Ineffective Advertisement Campaign, Essay Example

The Calvin Klein’s 1995 advertisement was an effective advertisement campaign as it depicted morally inappropriate portrays. The advertisement showed pictures of teenage models wearing the apparel by the designer, but the models posed while inappropriately dressed. The advertisement included pictures of semi naked and pornographic models. The advertisement also run a 30 second video of teenage models shot in an environment that resembled a pornographic scene. The interviewee of the teenagers was by an adult hidden away from the camera (Teresa 12). The advertisements were suggestive and raised controversy over this issue. The advertisement posed annoying due to the age of some models in the photos and video. The position was that the teenagers in the photos were too young to pose in such a manner. The advertisement unofficially branded “sex sells” campaign was a failure in respect to the desired results. The advertisements intended to be appealing and liked by many individuals, but it raised dislike and contempt among the audience of these advertisements. The consideration of ineffectiveness reflected by the negative publicity sparkled by the advertisement and the consequential taunting of the companies public image. The negative effects from the advertisements created a false impression among the consumers   of the company, and this resulted in the development of disgust and dislike of the companies’ products and the company itself.

In respect to the controversy created by these advertisements individuals and organizations openly condemned these advertisements which lead to some stores refusing to stock the clothes (Teresa 12). These stores requested the company to stop running the advertisements or the stores would stop selling the apparel from Calvin Klein. As a result of these threats by the stores, the expected sales by the company subsequently faced a decline as a result of these advertisements.  The controversy mounted by the advertisements affected the appeal of the companies’ products and the general perception of the company. The controversy created negative publicity for the company and reduced the effectiveness of the advertisement campaigns. The intended aim of the advertisements hurdled by the negative publicity generated by the suggestive advertisement and resulted in the reconsideration of the advertisement by the company in regard to the negative publicity. The FBNI also launched an investigation into the company in regard to child pornography due to these advertisements. The duration the company took before taking down the advertisements was also untimely. Lee and Carla stated that the appropriate time to take down the advertisements would have been before the negative publicity gained a lot of heat (45). The company took down the advertisements when the damage had been done already and the companies’ image tainted.  Although the advertisement did not considerably affect the companies’ position or sales, the desired goal of the advertisement unattained; therefore, the advertisement was ineffective. The advertisement meant to assist the company open up to international markets did not match up to these expectations and subsequently tainted their companies’ name.

The target audiences of the advertisement were teenagers. The company aimed to sell the product line to the teenagers in the American society. The advertisement desired to improve on the companies’ publicity among the teenagers, as well as increase the company sales by capturing the loyalty of teenagers and providing them with apparel as per their tastes and preferences (Marsh 67).  Although the target audience was the right one in all aspects of the desired aim of the advertisement, the execution of the advertisement is what compromised the otherwise perfect audience. The consumers of the apparel aimed by the advertisement were teenagers, so using teenage models would be a perfect choice of running an advertisement aimed at attaining the desired results if the execution was perfect. The target population who in this case were the teenagers liked the advertisements regardless of the inappropriateness attached to these advertisements (Lee & Carla 68).  The advertisements were appealing to the target audience showing that the choice of presentation chosen by the company was appealing to the target audience. Although the parents and other organization did not find the advertisements appealing the target audience showed agreement with the concept employed by the advertisement. The presentation of the advertisement watered down the appeal of the advertisement and, therefore, diminished its effect on the desired audience.

The creative execution employed by the company was to present the models in the most appealing manner with the best eye catching scenario to increase the publicity of the advertised apparel line. The approach developed by the company in the execution of the advertisement aimed at making the advertisement reach out to the desired audience within the society as well as an appeal to them. The aim of the advertisement being to develop the state of affairs of the company, the company considered the approach taken by the advertisement as a well-developed advertisement strategy aimed at gaining the most out of the publicity (Teresa 10). Although the target audience liked the concept employed by the advertisement and the advertisement received the desired reception by the target audience it had its downside. The advertisement, therefore, reached the target audience in an effective manner and presentation.  However, the advertisement raised questions on morality and appropriateness of the advertisement. It is, therefore, imperative to note that the desired outcome of the advertisement overshadowed by the consideration of inappropriateness. This position changed the short-lived appeal by the advertisement to the target audience. The inappropriateness outlived the initial appeal on the target audience.

The media strategy developed by the company in regard to that the advertisement was to use television advertisement spaces for the advertisement video and magazines for pictures of the product. In regard to effective advertisement, the media distribution channels used by the company were appropriate and ensured that the target audiences reached in the most efficient manner. In regard to the inappropriateness presented in the advertisements, some advertisers declined to run the advertisements. Some of the stores threatened to exclude the Calvin Klein line from their stores in respect to the inappropriate advertisement techniques employed by the company. The choice of media used in the advertisement further aggravated the inappropriate context of the advertisements and even lead to demonstrations by members of the public. Although the choice of media to run the advertisement was appropriate in consideration of the desired results of the advertisement, it also made the situation worse as the media channels used reached out to a wide population. In employing the correct media channels, top run the advertisement the company achieved its desired goal in terms of media publicity but the wrong context. The company desired the advertisement media chosen to facilitate the improvement of the companies’ image, but it went against this aim and resulted in the negative publicity attained by the advertisements.

The recommended solutions to the shortcomings of the advertisement can be addressed by changing the context of presenting the advertisement and incorporating a more acceptable outlay for the advertisement. The desired advertisement aimed at attaining popularity among the teenage population which was the target of the advertisement (Kim 78).  Putting into consideration the fact that the advertisement as it was appealing to these teenagers it is necessary to change the outlay of the advertisement in consideration to appeal to the recommended audience. The advertisement had one significant flaw in its presentation and with the restructuring of the advertisement to eliminate the flaw and gain positive publicity the desired results of the advertisement are achievable (Marsh 27). The upside of the advertisement, however, is its appeal to the target population.  The advertisement captured the attention of teenagers, and I the solution to an appropriate advertisement the target audience should be regarded a lot of priority.

The recommended solution to the ineffective advertisement should capture the audience like the initial one. It is also essential to consider retaining the teenage models in the subsequent advertisement as the appeal of the advertisement improves with the use of the peers of the target population. The recommended approach would also aim to retain the initial channels of advertisement as these channels proved efficient in reaching the desired population. The population attained by these media channels was appropriate considering the popularity of the ineffective advertisement. The population covered by these channels employed in advertising displayed by the wide spread contempt resulting from the advertisement. The execution concept employed by the company in regard to the advertisement was effective, but involved content that sparked controversy. It is, therefore, imperative to note that the ineffectiveness of the advertisement campaign resulted from the presentation of the ad and not the entire advertisement.

The content of the advertisement containing the inappropriate photos and video were vague. The presentation of the advertisement did no put forward the desired message to the audience in the appropriate perspective. The messages in the advertisement do not give the audience what a clear understanding of the product featured in the advertisement. The essence of an advertisement is to put across a product to the target audience. This advertisement, however, fails to do this and instead center focus of the audience on the appearance of the message rather than the advertised product. In order to attain the desired goal of the advertisement it as recommended altering only the presentation of the message (Marsh 56).  The presentation of the models in the recommended advertisement set up should be appropriately dressed, and posture of the models should also be appropriate for the aim of the advertisement. The presentation of the models in a more descent apparel also solves the aspect of annoyance and inflammatory attitude towards the advertisement.

The flaws that rendered the advertisement inefficient can be corrected to reflect a more appropriate presentation and render the initial advertisement effective. It is necessary to note that although the advertisement was ineffective the ineffectiveness stemmed from the presentation of the models and, therefore, correcting this problem makes the advertisement appropriate and efficient. The recommended advertisement in this case put into consideration the outcome of the initial advertisement n the issues that sparked controversy.

Works Cited

Kim, Bartel Sheehan. Controversies in Contemporary Advertising. SAGE, 2003. Print.

Lee Monle, and Monle Lee Carla Johnson. Principles of Advertising: A Global Perspective. Routledge, 2005. Print.

Marsh, Lisa. The House of Klein: Fashion, Controversy, and a Business Obsession. John Wiley & Sons, 2004. Print.

Teresa, Wiltz. “Something Even Worse Than Those Calvin Klein Ads.”  Chicago Tribune. 14 Sept, 1995. Web. 21 Nov. 2012.