Advertising (Plain Folks)

In the previous post, we were able to get to know a type of advertising, which was "testimonials." Right now, we're going to deal with another type which is the "plain folks;" one that includes famous personalities acting as if they were just like everyone else, coping with people of lower life standards. Such kinds of ads can be seen including political personalities, or maybe even ones from the world of entertainment (Singers, actors, etc.).

For instance, and in what concerns politics, an advertising campaign once took place in the 1990s in order to encourage people on the consumption of Lebanese products, especially apples. The idea of this campaign was for the Lebanese president to run the country, from village to village, eating one apple from every merchant trying to sell his own products. This campaign, in the publicist's eyes, was a total failure because it didn't really affect the consumers; haters of the president didn't really care if he ate an apple or not. Yet, such an ad shows us how products can sometimes become more demanded when celebrities interfere in advertising them. And what is even more beneficial is when these personalities tend to behave as if they were regular people, allowing us, the audience, to feel more confortable seeing them advertise for things that might matter to us. But of course, a successful ad comes from a well developed concept and a strong team behind it.

And in addition to what has been mentioned above, no one can deny the fact that many famous people were able to attract people's attention by doing charity work all over the world, like adopting children from other countries and helping ill or poor people. An example to that would be Angelina Jolie who has adopted more than one kid, and the Queen of Jordan who never stops doing charity work and is always present among the citizens of her country.

Of course, plain folks don't always work for we can't deny that the personality present in the ad has supporters and opponents. This is why, the agency working on the ad has to find a clever strategy in order to succeed in pleasing both sides, or at least, get done with the campaign with least number of opposers.

Posted by (E.M.)