Guess or Tommy, You Should Guess - Essay Example

Introduction High end clothing is a staple in American life, and the ads for these types of clothes can be interesting. These ads create an image for the clothing, and, in turn, create an identifiable brand. There are a number of ways that these clothes can be marketed – the iconic horses and country shots of the Ralph Lauren line come to mind, as do the full-out eroticism of Calvin Klein ads. Through the usage of themes, these clothing lines come to life in mind of the consumer, bringing a sensibility and ethos to their ads that create an indelible image that concretely connects the particular brand to this image. Tommy Hilfiger and Guess? by Marciano are two high-end clothing lines that use a strong image and theme to sell their brands, both of them memorable, but both completely different from one another. In this way, both Tommy Hilfiger and Guess? become strongly associated with their respective themes, which creates their image and brands as distinctive and compelling. Discussion The first ad campaign is for Tommy Hilfiger. One campaign is a commercial for the 2011 spring line (tommyhilfiger). The other campaign that will be analyzed for Hilfiger is his ad campaign for the fall of 2010 (AndreDouglasFanClub). The Tommy Hilfiger ad for his spring 2011 line features a fake family of Hilfigers. Each member of the family identifies themselves by name, and, after they each introduce themselves, there is a little girl who says “and we are the Hilfigers.” The “family” features two black men, a dark man who appear Hispanic or Italian, several WASPY women, two men with longish hair who look like 1970s throwbacks, and two children – a boy with crazy curly hair, and a young girl dressed in a coat. The ad unmistakably attempts to tie these people together as a family, and a wealthy family at that. The cast of characters are seen throughout the ad, in different, stylish clothing that usually marries something super casual, like a striped golf shirt, under something more formal, like a blazer. They are unmistakably at a country club, as they are playing games like ping pong and tennis. Meanwhile, there are bikinied women around playing the games with the Hilfigers. There is also another man, unidentified, who has a high afro and is joining in the fun. There are even two dogs, two basset hounds, presumably the family dogs. Throughout the commercial, new people are introduced, and they all have the same look - casual, mixed with formal elements, usually wearing sunglasses. Blazers with with a crisp white shirt mixed with swimming shorts. Blazers with a bare chest and swimming shorts. Blazers with walking shorts. A cardigan with a bikini underneath. Through it all, they are hanging around a pool, a golf course, or a tennis court, obviously at a country club. The fall commercial for Tommy Hilfiger features this same eclectic clan of people, only now, they are in the country somewhere, about to have Thanksgiving dinner. When I say out in the country, I mean this literally – the entire clan gets out of one vehicle, which appears to be an SUV from the 1990s, complete with wood-paneling, onto a field somewhere, and they all proceed to pull out a dinner table. What is interesting is that there are about ten people who get out of this vehicle, and the vehicle, in the back, has a dinner table for ten, and all the trimmings for Thanksgiving dinner. Obviously, this is virtually impossible, for all these people and a large table and Thanksgiving trimmings cannot fit into one medium-sized SUV. But the image is a fun one, as the young boy who was in the other commercial pops out of a trunk. In this case, the clothing is somewhat similar to the spring line, in that the boys are dressed in blazers with casual wear underneath. The women have on leather gloves, and scarves around their heads, and almost all have on sunglasses. Some have on knit caps, and leather boots. They end up running after the car, just as the father gives a toast, because the young girl drives off in the car, taking the Thanksgiving feast with her. Tommy Hilfiger’s agenda is to identify the product with a number of different appeals to what it is to be American. First, the cast of characters is decidedly ethnic, and the people look to be from different racial backgrounds. Some of the men are dark, so they appear to be Latino, or perhaps Greek or Italian. A couple of the men are African-American. Interestingly enough, all the women appear Caucasian and WASPY. Still, the Hilfigers are representative of a melting pot, which is what America is all about, or at least the Utopian version of America – all people from different ethnicities and backgrounds, living in harmony. Indeed, there are subtleties about the commercial that denote patriotism – there is a little flag in one man’s pocket, another woman is wearing a sweater that is red, white and blue (blue and white striped, red “H” in the middle of the sweater). Plus, the activities that these people pursue are what Americans crave as traditions. In the fall, the Hilfigers are shown having Thanksgiving feast; in the summer, they are pursuing American activities, such as golfing, swimming, ping pong and tennis. The other agenda is to associate the product with the upper class. These people, for all their crazy antics, are wealthy. This is obvious. They all belong to a country club. Some have on prep-school blazers, with the gold insignia. Others look like they are on vacation from Harvard. Even the prodigal son characters, the men with the long hair, have a wealthy look about them. The matriarch, who resembles Candice Bergen, has the cool blonde look of a mother of a wealthy clan. The clothes are the clothes that somebody wealthy would buy. Yet, at the same time, the campaign humanizes this wealthy clan by showing them having fun. They jump in the pool, fully clothed in blazers and long pants. The scamp of a kid, with the crazy, curly hair, is always around doing something, from popping out of a trunk to playing chess in a table in the middle of a pool. They wear shorts with their blazers. There is a guy with a high afro running around, although he is not introduced as part of the family, and he looks like a Lenny Kravitz type who likes to have fun. A girl walks down the middle of the Thanksgiving table. The ten-year-old girl drives off in the car. In short, the commercial does not aim to make the family, wealthy as they are, look stuffy, but, rather, eccentric and fun. The target audience for these campaigns are young people, and not necessarily wealthy young people. The way that the commercials are shot, with the crazy antics of the family, and the upbeat music playing throughout, is designed to appeal to the youth, and the reason why it is not only the wealthy who are targeted is because the way that the family is humanized. They may be wealthy, but their actions are those of people who are not necessarily wealthy. There is not a hint of stuffiness or pretentiousness about this family, and there is a warmth about them. Of course, there are two older people in the ad, the patriarch and matriarch, but the ads are not designed to appeal to the older set. Number one, only two people appear to be over the age of 50 – the rest of the people appear to be 25 or younger in these ads. Number two, the music that is played is pop music, modern pop music at that. Number three, the crazy antics are those of the young – the jumping in the pool fully clothed, the wearing of blazers over a bare chest, etc. Number four, the people in this ad have a decidedly modern, youthful look – from the long hair on some of the men, to the high afro on another. Which is not to say that only the young are targeted, for it is safe to say that the young at heart is another target audience. The older gentleman, in the print ad, is wearing a typical grey blazer and shirt, with a pair of pink shorts and dark blue penny-loafers. These ads are effective in that they draw your attention and never let go. They are high energy, and fun, and you really want to be a part of that family. Since being a part of the family means wearing the clothes, then the ads tie these two elements together seamlessly. These ads rely upon emotion to sell the clothes – the emotion of being a part of a family, the emotion of having fun, the emotion of being eccentric, the emotion of warmth – these are all emotions that are used to sell these clothes. The other campaign examined is that for Guess? for Marciano. Guess? is also a high-end line of clothing, although the Guess? line does not have the same feel of a high-end brand as Tommy Hilfiger. The first ad campaign examined is the commercial (GUESSinctv ). This commercial is completely different from that of Tommy Hilfiger. Shot in black and white, this ad has a very retro glamour feel about it. The woman at the center of the ad for the Spring 2011 line is platinum blonde, and is a combination of Marilyn Monroe and Jacqueline Kennedy. There is an old-fashioned car from the fifties, and the lead woman hoists an American flag after getting off a private jet. The music in the background, in contrast to the Tommy Hilfiger ads, is subtle and slow, without words. At some point, the blond and another woman pose in front of the private plane with a bra and panties and an overcoat over the bra and panties. Towards the middle of the commercial, the blonde and a handsome man lay on the beach – she is half-clothed, the man lays with his hand on her stomach. Other couples kiss on the beach, fully clothed. The blonde starts running her hand over her body while looking at the camera seductively. She kisses one man, while another is behind her, feeling her up. She poses, Marilyn-like, in an old-fashioned dress, then in a sweater covering her naked body on the beach. The print ad for the same campaign has a slightly different feel to it, although the same characters are used (Guess? by Marciano). The blonde in the commercial is posing, again in black and white, against a trellis and flowers. She is in a white dress, with a black sash and is shot from below. The effect of the shot is that she is at a garden party. If you open the flap, the same blonde is posing in a low-cut dress with a black and white coat over it in one picture. In another picture, she is in lacy shorts and lacy midriff-baring shirt, next to a shirtless man with a Hawaiian lei around his neck, and strumming a ukulele. The marketing agenda for these ads is unmistakable on one level – sex sells. The blonde is sexy, she poses next to another woman, with both women clad only in lingerie and overcoat. This subtly implies perhaps a lesbian relationship, playing into the fantasies of many men. Other shots are of the blonde and two men. The blonde and one man, lying next to a beach partially clothed is another shot. The music has an erotic feel to it, and all the images have the same erotic feel. At the same time, as with the Tommy Hilfiger ads, there is a desire to tie the brand in with America. The blonde hoists an American flag for several seconds, and the fact that the she is a combination of Marilyn Monroe, with her platinum blonde hair and sexuality, and Jackie Kennedy, with her trench coats, private plane and American flag, has the feeling that the ad wants to take America back to the late 1950s, early 1960s. Since this is a time for which many are nostalgic, because it was a time prior to the upheavals in American life, its agenda is to not only represent America but to represent America at a time when she was truly great. By combining the image of the flag, with the black and white filmography of the commercial, along with vintage cars and the fact that the leading lady resembles a couple of late 1950s early 1960s icons, the result in unmistakable. Also, another subtle clue that the advertising campaign wants to hearken back to the late 1950s, early 1960s is the image of the garden party in the print ad. This not only gives the leading lady a “ladies who lunch” kind of feel, but also conjures up images of Ricky Nelson, who had a hit with his song “Garden Party,” thus bringing up the images of 1950s icons Ozzie and Harriet, who were the parents of Nelson. The image that is crafted through the print and the commercial ads for this product is one of old-world glamour, sex and nostalgia. Guess? by Marciano apparently wants to tie their clothes into these images, which is upscale and sexy all at once. And, despite the fact that many of the images are designed to appeal to men – the sight of women in lingerie, the sexiness of the ads, the sight of the vintage car – the ads are clearly aimed at women. The clothing and the accessories are for a woman. The men in the ads are really in the background, so what they are wearing is not important. It is all very interesting, because the straight male stereotypically is not going to buy clothes for a woman, but the way that the ads are produced, men will be intrigued and titillated. In the end, the message is that, by buying these clothes, the woman will be sexy for her man, and desirable, and this is what comes across. As with the Tommy Hilfiger ads, these ads appeal to emotion. The emotions that are evoked, in contrast to the Tommy ads, however, are those of eroticism and nostalgia. Since these are both very powerful emotions, the ads are effective. Conclusion The arguments that these two ads make against one another is that, on one hand, goofy family antics is the best way to sell an upscale brand; on the other hand, cool glamour, sex and no family images is the best way to sell an upscale brand. Tommy Hilfiger uses the crazy, wealthy family, and the high energy way in which they play, to sell his brand and his argument is that by making the characters in his commercial relatable and warm, yet wealthy, is the best way to capture the audience, and he does an effective job. The high energy way that the commercial is shot, coupled with the craziness and attractiveness of the family makes one want to be a part of the family and buy the clothes. Guess? feels that a completely different tactic is necessary to sell their clothes. In contrast to high energy, the ads are quiet, subtle and slow moving. While Tommy Hilfiger ads relies on lots of crazy colors of clothes being worn together, the Guess? ads are in black and white. While there is not a hint of sexuality in the Tommy ads, aside from the fact that there are girls in bikinis running around, the Guess? ads are almost completely erotic. While Tommy uses the image of a family to sell the clothes, the Guess? ads do not use any sort of family images. There are no children present in any of the ads. While the Tommy ads are modern, with the most modern hair, images and music, the Guess? ads use nostalgia. In short, the two campaigns feel that completely different tactics are necessary to sell their clothes, and both tactics work. Their demographics differ in that Tommy Hilfiger is concentrated on selling clothes for the young, both men and women, and, to a certain extent, to the very young, as evidenced by the presence of children in the ads. In contrast, the Guess? ads are shot to appeal to a wider audience, age-wise, but, unlike with the Tommy ads, the audience that the Guess? ads target are women. Older women might be drawn to the ads because of the images of the early 1960s, late 1950s target them. Younger women will be drawn to the eroticism of the ads. All women will be drawn to the ads because of the Marilyn Monroe connection, because Monroe is still such a popular icon with women. The way that the demographics are the same is that these ads are designed to appeal to people who have money. The Guess? ads use luxury cars, private planes and glamour to convey that the clothes are for the upscale woman. The Tommy Hilfiger ads use the fact that the “Hilfiger family” appears very wealthy to show that their clothes are for the wealthy as well. While both ads have democratic elements that are designed to appeal to everybody – the “Hilfiger family” is a zany bunch that do not act rich, while the Guess? ads show the blonde in lingerie with a trench coat over it, which is decidedly not what a wealthy woman would wear – the overall impression is that these clothes are upscale. Sources Used Guess? by Marciano (2011 May) [advertisement for Guess? by Marciano] Vanity Fair, 1-2. GUESSinctv (poster) (2011, January 14) Guess? by Marciano Spring/Summer 2011 campaign [Video file] Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zblL-iXxs_E tommyhilfiger (poster) (2011 February 15) Tommy Hilfiger: Spring 2011 ad campaign El Country de-la-Club-ius [Video file] Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyJtCTdPu4I AndreDouglasFanClub (poster) (2010 December 1) Tommy Hilfiger official fall commercial [Video file] Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nWZYa349Qg Read More