Problem:
Identify two recent marketing campaigns and explain them in terms of types of appeals, marketing strategies, and executional frameworks.
The first I would choose is the campaign for the Cadillac. The marketing targets the up and coming who still have interest in popular TV and some cable shows. It features actors who are recognizable, but not always well known by name. The voices are the key and people are involved in watching them because they want to figure out who the person is and where they have seen them. The actors are also upscale in terms of looks and the touch of anonymity suggests they have moved from the unknown to the known as in moving from middle class to upper middle class. The strategy also includes the looks and performance features, dependent on where you live. The car in town, the car on the highway, and the one where the car drives through a tunnel. This advertisement is classy, well lit, shows the elements of the car, gives information about the car, and show the desirable aspects (lines of the car, speed as shown at night with lights in various situations). The ad gives a lot of information and yet does not seem to overwhelm with it. It feels good, classy, and as though one could actually be as lucky as that actor who they just remembered where they saw them before.
The second is the commercial with the people made of pipes. This is a clever way to target people with issues of bladder leakage and urges. This is an embarrassing subject for many, but the humor of the pipe people make the message easier to deliver. The commercials are set in a pipe city, club, or other setting and the people are doing normal "human" activities. The audience does not get embarrassed, the message is delivered, and the product (Vesicare) gets some bonuses. People like the figures. In a search engine simply putting in the term, pipe people commercial, will take you to the site. People remember the pipe people, even when they cannot remember the product. They also remember what the pipe people represent. The message is delivered and remembered without embarrassing scenarios with humans, with figures that are identifiable and memorable and fun.
You made some good points in your post. Two very different ads making two very different points. One more upscale and the other trying to address a medical issue.
Since the Cadillac ad tries to associate the car with a certain type of person, do you think the pipes of the other ad are trying to make the "people" in the ad not be a specific type of person? What I mean is, they are not using real people and using images if you will, that anyone might relate to. This might help anyone looking at the ad, which has these issues, relate to it better.
What do you think?