The Analysis of Sex in Advertisment Essay Example for Free

The Analysis of Sex in Advertisment Essay â€Å"The Power of Cool†: An Analysis of Sex in Advertisement Nowadays the use of sexuality is a very popular way to advertise a product. The concept of using attractive people to sell any type of merchandise is everywhere, and this is effective because when you look at an ad of this kind you don’t focus on the product; you focus on the sex symbol. I chose an ad from Davidoff’s Cool Water campaign that appeared in Men’s Health magazine on September 2008. â€Å"Flesh sells. People dont want to see pictures of churches. They want to see naked bodies,† said Helen Mirren. If we consider Mirren’s quotation within the context of Men’s Health, we can assume that regardless the reader, they both want to become that model to attract a lover. This ad is appealing to the public because of the guy next to the perfume; not because of the perfume itself. These kinds of ads play a very important role in American culture because they are everywhere and people learn about society through advertisement. Sexual advertisements started in the 1920’ with the pin up girl who was the evolved, more sexual burlesque girl. The pin up girl advertised all kinds of products because they became self-aware of their attributes and sexuality. (Dita Von Teese) Nowadays sex advertisements are not only for women; they use men as well, like in this case. Men’s Health is an American magazine launched in 1987. This magazine focuses in health, but it also talks about fashion, lifestyle, sex, technology, nutrition, travel, and finance. Over the years it has become more popular, and it’s known as the largest and best selling magazine for men in the U.  S. (Go Articles) it is my assumption that the primary target of this magazine is twenty to forty year old men who want to get the best out of life. In this magazine we can see allot of ads and one of the most famous ones is Cold Water. Cold Water is a perfume created by a Swedish tobacco brand called Davidoff, which in 1990 was bought by Coty, one of the world’s biggest fragrance companies. (WWD) This perfume has been around since 2002, but every year Davidoff has realised different editions of it. Famous actor Paul Walker was the face of the perfume in 2011 and Josh Holloway, the famous actor from the 2004 TV drama Lost, (IMBD) was the face from 2007 to 2010. One of the trademarks of the Davidoff perfume ads is that there is always a shirtless male model with a perfect body (marked abs and toned muscles) diving into the ocean, taking a swim, and then coming back to the beach completely wet but â€Å"cool†. This became a trademark because people who buy this perfume think that they will ome out of the worst situation completely â€Å"cool†, like the ad shows. What does a guy’s six-pack have to do with a perfume? The ad’s background is a very calm, light blue ocean on a very hot day. The center of attention is the face of a very attractive Josh Holloway. When we look at his face we see confidence, power, and masculinity. If we take a second look into Holloway’s face we see it’s completely wet; every inch of his face has perfectly formed water drops for the exception of his mouth. We can also assume that the water we see dripping of his face is not only salt water, it is also sweat. This tells us that he has been swimming for a while, and in spite of this he still looks fresh; he looks calm like he just got out of the shower completely relaxed and really attractive because he has â€Å"The power of cool†. At the right bottom of the ad we see the top of the perfume bottle it is blue, reflecting the ocean’s color and Holloway’s eyes, with a black cap. The shape of the bottle is very classy and simple but modern. If we compare the perfume bottle to the ad itself, we can see they are both inspired by the deep blue ocean with refreshing cold water in a very hot day. What makes this a very attractive ad is the fact that Davidoff is comparing the ocean that is strong, deep, and mysterious with the perfume. It also shows that, Holloway represents mystery because if we see his face and the whole setting we see somebody sexy and confident, but if we look into his eyes we see somebody else completely sweet and shy. What I mean with this is that Holloway shows us almost two different people in the same picture, he shows the hot confident guy at the bar and the sweet boyfriend every girl wants. Davidoff’s target audience is supposed to be very masculine, sophisticated, and confident man from twenty to forty years old (Holloway). If we consider the price and were it sells we could say that the target audience is cheaper pretending to be sophisticated. Cool Water is one of the most popular perfumes because it has an affordable price the 1. 5 ounce bottle is $19. 62 at Target and the 4. 2 ounce bottle is $67. 50 at Macy’s. This ad gives you confidence because you see that a movie star uses it, and that implies that if you use it you would be as successful as the person in the picture. Because their target audience is so big this perfume is very neutral and could be used in several occasions for example work or party. This perfume doesn’t represent pretending being cool, it represents being confident about yourself; that’s what makes you cool. The written text and the picture have very close relationship in the Cool Water ad because they have one, very clear message: â€Å"Use this perfume and you will possess masculinity and confidence. † What I like about this ad is that is very simple but attractive at the same time. It doesn’t have too much going on, which makes it easy to analyze and relate with. The phrase â€Å"The power of cool† gives this ad allot of conviction because it fits perfectly with the image they are presenting: an attractive male model covered in water/sweat who looks like he always has everything under control. Although we might think there is some type of advancement in the fact of using people as sexual object, there isn’t. The truth is that sex advertisements are so popular because we make them popular consciously or not we pay more attention to them than to non-sexual advertisements. Some people thik it’s funny or sexy, but what happens when they are tasteless or too explicit? This type of ads captures everyone’s attention including children who aren’t ready for this kind of content, that’s another problem.