Vargas 1 Ruben Vargas Yogita Maharaj Writing 01-08 October 30, 2012 Males Only, Females Keep Out! Advertising and commercials have grown to be a part of the everyday life. Print ads are seen all the time, while browsing the internet or while taking a simple stroll around the neighborhood. Ads are posted for every product imaginable, and advertising is also seen in the form of commercials during television show breaks. Whether the advertisement is for a Mattel Barbie doll or for a 2013 Ford Mustang Boss 302, companies are always trying to go after the money, and the best way companies do that is with advertising their products or services wherever they can so that they can spread the word about their products. What some companies fail to realize is that the market for certain products or services has changed from being male oriented to being equal with or even completely dominated by women. An advertisement for the new KIA Optima is a great example of how car companies fail to see the shift in the vehicular market, “... A third, even half, of many car models were being bought by women”(Steinem 256) as stated by Gloria Steinem in her article Sex, Lies, and Advertising. The article Sex, Lies, and Advertising is Gloria Steinem's account and point of view on advertising and how a magazine succeeded without any advertising that, for example, would advertise gender-neutral products, but would give the impression that women must become like men in order to fit in and succeed. The commercial is good at appealing to the morals and values of most males; however, Steinem would have been appalled by KIA's commercial because although the product is gender-neutral, this commercial is obviously directed at a male audience. The morals in this commercial are heavily masculine because the women that appear in the Vargas 2 commercial are scantily dressed and are excited over the man in KIA Optima, which sounds a lot like many stories where the male is a lady's man and the female in the story is infatuated with him. This “story like commercial” is a great example of what Sonia Maasik and Fisher Solomon explain in their chapter introduction of the culture of American film as being based on archetypes, or based on “anything that has been repeated in storytelling from ancient times to the present”(Maasik 367). In that respect, the many different archetypes are used to enhance our emotional response towards commercial, and so it contains a good deal of pathos. Maasik and Solomon explain how to interpret the signs of American films and how they can continue to repeat stories but always add in a different element. Although the ethos and pathos in this commercial is very well conveyed, the logos shown in the ad is defective. It does not respond to all consumers, but picks ideal consumers and shows statistics for those individuals. The commercial begins with a familiar jingle, “Mr. Sandman” by The Chordettes, and a sandman figure sneaking into a man's bedroom, we assume he is trying to give him a good dream. Suddenly, he trips on the man's slippers and his entire sack of “magic sand” is dropped on the sleeping man's head. The music is suddenly changed to “Kickstart My Heart” by Motley Crue and the product is introduced here with the man behind the wheel; a new 2012 Optima Limited car in white. The flag girl, Brazilian model Adriana Lima, gives the go ahead and the man rips off the starting line and zips around the racetrack. As he is speeding the luxurious car around the arena, he is being cheered on by a multitude of bikini clad women and also by the band Motley Crue, who it seems are preforming their song live on a concert stage in the middle of the arena. The entire shot is then changed to a white background with black lettering that reads “OPTIMA” and “Not your average midsize sedan” written underneath, then is it changed for the Vargas 3 last time to the monthly payment and down-payment information for the vehicle. The commercial appeals heavily to the values of men, because men are known traditionally to love their cars. The man in this commercial is having the best dream imaginable from a male standpoint. He has beautiful women surrounding him, an amazing car that he is in control of, and he is hearing a concert by what we presume to be his favorite band because it is his dream, and so are held as his values. These values alone help many men connect with the person in the commercial, for it is the dream of many men to have beautiful women surrounding them while they are driving a beautiful car and are listening to a free concert from their favorite band. Although it may sound great, those values do not appeal to many females because women may not want beautiful women surrounding them, and they may not want a concert at all; however, they may want the beautiful car that is portrayed in this advertisement. The commercial, then, is flawed in that it conveys the more masculine values of the company's consumers and delivers little to no appeal to the company's female consumers. The commercial has no conversation between any of the characters, but the songs that are played help to set a mood and help to activate an emotional response or archetypical idea in people, which will help to trigger an emotional response from the commercial's target audience. The “Mr. Sandman” song is an archetypical song that conveys a sense of ease and relaxation that can be used here to lull the listener into a relaxed, almost dreamlike state. The song is then changed to “Kickstart My Heart” which is a fast paced rock song meant to inspire or energize a person. In this case, “Kickstart My Heart” is used to convey a sense that the KIA Optima is an invigorating automobile and has the potential to take people anywhere that they desire. The biggest archetype that is portrayed in the commercial happens with the females in the Vargas 4 commercial, “Signs of Life in the USA” contains a passage that summarizes this archetype nicely, “...The unspoken cultural message... that women are simply the sexual reward for manly men”(Maasik 367-368). In essence, this archetype is saying that women are nothing but a reward for men, and although it is extremely sexist, it is exactly what this commercial conveys. Not too smart of a move on KIA's part (again) considering that, “A car is an important purchase for women, one that is such a symbol of mobility and freedom that many women will spend a greater percentage of income for a car than will counterpart men”(Steinem 256). The full version of the commercial has another archetype added on to “balance” the mostly masculine commercial; the sandman first visits a woman's bedroom and gives her dream of meeting her “knight in shining armor”. The commercial uses many different archetypes and fairy-tales to help the audience identify with the character in the advertisement. The ending is where the vast majority of faulty persuasion comes in because it states that someone may own this car for “only” $189 a month with $2,499 due at the signing, in other words about a $2,500 down-payment with monthly minimum payments of about $190. It seems like an extremely low payment for this beautiful car, but in reality it may be way higher than that because the payments shown are estimates of payments that someone with perfect credit would pay, but many people do not have perfect credit or even good credit, some may have no credit at all. This information has a huge fault then because it does not take into account the credit scores of consumers, it just demonstrates what a person with perfect credit will be able to pay for the down-payment and for the monthly lease. Overall, the commercial is a very bad attempt from KIA when it comes to marketing to its consumer base. KIA should have made the commercial more feminine friendly, or should have Vargas 5 made a double of the commercial portraying the female version of a “perfect dream”. The ethical appeal is exclusively for men, from the hot models to the rock music, and the female appeal is almost nonexistent. The emotional appeal is there for men, but again it has little ties to female emotions other than the “knight in shining armor” archetype in the full length version of the commercial. The factual information towards the end of the commercial is slanted, and so gives the impression that the vehicle is more accessible to everyone. Vargas 6 Works Cited Bochsler, Matt. "Motley Crue KIA Commercial." YouTube. YouTube, 12 Mar. 2012. Web. 27 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzxrhA39d6c>. Auto, Hersons. "2012 KIA Optima with Motley Crue & Adriana Lima." YouTube. YouTube, 10 Feb. 2012. Web. 27 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em2Ikjt8lWU>. Maasik, Sonia, and J. Fisher Solomon. "The Culture of American Film." Signs of Life in the U.S.A.: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2012. 365-76. Print. Steinem, Gloria, Sonia Maasik, and J. Fisher Solomon. "Sex, Lies, and Advertising." Signs of Life in the U.S.A.: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2012. 249-69. Print.