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Higher National Diploma in Business
BTEC National Diploma in Business
Unit Title: ADVERTISING & PROMOTION
Unit Tutor: mgr Ewa Dratwa
Assignment 1
Statement of authenticity:
I certify that the work submitted for this assignment is my own. Where the work of others has been used to support my work then credit has been acknowledged.
Student’s signature: ................................... Date: ................................
Student Name: Piotr Półtorak
Group Code: Amhnd02nd01
Date: November 20th 2009
· Introduction
When I sat down and tried to search my memory for the worst ad that I could remember, I was deeply disappointed about the lack of any suitable results. One billboard that was really annoying for me actually transferred into a good one after I read some professional opinions on it. As I don’t watch any television and barely read any press, I set to roam the vast spaces of the internet, and as a result, I have achieved my goal. The ad that I will describe is a political TV commercial for Mike Huckabee, a presidential candidate in the 2008 election in the United States.
· Description
The ad “What Really Matters” is quite simple – 31 seconds, one-shot. It shows senator Huckabee sitting in a nice, warm room filled with Christmas spirit (there’s a Christmas tree behind him and “Silent Night” is used as the musical background), talking about the true meaning of christmas. He starts off by saying how he understands peoples’ annoyance with the overflow of political ads. He then moves on to say that the family is the most important factor in our lives and how it is important to celebrate the birth of Christ. He finishes off with some typical Christmas wishes and a smile.
· Opinion
So, Huckabee tries to convince potential voters, that he is somewhat different from other candidates, that he understands how the voter feels and that the our candidate is 100% American and religious.
The ad was made public 10 days before Christmas on both TV and Youtube.
So, let’s just think here for a second – a presidential candidate describes how a person can be worn out by the political ads and how nice it is to pull aside from that to focus on the holidays. In a political ad? Are you serious? How can one make such a idiotic move? I can understand how Huckabee wanted to portray himself as a “cool” guy, but this is an epic failure! If this was an ad for hypocrisy, it would do the justice fairly well – but as a promotion for a white-house wannabe? Complete absurd. Besides, who in America wishes everybody Merry Christmas and in addition to it talks about Christ? Was Huckabee that ignorant of the members of other religions or did he want to win votes of white Christians? To wrap it up, this is a really ironic and bad advertisement.
Sources
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xn7uSHtkuA&feature=player_embedded
Contact:
Piotr Półtorak *b3nny@wp.pl ( 781-874-653
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