We are constantly surrounded by advertisements. They are displayed by public transport such as in trains and on the side of buses, along the roadside on the billboards and in shop windows. On the television, programs are actually interrupted for a commercial break. Even on the radio we continue to be bombarded! With so many products and experiences being advertised, similar groups of products have to be advertised in a way to make them stand out against others.
When products for men are being advertised, an aggressive pose, or a moody, tough demeanour in TV advertisements is often used. The whole idea of this is that aggressive men are quite often portrayed ‘tough’ and women are known as being attracted to men that are tough or that appear to be tough. An old 'Versace underwear’ advert, is a good example of aggression being used, the man is made to look aggressive because he is shown to be in a fighting - boxing stance, and he appears to work out regularly, shown by his ‘six-pack’. The underwear itself is topped by a band which looks like a boxing belt, which links to the pose and represents winning, giving the impression that you are a winner and become tough and popular like a boxer if you buy this product.
Similarly, in this Calvin Klein print advertisement, the model that has been picked also has the type of ‘six-pack’ body that probably most men dream of having. This makes the product of the perfume appeal to the target market of men because it gives the impression that if you wear this product you become the ‘man’ and will look great. Also, due to mediation, this model also has the body that women like, so this also makes the buyers of this product think that they could 'get all the girls' because they’re wearing this tough aftershave.
Using these methods of advertising such as the hot male model in nothing but his boxers is a commonly used technique to help to sell a product and make their message stand out. You can find examples of advertisements using gender to their advantage throughout the entire advertising business and also throughout the media.
The old moving image ‘baby love’ advertisement for Diet Coke would be a perfect example of a well constructed moving image advert designed to sell a drink product. Obviously the design colours of the Diet coke can are black and red writing and the rest of the can is silver, and the main colours that are used in the advert are silver, red and black. The man that is featured in the advert walks into a unisex clothes shop holding a can of diet coke which he drinks to refresh himself after being outside in the hot sun. The coke can that he is holding is always positioned so viewers can see the logo at all times. The man is wearing a black shirt, but is shopping for a silver one (the link with the colours) and when the woman who is standing outside the shop turns around to look at him through the window, after seeing him drink from the can, is wearing a red dress. The window she peers through has red writing on like the writing on the can, and the glass itself reflects the sun to appear kind of silvery. This gives an impression of the can, and also that the can brought the man and the woman together. This is backed up by the mans attention being brought round to the lady, by her opening her can of diet coke, again with the logo showing for publicity reasons. You can see in the background cars driving past all the way through the advertisement and they are all either silver or red coloured. This advert shows the attraction between men and women and they act around each other. (Really sorry, Unfortunatly I haven't been able to find a version of the advert ANYwhere! But it was 'Diet Coke - Baby Love' advertisement). However, here is a still taken from the very end of the advertisement:
Do you often see a male drinking a diet coke? Usually it’s a Pepsi Max. Men don’t drink diet drinks because they are commonly aimed at women who are trying to lose weight due to mediation putting out the idea that women should be slim. Men don’t wont to appear to be dieting because that means they have to admit to being overweight and far from perfect, so advertisers and the manufacturers of coke have had to come up with a way of kind of tricking overweight men to eat and drink healthier. This is where the product name of ‘coke zero’ came from. The product design itself is designed to look cool with the colours black, red and white being used. In the advert the advertisers tried to make the product look like an action drink rather than a diet drink. The whole action movie theme gives across the message that by drinking the coke zero products they will turn into some sot of action man, when the reality is just that a chubby man will lose some weight and not be embarrassed about it.
In advertising people control the standards of what adverts can be seen and which ones are not fit to be broadcasted. The ASA stands for ‘Advertising Standards Agency’. Their job is to make sure that all adverts meet the standards of the advertising codes. The ASA are an independent body which was set up in 1962 by the advertising industry to monitor the exceptions of the rules which where and still are laid out in the advertising codes. They stop misleading, harmful and offensive advertising. They also make sure that all sale promotions are carried out smoothly and try to help to reduce commercial mail that is unwanted. This includes mail that is sent through post, email and text messaging. They regulate the contents of advertising by following up complaints which may have been made about advertisements. Also they monitor adverts themselves to spot problems.
Some advertisers have really pushed the boundaries of advertising to the extreme and have been forced to withdraw their adverts. This Print advertisement was forced to be withdrawn because it was “Likely to cause widespread and serious offence to readers”. This advert was created in the first place to make a fashion statement far different from all others, and the quote ‘killer Heels’ was a visual witticism on the expression ‘killer heels’ and was designed for viral advertising in order to get the idea across.
Many advertisers try to embark on a ploy to create adverts to be purposely banned to create an effect between viewers of an: ‘oh my goodness, did you see that advert?’ approach to shock viewers and get the message behind the advertisement across easier, by creating an advert without limitations.
There are many ways of creating adverts to cause an effect on the viewers in order for them to get their message across. Shock tactics have been proven to be very effective through a way of viral advertising. The advertisers which push the boundaries of advertisement so far as to get the advert banned, I think are the only ones which actually manage to get the public talking and thinking about the state of the society at the moment and as long as they stay pushing the limits in the right direction, then I agree that it is right for them to do this.
No comments:
Post a Comment