Fallon Snider
Hanna Mack
Lee Anne Shaffer
Ad Proposal
note: these proposals are already in order of preference
1. Single Ad: LBJ vs. Barry Goldwater—Johnson’s “Daisy” ad
The ad: the political television ad used by Lydon B. Johnson in the 1964 presidential
campaign. The ad shows a little girl picking petals off of a daisy and counting the petals
as she plucks them. As she is counting, she falters, and the camera zooms into the black
part of her eye, which, after a different voice counts backwards: “10-9-8-7-6-5...,”shows
an atomic explosion. After this is shown, LBJ quotes: “These are the stakes: to make a
world in which all of God’s children can live or go into the dark. We must either love
each other or we must die.” The last frame shows “VOTE FOR PRESIDENT JOHNSON
ON NOVEMBER 3,” while a voice over says “The stakes are too high for you to stay
home. Vote.”
Thesis: LBJ’s 1964 “Daisy,” a negative political ad, was incredibly successful because it
utilized symbolism, current events, and disturbing imagery to get its point across to the
people.
Some of the things we will be analyzing: these will basically be the three prongs in the
thesis. The symbolism used in this ad is from Frankenstein, the movie—the little girl in
the ad looks uncannily similar to Little Maria, who was killed by the monster. Here, in
the advertisement, the monster is the threat of a nuclear war, which directly attacked
Barry Goldwater because of his constant jokes about “nuking” other countries. This leads
to the use of current events: in 1964, the U.S. was rife with paranoia of potential nuclear
wars and suchlike. The imagery used in this ad directly aimed towards this common fear,
and it hit home. We might also talk about how, by being such a powerfully persuasive ad,
“Daisy” only had to be shown once to make a huge impression—news programs and the
rest of the media did the work for LBJ by showing the ad themselves. In addition, the ad
never once mentioned Barry Goldwater—the connections were all made by viewers, in
their own minds, which made it all the more convincing.
2. Advertising Campaign: Listerine
The Listerine ads:
1) “If you want the truth—go to a child.” This full-page ad depicts a young
woman with a little girl on her lap. The child is looking up at the woman with
a curious look and a slightly wrinkled brow, while the woman’s face is turned
away, with a look of chagrin and perhaps dismay. The ad then goes on to say
that “Here was the case of a young woman who, in spite of her personal charm
and beauty, never seemed to hold men friends. For a long, long time she
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searched her mind for the reason. It was a tragic puzzle in her life. The one
day her little niece told her.” The ad makes the woman’s case sound so serious
and embarrassing that it would make any woman think twice about her breath.
The ad then follows with, “You, yourself, rarely know when you have
halitosis (unpleasant breath). That’s the insidious thing about it. And even
your closest friends won’t tell you.” There it is—the problem. Halitosis: bad
breath. Then afterwards the ad presents the solution, which is Listerine, to be
used multiple times daily. There is only a small picture of the product—most
of the ad is taken up by the picture of the woman and the child.
2) “Often a bridesmaid but never a bride” Here, “Edna’s case was really a
pathetic one. Like every woman, her primary ambition was to marry. Most of
the girls of her set were married—or about to be. Yet not one possessed more
grace or loveliness than she. And as her birthday’s crept gradually toward that
tragic thirty-mark, marriage seemed farther from her life than ever. She was
often a bridesmaid but never a bride.” The ad shows a young woman looking
hopeless and clutching her unused wedding garments to her chest, and follows
Edna’s pathetic story with the identification of the problem—halitosis, and the
solution—Listerine, as mentioned in the previous ad.
3) “Halitosis makes you unpopular.” “DON’T FOOL YOURSELF—since
halitosis never announces itself to the victim, you simply cannot know when
you have it.” In this particular ad, though it is still mainly directed towards
women, as evident by the depiction of a dejected, “unpopular” young woman
and also the “facts” in the lower right hand corner which state that
hairdressers report one-third of all their predominantly wealthy female
customers to have halitosis. Again, the ad pounds the idea that halitosis is
detrimental to your social life and that it is hard for you to know whether you
have it or not—hence, it is better safe than sorry—use Listerine! The ad has
the same description of halitosis and the same solution as the ads mentioned
above.
4) “Could I be happy with him in spite of that?” This ad is directed more towards
men—a girl is looking at her engagement ring, and in a background picture
behind hers, there is a sketch of a bride and groom walking down the aisle.
“She had announced her engagement to him. Her friends were beginning to be
quite curious as to when the wedding would occur. And he, more insistent
than any of them, was pleading with her to set a definite time. One thing
seemed to stand in the way—something she didn’t have the courage to talk to
him about—something, she feared, might interfere with her happiness. She
simply didn’t know what to do.” This is then followed by the halitosis
explanation and the Listerine solution.
Thesis: Through the Listerine ad campaign and by practically inventing the problem of
halitosis, Lambert, the creator of Listerine, made consumers painfully aware of the
effects of bad breath and created a market for his product.
Some of the things we will be analyzing: Each of the ads is pretty meaty. They are each
directed to a certain age group and a certain social problem that the ads then blame on
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halitosis. Also, there is the history of Listerine and the original “Lister,” which,
ironically, had nothing to do with oral hygiene, as well as Lambert’s “creation” of
halitosis—basically putting halitosis into every American mouth.
3. Product Group: Automobiles
The ads being compared and contrasted are:
1.)
2.)
3.)
…an advertisement from the DuPont Registry for a Lotus Esprit V8. The
background is black. At the very top of the ad is the title, in a script font:
“The Beauty & The Beast”. The entire ad seems to have a ghost of a large
depiction of the engine of the car. On the right side of the ad, towards the
middle, there is a paragraph in which the language appeals mostly to pathos,
using adjectives such as stunning, sweeping, phenomenal and devastating. Its
main purpose is to establish beauty of the exterior and the beastly aspect of the
engine. On the very bottom, there is a picture of the front end of the car, set at
a slight angle.
…an advertisement from L’auto-journal for a Saab 9-5 Estate. There are two
cars set on what seems to be a sheet of ice. The car furthest in the background
is actually made up of cubes stacked in such a way that they resemble a car.
The car in the front is the actual Saab 9-5 Estate. The title of the ad reads
“Saab vs. le Cubisme”. The paragraph right below it explains how their car
differs from that which is built by the cubists, namely in the aerodynamic
design. The last sentence, which I find amusing, states that “[t]his might
explain why they made their appearance at the beginning of the twentieth
century, and not at the end.” The color scheme of the entire ad seems to be
various shades of blue, with white.
The third ad is actually two ads that go together, from Auto Motor Sport, for
the Boxter, and the new Boxter S from Porsche. The first of the ads shows the
back of a silver Boxter as it drives along what looks to be a setting in nature.
The background, made up of warm colors, such as red and orange, is
somewhat blurred to show the speed of the car. At the bottom of the ad it says
“A beautiful, juicy steak. In a world full of sushi. The Boxter.” The second
ad shows a red Boxter S, in much the same setting, except with a lot more red,
yellow, and orange tones. The background is again very blurred to convey the
speed of the car. The caption at the bottom of the ad reads “But even the best
steaks can always use more pepper. The new Boxter S.”
Thesis:
Although car ads always seem to blend together into one boring genre,
different cars use different techniques in their ads, such as coloring,
the messages of the texts, and the depiction of their car or its parts
within the setting to target different groups of people.
Brief Analysis
The Lotus Esprit V8 advertisement targets an audience who is searching for power
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and the feeling of invincibility that a car will give him. The coloring, which is
mainly black and grey, support this because they evoke the feeling of power. Also,
the depiction of the motor, which looks like a formidable piece of machinery backs
up the idea of power as well. The most convincing aspect, however, is the title and
the text. The title is a gripping statement whose strength comes from the fact that it is
setting up a paradox by showing how the car in question is both a beauty and a beast.
There is no real allusion to the Disney story, but the fact that this phrase “Beauty and
The Beast” is so recognizable makes it easier to initially grab the audience’s attention.
The use of such adjectives as stunning, sweeping, phenomenal, and devastating,
which are hyperbolic descriptions of the vehicle, create the illusion that the owner of
this product is living on the wild side, flirting with danger.
The advertisement for the Saab 9-5 Estate is geared towards a professional and
educated audience. The blues and white used in the color scheme are very subdued
colors. They create a relaxed and professional atmosphere, which would appeal to a
professional. The text definitely appeals to an educated audience, since one would
have to know what cubism entails in order to understand the relationship between
this car’s design and that of a cubist. Especially the wit of the last statement
would escape someone who didn’t have enough background knowledge. The
presentation of the car is also very direct. The entire car is displayed and the its
contours are very distinct. This way, the buyer sees exactly what he/she is going to
get, which appeals to a professional.
The Porsche Boxter and Boxter S ads appeal to an audience that is out for the thrill of
the ride, without much thought for the consequences. The colors, which are
predominately red, orange, and yellow, evoke a certain wildness and excitement that
the audience associates with the vehicle. The text is concise, but compelling because
it presents an easily understandable analogy. Therefore, the audience does not
necessarily have to be educated to understand the image Porsche is attempting to
convey. This ad appeals to those who don’t think of the consequences of their actions
because it uses mainly pathos to build up the audience’s desire for the freedom,
speed, and status this car promises. This suggests that the audience of this particular
ad does not need logos (such as price or what features this car has) to convince
him/her to buy the Boxter, and that if they are sufficiently taken with the excitement
that the ad conveys, they will actually buy the car without giving too much thought to
the price, which might prove to have dire consequences.
4. Advertisement over time: Clairol Hair Color (ad/product campaign)
Some of the ads we’ll be using: “Does she...or doesn’t she?” “Hair color so natural only
her hairdresser knows for sure!” Also, see the bold headlines in the paragraphs after the
thesis. Most of the ads from the 1950’s and 60’s show happy looking women with
vibrant, natural looking hair color, and hair as glossy as that of the children next to them.
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Thesis: Though the target audience of hair color, despite having expanded, hasn’t
changed much, different tactics were necessary for the initial introduction of hair color
and for selling hair color in today’s market where coloring hair is a normal thing to do.
When hair color was first introduced in World War II, there were two major obstacles to
overcome by the producers of the product. The product needed to demonstrate that it not
only was a new revolutionary concept for women, not just a prostitute’s tool, but that it
was natural and was different than any other hair tinting products. With the first target
audience being the wealthy and urban women looking to be a glamorous as Jean Harlow,
the product soon became more widely used. Several years later the process became
simplified, thus improved, because it could be done at home in one-step, a concept hard
to grasp by women at the time. Demonstrations were often done onstage to prove how
easy it was, though it was at this time that magazines rejected ads for coloring. However,
the main focus of advertising the product was through Miss Clairol who served as the
hostess of the product and soon became a mother-like symbol that related to women all
over, and excluded men resulting in the “it’s a woman thing” and “men don’t
understand” attitudes. Through the headline, the advertisements also promoted salons,
where virtually all the business occurred.
Once these advertisements had propelled sales by 413 percent, they turned to a very
logical type of advertising in which the message indicated that “touch-ups” were a
necessity for women to look their best and avoid their roots from showing. Now, many
competitors began to introduce their products, L’Oreal creating the illusion that it was a
better product of value because it cost more, but the user’s are “worth it”, however Miss
Clairol had constructed the base for advertising this kind of product. By the 1980s the
focus had shifted from the hairdressers, and the themes were no longer discreet, and did
not try to keep dyed hair a secret, but rather bragged that yes, they do dye their hair. In a
current ad for Clairol, an actress interrupts a wedding to show the product and claim that
the color will last even if the marriage didn’t, while the guests nod understandingly. The
advertisements for Clairol hair coloring products have empowered woman, by making the
usage of it socially acceptable, targeting older women with gray hair, but appealing to
women from thirteen years old. Miss Clairol has made it possible for a woman to present
and express herself.