Your Advertisement

My ad is for Old Spice products. In this particular advertisement, football player turned actor Isaiah Mustafa is seen in the center of the ad, his body almost completely covered in snow. He carries a cheeky expression and holds Old Spice products in the bottom right side of the picture. The man is in excellent physical shape and is quite handsome. Mustafa’s body has been turned into a mountain scene. Men are attempting to scale him to the top of the “mountain,” where one man has reached “success” by placing a flag at the top. People are skiing and snowboarding off of his body and sledding down it. On the right side we see a ski resort, complete with a woman in a bikini standing in a hot tub. There is a ski lift and what appears to be polar bears pulling a sleigh. On the left side we see that the abominable snowman has appeared out of a cave and is chasing two men. One person is rolling down Mustafa’s shoulder in a giant snowball. At the bottom of the page the viewer sees the words “Make your man one of the freshest smelling places on earth. Old Spice.”

The magazine is originally found in People magazine, but in order to get it online, I searched google images as I do not have a scanner. The advertisement is specifically geared towards women since it says "your man," but the message is also for men, because there is the implication that Old Spice products make a man more desirable.The message to these women is clear. A men can smell as fresh as natural mountain air if he wears Old Spice. Aside from the spoken message, there are plenty of subliminal messages used to sell the product. Using a handsome, well-formed man implies that using the product will make any woman’s man just like the man in the picture. And when one explores further, it is evident that the activities taking place on this “mountain of a man” are “manly” activities, such as mountain climbing, snow boarding, and exploring caves. Perhaps any man could ski off of the very top of a mountain peak if he wore Old Spice. The word “success” at the very top also implies that success can be achieved through the wearing of this product. The great thing about this ad is that it speaks to either gender. Though the advertisement speaks directly to women and their desires, men are also targeted by this advertisement. The idea that a woman wants a man just like this one speaks to the other sex. Men may want their girlfriend to see them as manly and equate them to Mustafa. They may want women to think that they are “manly men” and can do anything this man, or any of the men in the advertisement can do. Maybe a single man could get a girl if he was like this. Could wearing Old Spice be the first step to becoming more of a “man?”

Elements of an Effective Layout

The analytical tool here is the elements of an effective layout, which are balance, proportion, movement, unity, clarity and simplicity, and emphasis. Combining all of these elements together when making a print ad helps the ad to be more effective and understanding to the viewer. The different elements all apply to the advertisement I chose, because each element is present in a way in my ad. Some of these elements are more obvious to detect than others, but I do plan to show in my paper how the ad follows these elements and is therefore an effective layout and an effective ad.

I think balance, unity, and clarity and simplicity are the most important elements when it comes to advertising. I also think it is important that the balance not be completely symmetrical so the image still has life and is interesting and lively. As the article says, informal balance makes the advertisement exciting and original and forceful. Unity is important because the ad must make sense together. Even if there is more than one component or image in the advertisement, it needs to make sense to the overall message. It needs to feel like one piece rather than a bunch of separate pieces crammed together. It all needs to tie in together. And simplicity and clarity is perhaps the most important, with the focus being on clarity. The message needs to make sense to the viewer. What the ad is trying to say should be clear and should not need an interpreter to figure out. The average person needs to be able to understand what is going on and connect both text and picture to the thought and product being sold. I feel that all of the elements are really important. I think that taking any of the elements out makes for a weaker ad, so I would be unable to say that I think any are the least important elements.

I do think all of the elements were fairly easy to understand, and they do not ruin anything for me when it comes to advertising. I have taken art history once in high school and once in college. This article is very much like the principles of design that are applied to art, which I have studied before. In a way I feel advertisements are a form of art, and it is only natural that these elements be applied to their layout.

Democracy of Goods

The article talks about the technique employed in the Ladies Home Journal in September 1929. It shows a rich family and details how Livingston Ludlow Biddle III is taken care of and given all the best life has to offer. His family is rich and can afford absolutely anything and he is a little boy of priviledge. However, Mrs. Biddle gives her son Cream of Wheat for breakfast and supper. It claims that the world's foremost child experts know no better diet, and it just so happens that Cream of Wheat is something everyone can afford. The article states that democracy is equal access to consumer products and describes ways in which different products were advertised showing that "any woman can" and "every home can afford" the products. It makes the product available and desireable to absolutely everyone, from the richest of the rich to the poorest of the poor. The idea is that even if a person had all the money in the world, they would still be purchasing the same thing they are buying today. This technique is still employed today. The ad that most obviously comes to mind is "The Most Interesting Man Alive" advertisements for Dos Equis. He doesn't usually drink beer, but when he does, he drinks that beer. He can do anything and everyone wants to be around him or be like him. But he drinks a beer that everyone can afford. It can be applied in my ad because even attractive men who are football players and actors, "man's men" use Old Spice. Out of all the products in the world, the Old Spice guy uses Old Spice to be the man that all women want to smell like.

Advertising

The advertisement that I found effective is one I saw while watching one of my favorite television shows. The ad was for XBOX. In it you see a teenager who has just opened a present. It is a plate with a gold Christmas design on it. He holds it up with a forced smile and says, "I love it.. how did you know?" The camera focuses on two grandmotherly women sitting on the couch across from him and one leans to the other and says, "Great job. Teens are so hard to buy for." 

The commercial changes to a picture of an XBOX. 

The commercial is effective because it incorporates humor into the advertisement, as well as being relatable to everyone. Who hasn't received a gift they would never have wanted or had no use for? In fact, it seems that the same people every year give us the same types of gifts and we always pretend we like it even when we don't. We learn to just accept things as they are and look elsewhere for the things we really want. After reminding the viewer of this feeling, it flashes to what the advertisers are trying to convince the viewer that what they do want is an XBOX. It also speaks to the older generation because right after saying that teens are hard to buy for, it shows what teenagers want, which tells them that it really isn't hard to buy for teenagers.

While I do not need an XBOX or have teenagers of my own, I feel that the advertisement was very affective for both the teenage and parent demographics.

The advertisement I felt was ineffective was about corn sugar. In the advertisement the speaker is a father who is carrying his daughter. He is not an expert, just the average parent. He says that he was a little confused about what he had been hearing about high fructose corn syrup, but that he learned from experts that whether its corn sugar or cane sugar, your body can't tell the difference. Sugar is sugar. Then it says learn more at cornsugar.com. 

The reason this seems ineffective is that for quite some time. The message that high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners are bad for you has been pounded into our heads over and over again, and from some highly reputable sources. It has been said that your body reacts differently to this kind of sugar due to how it is processed. So for a commercial to be refuting these claims, it would seem that the commercial is quite short. The claim is that sugar is sugar. It would have been more effective to include who the experts were or include statistics or reasons of proof. Most people are probably not going to go to the website to learn more, and the ad isn't all that convincing. An average person just says it is okay after all the expert research we have seen that says it isn't. A little more information should have been given for those who are unable or unwilling to delve further into the issue. The idea that corn sugar is bad has become part of our belief system, so to change that belief, the claim has to be strong in order to inspire a change. Now had the commercial shown a scientist making the same claim, perhaps the commercial would have felt a little more forceful.

I can't say it turned me off to the product altogether, I just feel that it was too weak of a commercial for the kind of claim it was trying to make. There has to be a very good reason for us to change our beliefs. This is why I feel it was ineffective.