Impacts of Advertisement on Product Biases

Shayna Andrus

VISA 1500

Assignment 1, Part A

This advertisement, made by Nature’s Bounty, was spotted in downtown Kamloops BC on the back of a bus on a popular route. Advertising vitamins with the slogan “Stay well Canada” playing on the nature of the natural health industry and the implications of national health during Covid-19. This ad is well balanced and uses the rule of thirds to draw your eyes from the product and back around to the branding and slogan. The use of colour contrast with a warm and vibrant orange in the background and a bright white for the product is also used to direct the eyes of onlookers. Buses provide good exposure to advertisements, especially for everyday products such as vitamins. Buses provide a wide spread of location as well as good daytime exposure via traffic and daylight. I would argue firsthand that this ad was partially effective as I subliminally picked out B12 vitamins at the grocery store after snapping this picture. I hadn’t thought much of the content when I snapped it, I simply thought “There! An ad for my assignment.” and without having it at the forefront of my thoughts I picked up some B12. I did not put two and two together until I sat down to complete this assignment. I say I was partially impacted, as I went with another brand based on previous brand biases and loyalties. I was not fully swayed. Curious about why this was, I dug further into the brand I bought versus the brand being advertised and discovered that the brand I purchased, Jamieson, is a Canadian company, whereas Nature’s Bounty is owned by Pharmavite LLC, an American company based in California. Could it be that as a Canadian I have been exposed to more Jamieson ads than Nature’s Bounty and that impacted my decisions?  

Sources: 

https://www.jamiesonvitamins.com/pages/about-jamieson 

https://www.pharmavite.com/who-we-are/