True CANADIAN

So, I'm not going to lie, the Molson Canadian commercials hit home every time I see them on TV (and the rare occasions I spend an hour or so looking at all the different ones on youtube). However, there was one commercial, one miraculous day during the olympics while working at the Molson Canadian Hockey House, that gave me goosebumps that have lasted the test of time.

"We know we have the best backyard in the world, and we get out on it and play whenever we get the chance". In just one sentence, Molson has been able to hit on two main points that make Canadians relate. 1) Patriotism again. I love Canada, and I brag about having the best landscape in the world. You were lying if you didn't at least believe this to some extent. But the second, the knockout punch if you will, the lifestyle that all Canadians love. There is a reason there is the lumberjack stereotype, or the toothless hockey player. Not to over generalize, but Canadians love the outdoors. I remember as a kid my summers always consisted of Camping and Hiking, and my winters always consisted of playing hockey/going skating on a frozen lake. Going snowboarding. This is not a rare thing for a child growing up in Canada to experience. In fact its the opposite, it's extremely common. Growing up loving the outdoors and the beautiful landscape, its hard not to consider it the Canadian Way, or a lifestyle.

Molson could have just put that statement in and I would have been hooked. However, the rest of the commercial has scenes of what people have grown up with. Frozen lake ice-hockey, camping, cottaging and rolling mountains.

MAC Vs PC: An ever growing rival.

Ah, the play on peoples emotional attachment to their computers. This is probably one of the best ways Apple, the creator of the Mac, could have advertised their computer to gain advantage over their main competitor PC. They do this by taking things that people would originally see as similarities between the two computer processing systems and change them to large differences. By differentiating their products, they can they make points to prove that a Mac is superior. Not only do their commercials compare the differences between macs and PCs but MAC also appeals to the younger demographic by using a Justin Long (a movie star) as a MAC and John Hodgman (a less-well known actor who has appeared on only 5 movies in small roles). MAC has chosen to appeal to the younger age group because those are the people buying their own laptops/home computers for the first time and thus less likely to have a preference to either a PC or a MAC.
However, when looking at these commercials, it is not only the differences that MAC is playing off of to create interest in their products. Since I was 16 years old, when I got my first laptop (which was not a MAC, however now I am converted) there was always talk of how MACs were a better computer. This turned from just having a better computer to MAC users becoming fans of the MAC itself. Weird, how that happened, but it did. Almost overnight people using MACs didn't just like them for their user friendliness, but actually got a sense of entitlement from using a their MAC laptop. In an article from Wired.com, Mac Loyalists: Don't Tread On Us, the article states that "mac loyalty is so well-known, its a cliche. Mac users are routinely referred to as Apple's faithful, Mac Zealots, members of the cult of Mac, Appleholics, Macheads, Maccies, Macolytes and Mac Addicts. The biannual Macworld conference is often compared to a religious revival, where Steve Jobs is worshipped like a rockstar or charismatic cult leader" (to read more go to http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/news/2002/12/56575). So here is the question, why have mac users become so obsessed with the Mac itself. As a Mac Lover myself, I could say from personal experience, it is the ease of a mac. The absent fear of getting a computer virus, the longer warrantee policy and the automatic spell checker that I love about my mac, along with the beautiful template that it uses. However, if you ask other mac users they might state different reason. No matter the reason, Apple has picked up of the self-entitled feeling that all mac users have. The idea that their product is superior and will tell all their friends the same. And so came one of the smartest ad campaigns Apple could have ever chosen, play on that superiority and provide true reasons as to why.

Ah The Ease of Marketing Homework

So, here it goes, the first blog post for my Comm 296 homework.
I understand the premise of the whole blogging as homework thing, understanding social media, online advertisement, word of mouth marketing etc. However, blogs are suppose to be free thought, not forced, actually showing people what you think is cool not a "oh no, my first post is due tomorrow let me go onto YouTube and click the first ad I see". That's why I plan on actually following the social conduct of a blog. Yes of course for course credit I will make sure I have the bare minimum to pass the course, however for me this blog is much more.

I, a child of a technological father, have been reading blogs ever since I learnt how to search on google. I find the ever present thoughts of others, what they think are the most important thing for their viewers to see, extremely interesting. Really, all a blog is is a small company if you will, in an ever-expanding market. A tiny fish, in the huge ocean we call the internet. You know your viewers, or at least you are pretty sure what kind of people are reading your blog. After you have figured out your demographic you add information into your blog that would appeal to their lifestyle. Then you add a little bit of whatever vernacular your viewers use, throw in a whole bunch of pictures and BAM you got yourself a pretty successful blog. Hey, maybe at one point your blog will become so popular that people want to start advertising on your blog, and hey now you are getting payed for just typing on your computer, never actually having to leave your own home. It's pretty ingenious if you think about it.

So after that entire speech what am I trying to get at. I am saying that this blog is going to do exactly that. At first obviously the people reading my blog are just going to be the TAs, my classmates and my professor. However, like I said I plan on continuing this little blog past December, and add not only the stuff required for my marketing class, like weekly posts about advertisements, but as well anything else I deem awesome enough for me to spread the world. And hey, who knows, this blog could become as popular as perezhilton.com, however I promise I will not go the avenue of the stars, because really they are just people... who cares?