American Express - My Life. My Card Campaign

Report on a critical analysis on an advertisement ЎV What kind of imagery it uses and whether it is appropriate/effective

Kate, Ken and Mike ЎV Did they speak well for American Express?

Kate Winslet, Ken Watanabe and Mike Lazaridis. Their pictures and hand-writings appeared as an American Express Advertisement on the magazine Ў§The New YorkerЎЁ (Exhibit 1). How well did they manage to convey what the brand tries to tell the customers? In this report, I will analyze the kind of imagery the advertisement uses and evaluate the effectiveness of the imagery.

Imagery: A means to inform consumers of a brandЎ¦s meaning

Marketers try to inform the consumers of the brand meaning in a way that is interesting and creative. Images are therefore used in advertisements. The imagery chosen can convey the brand meanings in three ways, namely signal, sign and symbol. A signal shows a causal relationship between the image and the intended brand meaning; a sign shows a common association between the two; and a symbol tries to associate an image with its meaning in an uncommon yet understandable way. An effective advertisement is one successfully conveys a brandЎ¦s intended meaning. The imagery chosen is therefore understandable by the audience and is able to make them associate with the intended brand meaning.

My Life. My Card. ЎV What do American Express try to tell the New Yorkers?

The Ў§My life. My Card.ЎЁ campaign of American Express was launched in late 2004, in attempt to tell customers the brandЎ¦s Ў§newly acquired power to offer cards that are aligned with banksЎЁ (Wall Street Journal: 2004, B4). The company wish to communicate the brand as one which is able to provide a credit card which suit the customerЎ¦s unique lifestyle. The company offer wide range of credit cards to choose from, and consumers should find one that is their Ў§cup of teaЎЁ.

Kate, Ken and Mike: Do New Yorkers understand what they say?

Readers of the advertisement should not have difficulty in realizing the featured people are all American ExpressЎ¦ patrons. The imagery is a sign of the intended brand meaning, as there is a common association between