Advertisements in Magazines - Research Paper Example

Ad Analysis Advertisements in magazines that target American women have a lengthy history in selling such products assoap, makeup, mouthwash, and products that reinforce the role of men in their lives. The personal hygiene concept has been utilized to send messages that getting a marriageable man or being married is the ultimate objective of every woman (Twitchell 39). Advertisements from the 20s through to the 40s carry this theme and are traceable through visual and verbal content. Before Listerine was introduced as America’s first commercial mouthwash, few people ever thought of the consequences of bad breath. However, this changed with Listerine ads, such as the one analyzed in this paper from 1932, which brought the previously obscure term halitosis to national popularity (Twitchell 39). This particular ad shows a young woman who is part of five million women who had reached marriageable age at that moment. It contends that she should worry about her breath if she is to make the grade and get a husband. Through this ad and the creation of fear around halitosis, Listerine brought the painful effects of bad breath to young single American women, especially that of getting a husband and settling down. The ad is attempting to make life for young and single American women easier by making them a promise, which is that using Listerine will make them socially acceptable and attractive to eligible men. It seeks to maintain a consumer culture that Listerine had already created around the importance of good breath, especially for women. In this case, they sought to integrate Listerine into a culture that viewed consumption as beneficial to an individual’s happiness (Twitchell 40). The message is that women should strive to achieve good breath in order to charm and romance men. It also seeks to attract men to the fact that women should have good breath for them to be marriageable, which can only be achieved by Listerine. The idea of being attractive is that the young girls should have nice breath, especially when they are youthful. They also make the consequences of having bad breath clear to the young women. Those who fail to use Listerine prior to each date will suffer from halitosis, which will mean a life of boredom, loneliness, and being single (Twitchell 41). However, if they use Listerine, there will be good times ahead with a man they can attract and hold onto. The ad succeeds in making halitosis a fearsome condition of bad breath that nullifies all other charms. Listerine, therefore, is the only way for young women to have sweet and agreeable breath. The intended audience for the Listerine advert is young women who are dating and looking for husbands. Such an audience will most likely be attracted to the ad because, apparently, Listerine is required and will lead to success in both romantic and matrimonial terms (Saunders & Howell 56). The ad is also targeted at young women who believe that physical traits are essential if they are to find a husband worth marrying. The appearance of this advert in magazines with wide circulation across the United States suggests that the audience sees romantic attraction and attention by a man, as well as eventual nuptial, as the ultimate objective for every young American woman. The young woman targeted in this ad is also the sophisticated type, especially as can be seen by the use of objective proof and science to sell the effectiveness of the mouthwash product. The young women targeted in this ad are also those who are developing as individuals, although, for them, marriage is still the ultimate goal (Saunders & Howell 56). This can be seen by the fact that the women are allowed to go out on social engagements and snag a man, which shows that these women are increasingly independent. However, the woman who is portrayed in the Listerine advert, as well as the audience for whom it is intended, is not the independent woman who seeks to use sex as a source of income (Saunders & Howell 57). While they still had the opportunity to be autonomous, this type of woman was satisfied to be totally dependent on a man for marriage and a satisfying life. Rather than becoming the independent woman who was so widely portrayed by films in the 30s, this type of woman will default to the patriarchal role of homemaker and housewife after they reach a marriageable age. The Listerine advert is heavily reliant on sex and science as part of the strategy to sell this product. During this era, there was a shift by American manufacturers to focus advertisements on the therapeutic benefits of their products. This was done by connecting a commodity to a whimsical atmosphere (Leach 53). The ad focuses on the effects of fermentation of food in the mouth, which they indicate is the leading cause of bad mouth odor. Therefore, the ad uses the therapeutic effects of Listerine in preventing bad breath to prop up its claims about romance and marriage using scientific facts. By asking the target audience not to risk the effects of mouth fermentation and to be on the safe side if they want a fulfilling social life, it is easy to see why many young women at the time would have had Listerine in their homes. The visuals, just as in all adverts, contribute to the overall message. The central image has a seemingly lonely and innocent young woman with her hands spread out wide with a full pink dress to match. This is the vision of American femininity in the early to mid 20th century. There is commercial appeal aimed at pleasing with pretty colors (Leach 53). Her pink dress is fitting, making her look like she is about to burst out into the world, which, in this case, symbolizes that she is ready to mingle and meet a man to marry. Listerine also seeks to exploit the emotional needs of young woman to have desirable qualities by focusing on how the product would change their lives (Lears 18). The advert promotes fear about the effects of halitosis, claiming that it is the cause for majority of women who are yet to find a husband. Therefore, they are encouraged to use Listerine because it will make them desirable enough to climb the social ladder and find a good man. Content in advertising saw a shift during the early 20th century. Prior to 1910, most adverts made to inform their target customers about what products they were selling. However, after this period, advertisement turned to the creation of a desire in the customers to purchase these products. Advertising executives, such as the ones making this advertisement, recognized that they had to make the consumer want to purchase their product (Lears 18). This led to fostering the idea of consumer gratification with the introduction of color in print ads opening new potential in persuasion and suggestion. The pink color used in the ad is meant to attract the attention of young women directly, even for a product that they do not require. Therefore, this ad is better enabled to affect the consumer by making the product favorable for their consumption because it enhances their desirability. By using the fear that young people have of unreality and their yearning to experience life that was real (Lears 6), Listerine shows a lonely young woman with a caption that places her among the five million women looking for husbands. This is a tragic case of a woman who is yet to find a man, most likely due to the dreaded halitosis. In the ad, the audience is told about the causes of halitosis and how it will cause even the young and nubile woman in the ad to miss out on marriage. However, they give the target audience a solution that should allow them to experience real life without fear of the dreaded halitosis by using Listerine every morning, night, and before any social engagements. Since healthcare professionals and scientists were seen as the most reliable forms of endorsement for therapeutic products, Listerine uses medical statistics to sell their products. This is especially important where a company has to overturn social norms (Howard 840). By having healthy products in their homes, such as Listerine, the consumer had an alternative to costly visits to the dentist for oral hygiene, which was costly during the Great Depression of the 30s. The rhetorical ethos style in getting messages across was very popular during this period and was actually at its highest then (Howard 840). These messages were combined with wisdom value and the fear factor to make them sell. Contrary to other cultural mediums at the time, advertisers during the Great Depression sought to reinforce beliefs that women would have better lives if they depended on men. Usually, they would portray a woman who was either happily married or was yearning for marriage through the product being advertised. Advertisements during this era rejected any allusions to independence for women, preferring to offer a more conservative model for the woman (Leach 54). This female was innocent and gentle, presenting a total antithesis of film and radio’s independent woman. Advertisement prior to the Second World War attempted to coerce women into their matriarchal roles as mothers, differing greatly from the stance ambivalently picked by popular culture with regards to female independence. However, this trend changed after the Second World War as more advertisements began to sell female-targeted products using their independence, such as Rosie the Riveter who represented the working class American woman. However, one theme remains prevalent and constant and may be viewed as a debilitating factor in the struggle for women equality in a world that is heavily dependent on sex roles. As in the Listerine ad, pleasing men is a prerequisite for true female happiness. This assumption is the main selling point for the Listerine ad, coupled with the exploitation of women’s emotional needs, fears of social isolation, and reliance on science to make life more real. The ad’s target consumer is encouraged to view herself as an object who should be more attractive not for herself but for her potential husband. The lady in this ad seeks fresh breath because she assumes that it will make her better at conquering young men, after they have conquered her, and make her dreams come true. Works Cited Howard, Vicki. A "real Mans Ring": Gender and the Invention of Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Print. Leach, William. Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture. New York: Pantheon Books, 1993. Print. Lears, Jackson. "From Salvation to Self-Realization: Advertising and the Therapeutic Roots of the Consumer Culture, 1880-1930." Advertising & Society Review. 1.1 (2001). Print. Saunders, Dave. & Howell, Rupert. 20th Century Advertising. London: Carlton, 2011. Print. Twitchell, James. B. 20 Ads That Shook the World: The Centurys Most Groundbreaking Advertising and How It Changed Us All. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2010. Print. Read More