Have you ever seen an advertisement for a product and could immediately relate to the subject or the product in that advertisement? Companies that sell products are always trying to find new and interesting ways to get buyers and get people’s attention. It has become a part of our society today to always have products being shown to them. As claimed in Elizabeth Thoman’s essay Rise of the Image Culture: Re-Imagining the American Dream, “…advertising offered instructions on how to dress, how to behave, how to appear to others in order to gain approval and avoid rejection”. This statement is true because most of the time buyers are persuaded by ads for certain products. I have chosen two advertisements that look different, but are selling the same products. The brands have different perspectives and different audiences. One is a Durango boot advertisement and the other is an advertisement for Ariat’s line. The Durango ad is a picture of two people, a man and a woman, on red rocks like the ones in Arizona and New Mexico. The male figure is in a bent knee, crouched position, wearing sunglasses, a cowboy hat, a brown leather vest, a white tank top and blue jeans with brown boots. The female figure is laying in front of the male figure, …show more content…
blocking his right leg and arm. She is also wearing sunglasses and a cowboy/girl hat, but is in a purple floral kimono-type cardigan with a white tank top underneath and cutoff jean shorts (that the viewers can barely see) and red boots. These two people are not looking at each other, they are looking in opposite directions. At the top of the ad “Durango” is written in big white western style letters and that is the only text in the advertisement, which gives viewers little to no information about the product. The second advertisement is for the clothing and boot company Ariat.
Their advertisement is of a rodeo bronco rider being thrown off the bronco, all the viewer can see of the rider is his back side and you can barely see his face. The rider is wearing what looks like a white long-sleeve shirt with a black protective vest, a pair of blue jeans and chaps, as well as boots and a cowboy hat, somewhat similar to the Durango boot ad. At the bottom corner of the advertisement is Ariat’s symbol and to the left of that in white western style font, “There’s nothing a few bone screws can’t fix”. I think this is telling viewers that if they put these boots on they can do anything and only end with minor repercussions that can be easily
fixed. There are cultural elements to both these advertisements as well, the Durango advertisement would appeal to the people who wear cowboy/girl boots, work on a farm or outside and maybe people who ride horses and the same would go for the Ariat advertisement, although, you could add people who participate in rodeos or enjoy going to them. Both of these advertisements would most likely show up in a western clothing magazine or a magazine such as “Horse Illustrated” or “Western Horsemanship”. The Durango advertisement would definitely relate more to viewers and buyers who were more interested in the look of the product versus what they could do with the product, whereas those who are drawn more to the Ariat advertisement are probably more risk takers or who want a durable product. After doing a little research on these two companies, Durango specifically sells boots unlike Ariat, who has clothing, boots, tack for hoses and much more. This explains a bit about their advertisements, the Durango advertisement is exclusively to show their only product, their boots and are appealing to viewers who only want boots, using only (good looking) human subjects in their advertisement. The Ariat advertisement, on the other hand is appealing to all their buyers, the horseback riders, their clothing and boots/footwear. Even though this specific advertisement says “Ariat Boots” at the bottom right corner, the company is trying to appeal to all the buyers who would be likely to buy all their products. These advertisements use specific selling tactics to persuade viewers to buy their products. For example, the Durango advertisement uses the female subject for sex appeal to get the idea to viewers that if you wear Durango’s boots you will look like that and feel good about yourself. The fact that there are not any other “western” aspects of this advertisement comes off to me as Durango is more interested in selling the look of the product and not the durability or the “tough-ness” of it. The Ariat advertisement is the exact opposite, it puts the fact that the product (the boot) is durable and tough first and its primary selling point to show the viewers. The subject (or person) is more in the background and the product is right there in the foreground there for all the viewers to see. The individual advertisement I chose for Ariat has some downside to it. Bronco riding in rodeos is extremely dangerous and just because someone wears a pair of Ariat boots, jeans or shirts will not make them good or even up to doing it. Also, participating in rodeo events, especially bronco riding is dangerous and you could get hurt way more than just breaking your arm and getting “a few bone screws”. In conclusion, both these advertisements that I have chosen are portraying the same product, but in differently ways. The Durango advertisement is focused on the actual product and displaying it on models. Whereas the Ariat advertisement I chose displayed the product in a different way, it portrayed the lifestyle of someone who would wear and buy that product. Ariat’s main audience is those who work on a farm and those who want durable products that will last them a long time. This is where the product versus passion comes in. If you were a potential buyer looking for boots and you wanted pretty looking boots, one would be drawn more to the Durango advertisement because sexy looking boots on sexy looking people is enticing. This, versus a buyer looking for a boot that will last long and will be tough, one would be drawn to the Ariat advertisement because it is about what they do not how they look doing it.
“What We are to Advertisers” by James B. Twitchell is a short article that emphasize how advertisement attracts audience magically. From the quote, “ Mass production means mass marketing, and mass marketing means the creation of mass stereotypes” James points out of how the world appear to be. The advertisers seems to be psychologically abuse to the public for them to be successful in their industry. Base on the way the society act, dress and thinks, we fantasize something ridiculous and only our imagination can only make it close to a reality. With that in mind, the industry of advertisements will immediately think of a way to try and sell their product to us.
Advertisements are one of many things that Americans cannot get away from. Every American sees an average of 3,000 advertisements a day; whether it’s on the television, radio, while surfing the internet, or while driving around town. Advertisements try to get consumers to buy their products by getting their attention. Most advertisements don’t have anything to do with the product itself. Every company has a different way of getting the public’s attention, but every advertisement has the same goal - to sell the product. Every advertisement tries to appeal to the audience by using ethos, pathos, and logos, while also focusing on who their audience is and the purpose of the ad. An example of this is a Charmin commercial where there is a bear who gets excited when he gets to use the toilet paper because it is so soft.
In a consumer-driven society, advertisements invade the minds of every person who owns any piece of technology that can connect to the internet. Killbourne observes that “sex in advertising is pornographic because it dehumanizes and objectifies people, especially women,” (271). Advertising takes the societal ideology of women and stereotypes most kids grow up learning and play on the nerves of everyone trying to evoke a reaction out of potential customers, one that results in them buying products. Another point made
There are many denotations in this ad. There is a man, three women, bags, sides of buildings, a chair, writing on a window, a sidewalk-like walkway, a bottle of Southern Comfort, some white lines, and two lines of copy. The first line of copy reads, "Your free time may have changed. Your drink doesn't have to." The second line reads, "Hang on to your spirit." There is also a division in the ad, the top two-thirds of the ad being the photo image and the bottom one third being a black background.
The world we are living is a fast paced ruled by the media. We are surrounded by images of, perfect bodies, beautiful hair, flawless skin, and ageless faces that flash at us every day. These images are constantly in our minds throughout our lives. Advertisements select audience openly and target them with their product. The advertisement is implied in order to be like the people in the advertisements you must use their product. This approach is not new to this generation, but widely used today. The advertisements grab people attention and persuade them with the appearance of beauty and happy women that looks sophisticated to people eyes.
The reason behind my thinking of the ad with the victim as the main point is that the image is right in your face the second that you see the ad. You see a person missing half of their face
In a rising economic marketplace, advertising industries convey to consumers the idealistic values of wants and needs of a product that appeals to people. In most cases, the characterization of women in local ads portrays negative and sexual acts. A particular advertisement that contributes to the delusion of women is the Body Language Sportswear ad. Through basic discriminatory messages that often get hold of the individual’s attention. The advertising company entertains, persuades and influences people as well as sending subliminal communication. This advertisement convinces audiences by promoting essential mixtures of visual depictions of images, unrealistic body perceptions that affect young adolescents. This creates a relationship between the subject and the object. The connection between both constructs identity. In addition, the economic, social, and cultural components tie with it. So essentially people define themselves through the products they value the most. The purpose of this advertising is to promote products in which people are unconsciously affected by their emotions. Generally this can impact a person’s psychological way of thinking. This can result in a loss of self-esteem which can show from their personality trait. These advertising businesses are very controlling. In other words, even the littlest products they commodify play a significant role in an individual’s needs. The advertisement subtly promotes female stereotypical image based on objectification, and a growing demand in consumption, accompanied by the publicized merchandise to sell and influence viewers.
From the moment that America has been established, this country has been forced to make our own products. However, in order to sell these products, one must discover the best way to put them on display for anyone to purchase. What better way is there to sell something if you advertise it? From huge industrial LED signs to small yard displays, America has been selling its products for years this way. These very effective ways of telling others to “come buy our product”, have been seen all over the world. Whenever people see an advertisement for anything, that idea or product that they saw is the most prominent thing on their mind at the time. Advertisement has been manipulating the human mind in various
Advertising in American culture has taken on the very interesting character of representing our culture as a whole. Take this Calvin Klein ad for example. It shows the sexualization of not only the Calvin Klein clothing, but the female gender overall. It displays the socially constructed body, or the ideal body for women and girls in America. Using celebrities in the upper class to sell clothing, this advertisement makes owning a product an indication of your class in the American class system. In addition to this, feminism, and how that impacts potential consumer’s perception of the product, is also implicated. Advertisements are powerful things that can convey specific messages without using words or printed text, and can be conveyed in the split-second that it takes to see the image. In this way, the public underestimates how much they are influenced by what they see on television, in magazines, or online.
A Comparison of Two Advertisements Introduction Advertising and media are part of everybody’s everyday life, with or without them realizing. Each day we see adverts on the television showing us new lifestyles that look glamorous, we hear adverts on the radio, we see slogans emblazoned on people’s clothes, on the side of buses, on billboards, everywhere!! Big companies know that they need to make their product appeal to as many ‘niche markets’ as possible and they do this by ‘audience segmentation’. This is when companies make an advert so that it would appeal to one type of person, and then another advert for the same product but for a different type of person. Although it is hard to know exactly when there target audience will be watching, companies will spend lots of money researching.
image the advertisers have included, there is also a humorous statement regarding the cost of the
In “Beauty… and the Beast of Advertising” Jean Kilbourne argues that advertisements sell a lot more than just their products: “They sell values, images, and concepts of success and worth, love and sexuality, popularity and normalcy” (1). Kilbourne states that in advertising there are two types of women, “Housewives” and “Sex objects”. Kilbourne calls the sexually objectified women “a mannequin, a shell” because their beauty is flawless, they lacks all of the imperfections that make people appear human (2). Kilbourne also states that these women are all skinny, often tall and “long-legged”, and youthful (2). She claims that all “beautiful” women in ads obey this “norm” (Kilbourne 2). Kilbourne strongly states that advertisements lack the sense
Stuart Hall, “Cultural Studies: Two Paradigms” from Media, Culture and Society, Raymond Williams and E.P Thompson summarize about the way they saw culture, they refer it to the way of life and saw mass media as the main role in capitalist society. Williams’s perspective, his ideas was referred to culture as to social practice, he saw “culture as a whole way of life” and as to structuralism that makes the concept of the “structure of feeling“(Stuart Hall, “Cultural Studies: Two Paradigms” 1980). William was influenced in the seventy by Gramsci’s but, Williams became familiarly with Gramsci dominate and at the end of the 1970’s hegemony became the central concept of cultural studies. Thompson main idea was cultural focus, but mostly on social
Advertising is an essential phenomena of the media and modern life. It is a profitable industry which affects our life as well as our lifestyle. Most of the advertising campaigns tend to attract the attention of the people by exposing them to what they believe is the most important marketing strategy. Strategies that will influence, manipulate, and attract many people, primarily women. Every day we come in contact with many advertisements that enlighten our society through its information; in magazines stuffed with models, billboards on the highway, actresses and celebrities on television, the message of what women should look like is everywhere. The unrealistic standard of beauty that women are bombarded with every day, gives them a goal that
By being a consumer in a world of diverse products and services, it has given us a wide range of choices. A product may be produced by different companies and has the same function, but it is presented to the consumers in different forms. In order to differ from each other, companies use the help of advertising to present its product in a better way than their competitors’. However, advertising the product is becoming more crucial than the product itself. Companies are focusing more on making the brand more popular, rather than actually improving the product that they offer. By turning the advertisement competition into a war between companies, they mislead buyers by hyperbolizing their products positive features, thus hiding the negative ones. Companies forget about the effect they have on the consumers. Consumers should be aware of the manipulative tricks that advertising uses like subliminal messages and brain seduction in order to not be misled into buying something that they do not really require. By knowing how to manipulate the audience and consumers’ brain, companies use tactical methods in order to persuade specific customers to buy specific products or services. Other examples of techniques they use are techniques like puffery which are suggestive claims about a product, using subliminal messages and transferring information indirectly, as well as by targeting a specific group of people, creating a slogan or a mascot and by using sexy models with perfect bodies, advertising tries to manipulate and persuade consumers into buying the product they are offering.