Public Service Announcement (PSA): Advertisement as a Form of Marketing Strategy

Ad Analysis
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Introduction
Advertisements are one form of marketing strategy that is employed by businesses. There are multiple reasons as to why businesses use this strategy to market their goods and or services. For some, it is about creating awareness of the existence of a product and or service. For others, it is about increasing sales by countering similar and equally competitive brands in the market. Regardless of the purpose for advertizing, advertisements tend to be tactical with an aim of maximizing their objective.
When advertising, the real intention is to give customers a reason to purchase a product which they are otherwise not interested in or have no need for. The key element in any advertisement is the convincing and persuasive power (Shimp, 2013). It involves getting the money from the pockets of customers without any coercion.
When designing an advert, one of the factors of consideration is the audience. The targeted people by the advert determine the particular strategy to be employed. An advertisement targeting the young people would not be similar to one targeting the elderly. It is also crucial to consider the perception, beliefs and taste of the audience (Shimp, 2013). The designer of an ad must question themselves, how will the audience perceive the advert the first time they look at it? These among other factors are key determinants of a successful advert. In this discussion we will explore one of the adverts that have run in the past. The purpose is to analyze the advert and find out the following; who is the target audience in the advertisement, what is the message in the advert and what are the tactics that have been employed to ensure that the message reaches the audience as intended? Was the advertisement successful?
The Absolute Vodka AD
It has been ranked as one of the successful adverts which have run for a long time. The ad has evolved over the years having various facets throughout the various evolutions of the advertisements. There has been widespread recognition and appreciation of the same. Due to the good strategy used, the advertisement has remained relevant throughout and still continues to evoke excitement among the targeted audience.
Target Audience
The target audience for this advertisement was for all consumers of alcoholic drinks. The intention was to attract them into buying the drink. At the time when the first ad of Absolute Vodka was coined, there was immense competition in the market (Davis, 2010). It was therefore necessary to come up with a campaign ad that would stand out and get the audience to pay more attention. This is exactly what happened as the ad was catchy and very exciting to look at. What would follow then was a series of other ads all of which did not fall short of the expectations of the audience. The specific age group targeted by the advertisement is those above the age of 21 which is the recognized age of majority (Lewis, 2010). Further, a more specific audience is women who are believed to be heavy consumers of vodka as opposed to their male counterparts. It is believed that most men prefer scotch and beers while women go for vodka. Although this is a stereotype that may not necessary be true, it certainly...