{"id":9451,"date":"2011-07-29T11:15:38","date_gmt":"2011-07-29T11:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/e-commerce\/anthropomorphized_ads_go_mainstream.html"},"modified":"2011-07-29T11:15:38","modified_gmt":"2011-07-29T11:15:38","slug":"anthropomorphized-ads-go-mainstream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/technology\/anthropomorphized-ads-go-mainstream.html","title":{"rendered":"Anthropomorphized Ads Go Mainstream."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FxOIebkmrqs\" width=\"425\" height=\"349\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Anthropomorphism or assigning human characteristics to nonhuman <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/uploads\/george-costanza.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"mt-image-right\" style=\"float: right; margin: 0 0 20px 20px;\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/assets_c\/2011\/07\/george-costanza-thumb-256x369-9646.jpg\" alt=\"george-costanza.jpg\" width=\"100\" height=\"145\" \/><\/a>objects is alive and well in the world of advertising. Perhaps the best example of advertisements which embody this technique are of the &ldquo;Mac Vs. PC&rdquo; variety where the Mac character is young and hip and the PC is cross between Bill Gates and Seinfeld&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/George_Costanza\">George Costanza<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Back in 2007, voicemail transcription service PhoneTag, formerly SimulScribe <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/unified-communications\/simulscribe-real-visual-voicemail.html\">put out an<\/a> anthropomorphized video as well which is a take-off on Apple&rsquo;s ads.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YVAX5OtbllU\" width=\"425\" height=\"349\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>More recently, FreePress.net <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/att\/will-att-t-mobile-merger-slow-wireless-innovation.html\">put out<\/a> a series of anthropomorphized videos trying to build public support for blocking the merger of AT&#038;T and T-Mobile.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DjjUttmv9CM\" width=\"425\" height=\"349\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And this week, Microsoft put out an ad attacking Gmail. In this production an &ldquo;evil&rdquo; mailman who doesn&rsquo;t actually look evil &ndash; acts like it as he actively rummages through people&rsquo;s mail and embarrasses them.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OrkAuwaoFGg\" width=\"425\" height=\"349\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This ad actually reminds me of another one from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.consumerwatchdog.org\/\">consumerwatchdog<\/a> a while back, portraying Eric Schmidt as an evil ice cream man selling to kids while he scans their information and secrets.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ouof1OzhL8k\" width=\"425\" height=\"349\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>What we are seeing is the mainstreaming of using video to position your opponents and competitors. This is a brave new world and every company is a potential target. The days of being in full control of your corporate image are obviously over and moreover, every company has to examine utilizing such a strategy or at least being ready to defend against it if needed.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, this is yet another trend which Apple will get the credit for starting like minimalistic computer designs, tablets and the consumerization of IT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anthropomorphism or assigning human characteristics to nonhuman objects is alive and well in the world of advertising. Perhaps the best example of advertisements which embody this technique are of the &ldquo;Mac Vs. PC&rdquo; variety where the Mac character is young and hip and the PC is cross between Bill Gates and Seinfeld&#8217;s George Costanza. Back<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[158,168,163,188,118,177,175],"tags":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9451"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}