'Advertising doesn't sell things; all advertising does is change the way people think or feel' (Jeremy Bullmore). Evaluate this statement with reference to selected critical theories (past and present)
Advertisement holds a very strong place in our modern society, it has the power to convince people to buy or not to buy products, it’s used as a tool to make us desire something or aspire to be like something. We are literally surrounded by advertising from everywhere we look big brands dominate our modern day society.
'Publicity is different, it appeals to a way of life we aspire to, or think we aspire to but have not yet achieved. A publicity picture suggests that if we buy what it is offering, our life will be different from what it is.' (John Berger - BBC 2 documentary - Ways of seeing - advertising)
Advertisement can be seen to manipulate values and aspirations of people who feel the need to buy a product with the intention of gaining this better lifestyle seemingly promised by the advertisement agency. Vince Packard wrote. 'If you just keep your wits about you and deploy your common sense. Anyone thus armed will not be moved by the false premise of advertising, nor led into temptation by it other blatant stimuli, however expertly concocted they may be: the motto that you can't forget, the jingle that won't leave your head or the endless hints that your too fat or too scrawny, pale or pimply vulgar, flakey headed, dull or stinky, or just "out-of-date".'
This statement that was written in Vince Packards book hidden persuaders really explores the darker side of the advertisement industry. This book was published in 1957 and nearly 60 years later this statement is as relevant as it ever was. The statement is right to a certain extent though, the nature of adverts these days has changed from back then, now we have adverts in a whole range of mediums all deploying different subversive and subconscious techniques to draw us into a product. its easy to say all you need is common sense to not be drawn in, I feel these days there is a lot more subtlety to adverts that often go un noticed by our consciousness.
'Most of us honestly believe that advertising does not affect us very much. Even though we watch it, hear it and see it every day, all of us feel instinctively that it is we who make the decisions, and the advertising contributes little to the process beyond let ting us know about an occasional new product or promotion.' (The Hidden Power of Advertising - Robert Heath, page 12)
The perfume business is a massive industry with many different brands and fragrances to choose from, this creates a very competitive market where advertisement of a product plays a massive if essential part of the sale of a product. With specific examples in mind advertisements are there to ultimately make you buy a product or an ideal, these days it isn't as simple as just showing a product its about creating a stigma around the product that will make you want to buy it, for the purpose of fitting in or that it will enhance your life in some way. Chanel have released a new advert for their No. 5 perfume, what’s unusual about this advert is that they have Brad Pitt modelling for a woman's fragrance, this is the first time Chanel have released an ad campaign like this. On the other hand though this isn't anything that hasn't been seen before, the advertisement is still presenting its viewer with aspirational ideas, it’s just doing it the opposite way round. The advert suggests this is the sort of men you will get if you wear this perfume. It introduces an already existing and well known preconception of a dream man to sell the perfume. The advert comes with the strap line 'Inevitable" which could mean a lot of things to the viewer, it could even suggest it is inevitable that you the consumer are going to buy this perfume.
Another example of perfume advertisement comes from Gucci by Gucci, from a glance a similar advertisement selling a very similar product. This time we have a woman, which in turn puts across a slightly different message to that of the Chanel advert. Beauty attraction and glamour are the key features of this advert, they create an ideal that that they evoke onto the consumer making them believe they can gain something from the products. As John Berger puts in his BBC 2 documentary Ways of seeing - advertising "publicity is the process of manufacturing glamour." (Ways of seeing - advertising 1/4, youtube.com)
The advert presents the viewer with a very attractive glamorous looking woman, the use of rich colours suggests the richness of the fragrance and the vintage style. The model is holding an oversize version of the perfume, which is clearly a device that has been used for effect on a subconscious level, suggesting to the consumer value for money, which plays more into the hands of a wider target market of consumers. This could almost been seen as a complete contrast to the initial points I made about the image.
Television advertisement for perfume use exactly the same techniques of their still counterparts. An advert specifically in mind that truly embodies what the perfume advertisement industry is about, is the Chanel No5 advert starring Nicole Kidman. This advert was most expensive ever made with a budget of 33 million dollars. Nicole Kidman was paid 3 million dollars to act in the 2 minute long commercial. The advert is made in the style of Moulin Rouge, coincidentally the director Baz Luhrmann was the director of Moulin Rouge. Which also starred Nicole Kidman.
From watching the advert for the first time you get the sense it’s more of a movie trailer than a television commercial, the only real give away is the occasional flash of Chanel branding on the side of the buildings. The advert follows Nicole Kidman as this superstar actress, said to be 'the most famous in the world'. She finds herself running off with this stranger who has no idea who she is, where she finds peace and normality in contrast to her other life. The advert in true style of Moulin Rouge is very over the top and extravagant, despite this though the messages are quite subtle as the advert evokes more of an emotional response, with there being a great deal of subconscious advertisement throughout. This Chanel advert really epitomises the perfume and beauty advertising industry. At no point in the movie/advert is the product shown, this just goes to show the idea of selling a lifestyle to the customer rather than an actual product.
Herbert Krugman developed a theory called the low attention processing model, the theory identifies that adverts are designed to work on a low level of attention due to how we has humans watch television and the effect it has on the activity of our brains. as quoted by Herbert Krugman, 'Television is a medium of low involvement compared with print.' (The Hidden Power of Advertising 2001- page 19 Herbert Krugman)
Looking into clothing, specifically Diesel adverts we can see the exact same way the product is sold. In this particular advert their whole range of clothing is being sold the viewer, from watches to shirts. Within the advert they have incorporated a relevant issue in the form of global warming to fit with the advert to give it a theme. Diesel have pushed forward this ideal that even in a time of crisis like global warming you'll have this perfect life, this works on a subconscious level for the viewer. Daniel L. Schacter professor and chair of psychology at Harvard University states,
'You may think that because you pay little attention to commercials on television or in newspapers, your judgments about products are unaffected by them. But a recent experiment showed that people tend to prefer products featured in ads they barley glances at several minutes earlier - even when they have no explicit memory for having seen the ad.' (The Hidden Power of Advertising, Robert Heath, 2001 - page 14)
To put this into context Judith Williamson has analysed an advert for Goodyear tyres to the point of the unconscious level and advert can portrait to a viewer from a basis of its appearance, juxtaposition and connotation. In the advert features a car on a jetty and its message is basically that Goodyear tyres last a long time and are safe, with a reference to safe braking distance with in the advert. Judith Williamson explores the advert on a deeper more unconscious level that the viewer of the advert might not even know they are experiencing. She explains the jetty in the advert resembles the outside of the tyre, a mental nudge is made with this by having tyres attached to the jetty. Williamson explains the jetty is protectively surrounding the car in the middle of dangerous water, making this visual connection helps us to make a resemblance from the jetty to the tyre enabling us to believe what is true of the jetty is also true of the tyre. That it is strong, tough and withstanding of water and erosion. (Decoding Advertisements, Judith Williamson - 2005, page 18)
From making you believe in the integrity or potential of a product advertising uses other techniques to persuade the consumer to buy a product. With advertisement regarding the beauty industry you predominantly see persuasion techniques that are more along the lines of the promise of an improved lifestyle, weather this be regarding sex life or social status advertisement agencies will aim to draw the customer in using this sort of technique. With other industries advertisement isn't particularly used in this sense. More than often you see examples of advertisement used as a tool to entertain make you think or to shock you. By using these sort of techniques can give an advert a lasting impression with the viewer.
Sex plays a massive role in the advertisement industry, the saying goes, 'sex sells' as this has become the basis of a lot of advertisements for some time now. It started around the early 1900s when tobacco companies found using images of nude women on their advertisements significantly boosted sales. Researchers found seeing an attractive man or woman in an advert excites the areas of the brain that make us buy on impulse, bypassing the sections which control rational thought.
We as consumers are fed messages through adverts promoting products that if we buy into them we will be rewarded with our desired fantasy. Obviously adverts are not as direct as this, but this is the intended effect on the consumer. Models are used in adverts to give an idea of perfection to the consumer, with an association to this product makes the viewer’s feel by wearing the product (in this case perfume), a desire comes to be like or become the model. John Berger says, 'to be able to buy something is the same thing as being sexually desirable', this reinforces the idea of being able to sell sex.
Durex are well known for their tongue in cheek and very creative style of advertising, looking at some of the Durex adverts they almost come a across as explicit, which is a technique they use to shock people to give their adverts a lasting impression. Being a manufacturer of condoms there are lots of possibilities to explore within their advertisements, from sexually transmitted diseases to child birth control. A Durex advert that particularly caught my attention is one that explores the birth control side of condoms and is basically comparing the price of a pack of condoms to the price of a baby seat. A very simple but effective idea that is taking a very light hearted approach to quite a serious situation. The advert contains no pictures of the actual product because it doesn't need to, the actual advert doesn't even contain any text so although the message is fairly obvious it uses the interpretation of the viewer to make sense of the advert. Most of the Durex adverts contain little or no text which is essential for putting a quick and sharp message across that will have a lasting impression, not to mention the fact that a lot of adverts are only very quickly glanced at half the time on billboards or in magazines. Making an impact in that very short space of time is essential for the sale of that particular product.
'All advertisement does is change the way people think of feel' this statement written by Jeremy Bullmore could not be more apparent for the message trying to be conveyed by the quit smoking campaigns. Although this isn't strictly advertising in the traditional sense considering the campaigns completely contradict the whole point of advertisement, as in instead of trying to make you consume the point is to try and make you quit, with the exception of some adverts offering a product. In this sense the idea is not to trick us into believing in something that will improve our lives, it something that will actually improve our lives. The most used technique in quit smoking adverts is the shock factor of showing a direct result of smoking, often in the form of discussing imagery.
An advertisement that a particular stand of for me is the NHS hooked advert, which shows an image of a man with a hook through his mouth. The advert successfully puts across lots of different messages by way of using shocking imagery and statistics. The text in the image states that the average smoker needs over 5000 cigarettes a year, which in its self is quite a shocking fact, coupled together with a graphic image of an ill looking man with a hook though his mouth makes the initial impact of the advert very strong and serves well for its purpose. The effect of a quit smoking advert is different to that of perfume, an advert can't make you quite if you don't want to.
'Advertising doesn't sell things; all advertising does is change the way people think or feel', To an extent i agree with this statement I feel advertisement does change the way people think and feel but it does at the same time sell people this idealistic world that consumers aspire to buy buying products, weather it is perfume, condoms or cigarettes. Adverts are designed to change the way people think about themselves, Berger says in his video Ways of seeing, advertising - 'it will make us in some way richer even though we will be poorer by having spent our money' in this sense it does change the way we think as consumers.
Bibliography
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C525FnMFSBI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmgGT3th_oI
http://www.businessinsider.com/most-expensive-commercials-2011-6?op=1
http://www.aqr.org.uk/indepth/summer2005/page7.shtml
http://www.marketing91.com/advertising-theory/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hidden-Persuaders-The-Vance-Packard/dp/097884310X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359453237&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0199228019/ref=rdr_ext_sb_ti_hist_1
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2040218/Sex-DOES-sell-Attractive-men-women-ads-affect-capacity-rational-thought.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/sex-sells-so-charities-should-use-it-to-their-advantage-8145096.html
Decoding Advertisments - Judith Williamson, 1978 - 659.1
The Hidden Power of Advertising - Robert Heath, 2001 - 659.1
How Advertising Works - Colin Mcdonald, 1992 - 659.1
The Hidden Persuaders - Vance Packard, 1957
The Powers of Persuasion - Winston Fletcher, 2008
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