Sweaters On Our Feet (MM4)

I'm a sucker for a good advertising campaign. Yes, me. Even though I bash the media all the time, break it down to it's basics, and dont hold back in correcting them when their wrong--I still love a great advertisement. While I was on Facebook, minding my own business (see the pun there?) a friend posted a video released by GE. This video was the latest in a campaign for their new wash and dryers.

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This video is great, in so many ways, and I'm sorry to admit that. This fake advocacy campaign called L.O.S.S. (Laundered and Orphaned Sock Society), and they took it pretty far. Not only does this fake campaign have it's own website, but also it's own Facebook page as well as a Twitter. It's a pretty well rounded viral campaign.

GE isn't exactly know for being a humorous company, but with everything else going viral, and numerous other companies breaking bank with viral campaigns, they decided to follow in suite, and find their funny bone. It's pretty clever too, to make a washer/dryer campaign about missing socks. That has been a known association with washer/dryers since the dawn of time! Rumor has it that they are even getting of making a digital billboard in Times Square for this ad campaign. Ah, yes, that's what I think of in Times Square, my socks.

Okay. Let's break it down.

BRAIN! This video is great. It appeals to the neocortex with the text it provides you to read in the beginning and end, as well as the limbic brain with the images, the chanting in the background, and everyone's testimonials (did I just jump ahead? I think I did).

SHIFTS! This is a great example of the technological shift because the entire campaign is a viral one. Instead of taking out print ads or paying for air time, they have just put everything online. Aside from establishing a digital video in Times Square, this advertisement awareness would all be cost free. It touches, in my opinion on the personal shift, because they are taking something as personal as laundry and making it a group effort with the L.O.S.S. activists. You're doing your laundry together, and facing the same problems.

PRINCIPLES! Production techniques, as they hit a few. They go from having a-roll to b-roll, chanting to individuals talking, and different screen shots. It held my interest for sure, and kept my eyes moving. Value messages, because they are trying to get you to relate, not to mention that absolutely ridiculous things that the protesters are saying, such as the women sending her daughter to school with one sock and them making fun of her. Ownership, because while this ad is rather funny, you have to remember that this has all been created to get you to buy GE's product.

PERSUASION! Finally, my favorite. The two big ones here would be humor and plain folks. Humor is an obvious one because, well, the entire thing is a giant joke. My favorite is the women who is "activist of the month" and she says that we wouldn't put our friends in the dryer. Also, "it will be a million man march, and then we're going to include women". This campaign is pure humor, and it's great! Plain folks is the other contender because these actors are supposed to portray just normal, every day people trying to do their laundry, and relating to you with a common annoyance and a global question-where do our socks go? In their own way, this also includes testimonial. Though it's not done by celebrities, these actors are supposed to be well known activists fighting for a well known cause, making them celebrities in their own way. The testimonies they give crack me up, and if you ask me its better then Kim K's latest perfume endorsement.

So now you are faced with a decision, and the choice is yours. Are you going to sit around and do nothing? Or join the march to protect your socks? Their fate is in your hands (or feet).

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