Persuasion in Advertising
My assignment was to take a print ad and try to understand the persuasional methods that the advertsing agency used to convince consumers to purchase this product. The written work below is my analyzation on that process.
Advertising and Persuasion
Advertising is nothing without persuasion. Sure this may seem like a simple statement to make but ponder it for a moment. Advertising is not affective if, in the end result, it does not persuade a consumer to purchase their product. Why certain messages are affective for some and not others has been a debate since philosophers started discussing the use of persuasion in society. One of the extremely common forms of advertising stems from the “sex sells” type of attitude that advertising agencies have been using for years. The Tom Ford advertisement that I chose depicts a male and a female who are posing together in a very sexually explicit form. The picture is dark and the female is naked while the man is dressed in formal attire. The tuxedo-clad male has his arms wrapped around the naked woman’s body, concealing her breast from the camera view. The woman also has something which, at first glance appears to be a shadow; however, after taking a closer observation of that area, someone can see it’s a piece of fabric wrapped around her neck. The first though that appeared in my head was that it was the man’s tie wrapped around her neck; however, the man in the picture is clearly wearing a bow tie, suggesting that the cloth has a more provocative nature to it. The man stands there with an icy glare as to say, “this is mine.” The naked woman with messed up hair looks to the camera with a captivating and submissive look in her eyes. On top of that, the ad is for Tom Ford’s Noir fragrance, an illusion to the cinematic style of film that accentuates a criminal lifestyle and sexual desire. Is this advertisement, filled with masculine sexual dominance, fueling the sexual submission of women in today’s society while simultaneously offering a materialistic mend to intimacy issues?
One of the first theories that I will point out is Burke’s Dramatist Pentad. This theory says that there is an act, which is the action of the individuals, what is happening, and what exactly is fully going on in the scene. The second part of the Pentad is the scene, which is the location of the moment, or what is going on in the background of this advertisement. The third part of this theory is the agent. This is who is all involved in the action that is taking place and what roles do these people play in making this a persuasive moment. The fourth part of this theory is the agency, that is, by what means do the agents act and how they act to persuade the viewer. The final part of Burkes Dramatist Pendet is the purpose, which is what these agents want from the viewer or why are they doing what they are doing to persuade you. This theory fits in well with this advertisement because the picture is very much dramatic. The ad captures the viewer’s attention with a sense of curiosity and sexual attraction.
The Aristotle theory of using enthymeme in persuasion can be clearly seen in this advertisement. The picture has little writing in it, and none of the words clearly depict what the company wants you to do. There are no sentences like “buy this,” or, “everyone needs this.” However, the viewer can determine that the two figures are telling the reader that having this product is a luxury that should not be passed up for multiple reasons. For the male audience, the guy is telling you to buy this product because it will make you a more attractive, wealthier man. He is also telling you that you should buy this product because women will be so attracted towards you that they will want you to own their bodies and they won’t be able to resist you, making you their master while they are essentially your sex slave. The woman’s look is telling the buyer that purchasing this product will make you a more desirable person where your man will have to tie you up so that you will not leave his side. She is saying that this fragrance has such sex appeal that his soul will be filled with such sexual motivation that he will have to go after what he desires to have, an allusion back to the term Noir. These visual cues lead the reader to come to their own conclusion that this product should be purchased by him or her so that they will have a more desirable sex appeal.
Another theory that fits well with this advertisement is Aristotle’s theory of enthymemes. An enthymeme is one form of argument that a persuasive person would use where the main premise is not clearly stated by the person who is trying to persuade and that the viewer is the one that connects the dots to what they are trying to be persuaded to do. This is used in a lot of fashion advertisements containing sexually appealing images so that the consumer will believe that using their product will make the consumer more sexually appealing to the opposite gender. For guys, these ads will usually show women irresistibly attracted or chasing after men. This kind of theory is perfect for this advertisement because the advertisement does not have direct dialogue telling the consumer what he or she should do. It mentions the name of the product that the company is selling, but it does not explicitly list any benefits, but it shows a vivid picture of what could happen if someone were to wear this.
Burke’s Dramatist Pentad is very clearly used in this advertisement to try and appeal to the viewer’s sex appeal. The naked woman pressed against the male figure in this picture has a sense of submissive sex that is becoming more popular in today’s society. The first part of the Pentad is the act. The act here is the dressed up man wrapping up the woman in the picture. He is gripping and concealing her breasts that some could claim is his way of making sure everyone knows he controls her. She stands there not resisting as she looks at the camera. The scene for this photo is interesting because there is only black behind them, with the light shining on them to illuminate only the two people. Judging by the cloth across her throat, it could appear that this could be a dark sex room, similar to 50 Shades of Grey that has captured the world by storm. The agents’ roles are pretty clear, the male is the dominant figure while the woman’s role is to be held by her man, not moving unless he releases her. The agency would be the fact that the agents act in an intimate, but dark manner. The man holding her firm as a sense of control while the woman does not appear to be resisting the restraint the man has on her. Finally, the purpose of why these agents act this way is to show the viewer what can be a possibility if they were to wear this fragrance. If men wore this, they would be good looking, radiate a sense of class while looking handsome, and they would be able to be dominant over an absolutely gorgeous woman. In fact, the picture is telling men that, if they wear this cologne, then they can do whatever they want to the woman because she will be willing to submit. This is also an advertisement for woman’s fragrance as well which means that this ad has a sex appeal towards woman. The purpose of the woman being naked and the man having clear control over her shows that, if women buy this cologne, their man will be so loyal and so infatuated with her that they will never want to let her go, doing whatever it takes to keep her. This also plays into the whole sexually submissive role that quite a lot of females in society have been fantasizing about, as seen in the extremely high sales of 50 Shades of Grey. These tools were collectively used to try and persuade the potential consumer that this product is needed to fill any sexual desire that they have.
The implications that this advertisement has towards society fuel the obsession with the sexual suppression of women in society. This advertisement is showing that well-dressed, wealthy men have a sort of right to be able to dominate the gorgeous women of their choosing. This image shows the expectation of men once they wear this cologne, an expectation of women being willing to submit to you because of the irresistible fragrance that Tom Ford’s Noir gives to the person wearing it. This is reinforcing the notion that attractive men will have dominance over females in society. Meanwhile, while simultaneously targeting men buying cologne for themselves, they are also targeting women buying cologne for themselves, inadvertently saying that the purchase of this female fragrance will make their man lose control and make them submit to his will. While a lot of females would find this potentially offensive, the advertisement gently pushes offenses away by showing women that this is what females really want from their male partner. This also targets the demographic of people who are extremely materialistic in society, claiming that this fragrance could even mend a sexual relationship with their partners. “Even though the authors of this book are not critical theorists, we do see societal problems resulting from a very materialistic world. Perhaps 20% among us are struggling financially” (page 89). Due to materialistic values, relationships can be harmed between couples, this advertisement could be aimed at those couples showing that they will be wealthy and more attracted to each other if they will only spend money on getting this product.
The sexual nature of fashion advertisements in magazines is becoming a large problem for the world. These images fuel themes of female suppression in a world where women are already not on an equal level of men. Advertisements have been using themes of sex to sell products for quite some time now and it is only encouraging male archetypes of dominance and sexual expectations. I believe that this particular ad pulls an allusion to sexual dominance and glamorizing sexual submission. This problem of objectification of women is a problem that they the world can only solve by working together to change social standards.
