Girl Power at Guinness

In 1982, Guinness launched its “No Beer Comes Near” campaign, featuring a woman’s red lips sipping a Guinness. This ad was coupled with another ad saying “Every girl needs a little black drink.” These advertisements reached out to females during the age of “girl power” to remind females that beer is not just for men. 

Activity #5 Value Paradox

According to Mooij, a paradox is a statement that seems contradictory but is actually true. When there is a paradox of a value in an opposing value system, it is considered a value paradox. A simple example of such a paradox would be anti-war groups rioting to bring our soldiers home from Iraq. The value system of the anti-war group is essentially to have peace over anything else, but in certain scenarios, the only way to achieve peace is by acting violently.

I found this commercial regarding Occupy Wallstreet. Occupy Wallstreet Advertisement
In the ad, Americans from every walk of life talk about what they want out of the government and politics. This to me represents a freedom paradox. We, as Americans, are "free" to do whatever we want, yet the government controls everything that we do. This commercial represents a "Freedom is not free" sort of mindset that is so true to American culture.

The example I feel is best for representing a paradox from Ireland is Guinness's "Good for you" advertising campagn. In the modern world, we are very aware that alcohol of any kind causes many health problems when drank in excess, yet Guinness advertises that drinking their product will make you feel good, and therefore be good for you. This paradox can be viewed in many different lights. First, alcohol consumption does often put people into a good mood, and can therefore actually make you feel good. Second, our tour guide Ida revealed to us in Dublin that Guinness actually is high in iron, which is literally very good for you. Back in the day, Guinness was actually used as medicine to treat various health conditions and even given to women immediately after childbirth to boost iron levels.

Activity #8 Interbrand.com

The top 10 Brands of 2011 were; Coca-Cola, IBM, Microsoft, Google, GE, McDonalds, Intel, Apple, Disney and HP. I found it interesting that all of these companies are based out of the United States. I also noticed that of the top ten brands, Apple is the only company that had not previously been a top 10 brand in 2012 and Nokia was the only brand that had dropped off the list between 2010 and 2011.

All of these brands, although based out of the United States, all have headquarters/ventures in other nations. All of these are considered international companies, without which they would not be the most powerful. As I spoke about in previous posts (Activity #2-Virtual Visits) Coca-Cola alters its advertising to the lifestyle and culture of each nation, while companies like Apple keep a standard advertisement around the world. McDonald's seems to do a little bit of both, keeping the themes of its ads the same, but delivering the ideas to the applicable audiences in a slightly different manner.

Activity #9 Value Map

For this activity, I chose to do advertisements by McDonalds. Because this franchise exists in every nation in the world, I knew I would be able to find advertisements for many different nations. Here are two McDonalds commercials, from Ireland and from the United States.

Link to Irish Commercial: 100% Irish Beef
In this commercial, McDonald's is advertising the fact that all of their meat is "home grown" and they know exactly where it all comes from. The techniques used in the advertisement make it so that viewers are not concerned about what is in what they are eating and that it is safe. Also, having the names of the farmers in the advertisements allow for consumers to connect with the product and gain a sort of trust in knowing that McDonald's is producing healthy food and jobs to the Irish community.

Link to US Commercial: McDonalds US Beef-Extended Edition
While the Irish ad for "home grown" focuses more on natural beef and health, the US ad focuses more on how keeping the beef American improves the quality of life and and job market in the US. This is linked back to the families of the farmers and the structure of farm life that is deteriorating in the technological age.

Activity #6 Personality

Personality Factor à	Neuroticism	Extraversion	Openness to Experience	Agreeableness	Conscientiousness
Specific traits of factor  ê	Anxiety	Warmth	Fantasy	Trust	Competence
	Hostility	Gregariousness	Aesthetics	Straightforwardness	Order
	Depression	Assertiveness	Feelings	Altruism	Dutifulness
	Self-Consciousness	Activity	Actions	Compliance	Achievement Striving
	Impulsiveness	Excitement Seeking	Ideas	Modesty	Self- Discipline
	Vulnerability to Stress	Positive Emotion	Values	Tender Mindedness	Deliberation

Upon careful analysis of the personality traits in the Five-Factor Model by Costa and McCrae, I had a lot of difficulty classifying my own personality. I can rule out Neuroticism, because none of those traits describe me at all. I feel as though my personality fits mostly into the extraversion and conscientiousness category with a dash of agreeableness. I would say that this is a relatively accurate description of myself as a whole. I am very out-going and positive, but always do the “right” thing and prioritize my life. I am above all a social being but have very strong roots in being responsible, caring or others and striving to improve my personal future.

This activity lends itself very well to describing the personality of beer companies. Ireland is known for Guinness, so one would assume that the personality depicted by Guinness advertisements is indicative of the personality of Ireland as a whole. 

I feel as though the inviting and slightly sexual nature of these specific ads qualify as a extraversion personality. This advertising campaign reaches out from the norm of beer advertisements, and focuses on women consumers, rather than males. This also adds to the attention and excitement seeking qualities that make this campaign extroverted in personality. 

Guinness advertisements scream a level of confidence and social acceptance. They advertise as if they are the best beer out there, and nothing comes close. This just further proves the extraversion in the personality of the company and Ireland as a whole. Before I looked at other beer advertisements from other parts of the the world, I decided to look up Carlsberg, another Irish beer, and see if its ads portrayed the same confident, social, extraverted personality that Guinness did. I found that the ads expressed confidence in their beer being the best and promotes being social, just like Guinness. 

I decided to compare these two beer advertisement campaigns to Budweiser in the US and Heineken from the Netherlands. I feel as though the gragarious trait of extroverts is expressed the best in all nations in the Budweiser and Carlsberg and Heineken advertisements. All advertise getting together with friends and promote being social and extraverted.

Activity #4 Magazine Advertising

The magazine I compared for this assignment was Cosmopolitan. Fortunately, I was able to purchase the Irish version of the magazine and had the American issue at home to compare it to so there would be no discrepancies to advertising contracts between different publishing companies.

It is obvious just by comparing the covers of the magazine that they contain different articles, but in the true nature of Cosmo, I cannot say that they are all THAT much different. Even if the articles in the Irish version are not the same in THIS issue, I can recall most of the articles in previous issues of the American version that I've read. (After all, how many different things can you truly say about sex, women's health, relationship problems and fashion?) The celebrities on the cover of the Irish version are girls that I don't recognize and the fashion is slightly different (although we'll probably be seeing similar styles in the US in the future) but for the most part, at first glance, the magazines are very similar.

The advertisements inside are almost identical between the two versions of the magazine. There is an Herbal Essence ad that it the same in both. The majority of the advertisements are for skin and haircare products, make-up, perfume and designer clothing lines. Most of these are the same, if not similar between the two, and even in the slightly differing ones, they do not express any different cultural values. I would assume that this is due to similar cultural dimensions between the two nations.

When visiting Ireland, it was very clear that there were less-strict censorship laws regarding sexual advertising. When comparing the magazines' contents, however, I noticed that the American version contained more articles of a sexual nature than the Irish version, where the Irish version had more articles regarding relationships. I feel as though in the US, because sexual censorship is so strong, people are more likely to buy a magazine with more risque content than in Ireland where consumers are constantly surrounded by it. This is also interesting when comparing relationships between couples in the US to couples in Ireland. The divorce rate in American is 50%, while in Ireland it is 27%. These articles may reflect the relationship status of our nations. The Irish issue helps women work on healthy relationships, while the American issue focuses more on short term relationships and sexual gratification.

I did find the Swedish version of the magazine online, but unfortunately for the sake of the assignment, the language barrier prevented me from interpreting the contents inside.

Activity #3 Hofstede Cultural Dimentions

Country	Abbreviation	GNI/cap	PDI	IDV	MAS	UAI	LTO
United States	USA	34,870	40	91	62	46	29
Ireland	IRE	23,060	28	70	68	35	43
Sweden	SWE	25,400	31	71	5	29	33

The United States has a lower than average power distance, a very high individualism rating, a slightly masculine society, a average-slighly weak uncertainty avoidance and is a very short term oriented culture. The low PDI indicates that most Americans consider themselves equal, and any social inequality is slight (most likely the very poor and the very wealthy) This allows for relationships between employers and employees, parents and children, and teachers and students to be more on the casual end, with more social interaction than in a high PDI culture. Ireland and Sweden have even lower PDI scores than the U.S. revealing that their societies are even less hierarchal based and individuals are considered more equal. These nations are more likely to be open to entrepreneurship because markets are constantly changing, in contrast to a culture with a high PDI where established companies will be more successful based on good reputations.

All three of these cultures are considered to be individualized. The USA, however has one of the highest out of any nation. I feel as though this can be credited to the way we raise our children to "be whoever you want to be" and to stand up for yourself. Unfortunately, this mindset is imprinted in young children and usually manifests into selfish behaviors and thinking. We most definitely live in an "I" conscious society, where we are all always right and every other belief is wrong. This is counteracted by the universalistic behaviors that are so common in out society. We tend to gravitate towards peers of our same manner of thinking and beliefs, allowing us to believe that everyone feels the same way that we do. This has made us intolerant to other cultures and beliefs.

Both the US and Ireland are more masculine societies than feminine. This accounts for "The American Dream" where we all work really hard to achieve the ultimate success. Due to Ireland's similar MAS score, and talking to locals while on the trip, they appear to have the same mindset. Sweden however, is a very feministic society. The values in Sweden revolve around improving the quality of life and caring for others.

All three nations have below average Uncertainty avoidance ratings but the US has the highest of the tree. In just comparing the US and Ireland, I can see a huge difference in emotional behaviors. Here in the States, everyone is so overcome by emotion at all times. People are easily offended and angered by little things that realistically mean absolutely nothing. In Ireland, everyone is much more easy going and tolerant in comparison. If Sweden's UAI rating is even lower than Ireland, it can only be assumed that they would be even more tolerant nation with a lack of strong emotion.

Of the three countries, Ireland has the highest LTO score, but it is still below average. This is surprising to be because I felt as though Irish culture was very long-term oriented. At meetings that we went to while on the trip, it was made clear to us that a majority of government investment goes to education to create a better future for the nation as a whole.