Sunday, September 15, 2013

Badvertising



A lot goes into the advertisement for a product. A lot of hidden, or sometimes not so hidden, messages about beauty, class, education, what have you. Advertisements are created to speak to us in ways that aren't always apparent, and can often be subliminal. This week in my pop culture class we were each given an advert from a magazine and had to break it down. What did the image, placement, text, etc say? How did it say it? Why did it say it? Like I talked about in my previous post, advertisers pray on the fact that people will always want something to make themselves feel good, be better, be more attractive, cool or smarter.

I got an add for a shaving cream, EOS shaving cream to be exact (the same people that make those awesome little egg shaped lip balms). The name itself, 'Evolution of Smooth,' states that this stuff is the top of the line, most advanced product in smoothness. It showed an extreme closeup of a really smooth leg with frilly, twirly writing that said something about making your legs smile. It was a very feminine ad trying to get women, who always want happy legs, to buy their product.

There was another leg shaving ad that was discussed in class that had a different idea and a different message. The other one showed a beautifully tan blond, in a gold dress and a gold room, clearly going out for a night on the town. She had a coy smile and was looking slightly down, the way you do when a cute guy gives you a compliment and you blush and look down. To me, this ad had an entirely different attitude. The first one made me feel like the benefit would be for myself alone. My body would be happy, healthy, simple and smooth. There were no connotations of a social life or sex or popularity. They both are very effective in selling similar products, but are clearly selling to different women.

Every time I think of advertising, I can't help but think of the Josie and The Pussycats movie and the extreme form of advertisement  present (subliminal mind control anyone?). Although the ads we encounter on a daily basis are not this bad, it is similar and can be dangerous waters when people people become too susceptible to these ads.






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