Colorful Advertising

    As our American Studies class moves further into the topic of media and advertising I found myself intrigued by certain trends within this area. Mr. O'Connor mentioned in class the other day the irony behind BP's (British Petroleum) logo and how they advertise themselves as being a "green" and an environmentally safe company. Besides the catastrophic oil spill they caused in 2006 and the fact that they are one of the worlds leading oil and energy suppliers, I guess you could scarcely make a connection between BP and the color green. To my surprise the next day while watching television I stumbled upon a commercial for the new healthy and "natural" sports drink Greater Than. What immediately caught my attention was the use of that same shade of green that BP utilized in their corporate logo. Green is often associated with the environment and a sort of natural aura, which is what both companies were aiming to display. Below is the BP logo and a short version of the Greater Than commercial.

    After doing some research I was able to find a very interesting case study done by students at Stanford that dealt with the association of colors and advertising. For example, in a case study regarding 

Alcohol advertisements these students found that different shades of black and blue were dominant in advertisements for clear liquors. The reason for this they concluded was that, "Blues evoke a cool, clean, smooth sensation that vodka companies may want to associate with their products". The cool, clean, and smooth drinkability are all traits that appeal to the senses and "evoke" or bring out certain moods and emotions. It is because of these familiar moods and emotions that these companies are able to target what appeals to the audience. This same idea can be seen with certain brands of beer. Rich shades of brown and amber are all colors that are associated with beer. The richness of the colors can be used to display a sort of dense and flavorful theme. Spread throughout are a few examples of hard liquor and beer advertisements, as well as the link to the Stanford case studies. http://www.stanford.edu/class/linguist34/Unit_13/colors.htm

What are some other strategies that advertisers use to make their products more appealing?