Advertising Assignment Toys R Us Ad PDF

lOMoARcPSD|10160580 Assignment #3 - Undressing Toys R Us Ad Advertising as a Cultural Force (Southern Methodist University) Scan to open on Studocu Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university Downloaded by MaryAnne Curry Shults ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|10160580 1...

lOMoARcPSD|10160580 Assignment #3 - Undressing Toys R Us Ad Advertising as a Cultural Force (Southern Methodist University) Scan to open on Studocu Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university Downloaded by MaryAnne Curry Shults ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|10160580 1 Running head: Undressing The Great Speech Undressing the Toys “R” Us Ad The Great Speech Savannah Wilkinson Dr La Ferle Southern Methodist University Downloaded by MaryAnne Curry Shults ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|10160580 2 Running head: Undressing The Great Speech Research indicates clearly that advertising exerts substantial influence on children's attitudes and behaviors. Although many studies have shown that advertising can negatively influence children psychologically and developmentally, it is also important to note that advertising can serve a useful purpose for children. Advertising to children may help socialise them as consumers and inform them about products. Due to the impact advertising has on children it is important to analyse the ads that they are watching to ensure that negative consequences are limited. This report will analyse an advertisement that was directed towards children. The ad was a part of the “Today we play” campaign for Toys “R” Us that was launched by “The Great Speech” Ad encouraging kids to keep playing (Appendix A). The report will undress this advertisement looking at the 3 aspects presented in the Frith (1998) article – Undressing the Ad: Reading Culture in Advertising. According to Frith (1998) the surface meaning of an ad addresses “the overall impression that a reader might get from quickly studying the advertisement”. This can be measured by listing the objects, people, and headlines within that ad. For The Great Speech the surface meaning is listed here: 3 children – 2 girls, 1 boy; skateboard; helmet; stairs in home; beanbags; more children; kid’s toys; kid’s drawings; trunk of toys; giraffe stuffed animal; other stuffed animals; violin; juice box; hockey stick; aero plane toy; Toys “R” Us logo; “today we play” subheading. These objects, people, and headlines allows the viewer to create an initial impression of the advertisement. The second aspect to analysis according to Frith (1998) is the Advertiser’s Intended Meaning (AIM). This aspect refers to the “sales message”, strategy or expected meaning that the advertisers is trying to get across. The Today We Play campaign was created to present the brand, Toys “R” Us, as the leading motivator in the drive to “set play free” for all children. The Great Speech Ad was developed out of the insights found by researchers that it comes to play time kids today are over-scheduled and over-structured and not just free to play. Therefore, the main AIM is that whether it’s opening some of the hottest toys at their stores, making a spaceship out of a box, or tossing a football, Toys “R” Us is aware of the importance of play in children’s development and that their stores offer opportunities for kids to enjoy the freedom of play. The ad is an attempt to inspire kids to captivate their power so that they can continue to play and not do the “boring” things that parents want them to do like lessons, practices or play dates. Ultimately, it is making children believe that they should never take “no” for an answer when it comes to playing. Another AIM would be the association between the emotions of fun, laughter, and friendship and the Toy “R” Us brand. This association is simulated by the use of humour in the Ad, by the opening sentence “playing is the most fun thing in the whole universe” and by using multiple children gathering together - the ad creates the unspoken association “buy toys from us and you will have fun with all your friends”. There may be other meanings that we take from the ad, however for this aspect, AIM, the only important meanings are those that the advertisers intend for the viewer to take on, these are always going to be positive towards the advertised brand. Conversely, the next aspect presented by Frith (1998) is the Cultural or Ideological Meaning. This aspect examines the underlying societal beliefs that impact the way ad images, themes or messages are conveyed. This is important since we understand ads by relating them to our culture and shared belief systems within society. Firstly, the most predominant cultural belief that is projected within The Great Speech is the belief that parents hold power/authority over children. Even though we live within the classical liberal idea system the parent-child relationship holds truer to the authority worldview. Due to this dynamic between parent and child, children are often toted around between school, practices and play dates without regard for the child’s wants. Within the classical liberal model parents are in control of the child’s self-interest (egoism) and children are not viewed as rational thinkers (intellectualism). The Downloaded by MaryAnne Curry Shults ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|10160580 3 Running head: Undressing The Great Speech social norm is for parents to help children to mature, grow, and learn and this is done by packing a child’s schedule with activities that positively impact development and learning; for example, they take their kids to practice so that they can develop skills for success, like competitive spirit. This ad looks to go against this societal belief and give the power back to the child. Advertisers view children as a lucrative market because they’re a large group, a blank slate and have access to disposable income. Therefore, by encouraging children to become independent rational thinkers’ advertisers will be able to manipulate (market power) or provide information for informed decision making (market competition). Another societal belief is that children need to go to study and learn for all their developmental years. The shared belief is that education entails more than just learning. Education is a precondition for political progress, democracy, and social justice. The Great Speech uses humour to degrade the position of lessons and school and societal beliefs would state that children are not able to comprehend the satire used in this ad and therefore may begin to believe school is unnecessary. This brings up the next aspect of undressing an advertisement which is to analyse the unintended consequences or problems of the ad. Initially, it is important to understand that when advertising to children ad agencies should be socially responsible; advertisers should look to limit unintended consequences and find opportunities to do good for society. Firstly, as mentioned previously, the ad is insinuating that lessons, school, practices and play dates are not necessary and that playing is the only essential need in a kid’s life. The ad is undermining parents’ authority, knowledge, and decisions. According to cultivation theory, if children are continuously shown media where kids can go against their parents, make their own decisions regardless of adult supervision and the message that “play is not over until I say it is over”, children will begin to cultivate a belief that parents do not have authority and there is no hierarchy. This is because repeated exposure to images/messages in media cultivates our view of reality accordingly. Additionally, with respect to the social learning theory the observation of the specific behaviours mentioned previously, children will learn that disobedience and rebelling is rewarded with play time, and therefore will model it. The parent- child relationship will be completely altered. This is an unintended consequence because with this parent – child dynamic changing it would mean that children no longer have access to a disposable income through their parents and therefore consumption by children will decrease. Thus, advertisers short term benefit of giving children their power and encouraging them to be independent decision makers will actually have long term consequences which will affect their profits. After analysing these areas of the advertisement, we can now determine how effective the ad was. With regards to the entire Today we play campaign, it would have been effective if Toys “R” Us launched the campaign with specific unique selling points (USP) that Toys “R” Us were developing. The heart of what sets your product or service apart from the competition is your USP. By having a unique aspect, a brand can fill a space other brand in the category are not addressing. Since, the campaign did not present a USP Toys “R” Us is presented no differently in comparison to not only to smaller, local toy stores but also places like Target, Walmart, and Costco. Additionally, The Great Speech was developed to inspire children to play with the toys that are sold at the Toys “R” Us stores however the ad was released during 2017 whereby the company missed a huge technological change. Knowing who your consumers are—and who they aren't—and understanding what they want, and need is critical to retail success. Toys “R” Us used a core message that their key customers, children, spend almost all their time learning and playing but missed out on a key change— by the time the campaign launched, children were living their lives on screens. Therefore, the ad and the campaign were set up for failure in terms of moving market shares. On the other hand, the use of young children is effective in building a relationship with consumers as kids Downloaded by MaryAnne Curry Shults ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|10160580 4 Running head: Undressing The Great Speech watching can identify and connect with those on the screen. The cast chosen was very diverse and inclusive so that all children can relate and identify. Furthermore, Toys “R” Us knew that when young children play, it helps progress child development. However, with increasingly busy schedules filled with practices and other structured activities, children are losing valuable play time. The Great Speech commercial echoes this message that Toys “R” Us is “the world’s greatest toy store as well as the “champions of play”, and the ad shows an energised group of kids rallying to bring playtime back. This is an attention-grabbing commercial that helps the ad stand out from the endless media that we are presented with. We've grown desensitized to repetitious messaging to the point that we'll tune out after three seconds. The Great Speech was able to capture the audience’s attention immediately as the audience is eager to know the outcome of the ad. Finally, there are some effective and ineffective aspects of this advertisement but one thing that I would change is using a practical example of the busy schedules rather than constant speech. This change would utilising the same message but help make the ad more relevant to young consumers. The use of rallying/activism aspect of this advertisement could be lost on children. Therefore, having children actively engaging in these packed schedules and structured activities whilst complaining that they would rather be playing would be easier for kids to comprehend. By simplifying the ad and by clearly and explicitly showing what Toys “R” Us means by packed schedules of structured activities will help children understand the problem and associate toys/playing with how to fix said problem. This change would make it clear that kids do not like the fact that recess is cancelled, playdates are scheduled, games are called “learning activities,” and sports are over-competitive so that the intended message that Toys “R” Us is the leading motivator in the drive to “set play free” for all children is predominant. By making this change it will eliminate the negative unintended consequences related to the parent- child relationship as the ad will not directly undermine the parents’ authority or decisions. This would help Toys “R” Us keep their number one consumer happy and maintain their access to parents’ disposable income. Downloaded by MaryAnne Curry Shults ([email protected]) lOMoARcPSD|10160580 5 Running head: Undressing The Great Speech Appendix A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI5uc8-SYBo&feature=emb_logo Downloaded by MaryAnne Curry Shults ([email protected])