Ad Critiqual Analysis Of Skyy Vodka's Ad Campaign

The ad I have chosen to use for my Ad Critique assignment is one from Skyy Vodka’s ad campaign. This ad shows a young Caucasian man and woman spread out on a velvety quilted red couch, with money falling all around them. The man is holding a martini in his right hand, while his other hand is nowhere to be seen. The woman is thrusting her breasts into the man’s face, while holding a handful of cash. Both parties seem to be extremely elated, and there is a bottle of Skyy Vodka sitting on the table in front of them. The ad is clearly hyper-sexualized, but that seems to be the goal of the marketing director, Kathleen Schuart, who explains the ad as, “inviting us to take an optimistic view and reimagine the world around us… [whose campaign is] challenging

Objectification can be described as, “when a human is made into a thing with no value aside from its ability to be bought and sold”(Lesson 5, The Objectified Body). With the look of bewilderment on the woman’s face, and position on the man’s, the viewer gets a very strong message that the man is in charge. In terms of objectification of women this ad uses the women to instill ideas that if the consumer buys the vodka, they can become the man on top and in charge, or if a woman is viewing it, they feel as though they can become this skinny, blonde, perfect looking

It implies that only people below the standard of living would engage in something other than a heterosexual relationship or a relationship between different races, or of the same gender. As explained in Jean Kilbourne’s video, in the year 2000 thousand alone there was over $180 million dollars spent on advertising alone, which can only have gone up from then, and she estimated that consumers saw around 3000 ads, every day. But yet she also explains that all of us feel as though we are exempt from their effects (Killing Us Softly 3, 2000). These ads are taking an extreme toll on the wellbeing of everyone affected, which could be argued is most of the population. If these are the only relationships portrayed in these 3000 a day ads, then people who do not fit in with that assumption of a ‘normal’ and accepted relationship, will begin to feel lesser than those who