UFOs: CONCEALED PUBLICITY, MARKETING AND INFORMATION
Daniela Giordano
April 10, 2006
Something has changed. A phenomena has occurred of extraordinary importance and few have realized it. We have been witnesses to the evolution of the highest form of commercial communication: the advertising message.
According to several current theories held by scientists (like the astrophysicists Allen Hynek of the U.S.A., and Jaques Vall?of France), these unidentified flying objects would work on our society from the external (sightings, close encounters of various kind, etc.) and from the internal (commercials, movies, and TV) to produce an evolution in human thought. But when this has been said didn?t cause any outery.
The advertising medium is the most powerful tool for acting on the common mind, and it is legitimate to wonder how much of an influence it has toward the acceptance of the UFO phenomenon.
No information medium is as widespread today as that of advertising. Books, reports, journals, conferences, etc. become almost obsolete methods of information when considered against the ability of the advertising medium to inform, to guide, to mold, to educate and above all to sell.
These days, information and ideas reach more people through the advertising medium than through editorial means. This medium, in a relatively clear manner, is superior in forming ideas and currents of thought through images or logos. In these recent years, advertised product is not sold anymore for its quality but for the sentiments it gives rise to.
Today, EMOTION is the engine of marketing.
Emotion and passion to let dream the people, used as means trying to sell the product to the potential consumers: the almost erotic emotion of an ice-cream, the intense pleasure of an ice cold drink in the torrid days of August, the sensuality of a jewel or a perfume, the hate or love for a pair of gym shoes doing only market trend?
The prestigious advertising campaigns brought out by the big and mid-level companies are actually the result of a synergetic chain put in action by specialized agencies who have the skill to offer a real supply in the strategic and operative advertising services. Very deep inquiries are carried out about what people wish or aspire and it is entrusted to the ?creatives? the difficult task to create an imagine or a message hitting the potential consumer to more levels.
Thus such advertising aims at "strategic thinking": the emotion of adventure, of vast spaces and mystery, as in the GILERA advertising spot of 1997. The furrows on the ground, framed from the top by two circles partially superimposed, the trademark of GILERA, clearly refer to the phenomenon, for those who know it, of the crop circles that are the probable traces left by UFOs during landings. The two furrows subtly transmit the information related to a topic debated since several years by the media and on which have been published many books in all countries.
Less sophisticated and more direct is the TV spot by HONDA advertising the "SKY" and showing some improbable aliens appreciating its performance. Therefore, implying a technological level that is, according to the logo, "more fun than a flying saucer." This followed an advertising campaign by CAGIVA some years earlier that had the image of a human-like alien with green skin and Vulcanian ears.
It could be said the use of aliens in the advertising campaigns began officially when the nice little alien with telekinesis skill, moved with the power of his mind the film roll into the special box to be sure it would be developed only on KODAK paper.
A couple of years later came the promotion of AGFA-UFO, a photographic roll of film with high image definition. In this advertising message, the AGFA film was introduced as such an effective film that it could photograph something so notoriously difficult as a UFO.
In this case the information inherent in both advertising messages is varied. It is involved telekinesis skill, telepathy, the alien way to communicate ? as it could be deduced from the huge quantity of reports received by researchers from all around the world ? and the importance to be technological advanced to face a phenomena ?on the edge? of our knowledge.
It is just the skill to develop brilliant creative solutions, supported by rigorous strategies of communication and tied to accurate data and market researches, the sign more characteristic of style and the communication philosophy of the advertising on the way of the last and new millennium.
A style that is possible to read in the single announcements of the advertising campaign revealing the sure touch and innovative use of the persuasion techniques.
Without doubt, movies generate ideas for the advertising campaigns. In fact, following the success of Spielberg's E.T., Italy's old SIP (national old telephone company) bought the image rights of the famous E.T. to promote its IN-SIP products. The logo obviously paraphrased the request of the little alien: "The telephone has found home."
While is relatively easy to insert information in a TV spot, where a short sequence of moving images tells the entire story, it is more difficult to launch advertising messages with an unique static image.
Well known, for instance, is the campaign of SKF, a leading company in the field of the ball-bearings, which advertised its product with a huge lighted panel at Madrid/Barajas Airport, in Spain.
Emblematic and full of suspense, the image shows a squadron of ball bearing, like UFOs ? such as people reports, flying in formation against the background of a sky at sunset. In this case the information is cognitive, in the meaning it is presumed all understand the message and the related information inherent in it as taken for granted data.
An interesting campaign in the print media was planned by the Testa Pella Rossetti agency for CESAME, an Italian company leader in the sanitary fixtures. Here a group of whirling UFOs were inserted inside an unlikely bathroom. Additional information proclaimed: "They are not terrestrial."
The advertising message of the BANK OF ROME, characterized by the slogan "Close Encounters with Objects of All Kind", was issued to promote a special competitive bidding of value goods.
The image is centered on three "storied" UFOs hovering over a boundless corn field and projecting their shadows. Here the complex information includes many references: flying saucers, close encounters, crop circles and possible alien writing-quoting, in effect, all the main aspects of the UFO phenomenon.
Many of the companies quoted above have been the first, together with FIAT in the 1970s, to have used UFOs and aliens to promote their product in a period in which information on the topic was scarce, not very reliable or of doubtful origin for most of the audience in Italy. It can be said, therefore, that these companies have been indirect promoters of Ufological concepts and information.
In truth, these companies do not create the images or the advertising messages in the promotional campaign, but rather this work is done by the advertising agencies through the so-called creatives, who submit them for approval to their director and then to the owner or the executive director of the company for which they work.
It should be understood that, even if it is expressed in a simple way, the decision or the choice of a given advertising message is never the exclusive domain of a single person, but of a group of people.
From where, therefore, has come the primary impulse for the "sowing" of such ideas among the general public--since, apparently, the creatives are only the means? What mechanism starts in order that a group of qualified persons opt for this marketing choice of utilizing "alien" topics--which, among other things, has a noticeable cost on the budget of the company? Analysis and market surveys done to test the tastes or the expectations of possible consumers do not seem to justify this trend--at least in Italy. Perhaps at an unconscious level there are certainties of which the public is not aware?
Notable, in this regard, is the national magazine advertising campaign created by Ogilvy & Mather agency which combined AMERICAN EXPRESS CARD with the known personalities of Italian business companies.
The image of Michele Giglio, owner of a line of prestigious clothing stores in the country and also in Japan, projects a shadow which has been transformed into an alien with little antennas. In the background, a group of whirling UFOs hover in the sky. The logo leaves no doubt: ?We Are The Trend?. That is to say, UFOs and aliens.
What has driven the owner of a chain of upscale stores to transform, in part, his image to that of an alien? A particular experience ? A clear desire? No. The answer came out in a little interview: the simple firm belief that somewhere aliens exist. And if their images can be used for selling more clothes, O.K., why not !
In other cases, the mental association between flying saucers and advanced technology is played upon.
The German company SIEMENS, with a campaign created by the Publicis MCD, has advertised its mobile phones not with a close-up of its product but of a UFO.
Another German company, QUIX, a maker of advanced electronic diaries, advertised its product with aliens and UFOs.
The year 1999 saw a dramatic rise in advertising campaign using UFOs and the aliens. Dramatically, FORD advertised its car KA with the statements : "I have in mind only KA. I have in mind that electric green". To the side is the suffused image of two aliens, the so-called grays, in this case rendered in green for the chromatic needs well known to the people working in this field.
The information spreads, and the old-fashioned concepts about little monsters with antennas are abandoned, being replaced, in turn, with something that is closer to reality. The logo and image also suggest a telepathic experience -- a phenomena that has been denied by official science in Italy but experienced by everyone at least once time in a lifetime.
Rousing excitement and of great emotional impact is the AIR EUROPE advertising campaign, planned by the Armando Testa agency.
Its logo--"The Flight That Was Not" -- exalts the image of a huge UFO flying over the Milan Cathedral. Another ad has a UFO hovering near the control tower of an airport with the logo"extraorganized." And a third ad shows three UFOs illuminating a Boeing 777 from above with the logo "Air Europe Presents To The Galaxy Its New Jewel." This was followed by an imitative advertising campaign from ALITALIA with the logo: "Not Even A UFO Would Fly From Sicily To Milan 32 Times Per Day."
Excluding the ?te of the big and medium commercial companies, it remains the hard base of the small shops, where a narrow niche of market survive only thank to the willingness of the individual owner.
Among owners of small family businesses can often be found some protagonists of UFO sightings or even of alleged abductions. It is possible, if not probable, that this life experience is engraved in their mind in indelible way, and that it has conditioned thoughts and attitudes.
Thus, it would not be strange if these persons have then developed trade activities through the years that promote their experience. The logos of a commercial house printed on paper that wraps small packages or the neon image of the shop's sign is not, for sure, a visual advertisement of great impact. But it has some influence on a certain kind of consumer--one who becomes a client and acquires through the "counter chats" knowledge of the phenomena and the opinions of those who have lived the unusual experience.
In this way the UFO Baby, a shop selling items for newborns, is born, as well as the Laundry of the UFOs (Lavanderia degli UFO) and the UFO Bar, a nice place on the promenade of Salerno in Southern Italy.
Behind these names is hidden the more or less unconscious willingness to inform others of a lived experience.
Thus, thanks to advertising, members of our society influence each other, and, as the wave forming when a stone is thrown in the pond, the information starts to circulate among the people. (A valuable occurrence primarily in areas where the knowledge about the phenomena is poor.)
No book or scientist will ever be able to transmit to so many people the complex and much debated topic of UFOs as an advertising message is able to do. Thanks to advertising messages, UFOs and their occupants have entered our education, despite the fact that the more orthodox mind wishes to deny them.
Maybe the external pressure (sightings, testimonies, abduction, crop circles, etc.) and the internal pressure (cinema, press, TV and above all advertising) are slowly provoking a transformation in the consciousness of people--and perhaps subtly preparing mankind for possible future contact.
According to several current theories held by scientists (like the astrophysicists Allen Hynek of the U.S.A., and Jaques Vall?of France), these unidentified flying objects would work on our society from the external (sightings, close encounters of various kind, etc.) and from the internal (commercials, movies, and TV) to produce an evolution in human thought. But when this has been said didn?t cause any outery.
The advertising medium is the most powerful tool for acting on the common mind, and it is legitimate to wonder how much of an influence it has toward the acceptance of the UFO phenomenon.
No information medium is as widespread today as that of advertising. Books, reports, journals, conferences, etc. become almost obsolete methods of information when considered against the ability of the advertising medium to inform, to guide, to mold, to educate and above all to sell.
These days, information and ideas reach more people through the advertising medium than through editorial means. This medium, in a relatively clear manner, is superior in forming ideas and currents of thought through images or logos. In these recent years, advertised product is not sold anymore for its quality but for the sentiments it gives rise to.
Today, EMOTION is the engine of marketing.
Emotion and passion to let dream the people, used as means trying to sell the product to the potential consumers: the almost erotic emotion of an ice-cream, the intense pleasure of an ice cold drink in the torrid days of August, the sensuality of a jewel or a perfume, the hate or love for a pair of gym shoes doing only market trend?
The prestigious advertising campaigns brought out by the big and mid-level companies are actually the result of a synergetic chain put in action by specialized agencies who have the skill to offer a real supply in the strategic and operative advertising services. Very deep inquiries are carried out about what people wish or aspire and it is entrusted to the ?creatives? the difficult task to create an imagine or a message hitting the potential consumer to more levels.
Thus such advertising aims at "strategic thinking": the emotion of adventure, of vast spaces and mystery, as in the GILERA advertising spot of 1997. The furrows on the ground, framed from the top by two circles partially superimposed, the trademark of GILERA, clearly refer to the phenomenon, for those who know it, of the crop circles that are the probable traces left by UFOs during landings. The two furrows subtly transmit the information related to a topic debated since several years by the media and on which have been published many books in all countries.
Less sophisticated and more direct is the TV spot by HONDA advertising the "SKY" and showing some improbable aliens appreciating its performance. Therefore, implying a technological level that is, according to the logo, "more fun than a flying saucer." This followed an advertising campaign by CAGIVA some years earlier that had the image of a human-like alien with green skin and Vulcanian ears.
It could be said the use of aliens in the advertising campaigns began officially when the nice little alien with telekinesis skill, moved with the power of his mind the film roll into the special box to be sure it would be developed only on KODAK paper.
A couple of years later came the promotion of AGFA-UFO, a photographic roll of film with high image definition. In this advertising message, the AGFA film was introduced as such an effective film that it could photograph something so notoriously difficult as a UFO.
In this case the information inherent in both advertising messages is varied. It is involved telekinesis skill, telepathy, the alien way to communicate ? as it could be deduced from the huge quantity of reports received by researchers from all around the world ? and the importance to be technological advanced to face a phenomena ?on the edge? of our knowledge.
It is just the skill to develop brilliant creative solutions, supported by rigorous strategies of communication and tied to accurate data and market researches, the sign more characteristic of style and the communication philosophy of the advertising on the way of the last and new millennium.
A style that is possible to read in the single announcements of the advertising campaign revealing the sure touch and innovative use of the persuasion techniques.
Without doubt, movies generate ideas for the advertising campaigns. In fact, following the success of Spielberg's E.T., Italy's old SIP (national old telephone company) bought the image rights of the famous E.T. to promote its IN-SIP products. The logo obviously paraphrased the request of the little alien: "The telephone has found home."
While is relatively easy to insert information in a TV spot, where a short sequence of moving images tells the entire story, it is more difficult to launch advertising messages with an unique static image.
Well known, for instance, is the campaign of SKF, a leading company in the field of the ball-bearings, which advertised its product with a huge lighted panel at Madrid/Barajas Airport, in Spain.
Emblematic and full of suspense, the image shows a squadron of ball bearing, like UFOs ? such as people reports, flying in formation against the background of a sky at sunset. In this case the information is cognitive, in the meaning it is presumed all understand the message and the related information inherent in it as taken for granted data.
An interesting campaign in the print media was planned by the Testa Pella Rossetti agency for CESAME, an Italian company leader in the sanitary fixtures. Here a group of whirling UFOs were inserted inside an unlikely bathroom. Additional information proclaimed: "They are not terrestrial."
The advertising message of the BANK OF ROME, characterized by the slogan "Close Encounters with Objects of All Kind", was issued to promote a special competitive bidding of value goods.
The image is centered on three "storied" UFOs hovering over a boundless corn field and projecting their shadows. Here the complex information includes many references: flying saucers, close encounters, crop circles and possible alien writing-quoting, in effect, all the main aspects of the UFO phenomenon.
Many of the companies quoted above have been the first, together with FIAT in the 1970s, to have used UFOs and aliens to promote their product in a period in which information on the topic was scarce, not very reliable or of doubtful origin for most of the audience in Italy. It can be said, therefore, that these companies have been indirect promoters of Ufological concepts and information.
In truth, these companies do not create the images or the advertising messages in the promotional campaign, but rather this work is done by the advertising agencies through the so-called creatives, who submit them for approval to their director and then to the owner or the executive director of the company for which they work.
It should be understood that, even if it is expressed in a simple way, the decision or the choice of a given advertising message is never the exclusive domain of a single person, but of a group of people.
From where, therefore, has come the primary impulse for the "sowing" of such ideas among the general public--since, apparently, the creatives are only the means? What mechanism starts in order that a group of qualified persons opt for this marketing choice of utilizing "alien" topics--which, among other things, has a noticeable cost on the budget of the company? Analysis and market surveys done to test the tastes or the expectations of possible consumers do not seem to justify this trend--at least in Italy. Perhaps at an unconscious level there are certainties of which the public is not aware?
Notable, in this regard, is the national magazine advertising campaign created by Ogilvy & Mather agency which combined AMERICAN EXPRESS CARD with the known personalities of Italian business companies.
The image of Michele Giglio, owner of a line of prestigious clothing stores in the country and also in Japan, projects a shadow which has been transformed into an alien with little antennas. In the background, a group of whirling UFOs hover in the sky. The logo leaves no doubt: ?We Are The Trend?. That is to say, UFOs and aliens.
What has driven the owner of a chain of upscale stores to transform, in part, his image to that of an alien? A particular experience ? A clear desire? No. The answer came out in a little interview: the simple firm belief that somewhere aliens exist. And if their images can be used for selling more clothes, O.K., why not !
In other cases, the mental association between flying saucers and advanced technology is played upon.
The German company SIEMENS, with a campaign created by the Publicis MCD, has advertised its mobile phones not with a close-up of its product but of a UFO.
Another German company, QUIX, a maker of advanced electronic diaries, advertised its product with aliens and UFOs.
The year 1999 saw a dramatic rise in advertising campaign using UFOs and the aliens. Dramatically, FORD advertised its car KA with the statements : "I have in mind only KA. I have in mind that electric green". To the side is the suffused image of two aliens, the so-called grays, in this case rendered in green for the chromatic needs well known to the people working in this field.
The information spreads, and the old-fashioned concepts about little monsters with antennas are abandoned, being replaced, in turn, with something that is closer to reality. The logo and image also suggest a telepathic experience -- a phenomena that has been denied by official science in Italy but experienced by everyone at least once time in a lifetime.
Rousing excitement and of great emotional impact is the AIR EUROPE advertising campaign, planned by the Armando Testa agency.
Its logo--"The Flight That Was Not" -- exalts the image of a huge UFO flying over the Milan Cathedral. Another ad has a UFO hovering near the control tower of an airport with the logo"extraorganized." And a third ad shows three UFOs illuminating a Boeing 777 from above with the logo "Air Europe Presents To The Galaxy Its New Jewel." This was followed by an imitative advertising campaign from ALITALIA with the logo: "Not Even A UFO Would Fly From Sicily To Milan 32 Times Per Day."
Excluding the ?te of the big and medium commercial companies, it remains the hard base of the small shops, where a narrow niche of market survive only thank to the willingness of the individual owner.
Among owners of small family businesses can often be found some protagonists of UFO sightings or even of alleged abductions. It is possible, if not probable, that this life experience is engraved in their mind in indelible way, and that it has conditioned thoughts and attitudes.
Thus, it would not be strange if these persons have then developed trade activities through the years that promote their experience. The logos of a commercial house printed on paper that wraps small packages or the neon image of the shop's sign is not, for sure, a visual advertisement of great impact. But it has some influence on a certain kind of consumer--one who becomes a client and acquires through the "counter chats" knowledge of the phenomena and the opinions of those who have lived the unusual experience.
In this way the UFO Baby, a shop selling items for newborns, is born, as well as the Laundry of the UFOs (Lavanderia degli UFO) and the UFO Bar, a nice place on the promenade of Salerno in Southern Italy.
Behind these names is hidden the more or less unconscious willingness to inform others of a lived experience.
Thus, thanks to advertising, members of our society influence each other, and, as the wave forming when a stone is thrown in the pond, the information starts to circulate among the people. (A valuable occurrence primarily in areas where the knowledge about the phenomena is poor.)
No book or scientist will ever be able to transmit to so many people the complex and much debated topic of UFOs as an advertising message is able to do. Thanks to advertising messages, UFOs and their occupants have entered our education, despite the fact that the more orthodox mind wishes to deny them.
Maybe the external pressure (sightings, testimonies, abduction, crop circles, etc.) and the internal pressure (cinema, press, TV and above all advertising) are slowly provoking a transformation in the consciousness of people--and perhaps subtly preparing mankind for possible future contact.
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