Report On Observation And Analysis Of Chosen Advertisements

The advertisements I chose are Colgate: Sink child, Duracell: The Teddy Bear, Garnier: Hide Yesterday, and L’Oréal: The Waterproof Experience. Each advertisement is marketing a certain life message: environment, Impoverishment, or appearance. I also chose these ads because they’re different from one another. Watching each of the advertisements shed some light on being mindful of what we’re wasting and how we tend to overlook the less fortunate. But at the same time how perfection and appearance is exploited.

Assumptions and Observations

Immediately Garnier stood out to me because of the name “hide yesterday” gives a funny vibe to it, the title will peak your curiosity if nothing else. I was familiar with the situation because a family member of mine was a hard party goer and he had a girlfriend who came from wealth. So that was a conflict of interest you can say. As for the Colgate I was kind of unsure if the ad was going to be of any importance, but the message was overall an “eye-opener”. When it came to Duracell’s Teddy Bear I was curious because I wanted to know why they were using a bear to advertise batteries. I thought they were going to imitate the energizer bunny honestly. Although, the message was good I think it was a tad bit cliché or like I’ve seen the same concept before for something else. And lastly the L’Oréal ad, I wanted to see how they differentiate themselves from all the other cosmetic lines out now and I’ve been thinking about trying some makeup products.

Audience. Advertisements are always audience specific. Based on the actors and actresses that are chosen, one could assume that the target audience would be white women. I, myself agree with that statement but I do think each advertisement has its own audience. Garnier and L’Oréal are “intended” for women or men who want to look good for all occasions and situations. But they fail to create a more diverse experience for men and women of color. The Garnier commercial could target both sexes but I would say considering how the characters are placed, that they were trying to capture male consumers. For example, the ad places the man going through different transitions who uses the product to wash away the previous reckless behavior. Duracell and Colgate bring an audience of families separated by jobs, etc. and world issues that we tend to not realize.

Message. In the ad Colgate: Sink Child the message was very clear. We often don’t realize the severity of things, especially if we’ve had the opportunity that others have not. Not only do we waste water without a second thought we also waste food amongst other things. Garnier and L’Oréal messages both correlate with having a persona to up-keep. Whether you’re trying to impress someone or can hide whatever emotions you may be feeling, there’s always a product to help you recover. Lastly, the Duracell ad is a family oriented commercial and I believe the message they were going for is that no matter how far a loved one is there’s always a way to keep in touch with them to show love. More importantly keeping a positive outlook on a sensitive situation.

Relationship between people. I believe that in most of these advertisements, the most important relationship depicted between people is the relationship between men and women, about what they pay attention to the most. In the advertisements the men are trying to appease either their partner or child. They want to live up to their loved one’s expectations. On the other hand, women are only depicted as looking good always.

Relationship with product. In each of the advertisements, the relationship I chose to focus on is the relationship between women and appearance. The level of insecurities of being emotional outside of our comfort zones is very high. And that plays out in the L’Oréal ad, there was a select of women all trying new makeup line and they were to test the endurance of a sad movie. With the Garnier ad, the scenario is fun, colorful and light-hearted. It shows how the man finds a way to get his self together and look presentable for his girlfriend.

Effectiveness. For me, the least effective advertisement is the L’Oréal advertisement, because its depicts only one demographic of women looking their best. The women wear the makeup, watch a sad film, and still manage to look the exact same as they came before the movie. Natural. I think the funnier the ad, the more effective it is because it may not mean much but it caught and held our attention. For instance, the Garnier ad is very comical, but is the message really that important? To me, not so much.

Social Science Evidence. To back up my observations about the relationship between women and appearance, or just people and appearance in general; I looked for evidence within the course and internet. In Theme 2 and 3, we learned about perception and the role it play in how we choose to behave from what we see.

Questions. Sociologists study society in general and research things like gender, class, or race and how they behave in different groups. Anthropologists study the past and the present of humans and want to know how cultural beliefs and traditions are continued to the nest generation. In Module 3 we learned about how outside influence play a large role on how we live our lives and how we must be seen by others. Every day we are constantly influenced in one way or another by advertisements, my question is, why do advertisers use so many stereotypes in their ads?