MARKETING MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT

SANIKA SHIRWAICAR
MC196044
5 BCOM IAF

This advertisement was released by BMW to warn the public about drinking
and driving. This advertisement has two components- one visual message
where there is a prosthetic leg and a written message which says “spare parts
for humans are not as original as those for cars”.
Advertisements are mostly published with the motive of spreading awareness
about their product, in order to increase their sales and their profits. However,
BMW published this Ad with no motive to increase its revenue, but solely for
the purpose of spreading awareness amongst the public about the dangers and
the consequences of drinking and driving. However, advertisements like these
tend to stay with people which would result in them thinking about BMW, and
this increases their publicity.
What makes this ad captivating is that BMW has kept it short and simple. It
does not require hours of thought going into the Ad, neither does it require a
few minutes of reading to understand the message. This quick sentence and
the image contains the entire message that BMW is trying to convey, and it
does not require much thought to go into it.
If this advertisement were to be literally translated, it would mean that
drinking and driving could result in accidents. These accidents could further
cause the person to get prosthetics, which are not made of parts that are
original for a human being. In other words, this Ad is blatantly telling us that
drinking and driving can result in very fatal accidents, which can cause you to
lose your body parts which will not be replaced with original human parts.
If a car got into an accident, it could easily be replaced with another original
part. For example, if the door was damaged, a new door could be fixed for the
car and there would be no difference from that and the previous door.
However, in the case of human beings that’s not possible. Once damaged, we
do not get to replace our body parts with another original, and the original is
lost forever.
If the advertisement is given a deeper look, it can be seen that the
advertisement only consists of the legs. The rest of the body is not shown. This
could have been done for two reasons, one of which is to grab attention to the
prosthetic leg. If the whole body has been shown, the audience might not have
noticed the prosthetic leg instantly. However, the advertisement could also be
trying to symbolize how other people would see that individual. They would be
focused on the prosthetic rather than the person as a whole.
All in all, this particular Ad gave the audience a lot to think about. Apart from
being the message and the image, it also included a BMW symbol, so every
time the public thought of the Ad they would also think about BMW which
would increase brand awareness, and as a result, their sales.