Bridge Wilson

17 November 2014

Enc1101

Professor Lehn

Dramatization of Perfume Ads At Its Finest

The advertisement I chose to analyze is a Dolce & Gabana advertisement picture for perfume. Dolce & Gabana is an Italian luxury fashion designing company that produces products ranging from shirts and jackets to fragrances. This advertisement includes a picture of four tanned and ripped male Italian models wearing tight jeans and either a tight-fitting shirt or no shirt at all, flaunting their manhood and big muscles. In the advertisement picture, three of the male models are staring in awe at one of their fellow male models, the alpha male; He appears to be in some sort of missionary position, holding down a female model that is wearing a black dress and black high heels. The female model is extremely attractive as well and this makes the advertisement as a whole even more steamy and sensual. It can be assumed from this advertisement that the female in this picture is wearing the Dolce & Gabana perfume; hence, this is why the men are so attracted to her. The first thing that one notices when he or she looks at the advertisement is the abundance of male models; once this has been viewed, the eyes gravitate to the man in the middle of the picture who is holding down the female model. Throughout the whole viewing process of the advertisement, one can see the words Dolce & Gabana, written in a large, transparent, white font. This white text compliments the colors of the surroundings. The five people in this advertisement are on a white platform that may be a boat or just an open area in Italy (the country in which the Dolce & Gabana company was founded). The bright, blue, cloudy sky is in the background of the advertisement photograph making the scene even more attractive.

This advertisement is a classic example of the use of provocative images to grasp the consumers attention. This was an effective technique done by the advertisement designer; the attractive men are there to catch the eye of the perfumes demographic: teenage girls. The main reason that the demographic are teenage girls is because teenage girls are usually more nave than grown women; teenage girls will be more apt to falling into the trap of believing that wearing fancy perfume will instantly attract men. The strong men act as eye candy for girls. Keeping the young girls interested in the advertisement, using visual persuasion techniques (i.e. the attractive models), equips the girls with more time to consider buying the product Dolce & Gabana is selling. It is a classic business tactic, utilized by many companies, used to lure girls into buying a specific product. When a girl stumbles upon a Dolce & Gabana ad in her Cosmo Magazine and sees this image, she will likely be filled with imaginary fantasies of sexy Italian models smothering her with love. Of course, this image is dramatized and not intended to convey the real outcome of wearing the Dolce & Gabana perfume, but it gives girls (mostly teenage girls that are too nave to the harsh reality that appearance and fragrance are not the only things that guys are attracted to) the impression that if they wear this perfume, more guys will flock to them. Of course, the majority of females are smart enough to know that these images are dramatized and not intended to depict the real outcome of wearing Dolce & Gabana perfume. However, some girls will be intrigued by the steaminess of the advertisement and hope that they will achieve (nearly) the same results as the woman in the advertisement. This advertisement is visually appealing to men as well, seeing the gorgeous, foreign woman in tight clothing and high heels. She is wearing a short, black dress and vibrant, red lipstick; this attractive female model sparks the attention of men in a similar way that the male models intrigue girls (via out-of-this world attractiveness). However, this is an advertisement for perfume, and men (most men) dont wear perfume (although my girlfriend actually fooled me for a week or two in high school by giving me a bottle of her Burberry Beat perfume and telling me it was her brothers old cologne and that it smelled sooo delish on me. The nave me, not truly knowing the difference between perfume and cologne, agreed to wear it because I wanted to smell good for my girlfriend. However, after a few days I started to catch on when girls in my classes started dropping hints that I smelled just like them. I returned the cologne to my girlfriend and now I only wear stick deodorant just to be safe and avoid any humility that comes along with wearing female fragrances. This traumatizing event that happened to me in high school was likely the fuel for my writing of this analysis.) In relation to the Dolce & Gabana advertisement, not many guys will want to buy this perfume for their girlfriend, because they dont want a bunch of attractive Italian models all over her. Therefore, this advertisement mainly targets teenage girls who have high hopes for their love lives. Some lonely girls may connect the (wrong) puzzle pieces and (falsely) discover that the missing link to their bland love lives is the Italian female fragrance of flowers and freedom.

The idea that ones fragrance (besides that of natural pheromones) can attract a group of Italian male models is absurd to me. Of course, the original Dolce & Gabana advertisement doesnt directly say that this will be the result of wearing the perfume, but it can be assumed that that is the message it was intended to deliver, to its consumers, through the steamy image. I wish this advertisement was more realistic and depicted a likely real-life scenario: the realistic response of men when they smell a woman wearing Dolce & Gabana perfume. I imagine this real-life scenario occurring like this: an average-looking, young woman in an office building sprays the perfume on her neck as a nice man walks by and compliments her fragrance with a simple You smell nice. and the girl returns the compliment with a humble thank you, it is the new Dolce & Gabana Spring perfume series. My down-to-earth scenario of how the advertisement should be is more realistic, but when is advertising completely realistic anyways? The designers of advertisements use visual seduction techniques to lure the consumers into buying the products for which they portray in their advertisements. If Dolce & Gabana used my idea for the advertisement, they may not sell as many bottles of perfume, but at the same time, they wont heighten the expectations of the girls that buy their products (which would lead to the girls dreams being stomped on). For example, if a girl buys the Dolce & Gabana perfume after seeing the original advertisement for which I am analyzing, and she doesnt get smothered with affection, she will likely lose trust in the company as a whole, and stop buying their line of fragrances. However, if the same girl buys the same bottle of perfume after seeing my more realistic perfume advertisement, and she still doesnt receive smothering love but instead she receives verbal compliments, the girl will likely be more inclined to purchase another bottle of the perfume when it runs low. The moment a girl believes that a certain fragrance will attract a group of attractive male models, she buys a bottle of the perfume. This is how marketing works, and its kind of depressing. Companies heighten the hopes of their consumers only for their expectations to be crushed once they find out the real effect of the product. If companies were more transparent with their consumers, an unbreakable bond of trust would be established and the companies would flourish more in the long run (rather than using exaggeration to manipulate buyers into buying their products) and people will be more apt to share the companies products with their friends and family. I just wish the images that are shown in advertisements were less provocative, and more realistic. However, this dream only exists in the anti-ad world.

In my anti-advertisement, I will be targeting a broader range of audiences than the advertisement for which I based my anti-advertisement off of. My anti-advertisement will be aimed towards the demographic of young girls and even adult women. The addition of adult women to my demographic stems from the fact that my anti-ad is more professional and less promiscuous than the original Dolce & Gabana perfume advertisement. Through my more appropriate anti-advertisement, I want to create an image that a mother wouldnt mind her young son looking at. An advertisement picture like the Dolce & Gabana one I am analyzing is inappropriate to young children and shouldnt be viewed by them. Sexual images are meant for grown ups, not children. Of course, parents should monitor their children and prevent them from viewing explicit material, but that is easier said than done; in todays technologically advanced world, pictures like the advertisement I am analyzing are easily accessible via the Internet. I am hoping to convince people, through my anti-ad, that sexual images are not the only things that attract consumers. Through my anti-advertisement, I hope to establish a positive spin for companies creating advertisements: the mindset that an advertisement can be intriguing and convincing without the use of provocative images to sway the decisions of consumers.

I constructed my anti-advertisement using the highly advanced art method of stick-figure drawing. I used a purple pen, and a dull pencil to construct my vision of a more appropriate world of advertisements. My purple pen ran out halfway through the designing process, so I had to switch to a black pen. The reason that I made my design so simple (in addition to my lack of artistic capabilities) was because perfume should be simple. Women should wear perfume becaus