Advertising Case Study

In our opinion, the best way of illustrating what has been said in this paper is to analyse and even better, to make a comparison between several advertisements for products which belong to the same category. The reason for saying this is the fact that it is interesting to analyse the elements used by every advertiser in order to differentiate a particular product from others belonging to the same category. In most cases this differentiation is done by providing the product with an ‘image' which only succeeds in differentiating between products if it is part of a more complex system of differences.

Let us take a group of perfume advertisements, two of them coming from the same manufacturer. These adverts are suitable to be analysed because they provide a good example of the creation of ‘images', since we all know that perfumes can have no particular significance and this type of ads can give no real information about the product (for example, about the smell). Here, the function of differentiation rests totally on making a connection with an image drawn from outside the ad world.

The first advertisement which will be analysed in our case study is an advertisement for Coco Mademoiselle, a perfume made by Chanel, in which appears the famous model Kate Moss. The first thing anyone can notice about this ad is the fact that Kate Moss's face and the Chanel bottle are not linked by any narrative, simply by juxtaposition. In fact, the link is in terms of what Kate Moss's face means to us, for this is what Coco Mademoiselle is trying to mean to us, too. This transference of meaning takes place only in the advertisement and it consists in the fact that what Kate Moss's face means to us in the fashion world, Coco Mademoiselle seeks to mean and comes to mean in the world of consumer goods. There can be made a connection between this ad and Kate Moss's glamour and beauty if we think at the fact that the perfume can be substituted for Kate's face and can also be made to signify glamour and beauty. This is possible because, as we all, know, Kate Moss has an ‘image' in a certain field, which represents a sign system and due to this ‘image' and to what it means to us, she can be used to create a new system of significance relating to perfumes. Perhaps if she were not a model and if she were not famous for her beauty and if she did not mean something to us, the link made between her face and the perfume would be meaningless. So, in order to understand the ad, it is not enough simply to know who Kate Moss is, but also to know what her image really signifies.

- Advertising Case Study -

The second advertisement is an advert for a perfume called ‘Babe' and the reason of this choice is the fact that it is very different from the Coco Mademoiselle ad. Although it is also a perfume ad, it is totally opposite to the previous advertisement and this opposition consists in the person chosen for the ad, in her attitude and of course, in what she signifies to us. A very important thing that must be mentioned as par of our advertising case study is that, unlike Kate Moss, Margaux Hemingway, the girl who appears in this ad, was a new ‘discovery' at the time the perfume was launched. The significance of her novelty, youth and of the karate style she has in this ad, which has value only in relation to the more typically ‘feminine' style usually connected with modelling, is carried over to the perfume: which is thus signified as new and ‘fresh', in relation to other perfumes. As we all know, other perfume ads show women wearing nice dresses and with elaborately styled hair. But in this ad, Margaux Hemingway is wearing a karate outfit and has her hair tied back to look like a man's, all this signifying women's liberation and breaking conventions in a model's having a liberated image, rather than a passive, feminine one. However, the meaning still depends on a contrast, since this idea of women doing karate is only significant because this is not a sport every woman practices. All in all, Margaux Hemingway's image, which is totally different from Kate Moss's image gives ‘Babe' a distinct place in the perfumes' industry, emphasizing its novelty and its difference from the others. In fact, the contrast between ‘feminine' and ‘liberated', as signified by the two models, is used to make a contrast between products.

The third advertisement in our advertising case study which will be analysed is an ad for the perfume Chanel No. 5 and the reason of this choice is the fact that it can be very well compared with the Coco Mademoiselle ad because both of them advertise a product belonging to the same manufacturer. Anyone may notice the two different advertising strategies used for each perfume and thus it can be made a comparison between the results and the effects of each advertisement. The first thing that can be observed is that unlike the first ad, in which appears the image of Kate Moss, here there is only the bottle of the perfume. At the same time, there are no words at all, except the name on the bottle. The ad just shows the product visually and does not need to tell us anything, so we may say that its success derives from this tacit assumption that words are unnecessary to sell this product; in fact, the name of the perfume says everything, other information being superfluous.

The last advert that will be analysed is an advertisement for the Smirnoff Vodka. When we first look at the advert we notice that the images can function in the same way even after a particular verbal implication has been banned. The sentence: “They say Smirnoff won't put hair on your chest” makes a criticism and, as anyone can see, the woman in this ad is already good-looking and so, she does not want hairs on her chest in any case. In fact, as we have shown previously in this advertising case study the image of this woman is connected with Smirnoff; another detail which can be noticed is the fact that the woman looks at us from an angle, as though sharing some secret. In other words, a person who drinks Smirnoff does not ‘drink it for what it is', but in order to became like the person in the advertisement. What can be said here is that this ad is a very original, interesting and humorous one.