As you've read or learned through other marketing classes, there are different methods used in advertising to drive awareness or influence behavior - humor, fear, sex, community, nostalgia, and creating an emotional connection. There are several companies that do it very well, but also some that do a really bad job.

For example, when Dos Equis came up with the idea for the most interesting man alive, they almost passed on the chosen actor to go with somebody younger. But how could the most interesting man alive have done all of these interesting things if he was so young? The campaign was a huge success using humor to build awareness around a brand that wasn't well known, and has brought it into the realm of competing with Corona which was one of the only mainstream Mexican beers in the market.

Another great example is American Express creating Small Business Saturday. This campaign helps boost the communities people live in by driving sales at small businesses after Black Friday. While it is primarily still promoted through AmEx, they've expanded it with celebrity endorsements like Lin Manuel Miranda in an attempt to create a new unofficial 'holiday'.

There are also several bad ad campaigns. McDonald's once ran a campaign that would show one of their products with the tagline 'I'd hit it.' Either they didn't fully research their use of slang terms, or thought they could change it to a play on words. But the campaign was not well received, and while it probably didn't stop people from eating at McDonald's, it did give them some negative press.

For this discussion, think about an ad campaign that you think is done really well whether it was inspiring or funny and complete the items below:

• Post the ad picture
• Why the company used it
• What the meaning was or what it was promoting
• Why you think it's a good representation of the brand or successfully heightened awareness or influenced behavior.

Do the same thing above for a campaign that was bad and explain what was wrong with it and what impact, if any, it had on the company. Both parts of this assignment must be completed to receive full credit.

You can choose campaigns from your own experience or if you're unfamiliar with campaigns, AdAge and other sites online have compilations for you to choose from.