I was watching T.v today and I came across two commercials for the perfume/cologne entitled "Paco Rabanne- 1 million". I believe that the goal of this perfume/cologne ad is to persuade people to buy it and feel like " a million bucks" when they use it (as the title suggests). It shows the audience that if one was to use this perfume, they'd get practically anything they ever wanted.
There are two versions of this commercial; one for men and one for women, both commercials have it's fair share of the common male and female stereotypes.
Here is the link to the Male version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VPHVygoca4
and this is the link to the female version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1lP7scdurI&feature=related
These commercials have many of the common stereotypes of males and females.
For example, In the male version the male snaps his fingers and he gets everything he wants; he snaps, There's a car, A woman drops her clothes, a bag of money falls etc.
It shows the typical stereotypes that guys are interested only in money, cars and women.
What really got me thinking is how the commercial attempted to show Male dominance over Females.
He snaps his fingers and the woman loses her clothing... it makes it look like the woman is less than the man and that she obeys his commands.
Then in the female version: she snaps she gets several cars, she stomps and she gets tons of heels, she snaps again and she's surrounded in a sea of men. For me, the key highlight of this commercial is how a male gives her a diamond ring and she snaps and it grows in size.
There's a saying that "diamonds are a girl's best friend", when I researched the meaning of this statement a site defined it as "A statement that suggests, while love is a luxury, material wealth (particularly jewelery) is more valuable in the long run."
So it basically says that female's too are interested solely in material things as well.
For discussion:
1)How do you think younger audiences would react to this commercial?
2)Do you think these commercials are powerful enough to have influence over the
minds of younger audiences?
Perfume ads have always shown that "Rich playboy lifestyle" because people wear perfume to smell good so they can attract potential partners. The youth would obviously consider this brand, this is no different from other perfume ads. Are they powerful enough to influence the younger audiences? Not really, If they want perfume they'll consider it. The problem with this business is, the advertisement doesn't affect much. If the perfume smells like crap in the end, no one will buy it. This to me is more of a sterotypical promotion then a manipulation technique.
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ReplyDeleteWell it will make the younger children think about the perfume. It will make them think that this perfume is really powerful because you can get you what ever you want. I agree with Raahul's comment that the perfume don't smell that good and this is true in many cases. All these ads want to do is grab people's attention so they can sell their product. Younger audience can be influenced by this because they don't know much about advertisement and the actual product's results. This is the problem with ads, they are very powerful and make us think in buying their product which is not exactly shown in the ad. Overall, we as adults know what is true in advertisements and what is not but younger audience they don't, so they fall in this trap. I remember when i was little and i saw an advertisement about a new doll that came out. It could do so many things so i told my parents to buy it. When i bought it, i wasn't satisfied with the results because in the advertisement it could do so many things but in real life it belonged in a trash. The point is that younger audience get influenced by media faster than us. Whatever media tells them, most of them start believing it.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely some gender stereotyping going on here.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to add though, I remember watching a Seinfeld episode way back when where they described the male body as "like a jeep". Its kind of very durable, it'll get you places, but its not the most attractive thing in the world, especially when compared to the female body (at least in today's society. In acient greece, the male body was more valued.).
I also wanted to add this idea that diamonds are a girl's best friend representing the value of material objects greater than that of love seems very subjective.
Definitely the value of the diamonds are high, but those wishing to get married don't get the ring for purely the ring. They get it for the symbolism that the ring represents. (which, ironically, is the love).
First off, I think the generations that are coming up, are probably going to be more product based. What I mean by that is that, companies and the media will increase their advertisments and spread them out over a variety of subjects in order to get these younger audiences to buy their products. I think younger audiences would react in the way any young, hormone induced teenager would, the woman is hot and the man is handsome.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I think these advertisments do sway opinions, especially when there is a high profile celebrity or advocate to vouch for the products authenticity and performance. An Example is the new the Call of Duty game, where a number of celebrities are included to showcase that even celebrities play video games, but also that if a person is to buy that particular video game, they would do it subconcously by linking the celebrity to the product. The answer is yes, say hello to the new age is advertisings, coming soon to your dreams.
Materialism has become so dominant in today's society it's ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Raahul on the note that the youth may not be persuaded to buy the perfume if it doesn't smell good. But the producers of these commercials know this. Why else would they include all these stereotypes?
Looking at the bigger picture, when the man and woman snap their figures, similar things appear: a sleek car, lots of money and the opposite sex. Then we have the heels, the huge diamond and the ability to unclothe women.
This influences the youth to think that these are essential to becoming "big" because that is the norm in our society. People who possess these things (and looking gorgeous at the same time) are the ones with the highest statuses in society today. Therefore the "hormone induced" youth will obviously strive for that because they want to be at the top.
This comment is by Halimo Ghelle
ReplyDeleteHey let’s not forget these commercials aren't solely targeted towards younger audiences. I think that older audiences are also susceptible to being influenced by these commericals. Expensive fragrances such as this one are typically bought by adults considering that they have a higher income then those who are younger. Also gambling, cars etc. you typically need to be older (an adult) to indulge these activities.
^I refute on that last point. As bold as this claim may be, I believe that the accessibility to the activities and possessions mentioned has grown increasingly greater for the younger population in recent years. This accessibility in a sense has made the younger generation more susceptible to advertisements such as these. Consequentially speaking, I don't have enough evidence or a logical foundation to prove the implications for this phenomenon.
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