24. NYC 2014 Overview

May 5 - May 10 was the most exciting, adventurous, and productive time of my life. I went to New York with a group of other students from the University of Oregon to explore famous advertising agencies and learn from the most talented people in the industry. I visited seven amazing agencies and gained a lot from this experience. I will talk more about that in my future posts (hopefully starting this weekend), but here's a brief overview for now:

23. Communication in the 19th Century: the Telegraph

I'm currently taking a communication history class, and almost every lecture of it is like a little discovery for me. I had never studied the history of American journalism in so much detail, but I think it is particularly important to do so for anyone going into the field of mass communication. How did the present condition of the industry come into being? Are the ideas we are talking about now really new? How can we assess the present using comparisons with the past? How can we think critically about contemporary media? Studying communication history may help answer these questions.

During our last lecture we talked about communication in the 19th century and its highlights - the telegraph, yellow journalism, stunt reporting, and muckracking. These were very important for the development of communication, so I'd like to talk briefly about each of them. This post is going to be about a revolutionary invention:

The Telegraph

Image via

Developed by Samuel Morse in 1837 in the United States, this invention became truly groundbreaking. It allowed people to send and receive messages nearly instantaneously - it only took a couple minutes for a message to arrive. Before that, national news were delivered via railroads, horses, and pigeons, while international news could only be delivered via ships, which took weeks to cross the ocean. The speed of mass communication was extremely slow, so the telegraph became a turning point in this sense, connecting people as nothing else could at that time.

Abraham Lincoln. Image via

The first telegraph line connected Washington, D.C. and Baltimore in 1844, and the telegraph service expanded rapidly in the next couple of decades. During the Civil War, the telegraph became a tool of Lincoln's leadership, allowing him to directly and actively communicate with the front. He used the telegraph as an information gathering tool as well a medium for counseling on strategy and giving commands.

Cyrus Field. Image via

But probably the most important achievement of the telegraph era was the transatlantic cable, laid by businessman Cyrus Field. It was supposed to connect North America and Europe; however, Field's first attempt in 1858 failed to establish stable communication between the continents. After several unsuccessful attempts, he was finally able to permanently connect the two worlds in 1866, and the contact hasn't been broken ever since. Even today, most communication between America and Europe is still carried via the transatlantic cable, while the telephone, radio, TV, and the Internet are all modern extensions of the telegraph. The famous telecommunications company AT&T still carries  it in its title as it was founded as the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1885.

The invention of the telegraph brought many changes to the life of people and journalism in particular:

• It made the postal service less important, as news no longer had to rely on physical transportation.
• It altered newspaper content and style. With the adoption of the telegraph for gathering news, newspapers introduced the inverted pyramid style (which is still used today), where the most important information was placed at the top, in the lead paragraph, with the least important information at the bottom of an article. See its principle in the picture below.

Image via

• The telegraph mechanized and standardized news gathering, allowing newspapers to cut down their staff.
• Newspapers shifted their emphasis from literary stories to hard news.
• Newspapers had to cooperate to gather and distribute news. In 1856 five daily NYC newspapers formed the Associated Press(AP) that still exists today. It was founded as a way of cooperation for gathering unbiased news and selling it to other papers.  Today, it is one of the largest nonprofit news organizations in the world.

22. Gendered Toy Advertising

Image via Ms. Magazine Blog

Nowadays, toy marketing and advertising are extremely gendered and reinforce certain gender roles and stereotypes that do not promote equality. In toy ads, girls are usually portrayed performing traditional roles, like babysitting, housekeeping, or caring for their own looks, while boys are usually presented in stereotypically masculine roles, playing with toys that require more logic, action, and sometimes aggression.

These ads from a recent Toys "R" Us catalog are a good illustration of the problem.

The first ad portrays a girl playing with dolls in a pink dollhouse, and the other one has two boys in it playing with a complex train construction they have assembled. The girls’ ad suggests that girls should perform traditionally feminine roles, such as babysitting and housekeeping, whereas boys need to play with something more masculine that requires more logic, like construction. Besides, the color scheme used in the ads (pink for girls and primarily blue and green for boys) reinforces this idea of gender confrontation. The next two pages from the catalog also arrange toys by gender - the pink page containing dolls targets girls, while the blue page with “action-packed toys” targets boys.

Most toy advertisements convey messages about gender roles and expectations through certain kinds of toys and their color, implying what is or isn't appropriate for boys and girls. But the fact is, kids' personalities and interests differ, so it's just wrong to limit their choices by stereotyping and differentiating between boys and girls when advertising/marketing toys. This kind of stereotyping is problematic because it doesn't capture the possibility that boys and girls might want to play with other kinds of toys and prefer other colors. Check out the video below to get the idea:

 

As most children conform to those gender stereotypes and roles promoted in the media, it makes them express their intolerance towards those children who express cross-gender behaviors, which puts such children at risk of discrimination and possible bullying. Also, toys may influence children’s future career decisions. Girls’ toys, like dolls, usually lack complexity, which doesn’t help girls develop the skills necessary for technical professions, like engineering. Boys’ toys, on the other hand, usually involve more thinking, which trains their logic, thus better preparing them for STEM fields. This kind of gendered marketing limits children’s choices, impacts their development, and fails to create equal opportunities. 

Advertisers play a big role in influencing children’s beliefs about gender roles, and that’s why it’s important that the messages they spread are reasonable and fair. Advertisers should create gender-neutral ads that treat all children equally and not limit their choices, imagination, or self-expression based on their gender. 

There are, in fact, a few companies that are trying to step away from the strictly binary gender system and go gender-neutral in their toy advertising. The most prominent example is the Swedish toy retailer Top Toy, which has been promoting gender equality in the toy industry since 2012. The most recent contributor is the American company Goldie Blox. It was founded in 2012 with a mission to "disrupt the pink aisle and inspire the future generation of female engineers." Their latest commercial portrays girls as active, creative, and ingenious little inventors, ready to break all gender stereotypes. 

However, even though there is some progress happening in the toy industry, there is much more to be done in regard to the issue.

For more information on the topic, you are welcome to check out my research paper here.

21. Cultural Awareness

Cultural awareness is extremely important in the field of mass communication. To be a successful idea generator and communicator, one needs to be culturally competent, which involves learning about various cultures via different channels (TV, films, music, social media, reading, etc.), being respectful of diversity and other people’s viewpoints, and paying attention to social and cultural trends happening around the world. For our final group project, we designed this book that serves as a guide for current and future advertising, as well as other journalism students, providing them with the information on the role of cultural awareness in communication and advice on what they should watch, read, listen to, and do to become familiar with more cultures, traditions, and beliefs and to successfully use this knowledge for relevant and effective communication to diverse audiences.

Check it out!

20. Holding Companies

Before a recent lecture in my Creative Strategist class, I thought advertising agencies were completely independent. Then, I learned that there is, in fact, a handful of independent agencies, like Weiden+Kennedy or Droga5, but the majority of agencies belong to huge holding companies. A holding company is a parent corporation that owns enough stock in another company to control its policies and management. Although such increased control may sound like a negative aspect, there is a number of benefits that agencies receive when they get adopted by a holding company. For example, holding companies ensure the agencies' financial stability and give them the ability to be partnered with other big agencies. 

There are six major holding companies in the advertising industry: 

1. WPP (owns Ogilvy & Mather, JWT, etc.)

2. Omnicom Group (BBDO, DDB Worldwide, etc.)

3. Publicis Groupe (Publicis, Leo Burnett, etc.)

4. Interpublic Group (Campbell Ewald, MRM Worldwide, Huge, etc.)

5. Project: Worldwide (Partners+Napier, Juxt, etc.)

6. MDC Partners (72andSunny, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, etc.)

Browsing through the news about holding companies, I found that Publicis Groupe and Omnicom Group have recently agreed to merge, creating the world’s largest advertising company with $23 billion in revenue and thus toppling WPP. However, the merge may be pushed back into the second quarter of 2014 due to some regulatory approvals in Russia and the EU.

I also found a cool infographic that gives a good sense of the current holding companies' structure and provides some historical and factual context. Besides the aforementioned companies, the infographic also includes Havas and Dentsu, which are a little smaller, but still could be included in the list of major holding companies.

 *Click on the link below the picture to expand it.

Click on this link to expand

19. Give Them a Chance

Happily living in a war-free country we often don't realize that we owe our freedom and peaceful life to those who fought for it, to veterans. Many soldiers never came back from war, while many of those who returned have had troubles adjusting to normal life again. Alcoholism, criminality, suicide attempts, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other disabilities are not rare among veterans and can result in homelessness. These are some serious problems that veterans often can't solve on their own, so this is the right time for us to return the favor and intervene to improve their lives.

Dégagé Ministries, a social organization that offers help to homeless and disadvantaged individuals, recently did an interesting social makeover experiment, the goal of which was to help Jim Wolf, a homeless United States Army veteran, quit drinking and return to normal life. A group of volunteers teamed up to radically transform Jim's look, capturing the process in a time-lapse video. According to the video, the physical change has become a turning point in Jim's life, prompting him to get his own housing and start attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Working from the outside in, the volunteers were able to instill confidence in Jim and give him hope for a brighter future.

I love the quote by Mother Teresa that Dégagé Ministries used on their website, "We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty." We need to be more attentive to the lives of those whom we often pass by on the streets, as they may be someone who fought to protect us. They need our care, and now it's our turn to protect them.

The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/mothertere130839.html#DQsiX8ci5Tfmx5C2.99

The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/mothertere130839.html#DQsiX8ci5Tfmx5C2.99

The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/mothertere130839.html#DQsiX8ci5Tfmx5C2.99

18. Thank You, Mom

There is no feeling in the world stronger than a mother's love, and there is no job harder than being a mother. But no matter how hard it may be, it's extremely rewarding when you see your child succeed. Behind every athlete there is a hard-working, caring, and supportive mother. That's the core idea of P&G's Olympic campaign called "Thank You, Mom." Created by Weiden+Kennedy, it was designed to celebrate mothers' efforts and thank them for their care and hard work raising champions and just great kids.

This short film called Best Job was first presented during the 2012 Olympic Games in London as part of the campaign. It won the best primetime commercial Emmy award the same year for a good reason - it celebrates diversity, while emphasizing the universal human experience, a mother's love. I get emotional every time I watch it, but who doesn't? This means that Weiden+Kennedy did a great job.

Although it seems like it's just about Olympic athletes and their mothers, it's really about all of us. It's thanks to our moms we are who we are today. It's them who support us at anything we do and make our childhood dreams come true. We owe them a lot. Thank you, mom!
This film appeals to a larger audience, which makes it even more successful.

For the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, P&G released a new film as part of the same campaign, which is also very heartwarming. Ads like these make me become more convinced that advertising is not just a means of selling something. It is a powerful tool used to inspire and make us believe that there is nothing impossible as long as we try.