Sociological Analysis of Advertisements

1. Dove Advertisement

Source: Ig3088a (n.d)

Dove is a cosmetic product meant for body wash and has been advertised through print media, magazine. Since the product is in the print media, not much time or space is required in raising its awareness. Regarding the Dove advertisement, the target market woud be an indivividual or a group of individuals that the visuals and words are trying to reach and persuade in purchasing the product displayed. Though debatable and may be perceieved differently, it seems certain that the target market is an African-American woman who wants and desires to have a smooth skin. This is supported by the fact that the positioning of the models in the advert in relation to each other, not onlyprovide a clue to what the target consumer is but also implicit a race ideology which is ravaging the society. All the three models in the advert appear to be emanating from different races making judgement from their skin color. Whether intentional or not, they arre arranged from the darkest to the lightest rightwards. Moreover, the left panel marked as “before” depicts a cracked and dry skin as opposed to the “after” panel with a soft and healthy skin. Through the advert, it is imperative that theb white female is regarded as ideal as opposed to the black counterpart. African-American female has been negatively potrayed and stereotypically oversexualized and therefore for her to gain respect, she has to be more white in the society.

2.Kenwood Chef

Source: Ig3088b (n.d)

Based on this print media hence the producer won’t take considerable time in its advertisement. While many may have different opinions on the same, but I am confident based on careful analytical interpretation that the product targets the white, heteronormative, and middle or upper class families especially couples or those individuals who desire to be like them. Moreover, the targeted couple adheres to the stereotypical roles of gender with regard to femininity and masculinity. Moreover, the advert explores certain aspects in traditional gender roles and the associated stereotypes and the influence they imparted on the outdated sexism and the modern sexism which are prevalent in the societies and cultures of today.

Dolce and Gabbana

Source: Sgrieben (2011)

Dolce and Gabbana (D & C) is a well-founded name within the fashion industry. The advert shown above is obtainable from print media. Majority of people are aware the brand is quite expensive by the way it is presented and individuals who put on the clothing. The brand name runs parallel with the middle or high class people and the expensive taste associated with it. The advert is thus ideal for sociological analysis since it pertains to socioeconomic class, gender, status, role and race. The target consumers are both males and females. For males the picture portrayed in the advert indicates a dominating authority and power position over a woman. In the case of females, a woman has no control of what is transpiring around her. Moreover, the D & G advert conveys sex and appeal, which are the order of the day in the society. This, however, may be disturbing to children. To further on the socioeconomic class, there numerous fake D & G materials such as purses, cologne, items of clothing, sunglasses etc. this may be justified by the fact that people want to allude that they are rich hence of a higher social class than what they are actually are (Arthur, 2007).

Cadbury

Cadbury entirely uses the social media in its marketing activities and majority of products launched find their way in Face book and Google+. Just recently, the company launched a product and in its social campaign agenda, the celebrated brand was to reach one million Facebook fans. Cadbury is a beverage product that targets all people.This was as a result that only 16% of the fans were seeing the content as indicated by the posts on Facebook. At the end Cadbury gained 40,000 fans on Facebook (Moth, 2012). However, more time and space within the social media is still needed to attract more fans

Cannery row

This advertisement portrays a picture of three children while playing on a sandy beach and the image of a woman transparently imposed on top. The headline of the advert reads “Cannery Row. Play Here” Consequently, on the bottom is a box with dark blue coloration and the text embedded reads: When was the last time you had time to just watch your kids play? Come to think of it, when the last time you joined them” (Moth, 2012). These influence people to consume the product while convincing them to come to Cannery Row. The advert targets mothers. The smiling and happy mother with the hair pulled up and holding a cup of coffee implies that she is relaxed hence stressed mothers can make to the place hence satisfaction.. Moreover, the woman has a diamond ring and expensive apparel indicating that Cannery Row is region for rich people.

Telenet

Telenet is a Belgian TV station that setup a theatrical set piece within the town square to advertise a brand new TV station including a shootout, fights and even American football players. In starting the over-the-top action series, members of the general public pressed a red button within the square and a sign produced a sound as “Push to add drama” (Moth, 2012).

Nike at the Olympics

Nike is generally known for its guerrilla marketing techniques in trying to steal the limelight from its avid competitors, and this was openly manifested at the London Olympics when it outshone the official sponsor of the event, Adidas with a huge billboard as well as social campaign around the city. Nike avoided the usual celebrity approvals in a campaign to celebrate daily athletes. The company purchased many billboards in the city and featured the “hashtag” (Moth, 2012). As a result more than 16,000 tweets associated Nike with the London Olympic between 27 July and 2 August, 2012 and also attracted 166,718 Facebook fans. Indeed the company have taken considerable time and space to market the product.

Heineken

Heineken apart from creating the “like us and we’ll give you a discount” statement associated with this drink, but also tactically introduced many brands and also offered a fan to blow up one green balloon for every like to its new Brazilian fan page (Moth, 2012). Heineken went even further to personalize the social campaign by reading out the names of some of the fans on YouTube and was very much interactive. This campaign made Heineken to get thousands of new fans and also helped in improving the brand awareness of the product in the emerging market.

Heinz

Heinz is a brand that regularly uses social media to build excitement on its product launches. In its marketing activities of the new five beans variety, Heinz developed a Facebook quiz application that informed fans on what kind of bean they had grown and correlated to the character of the person as a result of responding to a chain of questions concerning their personality behaviors. As a result the Facebook community of the product grew by an additional of 30,000 fans (Moth, 2012). More space and time is still needed in creating awareness of the product

10. Mini USA

This vehicle model video officially was aired on YouTube at the ending of December 2011 (Moth, 2012). The social media marketing campaign was engineered with a good budget and the organizers asked fans to give the best description of the test drive in six words. The video recorded about 700,000 views on YouTube (Moth, 2012). This indicates that the organizers have spent time in marketing the product but still sky is the limit. However, from the model of the vehicle, it is meant for the high class people.

References

Arthur, B., A. (2007). Ads, Fads and Consumer Culture, 2^ndor 3rd Edition. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Ig3088a. (n.d). Sociological Analysis of Dove Advertisement. (online) Available at: <http://lg3088.wordpress.com/sociological-analysis-of-dove-advertisement/> (Acessed on 7th, Nov 2013)

Ig3088b. (n.d). Sociological Analysis of Advertisement. (online) Available at: < http://lg3088.wordpress.com/sociological-analysis-of-advertisement/> (Acessed on 7th, Nov 2013).

Moth, D. (2012). 10 of the Best Social Media Campaigns from 2012. (online) Available at: <http://econsultancy.com/ke/blog/11244-10-of-the-best-social-media-campaigns-from-2012> (Acessed on 7th, Nov 2013).

Sgrieben. (2011). Sociological interpretations of Dolce and Gabbana Advertisement. (online) Available at: < http://sgrieben.wordpress.com/2011/01/30/sociological-interpretation-of-a-dolce-and-gabbana-advertisement/> (Acessed on 7th, Nov 2013).