Advertisers Want You!
Blog Post #7
An advertiser’s goals is to get consumers to buy their product. They create their ads to appeal to certain types of people: men, women, heterosexuals, homosexuals, old, young, etc. Companies like Diesel, Rolling Rock, and Levi Strauss & Co. all have advertisements that display these things.
In Malcom Gladwell’s essay, “Listening To Khakis”, he highlights how Levi Strauss & Co. takes a different approach to advertising to promote Dockers, new men’s khakis. A lot of the clothing advertisements you see for men, show skin bearing women and or men. Instead, the Dockers ad takes a different approach. Dockers are selling “conformity” and “male friendship” to make men feel comfortable about the clothes they are buying (50) . They appeal to the men that are more average and care more about their family and friends then the clothes they buy.
Diesel jeans advertisements show more of a sexual side. They use advertisements that show skin and very good looking people to catch the attention of their audience. In the advertisements above and below you can see the different between the Dockers advertisement and the Diesel jeans advertisement.
In the “Sample Image Analysis” the Rolling Rock Beer Ape commercial is dissected to reveal the satire of the ad. The ad displays how a party is boring as well as a man until the Rolling Rock Beer Ape arrives. The women are drawn to the Ape because of the beer. Men are drawn to drink this kind of beer because it shows that attractive women will want to be around them. Drinking beer will spice up a party and not leave it to be boring. Here is a video of the Rolling Rock Beer Ape advertisement.
Advertisers catch the attention of their viewers in a variety of ways. What advertisement has gotten your attention?
First of all, I am so glad that you posted the video for the rolling rock beer ape commercial. After reading the student essay, I was so curious about the commercial!
I think that Gladwell’s article was very interesting. I never really thought about the difference between men’s clothing ads. I like how Docker’s takes a different approach to trying to sell their clothing instead of the sex sells thing that pretty much every other company does. I feel that Docker’s has a wider audience and buyer because it applies to all ages, unlike the Diesel ad which probably only attracts men up to age 40.