Ad analysis: Gucci with Jennifer Lopez - Essay Example

Ad analysis: Gucci with Jennifer Lopez. Towards the end of Gucci featured a series of advertisements in the New York Fashion Magazine showing the popular singer Jennifer Lopez. The first of these is an image of a sultry Jennifer Lopez holding her toddler twins on her hips, against a background of blue sky and sea. She has a rather distant expression and her long, dark hair is waving in the breeze. There is no direct eye contact between the three of them and the camera, since the boy on the left wears sunglasses, and the girl on the right is looking to the side, while Lopez herself looks in to the middle distance with a dreamy expression.

It is a relaxed picture, suggesting an idyllic family taking time out for some fun on the beach. At first glance it looks just like a typical marketing photograph for the star herself, but a closer reading reveals some tiny white lettering in three lines across the bottom of the picture. This lettering contains a statement about Gucci sponsorship for a UNICEF schools’ programme and the launch of Gucci’s new children’s collection. This advertisement uses the techniques of idealization and diversion to create aspirations and remove guilt in a target audience of young parents who consume both pop music and high fashion designer clothes.

The choice of Jennifer Lopez is no doubt influenced by her popularity as a singer and this makes her immediately identifiable to the target audience. As a celebrity J-Lo, as she tends to be called in the gossip magazines and popular press, was previously famed for her curves, and particularly her feminine derriere. This aspect of her personality, and her looks, appealed to both men and women, and there was an element of sexual attraction to her image. The inclusion of her children suggests that the advert is aimed at young mothers, and perhaps also fathers, who have reached the same stage in their lives of starting a family.

The visual impact of the advertisement maintains the idealized image of a celebrity popstar, but it is consciously maternal rather than sexy. The frontal view, with a child in each arm, is modest, with no overtly sexual connotations. Only a portion of Jennifer Lopez’s legs is visible, and the rest of her is clad in a colorful designer tunic. The picture resembles an iconic Madonna pose, implying that she has grown into a mature and sensible person. The image idealizes Lopez as a perfect mother, and presents the children as logical extensions of her celebrity personality.

It is as if they, too, are the kind of accessory that a successful young adult needs to have. The language of the text section at the bottom reads like a press release, and it is so small and unassuming, that it could easily be missed by a casual reader. The aim of the text is to link Gucci’s charitable work in Africa with the launch of a new children’s clothing range in the minds of the reader. This creates a high moral tone for the advertisement, suggesting that the company really cares about children.

It reveals that the company has been active for six years in this domain. The text is tiny, because it is intended to create the impression that it is a small factual notice, rather than the corporate boasting that it really is. There is, in fact, a huge contradiction between the high cost and materialism of a designer fashion range, and the desperate poverty and need in Africa. The feel-good mention of aid to Africa offsets the guilt that parents might feel about buying expensive clothes for themselves and their children.

The technique of idealizing the celebrity in order to create aspirations in an audience who are already fans of the celebrity is very successful. There is sufficient overlap in the following that Lopez has and the type of customer that Gucci has to make this a mutually beneficial linkup. Gucci uses the transition in Jennifer Lopez into a mother figure as an opportunity to access a new market in fashion conscious mothers. In conclusion, therefore, this advertisement uses the image to create a commercialized view of motherhood which retains older religious connotations as well as modern commercial ones.

The text adds a diversion from the dubious morality of designer clothes for children by linking the Gucci name with charity work. The combined message of image and text is therefore is that it is acceptable to buy this new range, and in so doing young mothers will become like Jennifer Lopez, and help the third world at the same time. The Madonna-like pose is enhanced by a References New York Fashion Magazine, 21 November 2010. Published online at: http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2010/10/behold_the_gucci_ad_jennifer_l.html