Calvin Klein Fragrance Advertisements - Essay Example

Advertising Two Calvin Klein fragrance advertisements were compared to one another. The fragrances were different as well as the magazines that theycame from. The first advertisement came from GQ Magazine, a magazine that caters to men’s clothing. The fragrance in this advertisement is called in2u. The second advertisement came from Elle magazine, which focuses more on women’s interests and styles. The fragrance found in this advertisement is known as Eternity. The strategies being used in the in2u advertisement is attraction and sex appeal. It reveals that people can experience being attracting to others and engaging in romance if they use this fragrance. The advertisement suggests that without this fragrance, people will be faced with loneliness, or else being unattractive. The in2u fragrance equates to sexual attraction. This strategy is used because the majority of people long to feel sexually appealing to the opposite sex. The strategy being used in the Eternity advertisement is familial happiness. To have a happy and successful family, this fragrance should be used. The Eternity fragrance promotes a balanced, cheerful family life. The image seen in the ad for in2u is that of a couple looking flirtatiously at each other. The young male is playing with the young female’s hair, and the female is tugging on the belt of the male. Though the male is dressed rather conservatively, the female is not only showing a fair bit of stomach, but the top of her underwear is also visible. The sexual content is fairly strong for a fragrance advertisement. The couple is by themselves in a tunnel. The effect that these images intended to have on the audience is the want of mystery and vague danger of a casual relationship; the danger is represented through the location of the tunnel. The image defines a romantic aspect to the depicted dangerous casual relationship. The image also conveys spontaneity in a relationship. The Eternity advertisement displays an image of a happy family of four - the parents and a young son and daughter - all laying down together. The children and mother are more focused on the father, but the father only has eyes for the camera, giving it a look that clearly shows that he has something amazing with his family. The intended effect on the audience is to draw adoration, which is done with simplicity as the image is a very sweet one. Happy families such as the one portrayed in this advertisement is usually automatically deemed as precious by those that view it. It touches people on a deep level, especially people that have families. Both advertisements display the actual product, but the greater focus is on the idea. The actual products are displayed and are smaller than the rest of the image in the advertisements. It would seem that the company is more concerned with selling the idea than selling the actual product. At the same time, to sell the idea, they need to sell the product. Love and a happy family are concepts that many people strive to obtain throughout their lifetime. The larger image of the idea draws in the attention of people most likely to be looking through the magazines that they advertisements are in, and the smaller image of the product acts as a solution to achieve the idea displayed in the advertisements. The two are put together in the advertisement to show the connections between the idea and the product. The aspect of the in2u advertisement that immediately caught my attention was the placement of the hands of the two models, which is very provocative. The couple itself also immediately grabs my attention as this is the largest portion of the advertisement. The only text in the advertisement reads, “Two new fragrances. One for him. One for her.” The text is fairly difficult to see, in print that is small and light in comparison to the size and obviousness of the images. The main focus of this advertisement is the couple; everything else fades into the background or as not as obvious at first glance. In the Eternity advertisement, the part of it that quickly grabbed hold of my attention was the position in which the family is laying with each other. It is a very playful position, one that shows the closeness that exists between the family members. The only text on the advertisement reads, “Eternity: What begins here never ends.” Unlike the first advertisement, the text on the Eternity fragrance advertisement stands out a little more due to its positioning below the image, as opposed to the foreground of the image as seen in the in2u advertisement. The color of the text is fairly light, but it is positioned in the middle of the advertisement, easily drawing in the attention of viewers. Both of the advertisements had layouts that immediately drew the attention of the viewer to the image of the idea behind the advertisement. The picture is what would catch the eye of the person flipping through the magazine. They would first take in the image, followed by the name of the product as this was printed largely. The last thing that would notice, if it all, would be the additional text beneath the product. The sole difference between the text in the in2u advertisement and the text in the Eternity advertisement is that the text for Eternity is centered on the page and is not hiding against a background. The second advertisement allowed all aspects of the advertisement to speak for its product. The idea is presented through the image and the text adds to this idea. A picture of the product shows what is being sold. The target audience for the in2u fragrance can be both young males and females, since the fragrance comes in two types for each gender. However, as this advertisement was found in a male centered magazine, the main audience can be considered young males, most likely no older than thirty or so. The image used to appeal to the male audience is the sexually provocative position in which the two models are in as well as the appearance of the female model. Males, especially those between the ages of twenty-one and thirty, have a fierce sex drive and not only do they find pretty women appealing, but they are also drawn to sexual situations. This advertisement plays up to the sexual interest of males. Both the idea and the image presented to the viewers of the magazine can relate the needs of the advertisement, thus making the fragrance an appealing want or even need, depending on the social and sexual life of the male. The target audience of the Eternity fragrance is focused on a female audience, roughly around the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five, when women are at their peak for becoming pregnant and starting a family. The appealing aspect of this advertisement to a woman viewer is a happy family, something that can be considered part of the female American dream. The majority of females want a stable, happy, and loving family; the image in this advertisement portrays many of the things that a woman wants out her life. Interestingly enough, even though the advertisement is aimed at young women, the focus of the photograph is the male, the father figure. He is the only one taking notice of the camera. While some might consider this to mean that the advertisement is focused also towards males, the advertisement only plays more towards the wants of young females. The male model is portraying a happy, peaceful father, content with his life. A male that is happy with being both a father and a husband, a family man, is a person that would make any woman happy. The association principle can be found in both of the fragrance advertisements, which is that the product is associated with a cultural value. In the cases of these fragrance advertisements, the cultural values are love and family life. In the in2u advertisement, love, sex, masculinity, and beauty are being sold. The male model represents the masculinity value, just as the female model represents femininity. The two of them together in their sexually provocative position represents the love and sex values. The values of family and tradition are represented and being sold in the Eternity advertisement. The aspect of family is quite obvious, and the traditional aspect can be seen in the fact that the family is a traditional nuclear family - father, mother, son, and daughter. The two advertisements are also selling a particular stereotype of what it means to be male or female as well as what it means to be young. In the in2u advertisement, a stereotype of being a young male is to be obsessed with sex and sexually appealing women. They like situations that involve both of these aspects due to their high testosterone levels. Similarly, the Eternity advertisement portrays the young female stereotype of marriage and having a family. A few decades ago, it was the major goal of a young female to settle down, marry the man of her dreams, and build a family for herself. Calvin Klein is not known to include families in their advertisements, which just shows how focused this advertisement is. While the advertisements do not necessarily sell to a particular racial or ethnic group, all of the models are Caucasian. It is actually very rare to see other racial and ethnic groups in advertisements, though this does not mean that they are excluded from the audience of the product. It has become normalized to see more Caucasian models than models of another ethnicity, but this does not normally play on the focused audience. Advertisement #1: in2u Advertisement #2: Eternity Read More