Marcus Miller

I really hope this isn't a dumb way to do this:

Multimedia assignment:

“Multimedia” is the New Black

The examples of the use of the word “Multimedia” I found most interesting were when it was associated with corporate initiatives or campaigns that are trying to modernize a brand name. Although this attempt to capture a youth audience with “hip” (Levere) marketing tactics is mocked for its dated and out of touch execution, companies like Pepsi-Cola, Frito-Lay and Levi Strauss in the 1990’s utilize the emergence and popularity of multimedia as a concept as a buzz word for their products being “high-tech” when they haven’t actually changed. This tendency for companies to try and use multimedia or more generally social trends to market their products to younger audiences through association is indicative of their attempt to capitalize on any immediate societal phenomena, regardless of corporate interest or relevance.

The articles discuss Frito-Lay’s and Levi’s initiatives to rebrand their products through advertising campaigns that focus on multimedia and association modern 90’s technology to rejuvenate their older products. The advertising campaigns are “directed at young adults from 18 to 22” and focused on product association. Levi’s “Lost but not lost” campaign depicted young people in “exotic locations” with Sony “portable CD player[s] and digital video camera[s]” to strengthen the idea that Levi jeans are part of the “equipment for modern living”. The jeans themselves are obviously not directly related to modern 90’s technology. The article point this out by saying that the main difference between “old, reliable Levi’s” are only different from the new line in their “positioning”, not any sort of functionality or design. Similarly, the “relaunch of the Doritos trademark and franchise” (Elliot) takes heavily from the film industry, mimicking the marketing of blockbuster films; "Frito-Lay presents a Doritos brand production," rated "PG" for "Profits from great taste". This ham-fisted association with popular media shows the tendency for these larger corporations to try and associate their products with relevant social trends as a marketing tactic, even when the association is obviously forced. Association with multimedia gave the illusion of modernity to older products, although the implementation only exposed the ineffectiveness of such a forced relation.

Both these marketing campaigns not only associated their products with multimedia, but used the developing media sphere to distribute their messages. The 1993 Doritos campaign was the largest Frito-Lay had ever done, $100 million dollars for television and movie placements, give-aways, billboards and their first commercial spot during the Academy Awards with celebrity endorsements. The distribution of the product name through multimedia, as well and contextual references and associations with media at large tries to strengthen the connection between multimedia and the corporate product, even though Doritos have next to nothing to do with the film as an art or an industry. As well, Levi Strauss created an entire web series, following the jean-wearing teens in their exotic adventure, distributed on lostbutnotlost.com through images and amateur-styled videos. Their campaign combined “both traditional and new media” (Levere) in an attempt to tap into the new internet market while still utilizing the more traditional print ads and spots.

In both instances, the corporations stretch the functionality and purpose of their products to associate themselves with multimedia as a concept in an attempt to appear relevant and rejuvenated, and utilize the growing media sphere of the 90’s to advertise their products to new demographics and in new ways.

Works Cited

Jane L., Levere. "THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING; Levi Strauss is putting its Silvertab line on               hip people in exotic places in a multimedia campaign." New York Times, The (NY) 24 Aug. 2000: 8. NewsBank - Archives. Web. 5 Feb. 2016.

Stuart, Elliott. "THE MEDIA BUSINESS -- ADVERTISING; Taking a chip off Pepsi-Cola's block, Frito-               Lay gets ready for a multimedia blitz." New York Times, The (NY) 25 Mar. 1993: 21.                    NewsBank - Archives. Web. 5 Feb. 2016.