'Girl Friends'

And finally is ‘Girl Friends’ utilising Madonna’s ‘Like A Prayer’.


This ad focuses on female friendships and has a lot of clichés or common association’s people have with 'girl friends'. For example, trying on wedding dresses doing each other’s hair and even breast feeding. The ad plays on common experiences female friends have with each other in order to associate these happy or sentimental emotions with the brand. I feel like the ads are trying to communicate that Facebook is a tool to help people feel closer. However, the ads follow people in normal event in their lives big and small which has nothing to do with the brand. I think this tactic in advertising, were the brand is rarely mentioned, is effective in making the audience feel less like they are being sold something and more like they have the potential to enjoy the product or brand in this case a social network.

The ads have a strong ‘soft sell’ vibe which could appeal to youth culture more; Facebooks main priority target audience. (Quote about soft sell?)

These ads are essentially holding a rose coloured mirror up to the audience, making the social elements of life seem happy and meaningful. This of course promotes the brand in this way as well perhaps making audiences feel Facebook can help do this with their relationship especially if they are feeling disconnected from people. I personally feel some emotional response with this ad with the rue elements of the ad which reflect friendships.

The elements of normality shown in the ads may also be a reflection of Facebook suggesting that is now a social norm for people to have a social media presence. Therefore resulting audiences to feel disconnected when they don’t have one. The ads could also be viewed opportunities and experiences people share in real life is also shared online nowadays and people could certainly feel ‘left out’ if they don’t have a Facebook account. In summary I do think there is an argument of the ads feeling like a global mass co-operation peer pressure making people who aren’t online feeling alienated.