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Diego Cruz
Catherin Koehler
Writing 1
11 December 2013
The Power of Athletes
Ads are used to sell a product by masking the product with lots of different
techniques. Techniques vary from using short and direct phrases, sharp backgrounds or
decorations, and displaying a person in the ad. All these are really strong ways to depict
what the product is going to do for people. Using people is very strong way to advertise a
product. When advertising a product with a person the ad doesn’t use just any person, it
uses a person who is very well known. The technique of using a known person in an ad
can be very persuasive, helps achieve the purpose of the ad, and influence the audience.
When walking around on the street people don’t notice normal people unless they
know the person whether it’s a friend or a family member. If someone were to see
someone they know they would try to catch the person’s attention by waving or yelling
out their name. People don’t go around waving ar people that they have never met unless
there is an extreme circumstance. Aside from the people we may know there is another
set of people that are very well known but have never met in ones life, celebrities. If
someone were to see a celebrity they would immediately run to the celebrity to get an
autograph or to just simple shake their hand. Celebrities do not just include actors but it
also includes athletes, reporters, very smart well-known people, and even comedians.
Celebrities instantly catch your eye whether they are extremely famous or not. Celebrities
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are seen all over the place and recognized when seen even if it’s the smallest poster on
the wall or board.
Ads use celebrities to achieve their purpose and influence its audience to buy the
product that is being displayed. The main purpose of an ad is to show off a product and
make it look like it’s the best thing around to try to sell it as efficiently as possible. In
order to sell the product the ad must influence people into buying it because the product
is very effective on doing what it advertises to do. For example in Muscle Milk ad the ad
uses very strong content to influence its audience into buying the product. The add uses
sharp effects in the background, very condensed phrases with deep meaning, and the
most important an All-Star football player. The sharp effects help the football player
stand out more with the foggy effect behind him. Although football players are very
famous this ad went a step further in placing a player from a very well known football
team, Green Bay Packers. The ad did not just stop there but rather made it even more
effective by including an All-Star football player not just any random player from the
Green Bay Packers. The ad is trying to advertise Muscle Milk as a very powerful protein
shake that promises great results. They advertise the All-Star football player, Clay
Matthews an incredible linebacker also knows as “They Clay Maker,” as a player who
enjoys drinking Muscle Milk because of the effects it has had on him. Ever since he
drank Muscle Milk he was able to train harder, recover faster, gain strength, and led him
to victory. The ad is using Clay Matthews as a role model to influence the audience in
believing that Muscle Milk will bring them what it has bought Clay.
Muscle Milk is not just selling its product but also the image of becoming an
enormous beast like Clay Matthews. The advertisement uses Matthews to sell the image
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of becoming a beast because of his incredible size that he has obtained through drinking
milk. Ironically Muscle Milk isn’t like the milk that is advertised for woman or young
infants to stay slim or for kids to grow up. This milk is no ordinary milk is protein shake
directed to only males to help them achieve their goals, get amazing enormous like
Matthews. Also this protein shake is not used to enhance the user’s performance during
the time needed but it’s suppose to help you prepare for the workout or replenish after the
workout. This is not an energy drink but a protein shake used to build muscle to later be
able to perform with much stronger strength and become victorious. Muscle Milk is
solely directed to males who are being encouraged to become tenacious.
Ads not only advertise their product by making it seem very good but also they
indirectly compare the product as something better than another product that it suppose to
do the same thing and the advertised product. There is a Gatorade ad with a famous
soccer player, Mikael Forsell who is on the Finnish national team as a striker. In the ad
there is a question “Is it in you?” which asks the audience if they drink Gatorade or not.
Next to Mikael it says, “It is in him” meaning he drinks Gatorade. Since Gatorade is
suppose to be an energy drink that should be drank during a work out, practice, or a game
the ad sets up that scenario. The ad has Mikael looking very energetic while playing a
game and is depicted as scoring a goal with a very fierce and fast kick. What is less
noticeable is the fact is that he is the only human player on the field all the other players
are made out of water. The water players are made out of water because they drink water
as their energy drink meaning, “water is in them.” The ad is indirectly comparing the
effects of Gatorade vs the effects of water being used as energy drinks. The ad shows
what the effects of each energy drink does, Gatorade makes the player as fierce as Mikael
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and water makes the player as weak as the water players. The ad also depicts that the
Gatorade performance is so overwhelming that one person who drinks Gatorade could
beat a whole team of people who drink water because Mikael is destroying the four water
players on the field. Another way the performance is shown off is by the soccer ball
going through the water player’s arm because it is too much power for the water player to
stop even with the water player’s arm. Ads not only use celebrities to achieve their goal
but also indirectly compare their product with another by making it overwhelmingly
superior.
The ad is not only selling the drink itself but also the image of Gatorade drinker
out-preforming water drinkers. Gatorade is highly recommended to be taken when taking
part in a tenuous physical activity because water mat no be sufficient to replenish lost
fluids. Water does not support the athlete with sodium or the calories that help throughout
the activity. This product is competing against water and selling to people who are
interested in preforming during their activity they are partaking. In the ad it has been
shown that people who take Gatorade can out preform people who take water. This ad is
not only selling Gatorade as an energy drink to athletes, but also comparing Gatorade to
water as much superior substance that can be consumed to increase performance during a
strenuous activity.
Ads are used to sell a product using various amounts of techniques to convince
people to buy the product that is being displayed. When ads are being advertised it
doesn’t just use a catchy phrase but uses celebrities to catch the attention. These ads do
not only have the intent to sell its product but also hidden images such as becoming an
immense monster or to belittle another product that is trying to advertise the same
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promises. Celebrities play a huge role in advertising because they have been successful
and life and people all around the world want to be like them because some are their role
models.
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Works Cited
Muscle Milk. Advertisement. Adforum. Mekanism, 15 Mar. 2013. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.
Gatorade. Advertisement. W.Steinmann. Timo Paloheimo, 7 Mar. 2009. Web. 11 Dec.
2013.
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Appendix
http://www.adforum.com/agency/22414/creative-work/34487345
http://www.wsteinmann.com/2009/07/03/gatorade-mikael-forssell/