Analysis on Benetton’s Advertisements
Analyse and comment on the controversial nature of the Benetton’s
adverts paying close attention to the race issues and the most recent
death row campaign
"Images are fast replacing words as our primary language. They define
our ideas of beauty, truth, and history. In our age, the
photographer, not the philosopher is king."
(From Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light)
What kind of advertising company would depict images that convey
messages which are totally opposite from the purpose and nature of the
company itself? What kind of advertising company would cause
unnecessary pain and distress to the ones affected by the disturbing
images of which the company wishes to illustrate? Well whether you
were for or against it, Benetton Clothing Company portrayed troubling
images, which were hated by few and later praised by many. The main
objective of an ad is to promote the purpose of what the company
desires to do. I will be looking at three Benetton adverts for which I
intend to analyse.
The quote above identifies a critical change that our society is
currently in the midst of. Advertising has become the single largest
source of visual imagery in our society today. No matter where we
look, we see advertisements trying to sell us everything from food to
cars. We see images of youthful, beautiful people enticing us to
spend our money on products we think we need, hoping that by
purchasing the product we too may reap the benefits of owning it. Not
long ago however, an Italian clothing designer named Luciano Benetton
changed the face of advertising forever. Instead of showing
Benetton’...
... middle of paper ...
... the man to be put to death with no information
about the crime, trial, or possible innocence of the accused. What
possible purpose can these images serve with such little information
given?
In conclusion I do not pretend to know the true motives behind these
ads, but who says that a corporation cannot have good intentions. I
believe that in our society today we should try to open our minds to
consider the possibility that these ads are a real attempt to help the
world and not another corporate attempt at consumer manipulation. The
three ads I analysed were all controversial and raised awareness on
racism, suffering and accusations on all people being criminals. Not
only in my mind did they raise awareness but they succeeded and
achieved the utmost attention from the public whether it was negative
or positive.
This advertisement features Pathos, because the little boy in the advertisement will probably make people feel guilty, because they spend a lot of money on unnecessary things and waste it, but this child says “Don’t I deserve a happy life?”, and this will probably make people from our society want to spend money to support this cause. This advertisement also features patriotism, because it suggests that purchasing this product will show the love, and support you have towards your country. This company makes people from America want to support this cause. It says in the advertisement,” Help stop child poverty in America”. This advertisement also features Transfer andWeasel Words because it uses positive words, and positive images to suggest that the product being sold is also positive.
Adidas and Under Armour’s advertisements are similar but sell a different product and sell in different ways. Adidas and Under Armour use pathos to sell as well. This essay is about why they use pathos, how they use pathos, how they sell it with pathos, and what the visual is in the advertisement, and does it work.
Advertisements are one of many things that Americans cannot get away from. Every American sees an average of 3,000 advertisements a day; whether it’s on the television, radio, while surfing the internet, or while driving around town. Advertisements try to get consumers to buy their products by getting their attention. Most advertisements don’t have anything to do with the product itself. Every company has a different way of getting the public’s attention, but every advertisement has the same goal - to sell the product. Every advertisement tries to appeal to the audience by using ethos, pathos, and logos, while also focusing on who their audience is and the purpose of the ad. An example of this is a Charmin commercial where there is a bear who gets excited when he gets to use the toilet paper because it is so soft.
Visual advertisements are straight and to the point for some people. People do not take into account the visual messaging going on throughout the ad. It takes companies a considerable amount of time to create advertisements that are somewhat appealing to the human eye. By adding bright colors and large letters the ad will grab anyone’s attention. In fact, people will be able to see it and read it from a distance better. To show that there are many of small details in a visual advertisement, look at the Old Spice Matterhorn shower gel advertisement.
The video describes how our society may not even care about the product being advertised, but we still read the billboard or watch the commercial. Also mentioned was the use of colors in a commercial, the marketing effects in politics, and even market research obtained by studying different cults. Frontline takes an in-depth look at the multibillion-dollar “persuasion industries” of advertising and how this rhetoric affects everyone. So whether this is in the form of a television commercial or a billboard, pathos, logos, and ethos can be found in all advertisements.
For this paper, I looked at two ads that I found extremely powerful. The first ad has a picture of a woman who cannot be recognized at all, with a picture of what she used to like in the bottom left corner of the ad. The ad states that “not everyone that gets hit by a drunk driver dies.” Thus revealing the woman as a victim of a drunk driver. The second ad that I have selected was a picture of a parking stall for handicapped drivers. The ad has in bold white letters “Every 48 seconds, a drunk driver makes another person eligible to park here.” These ads are both powerful in their own sense, however, the ad with the victim of the drunk driver strikes me much harder than the one with the handicapped parking stall. Although both of these ads use a strong sense of pathos to get you to feel bad for those affected by drunk drivers, the ad with the picture of the victim has a much stronger effect.
Dove is a personal care trademark that has continually been linked with beauty and building confidence and self-assurance amongst women. Now, it has taken steps further by impending a new advertising strategy: fighting adverse advertising. And by that it means contesting all the ads that in some way proliferate the bodily insufficiencies which exist inside women. Launched by Dove, the campaign spins round an application called the Dove Ad Makeover which is part of the global Dove “Campaign for Real Beauty” which has been running ever since 2004 and covers print, television, digital and outdoor advertising. As Leech (1996) believed,” commercial consumer advertising seems to be the most frequently used way of advertising.”
For my semiotic analysis I chose to talk about a commercial for ‘Be delicious’ from Donna Karan New York to demonstrate how advertising generates its meanings, construct the image and behaviors ideology in order to attract customers.
Analysis of an Audi Car Advertisement Advertising is a media form which aims to seek huge influence over
Julia Roberts, an actress known for her role in the 1990 film Pretty Woman, was recently featured in the 2011 Lancôme advertisement that has since been banned by Parliament in the United Kingdom for being misleading. The ad, which was intended to promote Lancôme’s Teint Miracle foundation, has gone under extreme scrutiny over the internet for its evident digital alterations. Collages of the advertisement and un-photo shopped pictures of Roberts, as well as articles expressing their distaste with the beauty industry, have all circulated in response to two ads that have recently been produced by L’Oreal, the company who owns both Lancôme and Maybelline. (Poulter, 2011)
Television commercials are television programming produced by any organisation to provide message in the market about their product or services. It is one of the most popular methods to attract customer and provide them information about their products or services.
Advertising generally tries to sell the things that consumers want even if they should not wish for them. Adverting things that consumers do not yearn for is not effective use of the advertiser’s money. A majority of what advertisers sell consists of customer items like food, clothing, cars and services-- things that people desire to have. On the other hand it is believed by some advertising experts that the greatest influence in advertising happens in choosing a brand at the point of sale.
appeal to men in the same way. This is the reason why women appear as
Most of the time, when an advertisement is made to be racist on purpose, it is done so for the sake of humor. However, to the people that are affected by racial discrimination, it remains incredibly hard to view these advertisements in a humorous way. A source from Desginmatic.com says, “The idea that racism in advertising can be of good may be laughable. However, there’s a major difference between the multicultural marketing practices of the 1920s and today’s racial stereotyping in advertising” (desginmantic.com). This is basically saying that although today’s advertisers believe that we still live in a culture in which advertisements like these are actually acceptable and humorous, they need to realize that we do not and that these advertisements are not only unamusing, but they are extremely insulting as well. The effects of racism are often one
A man is shown upside down; viewers instantly notice his bright blue eyes, pink lips, dark brown hair, and perfectly white teeth. However, when viewers turn their heads to the side to get a better reading of the upside-down lettering above his chin, which states, “You’re not you when you’re hungry” (Snickers), they can see that the reality of the happy smile is quite creepy. The man’s supposed smile is actually a deep frown, and his teeth appear awkward and large coming out of his bottom lip. The message is clear: you simply are not you when you’re hungry. What viewers are unaware of is the propaganda they are being subjected to while viewing this ad. In this advertisement, advertisers are primarily targeting people’s “physiological need” for food in order to