Good Advertisement example essay topic

Opening the magazine you come across this really good- looking man with his special car, smoking a cigarette while the sun covers everything with a golden gloss. Life is just perfect. Life is just perfect when you smoke the perfect cigarette. The attractive man looks satisfied: satisfied with his perfect life and with his perfect cigarette. That is why people choose buying those cigarettes: they want to get a glance of this precious satisfaction. They are searching for the "spirit", which the model obviously has already found.

Why do people get the idea of changing their whole personality by consuming particular products? No matter if advertisements refer to clothes, cars or cigarettes: consumers are supposed to get the feeling of being somebody better, lovelier or smarter, if they only wear, drive or smoke the best product of its kind. People get this idea, because their daily life is flooded with advertising. It is easier to win the national lottery than to avoid any advertisement for 24 hours. Advertisements, TV or cinema advertising spots or promoting university students are everywhere. They stand at every corner and they will get you.

I admit that I am taken in by advertising too, especially by hair- products and sweets. People, who say that they do not react on advertising, tell a frequent lie. Modern advertising strategies are so sensitive for the current tendencies in taste and lifestyle, that there is no way of escaping them. The effect advertisements want to achieve is to talk people into believing that they are in desperate need of this unique product.

I have chosen an advertisement of the tobacco company "Benson & Hedges" to show the way how advertising picks up on people's deepest wishes and how it abuses them to awaken needs. Looking at the advertisement, the first object you realize is the male model. He looks mischievous, smart and sympathetic. He is covered with dirt, but he does not look filthy- rather like a neat man covered with clean dirt. His whole appearance is expensive, exclusive and sophisticated.

He wears a fine leather-jacket, a noble watch and in the background we catch a glimpse of his special, old -but in good condition- vintage racing car. Although he is not clean-shaven, he does not have the image of somebody not caring for his appearance. His exclusiveness lies in little details. His watch, for example, is-although expensive looking- no Rolex (which is a common symbol for snobbish and often tasteless richness). The message this man conveys is, that luxury is something personal, not necessary to impress other people, but to personally profit from it.

This man can afford his luxury. It is not important which business he is in; he obviously is successful and earns good money. His smart and charismatic look does not give the impression that he is resting on somebody else's money. Who does not want to be him? A guy in his mid-30 ies, good-looking, well-off and successful, still having spare time to drive his unique racing car into the sunset. It's a common cultural value: to be somebody who is able to afford luxury.

The advertisement gets people to identify with its model and the lifestyle he stands for. A gleam of luxury lies upon the whole scene. The last sunbeams illuminate the precious car, its owner and a golden packet of cigarettes. Everything shines in a warm and a little metallic colour and gold is exactly the colour the packet of cigarettes has: the packet of which the model took of his "good- feeling" cigarette.

The whole scene looks peaceful and precious. The golden colour softens the image and makes it older, timeless and valuable. Whereas the man gets you to see who you want to be, the golden shine gives you a feeling of the atmosphere you want to be surrounded with. The clever combination of different elements in the advertisement allows various associations. It is obvious that the viewer is supposed to associate a special lifestyle with a special cigarette. The whole image creates a kind of harmony, not only because of the golden shine, but because of all elements fitting perfectly together.

It is the perfect background for the car, the perfect car for the man and obviously man and cigarette are well suited to each other as well. The harmony is not disturbed by a clumsy picture of the product. The two packets of cigarettes stand outside the image, only by the golden colour they are connected to the image. What stands completely outside the advertisement is the beam, including the warning against smoking by the ministry of health. Whereas the picture is one major part of the advertisement, the text is the other one.

The slogan says "No spirit, no glory". The "spirit" of the smoking man is obvious. This spirit creates a special kind of "glory", which is underlined by the glorious golden shine of the whole scene. The racing car also stands in a relationship to glory: winning races brings glory on you. Smoking this special cigarette gives you the quality of being a winner, a glorious winner, not only in car-races but in life. The caption of the image is "discover metal", which is related to the design of the two packets of cigarettes in gold and silver.

Gold and silver as metals stand for jewellery and luxury. The golden, precious shine of the atmosphere in the picture passes on to the packets and due to that fact also on to the consumer buying them. The design of the packets leads to an association of the gleam of luxury with this particular tobacco. Although the whole scene is in some way exclusive it does not exclude the viewer. He can be part of the feelings and values it conveys. The advertisement expresses that the only thing which separates you and this man, is the brand of cigarettes you smoke.

This subtext is much more effective than any plain slogan like "B & H are the best cigarettes you will ever find" would be. Good advertising has to animate you to buy something without you realizing that you got caught. The advertisement addresses a special audience: people who value luxury, good style, social and personal success. An exceptional quality of the image is that it addresses men as much as women: the former react on the portrayed ideal of a winner, one who reached everything in life without losing himself. Women rather value the model's rough and very male appearance without him considering a danger. They interpret the portrayed man as a typical adventurer and this and his boyish charisma lead to an obvious association with sexuality.

For women the model is a symbol and an object of sex. (This also is valid for gay men.) Both genders react the same way on the light-mindedness of the man, because today only few people enjoy the luxury of being free of sorrow. I think this form of luxury, which is not as obvious and glamorous as the luxury of owning valuable things, people desire mostly. Although the man of the picture seems to own and have everything, he does not awaken envy and resentment. It seems to be your own personal decision to be the same way.

The advertisement is not darted at non smokers who never did smoke in life. The feeling created by the model and the setting is like an alliance between viewer and the smoker of the picture. In his look lies something like "You know how damned fantastic it tastes!" or "I am sure: you want it too!" . Non-smokers normally know why they do not smoke and they definitely do not start because of a really good advertisement. Even if you never touched any cigarette in life you know enough smokers to think twice about starting this habit. In the end the non-smoker can be convinced (to smoke) by nearly everything, but I bet it will not be a magazine-advertisement.

The creator of the advertisement of "B&H" was aware of that and so he restricted his audience to people who smoke already. Most advertising is based on common lies: the obvious contradiction of this particular one is that smoking is associated with character and strength, as well mental and physical strength. We all know that this is simply not true. Most smokers will admit this. It does not mean that smokers generally have a weaker character than non-smokers, but everybody who ever stopped (or tried to stop) smoking can tell that it requires much more strength to stop than to start with it. I think the fact, why we -for all that- still believe in the messages delivered by advertisements, is that we want to believe what they tell us.

A smoker looking at this advertisement gets the impression that smoking cannot be that terrible and condemnable as it is always said. Smoking gets a new dimension, a dimension which is completely faked. In most cases the ideals created by advertisements are in all ways better than those of the real world ever could be. They are so perfect that we often forget that they are only two-dimensional and lifeless.

This leads to the question if this forgetfulness is an effect of too much advertising experience or of our own personal wish to believe rather in ideals than in less perfect but alive realities. I think the answer is that we prefer the ideals. Ideals have no edges which can hurt you. (But they neither have hands to nurse your hurts. ).