The Apple brand is one that drives not just technology, but creativity and our group was looking to reflect that back in our film. Given that our film is essentially an advertisement for Apple products, we wanted to ensure we weren’t being one-dimensional in our story telling, much like Apple doesn’t view their products as one-dimensional. It wasn’t just enough to show the products but use them to create a story. Our goal was to think outside the box with our film because Apple has long been at the forefront of thinking outside the box. It was also important to find creativity when we had to film in the middle of a lockdown with our group in multiple countries.
One of the many taglines Apple has had since its inception is “think different” and that was something we kept coming back to throughout the entire process. Though we know Apple technology doesn’t support time travel, it does support creativity through its various devices; they can help provide the spark you’re looking for. For us, it was the music app that created this flash of inspiration allowing our heroine the ability to time travel and tell that story. We also wanted to encompass some of Apple’s values as a brand – one being “We are creative. We set the pace” and another being “We want everyone to enjoy the adventure we are on together.” There was the adventure in making the film, but also the adventure of the film, both of which were a joy to see out. Apple is the brand of choice for millions and it’s because they have created this world that opens up all these new possibilities. Another tagline of theirs is “imagination is a gift” and from the beginning our film has been a work of creativity and imagination inspired by our everyday.
On a daily basis, my social media usage is pretty straightforward; wake up, check Instagram and Twitter (and occasionally Facebook), then check Instagram and Twitter throughout the day, and end my day once again checking Instagram and Twitter. Here and there I’ll post to Instagram, but more often than not, my time spent on them is scrolling through to see what others have posted instead. There is very little effort put through when I’m on these apps; it’s a lot of scrolling and reading, and occasionally replying or liking. And that is really the extent of the labor I perform on these sites. And because I’m on these sites for “fun,” and not work or making a job out of it, I can’t really agree that there’s labor being performed, like Smythe argues. Or at least not in the sense that I equate with labor.
My Instagram feed
I know it would be a different conversation if I was trying to make a living off of my social media or if I was in charge of the social media for a company; those are jobs. And I would expect a compensation for that. Since I can’t say that any of the activity that I’m doing in regard to social media is going to be “labor,” I think the lack of reward I get for that is spot on. (Maybe the reward should be staying off social media, but that is neither here nor there.) It does circle back, in my opinion, to this is how I’m spending my free time, and I’m barely doing anything, so why should I be compensated for that?
With that being said, just because I’m not being paid for my time on social media, social media is certainly getting paid for my time being spent on there.
But even though I’m not always contributing something tangible to these sites, like a tweet or a photo, I’m still opening them up every day. I’ll still click on someone’s profile, or a link, or an advertisement by accident. Even though I’m not often posting, and I don’t have a large amount of followers, they’re still making money off of me because I am a user of the service they’re providing. For instance, Instagram made a reported $20 billion in advertising revenue in 2019 according to The Verge. As they point out, “Ads show up on Instagram in between Stories, within the feed, and on the Explore tab.”
Because every user gets ads, and a lot of the click on them either willingly or unknowingly, Instagram is making money. I’m helping them make money every time I view an ad on stories or click on a sponsored post, and it would be naïve to think that that’s not the case. And it would be naïve to think that my activity on these sites, and the data I’m providing isn’t going to help some other company turn a profit. I know that my curiosity about the Etsy knitting kit I looked at is eventually going to make its way to an ad on Instagram. That is the Internet in 2020/2021.
I suppose if I want to ensure that I’m going to be properly compensated for my time spent on social media then I really need to stop using social media. But I can’t see that happening anytime soon. So I will continue to spend my free time, morning, noon, and night scrolling through these various apps adding to their billion-dollar revenues.
Up until this summer, my Instagram feed was a mish mash of posts from friends, travel, dogs, sports and entertainment, and one or two news feeds. I curated my feed so that it matched my interests, and I was only seeing what I wanted to see. The “explore” page of my Instagram also matched my feed, though because those recommendations came through a programmed algorithm, it didn’t match exactly what I wanted. I would see posts that I would roll my eyes at, but somehow, Instagram’s algorithm thought because I liked one thing, I would like another.
Then over the course of the summer, my Instagram started to include more posts and accounts that inspire social change. This is because I started following more accounts that inspire social change. With the death of George Floyd, and the Black Lives Matter protests, I made a promise that I was going to become more educated, and that was going to include what I see on my social feeds. So I started following more educational accounts (so you want to talk about…, Shifting the Culture, the slacktivists, Attn: White People, and Check Your Privilege to simply name a few). I still have my dog and travel accounts, but now I’m also using my feed as an educational tool. And for awhile, the Explore page on my Instagram was reflecting those changes.
Some of my recent Instagram follows
According to Hootsuite, “Instagram’s algorithm is based on machine learning, so the way it ranks your posts is constantly evolving.” And it ranks your posts based on three aspects: relationship, interest, and timeliness. The interest is “If users have enjoyed certain types of posts in the past, the algorithm is more likely to show that type of post to them in the future.” I think sometimes the line drawn between what might be interesting is very thin.
Much like we discussed during the seminar, you do one thing on Instagram, and all of a sudden, it thinks that’s all you want to see. I noticed that when I did the mass follows during the summer; Instagram was recommending more educational accounts, which I appreciated because it then allowed me to find more accounts to follow. But now, my Explore page has gone back to more “superficial” posts. Since I’m not interacting with accounts and posts on a regular basis, there is a question of why they’re choosing the posts they’re choosing to show up on that page.
But that’s the give and take when it comes to using social media (but it’s not even exclusive to social media); I have made my choices, but there’s still going to be someone else presenting me with choices they think I may like. Those who program the algorithms are never going to get it just right. Those that program these algorithms are going to have biases, whether they be implicit or explicit. And Instagram knows they need to do better when it comes to their algorithms. During summer 2020 in the middle of the Black Lives Matter protests, Instagram made a commitment to doing better racially. From Vox, “Instagram will create an “equity team” charged with tasks like analyzing the enforcement of its harassment policies and studying its algorithms for racial bias.” Whether or not they continue to change as they say they will is something that remains to be seen.
All that being said, I’m also aware that I am a white woman using this app, and others, made by white men, and programmed by a majority of white people (also men). My experience using this app, and others, is going to be vastly different than a person of color, and it’s important to keep that in mind. I can continue to educate with the help of various Instagram accounts, but I also need to recognize that Instagram itself has work to do.
We all have our go-to news site. For some it’s probably SkyNews or BBC, but for me, it’s NBC News. NBC News and MSNBC is what I turn my tv to when I watch the news and NBCNews.com is my Safari homepage. It’s the news site (and company) I’m most familiar with, and that includes navigating the ads I see on there every day.
NBC News is just a small part of the Comcast Corporation (think NBCU television, Dreamworks movies, and theme parks to name but a few). As stated on the NBC News website “NBC News is part of the NBCUniversal News Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast Corporation.” Because NBC News falls under the Comcast umbrella, some of the ads you see on their website are for other members of the Comcast family. Some of the more recent ads you see on NBC News are for the new show Mr. Mayor.
It’s (in the United States) a new show airing on NBC, and with these ads, NBC is staying within the NBCU and Comcast family and promoting their own. This is essentially brands-owned content; Comcast owns NBC News and is using their news site to promote their new NBCU show. It is all connected. And this isn’t the first time Comcast has used their NBC news site to promote their NBCU content; they also often use their multitude of television channels to cross-promote content from those channels (promos for the Premier League on NBC Sports can sometimes be seen on main NBC).
A second advertisement for Mr. Mayor on nbcnews.com
Comcast is operating under the assumption that if you like their news division, then it’s more likely than not you’re going to like the content coming from their entertainment division, and this is the perfect place to make you aware (especially if in this day and age you are constantly and consistently checking the ever-changing news).
But this isn’t the only kind of advertising you’ll find on NBCNews.com if you scroll down far enough. Eventually you’ll get to a section on the website that is only advertisements but are made to look like their news posts if you’re not paying attention or not as familiar with the site.
Based on its appearance, this would be considered Native Advertising as explained by Hardy. “‘Native’ distribution of marketers’ paid content (advertising): ads integrated into webpages, apps and news feeds in social media.” As you can see, these are ads on the website made to look like articles but are definitely not. If you look closely, you can see at the beginning of the ads that they are from the content recommendation firm Taboola (which is one Hardy made a mention of in his lecture). So you get to the Taboola ad feed and then you have to scroll for a little bit before getting back to the news articles, and even then, there’s only one bloc of articles before you get back into the advertisements. This is what it looks like as you continue down the website; the important news is at the top but as you continue down the page, the ads become increasingly co-mingled with the articles. I think it’s easier to then accidentally click on one of those ads because of this. You go to click a news article and find yourself looking at mansions for an unbelievable price. And that’s increasingly becoming the norm for any site you find yourself on, news or not.
One of the biggest examples of User Generated Content from the past few years is the Share A Coke campaign from Coca Cola. The campaign originated in Australia in 2011 but quickly became a global campaign. It was in 2014 that the campaign took off in the United States. This campaign has been off and on ever since, with various iterations taking place, the most recent of which taking place in the US over the holidays with a dedication to the front-line workers.
The idea was for Coke to make the drink become a more personal experience; there’s something special about having a drink with your name on it, literally, right? I can’t say I ever truly caught on to the buzz of the campaign (I’d occasionally look for my name in the store, but nothing more than a cursory glance), but I can understand wanting to take part in something like this. Much like the White Cup Contest from Starbucks, this USG campaign mostly benefits Coca Cola. It’s their brand people are seeking out, it’s their brand people are sharing, and it’s their brand that people are buying. On Freedman’s point about UGC being cost effective advertising, all this brand has to do is print the names on the bottles, and their consumers will take care of the advertising for them. According to Investopedia, the numbers surrounding the campaign are staggering. When it launched in the U.S. in 2014, there were 250 names to choose from. That since grew to 1000 and moved beyond names to include song lyrics, holiday locations, and university logos (this I did take a photo of (but only to show my parents…)). Coke gained 25 million new Facebook likes in that year, and #ShareACoke photos were share 500,000 times. That’s just in the first year.
The only #ShareACoke I was interested in… Go Cougs!
Unlike the White Cup Contest, however, the consumers aren’t creating anything for the brand that could bring them recognition, but simply are getting creative with what they find. For some, the UGC evolved beyond simply finding your name on a Coke bottle but became ways to express themselves. While Coke is the big winner, the consumer does win in a way because the brand is recognizing said consumers in a more personal way. People like to feel noticed, like they matter, but often times, in the eyes of a brand, they are viewed as nothing more than the machine that provides money. With the Share a Coke campaign though, consumers feel like they matter to this brand; having them create something with your name on it (even if you share that name with millions of others) does create a certain kind of glee. As much as the brand likes to make it look the consumer is winning win it comes to UGC (and this can probably be said for most profitable UGC’s), it’s really going to be the brand coming out on top. As aforementioned, it’s the brand that’s collecting the goodwill and the money, despite how good intentioned they were with the campaign.
Thinking on the most recent Share a Coke campaign, it’s great how they’re recognizing the front-line workers, and it must make them feel nice that they’re being recognized, but Coke is going to look good for it. The front-line workers who have done everything to help people in what can easily be described as a trying year deserve all the shout-outs, but cynically, Coke is going to be the ones taking in the money from those sharing their support. On the whole though, it is incredibly important for brands to continue to make consumers feel like they are a part of something, while continuing to generate that business, otherwise they’ll take their business elsewhere.
As this COVID-19 pandemic has gone on, and more people are staying at home, companies are adjusting their advertisements to match the current affairs of the world. One company doing this is Dove; they have used a thirty second spot to encourage people to wash their hands. That’s it, that’s the ad. It begins with them asking the audience when the last time they washed their hands then it starts a twenty second timer as a way to get people to wash their hands during that moment. They even say they don’t care which soap you use to wash your hands, so long as you actually are washing your hands. Their Dove logo stays on the screen the entire time and then the ad ends with the words ‘take care, be safe’ and ‘#washtocare.’
It’s a very simple ad, but it’s also incredibly effective in more than one way.
I remember seeing this ad in the springtime, in the United States, when the stay-at-home orders began to come down, and I’ve continued to see it in the months since, even after arriving in London. And I found it to be one of the few Covid-19 ads that wasn’t out-of-touch or had a cheesy “we’re all in this together” mentality. And because there is no dialogue, I find myself glancing at the television then watching it every single time. Dove is a health and beauty brand, but in this case, they’re specifically promoting health, and not a specific product. And that fits in with how they describe themselves: “But Dove care goes beyond our products. … We care about how we make our products and what goes into them, about the impact we have on our planet and how we can strive for a better, more sustainable way of being.”
Dove is continuing to transform themselves from not just a beauty line for the everyday person but promoting inner beauty and strength. How can we convey our message beyond our products? However, despite the call to action, they are still promoting and selling themselves. The Dove logo stays on the screen the entire time, and despite their lack of promoted product, they’re still hoping the consumer makes the connection of, I like this ad from Dove, they are encouraging me to be healthy and keep safe, so this is the kind of brand I want my money to go towards.
To tie it all together, if we think back to the #LikeAGirl campaign, these brands aren’t promoting the products they’re known for, but a wider discussion that they then hope will bring in more consumers. But what I think does separate it from the #LikeAGirl ad is Dove is not promoting anything other than your health and safety with this ad, which is (theoretically) not something that could or should be politicized. Washing your hands to keep yourself and others healthy is something everybody should be able to get behind. And unlike Always, the Dove ad, much like the Dove brand on the whole, is seemingly trying to move away from “popular feminism” but continuing to promote whatever makes you feel good and healthy, for whomever wants to buy their products – female, male, or non-binary. This is just one of the handful of campaigns they have promoting a new, different kind of beauty.
In the grand scheme of things, despite Dove not (technically) promoting themselves or their body wash, lotions, or shampoos and conditioners with their ad, it does stay in line with their brand and their values. They take pride in promoting a brand that brings out the best in everybody and wishing people health and safety in the middle of a global pandemic certainly does that.
