As a child, either skipping, walking, or running through the malls, I gazed at the “pictures” hanging on the walls, wondering what they were there for. As we journeyed to the other side of the mall, there I would find the advertisements with the girls that were almost completely naked. This constantly made me uncomfortable to look at. “Why in the world would they have a girl take her clothes off and pose for pictures like that? Isn’t that wrong? ” I would think in my little eight-year-old mind.
Still to this day, I wonder why a store that is trying to get more business from women would show pictures that turns mothers away and the advertisements are appealing to men. Advertising is around everywhere, whether it be on food, clothes, or office supplies. Almost every object has a brand name or some kind of label on it. Advertising is key to selling an item. If it looks high of quality and appealing to the eye, then there is a higher chance that the item will sell and have many customers.
Throughout the Victoria’s Secret Advertisement—Bombshell Seduction—the business effectively exhibits the use of rhetoric and well-positioned advertising techniques, but to whom is the advertisement designed for? An advertisement generally cannot please every person, but the techniques and tools the producers use can improve or decrease the success of the ad. Nevertheless, the effectiveness is shown through coloring techniques, the association of the model, and the layout and format to decide how persuasive the advertisement truly is.
On average an advertisement is viewed for 2 seconds while someone is flipping through a magazine or driving by the billboard, said Jamie Turner, the CEO and founder of 60-second marketer (Turner). It is extremely important to make sure your ad catches the intended audience’s eye, or even makes them take a second glance and look further into the product and what it has to offer. In an article that the direct response copywriter, Scott Martin, wrote he mentions that making a connection that nobody else has made before can assist in exciting people’s imagination, which leads to the sales of the product (Martin).
The advertisement needs to have a creative color scheme, and a bold statement to make sure that the audience notices it and goes back to look further into it. Furthermore, Bombshell Seduction catches the audience’s eye through positioning and the color scheme. Color is the most important aspect and eye-catching part of an advertisement and will either keep the audience wanting to know more, or completely turn them away. In a study titled Impact of Color on Marketing, Gregory Ciotti had come to find that, “up to 90% of snap judgments made about products can be based on color alone” (Ciotti).
Coloring of an advertisement is going to make the biggest impact. Each color can portray a different type of emotion to the audience. For instance, bright shades bring a feeling of happiness, warmth, and optimism. Red is a very bold and exciting color used to represent strength, and shades of gray and black are the colors that portray elegance and mystery (Color Meaning). If an advertiser wanted to do a depressing advertisement to tug at the audience’s heartstrings the color schemes are generally gloomier and dark shades.
Looking at an advertisement, color has control over the majority of the impression left on the individual and audience. In the Victoria’s Secret advertisement for “Bombshell perfume” and lingerie, the designer chose to use black and red in the picture. The black lingerie leads the audience to believe it is super elegant, but has a sense of mystery of the women at the same time. When a woman is looking for lingerie for a special occasion, classy and sophisticated are the most popular.
Emphasizing strength in the ad, the producer chooses red as the background and color of the perfume bottle. The Perfume brings excitement to the picture, with the pop of color still in a darker more elegant tone than a bright red. Implying strength and independence, the producer’s goal was to portray to women that if they wear these products they would feel and appear the same. The majority of women want to have that toned and thin body; most men want to see their wife or girlfriend like that too.
Furthermore, there has usually been a picture perfect body that a woman needs to fit into. In today’s society, the perfect body is tall, skinny, and toned. Companies in America constantly use men and women with desirable bodies to sell the products. Between car commercials, food advertisements, and clothing, there is commonly an individual or two with a desirable body modeling. Generally, there is not going to be a middle-aged male or female advertising, or even an overweight model, unless they are displaying a product specified to that target audience.
In the advertisement for perfume, the photographer definitely catches the audience’s attention by showing a young, toned woman in minimal clothing and seductively holding a giant bottle of perfume. The producer is aiming for the goal that every woman will look at the model, believe that the advertised products will turn their body into the same shape and that most men will look at this model, and persuade their girlfriend or wife to buy the product so they look as desirable as the model.
The association in an advertisement for any product has such a major impact on the amount of sales the company receives. For example, an overweight model generally does not appeal to the audience’s eye and interests. Through many situations, this advertisement is very effective and catches the audience’s attention, for others though it could completely turn them away. This advertisement is referencing a bandwagon logical fallacy. It portrays an idea that all girls and woman should look “picture perfect” and have a perfect body shape; that is right in society.
Some women may see this advertisement “disgusting”, or “to provocative. ” Seven in ten girls believe they are not good enough or do not measure up in some way (Statistics on Girls and Women). Victoria’s Secret advertisements can lower the self esteem of teens starting at a young age. Published almost everywhere around—whether it be on social media or just strolling through town—the models and positions that the advertisements use have been shown to lower self esteem in teens, and can cause a negative reaction towards the company.
From this, some people may begin to wonder who the target audience for this advertisement truly is. A man created the brand, Victoria’s Secret, in the early 1970’s (Schlossberg). Over the course of time the store has grown and become better known, along with the advertising. Who are these advertisements really for though? Although men often like to stop and look at all of the advertisements and see all of the women that are lacking clothing, the brand is really advertising to women. A major technique Victoria’s Secret uses is the idea of hiring models that an ordinary mother can relate too (Lutz).
Victoria’s Secret is advertising to older teens and younger women, although they do have a partner brand, called “Pink,” that is targeting high school and college aged girls. Nevertheless, Victoria’s Secret and the rest of the producers effectively advertised a product desired by both men and women. The display of the advertisement effectively used the forms of rhetoric and color to appeal to the audience. By applying to all of the intended Audiences, Victoria’s Secret left the women feeling strong, independent, and sophisticated from the layout and other advertising techniques.