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Abbey Wampler
Ms. Brenda Lewis
English 112
1 May 2013
Are Advertisements Suitable for Society?
For a while now, companies have been paying to have their products be advertised almost
everywhere their consumers can see it. The biggest challenge has been figuring out a way to
capture the consumer’s attention and more importantly their business. Advertisements are
created by the companies’ marketing management team. They pool together information about
society to make an advertisement that best creates the ideal thing people want to see. That’s the
thing; we as society haven’t realized the bigger underlying message that is shown in these
advertisements. We, as society, get so caught up in the product that we don’t really see the
underlying message appropriateness of the advertisement.
One of the biggest products advertised is cologne and perfume. This is because not all
parts of society wear a fragrance and even if you do, it is hard to pick out the one you want. The
only thing is, with more advertisements about beauty products, there is usually a chance of
inappropriateness displayed in the advertisement. Cologne and perfume advertisements represent
messages that relate to society within them.
Gucci Guilty is a recent perfume and cologne fragrance by Gucci. In the advertisement,
there consists of a man and a woman. The woman seems to be lying on her side, with her head
tilted to the sky a little bit, and her eyes looking at the camera. The man is lying perpendicular to
the woman, with his head resting on her shoulder, and his eyes, as well, facing the camera. The
man’s right arm is wrapped around the front of the woman; with his hand caressing the woman’s
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left jaw and cheek. The man’s other arm, is wrapped around the woman’s backside of her head,
holding it up. We can only see the woman’s left forearm and hand. Her left arm is folded up to
where it is parallel with her body, lying underneath the man’s arm, and is caressing his right
cheek. Both the man and woman appear to be without clothes. The man has two tattoos, which
are located on his left and right shoulders. The man appears to be muscular and the woman
appears to be skinny. The woman is wearing a Gucci bracelet on the wrist that is visible. The
man has a stubble beard and mustache. The man also has green eyes, and the woman has blue
eyes. The woman also has a Smokey-eye design of eye shadow, along with eye liner and mascara
on. Their bodies are touching and the man seems to be hovering over the woman. The woman’s
mouth is open a little bit, and the male has a slight smile. The male has a tug hold on the woman
with his bicep, but his hand is relaxed against her face. The advertisement displays “Gucci
Guilty” in big letters across the bottom, and in smaller letters “Intense.” Underneath the word
“Intense” are the words “the new fragrances for her him and her.” The last things on the
advertisement are pictures of the bottles in the lower left and right hand corners.
After taking a deeper look at what was really being displayed in the Gucci Guilty
fragrance advertisement, I noticed that the advertisement is targeting men and women who are
looking to intensify their lives. The advertisement consists of a man and woman sexually holding
each other, and this shows a more extreme side of relationships in society, intense ones. The
name of the fragrances suggests itself that its users will have a more passionate lifestyle and it
may be something that will be a little regretful after it happens. The name also suggests that the
user is using the fragrance for sexual reasons, and because of that, they are a little “guilty” for it.
The syntagmatic dimensions of the media text are indicative of the intensification of the
advertisement. Implying that the fragrance will intensify our life is a way that the management
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team is trying to latch us on to the product. As a society, we are always looking for adventures
and more, and this was to show one way of doing that.
Another thing I noticed after taking a deeper look at the advertisement is the
seductiveness of the advertisement. The man’s overshadowing position in the advertisement is
sensual, pinning the woman against the floor, and wrapping his arms around her in a dominating
but careful way. The upper bodies of the models are intertwined, showing a strong love lifestyle.
Having the models look naked in the advertisement is a factor that plays into the sexual lifestyle
being shown. The couple looks as if they were just kissing. The models’ eyes are open in a
seductive way, which is proof that they are intimate because if they were closed, it would seem
they were emotional and vulnerable. Showing seductiveness in advertisements is a way of trying
to attract the single population because they are implying that the fragrance will help out our love
lives. For the population that is not single, it implies that we can always have more.
A third thing I realized when taking a deeper look at the advertisement is how there is
very little gender domination. With both or the models’ eyes being open, there is very little
dynamic power over one another. There are physical indicators that show both have romantic
engagement, which helps to lessen the feeling of overpowering genders. The only indicator of
the male domination is the feeling of the man on top of the woman, holding her against him. This
is a moot point due to the fact that the woman is holding her hand against him as well, and the
fact that his grip on her is not forceful, but rather tender. With the little amount of gender
domination, this advertisement is meant to attract both male and female populations. Both
populations are still reeled in by the closeness with the opposite sex, while the female
populations do not see an advertisement full of male domination. We can guess that if the
advertisement were split into separate cologne and perfume advertisements, they would portray
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more female or male domination to attract a certain audience. Since this is an advertisement for
both genders, we can see the equal representation of the male and female.
The final thing I noticed when taking a deeper look at the advertisement are the
management techniques to attract the consumer. The positioning of the way their eyes are
looking straight at the consumer is a way of asking the consumer to come and join them in this
lifestyle through the use of the fragrance. The closeness of the models proves that the fragrance
is irresistible and an attraction to the opposite sex. Both the man and woman are holding their
hands in a place which is pushing their faces closer together. This helps to prove the previous
point, but also implies that the fragrance smells good because the purpose of buying cologne and
perfume is to smell good. The way the man and woman are holding their mouths is also implying
something. It looks as if they were just kissing but interrupted. The man is smiling a little bit,
while the woman has her mouth open a little bit, with a little look of surprise. This could be a
symbol that the person they are looking at (the consumer) is wearing the Gucci Guilty and is
attracting a part of that couple. With all of the things we can see from the advertisement and
presume about it, we can take a deeper step in looking at the advertisement.
Advertisement is a tool that has been around for quite some time, but it is just recently
that they have been seen as scandalous. According to Hidden Messages: Advertising and the
Messages They Send to Society about Women, advertising methods have become more and more
controversial, many times bordering on obscene to catch the consumer’s eye (Michaelides). In
other advertisements, there is male domination, over-sexual images, and in many cases,
confidence lowering models. There’s a line between when advertisements become useful and
aren’t, but the difficulty is finding it. For decades, management teams have been working to
create an “ideal” for the perfect woman, but why is it that only 5% of the entire population looks
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like that and it is the main thing we see in the media (Micaelides). Companies form a scandalous
advertisement with this “ideal” woman by removing clothes, having men surround the woman,
and in many other ways. For many companies, this is their case, but not for all. Gucci Guilty is
an advertisement that is appropriate and fits in with today’s society.
Although it may seem hard to believe that there is an advertisement that is not offensive
or demeaning, there is one, Gucci Guilty. The Gucci Guilty fragrance advertisement is
appropriate for today’s society because it does not demean a certain gender or that gender’s selfconfidence. The advertisement is a close up of a man and a woman holding each other. We don’t
see the models’ entire bodies. The most we see are the man’s muscles and the women’s shoulder,
but other than that, most of it is their faces and arms. These images are better than full body
images because they do not make consumers feel displeased with their bodies compared to the
models. There are no bones that are sticking out to imply being too skinny or anorexic. The
models seem of average size. The only small exception is the man’s bicep muscles, but if a male
consumer was to work out, it isn’t like the male model is on steroids, the muscle size is
achievable. The female’s skin tone and makeup are reasonable and do not look unrealistic. This
advertisement in no way suggests that the models in it are better than average people, except for
a more intense life due to the fragrance. Although many fragrance advertisements are offensive
to one or the other gender, this one is not. Even though the fragrance proposes a lifestyle that
may not walk straight over to us, it is an advertisement that can boost self-confidence without
demeaning the opposite sex. This advertisement is an example of what an advertisement should
look like when trying to attract a target audience that includes both genders.
The Gucci Guilty advertisement is great in not only attracting both genders, but it has a
main focus. There are many advertisements that try to sell a bigger kind of lifestyle in these
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advertisements, but this one does not. An example is the advertisement of Dolce and Gabbana’s
Light Blue fragrance collection. In the advertisement, they are trying to sell the clear water, the
perfect body, the perfect skin tone, the beautiful cliffs, the sunny ocean living, rather than just a
small part of a lifestyle, like its intensity. Gucci Guilty is almost on the complete other side of the
spectrum, with its main focus only being the intensification in the life we have. We don’t see the
need to be jealous of the models’ bodies, the sunny place they are, or the clear water ocean they
are swimming in. Gucci Guilty creates an advertisement that creates fewer fallacies in the eyes of
the consumer because they don’t expect or see a complete life-changing formation with the
product. Advertisers are going further and further in their mission to attract the consumer’s
attention (Michaelides). The Gucci Guilty is withstanding the pressures of over doing the
lifestyle being portrayed that comes with the fragrance, and in many cases, it’s what society is
actually looking for.
Advertisements have been taking over everywhere and companies will do anything to get
their products sold. With both of the two statements above, it’s not hard to believe that
management teams will go to the extreme when it comes of advertisement. Although some
companies will stop at nothing, some are better role models of how advertisements should look
and make the consumer feel. Gucci Guilty has a fragrance advertisement that is pleasing to the
eyes, but at the same time, not demeaning to a certain gender.
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Works Cited
Gucci. Gucci Guilty. 2011. Art8amby. Web. 19 April 2013.
Dolce and Gabbana. Light Blue. 2010. Dolce and Gabbana. Web. 20 April 2013.
Michaelides, Alyssa. “Hidden Messages: Advertising and the Messages They Send to Society
About Women.” Senior Honor Theses (2005): n. pg. Web. 22 April 2013.