Is Jen "thirsty"? It just so happens she's trying to sell water as well....
This advertisement by SmartWater, published in 2010 in magazines and online sky rocketed Smart Water's campaign. I wonder why?
In the advertisement, Jen poses in bed with the sheets wrapped around her, covering herself. She is photographed in the center of the picture, which is in black and white. The affect of using black and white instead of color helps the audience to focus on the colored text as well. Black and white is also easier to sense emotion than colored images, which helps promote a sexual desire. The right side of the ad is text which is in both color and black text. The significance of certain words being colored is to draw attention to and bold certain words, attracting the eye to the text instead of beautiful Jennifer Aniston. The text says, "My Secret Revealed: I've got nothing to hide. I simply love clean, crisp, pure tasting smart water (see, I'm not afraid to spill)". The advertisement uses words like "revealed," "nothing to hide," and "spill" to add to the lustful theme. These words and phrases hold a double meaning in selling the product and layering a sexual perspective to the ad.
By layering this perspective, both men and women are attracted to this advertisement. Most men are attracted to this add because it is visually appealing and causes a sexual desire or lust. Women could be attracted to this ad because they are inspired to be and look like Jen. These women want to feel the way that Jen feels and looks. By generating this ad, many people are targeted including men and women from young to around 50 years of age, Jen is 45. This target market is most likely middle to high class, since smart water is very expensive. The company claims the water is "vapor distilled" and "high quality water"-that means expensive. The brand image is also another factor in targeting the middle to high class. Branding is a way for socioeconomic statuses to connect through products. To have purchased a certain brand image, you are furthering the invisible barrier between socioeconomic classes.
Mass media uses language and this image to inform people about the affects of smart water and that hydrating is good for the body. The purpose of this advertisement is to persuade the audience to buy smart water; you can look and feel like "this" if you drink smart water! There is some textual bias in this advertisement, due to the layer of sexual desire, in that the audience wants to look and feel like Jen because of her image.
This image uses one of the seven deadly sins, lust, to sell the product. The sexual desire provoked by Jen allows smart water to manipulate their audience to believe that they can be like Jen if they buy smart water. Lust plays a large roll in impacting the audience and how they perceive the product.
I really like how you examined the use of color in this ad. The aqua text really contrasts with the black and white nature of the photograph. This really does bring the viewer's attention to the words "secret revealed," which immediately intrigued me about what the ad could be about. In addition, I like how you talked about the positioning of Jen in the ad. In film class we examine subjects in the frame all the time. By placing her in the center the photographer broke the rule of thirds, therefore, placing a tremendous amount of attention on her. I like how you brought up both the coloring and placement of the picture. You did a fabulous job analyzing this ad, it really made me think!!
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting how the only word that you can really read on the ad is the word smart. This brings an additional deadly sin to my mind, which is pride. It suggests that smart people drink smart water, and if you want to be smart then you will also drink smart water. This appeals to pride because obviously simply drinking smart water doesn't make you a genius, but it can make you think more highly of yourself. I completely agree with your analysis about lust as well, this just adds another layer like you mentioned.
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