A Single Advertisement

In our society today a business is not a business without an advertisement. These advertisements advertise what American’s want and desire in their lives. According to Jack Solomon in his essay, “Master’s of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising,” Jack Solomon claims: “Because ours is a highly diverse, pluralistic society, various advertisements may say different things depending on their intended audiences, but in every case they say something about America, about the status of our hopes, fears, desires, and beliefs”(Solomon). Advertisers continue to promote the American dream of what a women’s body should look like. They advertise their products in hopes for consumers to buy them, so they can look like the models pictures in the ads. Behind these ads, advertisers tend to picture flawless unrealistic woman with the help of Photoshop. In our society today to look like a model is an American dream and can be the reasons why we fantasizes and buy these products being advertised. “America’s consumer economy runs on desire, and advertising stokes the engines by transforming common objects;signs of all things that Americans covet most”(Solomon).

In Jib Fowles article, “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals”, he shows us fifteen ways commercials try to appeal to people around our country. The need for sex, need for affiliation, the need to nurture, need to aggress, need to achieve, need to dominate, need for prominence, need for attention, need for autonomy, need to escape, need for aesthetic sensations, need to satisfy curiosity, and physiological needs. These needs are all how companies appeal to our needs to interest us into buying their product. These appeals can be seen in almost every

Picture a long, stressful day where an avalanche of work completely exhausted your energy. The only thing worth looking forward to is coming home to relax while tuning into your favorite television show. In between the show, a commercial comes on to propose an energy drink built to help overcome those prolonged and demanding days at work. Advertisers are known for creating the most influential and effective way to launch their products to the general public. In the article “Men’s Men and Women’s Women”, author Steve Craig suggests that advertisements rely on stereotypes in order to manipulate consumers. Likewise James Twitchell, author of “What We are to Advertisers” strengthens Craig's reasoning by discussing the methods of persuasion that capture their respective audience’s attention to create a good commercial and sell a product. Both authors focus on the different techniques used by the advertising industry. Through their supporting demographic and psychographic evidence, they utilize advertising to show a strong correlation between each other. By using subtitles both authors explain the distinctive stereotypic profiles that are formed just from advertisers constantly examining the target audiences in order to create a connection with the product and the consumer. Twitchell reinforces Craig's position by introducing the different types of profiles advertisers target and be recognizing the effects of the method pathos and logos has

In an essay written by Jim Fowles, “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals” he says advertising manipulates individuals to buy things they do not need. Advertisements use many emotional appeals such is the need for sex, escape, aesthetic sensation, satisfy curiosity and guidance. Today, Calvin Klein advertisements captures majority of individual’s attention. It is a well-known brand and expensive. It is known for their jeans and underwear. Calvin Klein apparel, underwear, shoes, and accessories can be found and brought online stores, malls, and outlet malls. Many famous celebrities and musician artists posed for Calvin Klein’s advertisement campaigns, wearing Calvin Klein jeans, shirts, sweaters, jackets, bras, purses, and underwear. Calvin Klein

     We live in a fast paced society that is ruled by mass media. Every day we are bombarded by images of, perfect bodies, beautiful hair, flawless skin, and ageless faces that flash at us like a slide show. These ideas and images are embedded in our minds throughout our lives. Advertisements select audience openly and subliminally, and target them with their product. They allude to the fact that in order to be like the people in this advertisement you must use their product. This is not a new approach, nor is it unique to this generation, but never has it been as widely used as it is today. There is an old saying 'a picture is worth a thousand words,' and what better way to tell someone about a product

The rise in advertisement played a key role in the rise of consumption. Thanks to well-developed advertisement campaigns, America redefined what a necessity is. Advertisers encouraged Americans to actively work towards maintaining a high social standing. “Advertisers made no secret of their intention to promote novelty for its own sake, in the hope that consumers would exchange perfectly serviceable goods for goods that conformed to the latest fashions” (Lasch, 2000). Consumers devoured this advertisement scheme and began to rapidly increase their spending. Many advertisements for common, household products made claim that they could make the normal appear comparable to the high end. For example, Lux, a soap company, ran an ad in 1920 that depicted two women talking - one of the women complemented on the other on the quantity of sweaters she owned, only to find out that it is not a new sweater, but rather her old sweater that Lux soap made it look brand new (Lux)! Men and women alike began to believe

In the end, both men and women will try to obtain these things, and buy stuff in the advertisement that fulfill their fantasies. The advertisement wants to make the audience start to spend their money to obtain these pleasure as what the advertisement say or show, and without realizing it, the consumers will spend plenty amount of money for stuffs on advertisement which they do not really need. As a accounting major, this is a efficient way to make money since majority of the society sees advertisement

Furthermore, I distinctively believe that this ad relies heavily on pathos to attract buyers. I believe this because sometimes people, women especially, believe that they are too overweight or too slim to look good in

In an average day, an American is exposed to over 3000 advertisements, (Kilbourne). Whether they want to admit it or not, they are drawn toward them. A common scheme of the advertisers is to allow the consumer to “picture the new them.” Whether this be a wealthier them, a skinner them, or a prettier them, they gear there product towards every person and want everyone be able to connect with the advertisement and picture the “new them.” American Idol, Nutrisystem, and The Biggest Loser, the lottery, and many other “products” promote that anyone has the chance to be famous, fit, or fortunate. The successes from these “products” present themselves as they were before, with the sob story that hopefully touches a nerve with

Taking the popular Old Spice commercials as an example, the public is metaphorically beaten over the head with the idea that the narrator ## is a “man” because he is physically fit, he has a deep voice, and holds no associations with what would be considered an effeminate male. He is typically depicted in a shower, nude from the waist up, and continuously talking to an understood female viewer and target market, telling them that he is desirable and insinuating that he is what the men in their life need to be. These advertisements suggest that to be desirable a man should look, talk, act, and essentially be the narrator and that all they need to do so is to purchase and use Old Spice products. The idea the level of physical fitness is common amongst American men is extremely

Almost everyone is exposed to advertisements when they are children. Ads are everywhere and they make people feel a certain way towards what they are trying to sell even if the people involved feel unaffected. Ads are supposed to do this and can make their audience feel happy, but there is a chance that they will do the opposite. Many ads make men feel like they are not strong or tough enough. A study done on the effects of media images from magazines on the body and self-Esteem said, “Men’s Health and GQ both focus primarily on men’s bodies and send very overt messages about what men should look like. Therefore, it may be very easy for men who read these magazines to feel as though they do not measure up” (Hobza, Cody L., et al. 168). Ads in magazines or on tv don’t usually show men crying or talking about their emotions with their friends because that is something men are not supposed to do; instead ads show them being strong, tough, and emotionally stable.

Advertising techniques have changed and along with it, the impact they have on each individual’s mind. While there are some similarities between the different kinds of advertisements we see today, there are also many differences. Advertising has also become more unethical than it was in, let’s say, the 50s. Not all advertisements are brainless; there are a few that are even creative and fun and just pull the target audience in by

Representations of men in media have a different approach—they tend to focus on strength, power, physique, independence, etc… The first ad portrays a clearly athletic, strong, male individual. His expression is one of determination and focus—He’s not going to let anyone get in his way. He is aggressive, and overflowing with testosterone. It is unclear what the product is, something to do with athletic performance. The next image is fitted with the caption “Always A Champion”, making it simple to realize this ad is all about the male ego. This man has a very intimidating expression, one of strength and—almost anger. His positioning shows off his clearly muscular arms and his aura is almost overpowering. In both images, the idea that a true man should be strong, aggressive, etc… is presented. For any normal male individual viewing this ad, he would feel like that is what he should be—if he was a “real man”.

Every day, Americans are surrounded by countless advertisements. On the way to work, billboards and radio ads bombard the senses. Most ads are quickly forgotten while others stick with the audience. What makes some ads memorable and others forgettable? The product may be visually appealing, from a desirable brand, or presented as a solution to the viewer’s problem such as anti-aging cream for wrinkles. Such is the case for an ad for The Venetian resort and casino in Vanity Fair, a high-end magazine. Featured in the ad is an older woman sitting invitingly on a luxurious white bed with bountiful pillows. This ad may appeal to a high socio-economic class of viewers with a desire to belong in a high-class society in accordance with a term called snob appeal (134), coined by Stuart Hirschberg, the Associate Professor at Rutgers University. The argument suggests advancing age will not interfere with having fun by targeting a specific audience, using unconventional visual appeals, a logical text structure, The Venetian’s status to establish credibility, and opportune timing.

In this first advertisement, soccer great David Beckham is pictured looking through the camera at the viewer of the ad. This specific ad works well to reinforce the myth that one’s happiness depends on his or her social class. He is in a state of thought and is dressed in a suit with a watch sitting comfortably on his left wrist. The watch is the same as the featured watch to his right, the Bentley 05 Unitime, a watch that retails for just about ten thousand dollars. Behind the watch there is a Bentley, a luxury car available starting at around one hundred eighty thousand dollars. These two extremely expensive things represent the idea that one will become truly happy if they possess both the car and the watch, or at least just one of them. The ad is situated on what looks like to be the runway of what looks like a private airport enclosed by mountains on both sides. The clouds in the sky are a balance between dark and light. Also, the ad features lettering that identifies and describes the watch. The wording at the bottom left of the ad boasts about the watch’s quality by using words like; style, performance, luxury, accomplishment, class, etc. In today’s time and age, these words are synonymous with how happy a certain individual is. Society views people that have these or possess these qualities as happier than those who do not. Overall, this ad sends the message that the people with the most class, style,