeopardy and I agree that it is one of the most entertaining game shows. Nevertheless, Geico partnering with Jeopardy is a smart advertising tactic, because since I would think that the majority of the game show’s viewers are adults, Geico is appealing directly to their target audience.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Modern Mook

Image
            A topic discussed in the documentary "Merchants of Cool" by Frontline is the concept of the "mook," or a male entertainment figure who is crude, obnoxious, and disgusting. In class, we discussed briefly how Logan Paul and Jake Paul, the YouTube sensation brothers pictured above, are perfect examples of the "mook" character. However, there are definite differences between them and the mooks in the documentary, and that displays an evolution in what is focused on in male-targeted entertainment.            In "Merchants of Cool" there were clips from various television shows depicting the traditional "mook." In all of them, there was something inherently disgusting. One, in particular, displayed a man snorkeling in human excrement. This appeal to the average person's gag reflex is not something commonly found in today's media if we're using the Paul brothers' videos as a base. Do they follow the guidelines o...
Read more

Millenial Distraction?

Image
          As I, and I'm sure all of my peers, have experienced before, one of the biggest complaints from our parents and just general older people in our lives is that the Millennial and Generation Z kids are constantly on their phones and computers, cycling through all the pointless media that is, according to them, making us brain dead. While there is truth in their statements, and I have to agree that it is disconcerting just how much time I and all my peers spend on our various devices, I can't help but excuse myself at least a little bit knowing the motive behind it. For me at least I think that part of the reason I spend so much time wrapping myself in online entertainment is that it just completely takes my mind off of all of the messed up parts of my world. We're constantly surrounded by pressures from our teachers and parents and even our own expectations, infuriating and disappointing news stories, problems in our friend groups, and anger at the ...
Read more

Disabling Ads: Devious Yet Possibly Hopeful

Image
          A part of advertising I have long thought unconventional and captivating is the ability, on some platforms, to pay to disable advertisements. This has become an especially amplified topic to me as I spend more and more of my time listening to music on the app Spotify. While there are definitely many other platforms that also offer upgraded versions of their application that remove ads at a monthly cost, Spotify adds another way of ad disablement to the media world, and it is this method that really grabs my attention. For people that have not used Spotify before, a common occurrence for those without Spotify Premium is the interruption of your music streaming to present the screen display and audio pictured above. Rather than just bombarding you with commercials, you have the option to watch what they call a "short video" in order to get 30 minutes of ad-free music streaming. While I am not going to delve into it in this blog post, it is interesti...
Read more