Mkt 121 - Advertising Management - Role of Advertising

Mark John Paul V. Cañeso                                      MKT 121 - Advertising Management

4 - BS LM                                                        

        Mobile Operator, TrueMove H's 2013 video advertisement, "Giving", aims to target the emotional appeal in capturing attention of the audience and making the advertisement memorable. The video started with a young boy stealing medicine from a store for his sick mom. A kind stranger then notices the struggle of the young boy and decides to help out by paying for the stolen medicine and gives him vegetable soup from their eatery. The story, then fast-forwards 30 years, to the day the kind stranger gets sick and hospitalized. The medical bills were so high that they even tried selling their eatery to pay the hospital. However, when the bill came, the kind stranger's daughter saw a note saying that all expenses have already been paid of 30 years ago with three packs of painkillers and a bag of veggie soup. It turns out that the kind stranger's physician was the young boy he helped out and paying for the bills was his way of returning the favor. The advertisement ends with their slogan, "giving is the best communication".

        Though there are some people who misunderstood the video, saying that the message is that one should give and expect a return in at least 30 years, it is undeniable that the video still garnered a lot of attention and touched hearts, gaining 9 millions of views in about a week. As of now, it has a total of 19.2 million views.

        The advertisement mainly accomplishes two of the four roles of advertising, Communication and Societal and less on the marketing and economic roles.

        First, the communication role of the advertising was seen on the acts of kindness and the tagline of the video. TrueMove H aims to promote their internal character traits and beliefs, which is to give without expecting anything in return. Though some might argue that they are saying the opposite, that one should expect something in return when it comes to giving, it should be noted that the kind stranger helped the little boy without expecting anything because the little boy literally had nothing at that point. The company wants to be perceived not as an evil corporate mogul who only cares about money. One of their main objectives for their advertisement is to sell the idea of their humane identity. This goes back to the root of the company's main startup purpose which is to give, give everyone the opportunity to communicate.