Thirsty For A Lovely Aroma - Essay Example

This time the guy on this ad is holding the product and facing the consumers. His head is turned towards us while holding the perfume to show us how important it is to feel like a real man. “Dune Pour Homme” by Dior and Old Spices are two examples of Steve Craig’s argument about how advertisers manipulate men and reinforce the men stereotypes in order to increase perfume sales. “Dune Pour Homme” by Dior and Old Spice’s “Smell like a MAN,MAN” use visual stereotypes portraying the image of well-established men in a way that represents the consumer.

The thought processes, experiences and personality differ from person to person. That is why marketers divide consumers into various segments based on their demographics, psychographics and lifestyle attributes. They come up with advertisements that target a specific segment and throw signs that they can understand in a similar fashion. (Beasly and Danesi). Consumers can relate to these ads by reflecting upon the stereotypes present in them. These advertisements establish a persona of the brand.

This persona is established in the minds of consumers with the help of visuals and text. These signs combine together to give a single image of the brand and the personality it has. The personality of brand is close to the personality of its target market; its consumers. The ad shows that the perfume has a persona of freedom, independence, peaceful solitude, lack of concern towards normal life. This somehow represents that type of personality its consumers have or want to have. The first advertisement “Dune Pour Homme”by Dior offers stereotype of a young, sexy and heterosexual man.

The man on the ad appears in a youthful, glamorous sky magazine and it clearly signifies the target segment the ad caters to. The ad shows a man in his mid-twenties, sitting on a sand dune with clear blue sky behind him. It gives a picture of peace and freedom, which is something most desired by men of this age in American culture. There is a large bottle of perfume shown in the left side of the man, underneath which there is written “Essence of Freedom” in French. Together with the image and the line, they form a single idea of the product and the identity of this iconic brand.

The sexy image of this man attracts both the heterosexual men and women who wish their men to be sexy like him. The Dior ad talks about freedom. This particular ad serves the objective well. The young age of the man who appears to be in the ad, the light colours in the advertisement, the relaxed expression on the man’s face, the loneliness he has, seems unrestricted by normal life, the loose unorthodox attire that he is wearing; all give a notion of freedom. Dior ad shows a narcissist picture of men.

Writer Twitchell claims that it appeals differently in each of the individuals. Mr. Twitchell, in his essay “What we are to advertisers” talks about the different segments advertisers divide consumers into “Are you a believer” or a “striver”, an “achiever” or a “struggler”, an “experiencer “or a “maker”?”. According to the Values and Lifestyles system, the market segment that Dior ad caters to lies in the innovators group. And will these narcissist models be a role models for raising children?

Million teenagers see the ad and cannot wait for a chance to be discovered. Clear example of that is shown in chapter six (96) of “The Narcissism Epidemic”, where Jake Halpern writes that the need of becoming famous in our decade is very intense “