The five adverts selected for the purposes of this paper primarily appeal to a sense of machismo (sexual desirability) as well as affiliation associated with the use of the respective products. According to Fowles (1998), the appeal to sex comes through in a subtle manner, which in turn makes the audience not feel as if it is being manipulated into buying the product, coupled by fact that explicit reference to sex risks obliterating the product information. According to Fowles (1998, p. 1), “there is always the danger that as in the case of sex, if the appeal is too blatant public opinion will turn against what is being sold”. This paper argues that the adverts rely on an illogical and subconscious emotional appeal, which makes sure that the consumer skips over the other considerations in making a purchase such as price and health benefits.
The specific adverts include the Philip Morris advert depicts a sexy couple cuddling up to each other. The beautiful woman is wearing a one-piece bathing suit has her head on the chest of topless and equally handsome man, who is drying her off at the beach. The woman’s bathing suit reveals her cleavage and the cigarettes pack is strategically placed close to her bosom (CR Editors, p. 835). This advert anticipates that men’s eyes would most likely wander towards the woman’s cleavage, even if the miss the headline that “Gently Does It”, which is why a packet of cigarettes is strategically positioned next to the exposed cleavage. The use of secondary headlines help to direct the reader’s attention towards the gist of the advert and product.
Similar appear to raw sexual appeal comes through in the National Dairy Products Corporation advert depicts a man looking at cooking pot with his wife looking on proudly. The advert includes a caption “what is for dinner duchess?” Further, the advert includes a relatively detailed explanation to the effect that using cheese makes cooking fun, and memorable experience, coupled by the company’s commitment to producing the latest there is in food. The advert also includes logos of the company.
The Marlboro advert depicts a cowboy with his horse, a symbol of sexual power and machismo with a cigarette in his mouth with a large caption in characteristic white font. The caption says, “Come to where the flavour is, Come to Marlboro Country.” The image also includes two imposing Marlboro cigarette packets in the foreground of the image (CR Editors, 867). The Marlboro campaigns come from a proud history of successful marketing that taps into “our values, our (not-so-hidden) desires, our yearnings for a different lifestyle” (CR Editors, p.836). The quintessentially taciturn and masculine man that Marlboro advert, as well as the Philip Morris, Bacardi Rum and Soloflex adverts, is meant to project masculine power that men subconsciously desire and would readily buy into. They represent distilled manhood and sense of perfection that may be impossible to achieve, but by consuming the product, the consumers gain a sense of affiliation to it.
This sense of affiliation is perhaps best emphasized in the Bacardi rum advert. This advert is a James Bond-style image of a handsome, gentle sitting at a table and pouring Bacardi Rum into a wine glass, with three beautiful women looking on. There are glasses of other drinks on the table, and it appears the ladies have abandoned their own drinks for both the gentleman and Bacardi. The advert includes a capture saying “Barcardi rum is so “mixable”it’s a one-brand bar,” coupled by a more detailed sub-text and a smaller close-up image of Bacardi pouring into the glass. The Soloflex advert also builds on the sex appeal to advertise the exercising equipment. It depicts a topless, muscular man with what appears to be a female’s hand caressing him. In all these adverts, there are deliberate emotional headlines embedded in the well-appointed images meant to appeal to the consumers’ inner and unfulfilled feelings (CR Editors 858).
All these adverts appeal to the “animal instinct” in the consumers by using the consummate images of male power and sexual dominance to manipulate them into wanting to associate themselves with the product. The influence generated by these adverts fosters consumerism and perpetuates sexual stereotypes. “It is offensive; it debases the language” (CR Editors 837). In the Philip Morris advert for instance, the subtext on the advert alleges that it makes good friends in fun making, while the Bacardi Rum adverts caption seems to suggest that it renders men so “mixable”. However, given the conservative nature of society several decades ago, most of these adverts push the very boundaries of sex appeal. In all the advertisements (except the Soloflex advert in which a lady is invisible), the women included in the adverts are curvaceous, young and sexually appealing. They are an object and a symbol of perfection that men not only desire, but hope to achieve by owning a piece of the product.
The need to aggress is also exploited by all the five adverts included in this review. The fact that the buyers’ actual lives are likely to be less ideal compared to what is depicted, these adverts serve as an escape for inferior consumers. If, for instance, one has difficulties in picking up women at parties, the Bacardi Rum, should help them feel like they are not inadequate after all. The emptiness of the value that Winn (1977) captures the advertised products. Marrie Winn argues that the consumption of television “distorts the sense of time and renders other experiences both vague and curiously unreal while taking on a greater reality for itself”. In the same way, Bacardi Rum, Philip Morris, Marlboro and Soloflex are only likely to render opportunities of consumers of actualizing the perfection that they hanker after, by consuming products that hardly lead them anywhere towards fulfilling their quest (Bindig 7).
Conclusion
All the five adverts included in this paper rely on the emotional and subconscious decision-making to achieve a purchase. All but one are meant to appeal to men’s animal instinct to appeal the opposite sex and be sexually dominant. It is evident according to Winn (1977), Courtland, L., Thill, Dovel, & Wood (2008) and CR Editors that consumers buy into a sense of identity with certain images as against the actual product. In these adverts, the marketers ensured that this happens by bypassing rational thought, and instead focussing on the base human needs such as sexual appeal, machismo, and the need to be, or belong with alpha males (CR Editors 858).
Works Cited
Bindig, L. (2009). Media Literacy in Eating Disorder Treatment. New York: AB-Longman.
Courtland, L., Thill, J., Dovel, G., & Wood, M. (2008). Making The Pitch In Print Advertising. In Writing & Reading for ACP Composition (pp. 514-8). New York: Behrens/Rosen.
CR Eds. (n.d.). New and Improved: Six Decades of Advertising.
Fowles, J. (1998). Advertising's Fifteen Basic Appeals. In M. Petracca, & M. Sorapure, Common Culture: Reading and Writing About American Popular Culture. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.
Winn, M. (1977). "Television Addiction". In The Plug-In drug . http://foothilltech.org/rgeib/english/media_literacy/thoughts/tv-addiction.htm.
Appendices
Figure 1: CR Editors, p. 835
Figure 2: CR Editors, p. 880
Figure 3: CR Editors, p.867
Figure 4: CR Editors, p. 871
Figure 5: CR Editors, p.886
