There Aint no Bugs on Me!

Sex. The major motivator used by advertising companies to sell products. Sell, sell sell. They accentuate the features of the female body such as her breast, curves, eyes, legs and ass. They use these attributes to make you think if you invest in this product this woman will have sex with you. But what about wholesome, good-natured commercials that don’t need to resort to these petty tactics to sell good products, what ideas do they try and sell? Well when selling such things as dog products, it would not only be a bad idea to use sex to sell, it would be extraordinarily awkward to watch. K-9 Advantix uses its consumer as a way to convince the people to buy. And it uses other ideas than typically used to sell their product.

This advertisement is a good balance of a lot of ideas. First of all they use this idea of comparing their product to the “other guys”. In this case they are comparing their product, K9 Advantix, to they “other guys”, Frontline Plus. Although Frontline Plus may be an excellent product they go further and add more things that their product defends against and even cures. They point out that K9 Advantix not only prevents getting fleas and ticks but also mosquitoes and even cures or gets rid of them if they do happen to get to your dog before you are able to protect your dog. Furthermore they even add other dogs to demonstrate the fact that their product is better by adding dogs that are always scratching themselves. Thus implying that Frontline or other products similar to it just don’t work at all. This strategy I used very often with products like this and is very effective in that it provides information. Through information they use they give you a biased opinion and a one sided view of the truth, even though there could be certain things that are better about the other product. But this is just a simple techniques used in the very beginning of ad displaying.

Another idea used in this advertisement is expressed by the use of the dog as the consumer. The mere fact that the dog is seen as the one who is “buying” this product is a new idea that hasn’t been used to frequently. The dog talks or sings as if he personally bought the product and is very happy with it. He’s almost rubbing it in when he walks past the dogs that clearly aren’t using K9 Advantix. They use this idea of a cute puppy to sell their product. Of course this product is for dogs but they don’t use a Doberman or a Rottweiler or even a full-grown Golden Retriever. They use a cute adorable little puppy that is easily seen as the cutest type of puppy by many. They almost use the same ideas that other commercials use when they use sex to sell. They are using this cute puppy to sort of say. If you get K9 Advantix not only will your dog be tick, flea, and mosquito free but he will also be really adorable. In this ad the use of a jingle is also used. A song, or beat and rhythm, is used to sell a product. Jingles can be a very effective way of selling a product because if it is catchy enough it’ll get stuck in your head and you not only get it in your head you can get it stuck in other people’s heads. A jingle entrances the audience into a state of happiness in a way to hook you into a product and you even want to sing along to it. Jingles not only tell you about the product they hypnotize you.

After viewing this advertisement of a type of kitty litter. I see how animals or not the person actually buying the product can be used to sell a product. By using the subject that is actually using the product such as a dog or a cat you can create this idea of happiness for the subject you are buying for. You may not want your cat “throwing a party” in your house but to know that if they were smart enough o pull something off like that they could do it without you noticing because your kitty litter stays so fresh. You aren’t really selling the product anymore but the idea of making your pet as happy as you can or giving it the best product for your animal or pet.

Although advertisements are set to sell a product doesn’t mean they set out to simply sell products. Advertisements are going further and selling ideas through means that make you believe and want to invest in this product. Using such things as cute animals or ideas of being the best or things as ridiculous as your cat throwing a cat party are simple ideas that convince you to invest n these products and give your animal the best because they use techniques of giving you the point of view of your pet. Ideas are necessary to be sold to sell products. Sell an idea and you sell your product. Simple, right?

Eric Adolphson
David