Advertisement Analysis

DESCRIPTION OF ADVERTISMENT:

The advertisement (commercial in this instance) really grabs the viewers’ attention right away. The opening scene shows attractive bikini clad women tanning beside a pool. The bikinis are bold colors that accentuate the skin tones of the women; the women’s skin is highlighted with a tanning oil that reflects the light with every move they make (even turning the pages of a magazine). The camera zooms in on the faces of the women and most are pouting and/or looking bored. The music at this point is somewhat dull and a little anxious sounding, and then we see the male character enter the frame – he looks around at the women and jumps into the pool. As soon as we hear the splash of him jumping into the pool, he has a flashback (memory) to the shower he took prior to coming to the pool. We see him pour the body wash into his hand and massage it over his upper body. It is worth noting that the male character has a somewhat built physique and would probably be considered attractive. The flashback is over as the male character surfaces in the pool. The water has activated the scent of the body wash and the women all start to sniff the air and sit up a little straighter. The music changes to Motley Crue’s “Girls, Girls, Girls” and suddenly the male character is surrounded by women in the pool. The women are all vying to be closer in proximity to the male character – most of them reach out to touch him with their hands and a few of them begin to rub their bodies against his. The commercial ends with an overshot of the product and an announcer saying “Axe” before a sultry female voice says “the dirtiest way to get clean.” The background comes into more focus for a second before fade out, and we once again see the male character being caressed by multiple female hands.

APPEALS OF ADVERTISMENT:

The need for sex (Pathos)

The bikini-clad women at the beginning of the scene are all wearing bold colors that play off of their own skin tones. They are coated in what we assume to be tanning oil and their bodies glint in the sunlight, accentuating their thighs and breasts. The women appear to be bored – one is even flipping through a magazine, yet when the male character appears and looks at their faces, most of them are pouting (or making the “duck face”). You can immediately tell that he finds them attractive, and by highlighting their bodies in this manner, it is clear that the audience, particularly the male audience, is meant to find them attractive, as well. The shift in the female behavior once they catch the scent of the body wash on the air mimics the behavior of animals in the wild scenting pheromones: they are at peak attention, they begin to “primp,” and they actively seek out the source of the scent. Once the women locate the source of the appealing scent, they behave in an almost wanton manner, touching themselves (running their hands palm down from the waist to their shoulders deliberately stopping and lingering at their breasts), touching the male character as if he were a rare and enticing object (reaching out to touch him, pulling their hands back, biting their lips, and then reaching out again to actually make physical contact with him), and finally rubbing their now pool-water wet bodies against his in a manner that simulates sex. Overall, this scene implies that the male character will be going home with one or more of the women because they just find him so irresistible. This marketer uses this appeal to indicate to men at home looking for sex that all they need to do is bathe with Axe and women will be falling all over them.

The need to dominate (Pathos)

Although more subtle in this particular