Advertising Analysis: The Consumers Attention - Essay Example

Advertising Analysis: The Consumers Attention While many advertisements seem to be offering a fun and scenic break in our magazine reading, they are, in reality, making every effort to get consumers to buy into their product through the careful display of image and text. Although consumers today are much more aware of the various tricks and appeals that are made upon a logical level, advertisers have discovered that there are various emotional appeals that can be made that insinuate themselves below our rational thought process to appeal to the inner animal within. In an attempt to understand how advertisers use image and text to appeal to consumers’ ‘sub-rational impulses and desires,’ Jib Fowles outlined 15 basic appeals he’s identified as commonly used by advertisers to grab the consumers attention through their primal awareness. By taking a close look at one particular advertisement, by Nivea for a special type of new lotion, it will be shown how advertisers sometimes use more than one appeal to draw the consumer in. The overall color scheme of the advertisement is a general golden brown. The golden aspect is highlighted by a blurry trail of random lights in the background that contains insufficient detail to place it in any particular environment. A quick glance at it may serve to suggest the outline of a woman in the negative space between the two actual people, but this impression can be fleeting at best because looking directly at these details does not provide the same sensation. The foreground of the advertisement shows a woman, perhaps in her mid-20s, in a playful attitude and in casual dress. She is positioned to the left side of the image (as one is viewing it) and her body faces out as if she is in motion to something more interesting than hanging out on the inner pages of a magazine. But her head is tilted back in toward the center of the image as she playfully peeks over her shoulder at the man who is pictured somewhat behind and to the right of her. Her dark hair is casually free and loose and her clothing depicts a casual summer feel as well. She is wearing a grey tank top gathered up at the waist to show a flirty bit of midsection and a gauzy white skirt low on her hips and perhaps with nothing more than a string tie at the waist holding it up. The man in the picture seems completely focused on this woman and seems to represent the upper middle class set in his pristinely white yet still casual white button-down shirt and black pants. The only other image on the page is the product itself, ‘floating’ on the picture plane and standing out as the brightest, clearest point on the page with the exception of areas highlighted by white text. In this depiction, it seems clear that the advertisement is using the first of the appeals identified by Jib Fowles, the need for sex. However, as Fowles indicates in his essay, this immediate assumption, on closer inspection, proves to be false. The advertisement cleverly uses text as a means of focusing attention. A circle of text at the woman’s shoulder brings attention to her flirty attitude as well as to the rich color of her tan. The text invites the reader to ‘Touch for scent’ in what feels an almost naughty intimacy with this icon of fun and physical sensuality. The reader, regardless of gender, is invited to not only touch the woman on the page, but also to smell her, creating a real sense of connection in that three of the five senses have already been engaged on some level thus appealing to the consumer’s physiological needs. Just under this circle of text is the advertisement’s tagline, ‘The difference between noticing your glow / And being drawn to it.’ In its presentation, the first statement of the tag is printed in all caps text, giving it a sense of importance but in relatively fine lettering, causing it to somewhat blend with the background and ‘forcing’ the reader to focus in on it because of their need to satisfy curiosity. Once focused, earlier visual connections become transferred into identification with a sense of personal ‘glow’ in this line. The second statement of the tagline, ‘And being drawn to it’, is given extraordinary weight in the larger, much bolder lettering and thus greater contrast with the background. This drives home a sense of urgency and at least momentary sense of promised affiliation with others. The scene is kept from crossing into the undesirable associations with ‘loose’ women by the remainder of the text and its placement, soothing the consumer’s need to feel safe while encouraging their need for attention. Across a firm and shapely waist, the product name, in bold print, emphasizes the idea that the product both firms and tans, making the skin as attractive as the girl’s waist in the photo. However, the terms used also keep the viewer at a safe surface distance. The woman may be ‘kissed’ but no more, she has ‘temptingly touchable skin’ but it is only tempting, not necessarily touched. If you touch the page, you are still only touching paper, the girl depicted on it remains forever out of reach. The product’s banner is placed at just the right spot to serve as a sort of early censor banner seen on television when genitals would otherwise be visible, further emphasizing that she is flirty and desirable, tempting in many ways, but still pure and unreachable unless she should choose otherwise. Thus, while she is completely and invitingly available, she is also inviolately safe from any attempt to cross her established boundaries. This power of choice is also granted to the consumer as the advertisement promises they will ‘touch and be touched’ at their discretion as well. A badge of honor, in a surprising blue against the dominant tans of the page, makes a final shocking appeal at the consumer’s attention before they cross off the page, emphasizing that the woman is the one in power. Making the bold claim that ‘7 out of 10 women love the sun-kissed fragrance’, the badge promises the product is ‘scent approved’ and again invites the reader to touch the girl’s arm and smell her perfume. While the consumer is made to feel powerful in his or her ability and invitation to roam over the woman’s body in sensual enjoyment, it is the woman who retains the power, appealing to the female consumer’s need for dominance as well as our need for attention (Fowles). Using this product commands the attention of others, male and female, thus giving the consumer the power to make decisions about who will touch and who will merely wish they could touch without necessarily having to cross into the realm of the ‘bad girl’. The connection seen visually between the man and the woman on the page as well as the connection felt between the woman and the viewer, whether male or female, is based not on sex, but on mutual attraction, respect and friendship. These attributes finally serve to help us to more fully identify that the ad’s primary appeal is to our need for affiliation. Fowles cites Henry Murray in explaining that there are 24 desires ‘to draw near and enjoyably cooperate or reciprocate with another; to please and win affection of another; to adhere and remain loyal to a friend.’ This can be in the form of a romance, as is suggested may occur between the woman and man on the page or perhaps between the woman on the page and the viewer; or it could be in the form of a deep and fulfilling friendship, again between any of the players involved – the man on the page or the viewer of the ad. It also makes the connection that by ‘glowing’ on the outside, you, too, can make others see your natural ‘glow’ and make them unable to ignore or reject you. As this analysis has demonstrated, the Nivea ad manages to make appeals to at least half of the 15 sub-rational impulses and desires identified by Jib Fowles. In doing so, it manages to effectively tap into all of the viewer’s psychological reasonings to some level, bringing it all together in a way that finally promises to deliver on closer relationships with a greater number of others, thus making its strongest appeal to the need for affiliation. Although consumers may attempt to filter the ad out of their attention because of a perceived sense that it is making some sort of sexual statement, it proves successful because the actual appeal to satisfy the need for affiliation is strongly based upon the fulfillment of other needs as well. In engaging so many of these appeals toward a single goal, the ad is compelling and memorable and, for this reason, successful. Read More