Catherine post #6

I was really excited to see a branding agency because I have an interest in that kind of work. I liked that Landor has many global offices, even one in Singapore where I was raised. Office design always plays a huge part in whether or not I like a company. I think the interior design shows the company culture and also influences the office dynamics. I liked Landor’s décor, it seemed clean and cosy – like a place I could potentially work at. Although there aren’t clean cut lines between different agencies, I like that the work varies from client to client and agency to agency. I am unsure if I prefer advertising or branding because the results of advertising seems more measurable by each campaign but branding projects seem to tackle the bigger picture which I like as well. I was moved by the videos we watched and certainly hope to create something that would connect emotionally with the target audience.

Honest Slogans Poke Fun At Brands

I thought this article and the slogans in it were really funny. That made me think about our class at Landor. Brands try so hard to brand themselves a certain way, evoke emotions and tell a story. However, branding is the positioning a brand has in the consumer's head and sometimes a set image is hard to change or the image sticks in consumer heads differently. Although I think Victoria's Secret has great branding, the slogan above is very true as well. The brand is controversial for promoting an ideal and unattainable image of women. They get a lot of bad news for it but that also generates tons of revenue for them. The insecurity of women leads to desires and aspirations to be like the VS angels and then leads belief of the advertising they get and then to the purchase of their products. The path may not be linear but it certainly exists.

The Sexist Video You’ll Watch All Year

I wrote about the behind the scenes photos for this holiday commercial shoot a few weeks ago. Now the behind the scenes video and interview video is up! Cosmopolitan dubbed it “The Sexist Video You’ll Watch All Year”, I beg to differ but let’s not go there. The models did not talk about themselves much during the video. They were constantly throwing in lines about how wonderful the bras were, how the darker colors for winter were so sexy etc. This behind the scenes video is also another form of advertisement for the company. Victoria’s Secret definitely profits a lot during the holiday season so it is important to generate the hype for its collection and get people to start thinking about gifting already. The “Very Sexy” collection is always the one that the brand focuses on for most of its commercials because the name is catchy and symbolizes the brand’s essence. The other lines like “Body” or “Incredible” seem to be left behind. The Holiday Collection is actually not anything new but a series put together by products from different lines that carry Holiday appropriate colors. That way, VS gets to market many different lines together to encourage browsing through all of those to select the best gifts.