To the people of Zanthrex 3, what are you really advertising? From the narrative you claim to advertise a weight loss supplement. From your models you stand to support that claim. Or maybe that’s what you should have said during your fifteen second commercial. It might have made you appear more sincere in your plight of selling a weight loss drug. However you job is not to be nice but to sell a product and make money. So instead of the above statement, you stated, “Rapid weight loss, incredible energy. It’s great to be thin.” What is a better product than sex under the guise of dietary supplements for consumers? However should it come at the cost of insulting consumers while objectifying other persons, the models included?
In fifteen seconds your audience views a series of still shots that illustrates models attempting to eat each other alive in lustful infatuation. Each is fully clothed in white against a white background. As a marketing strategy the use of white was good in that white is viewed by Western audiences as good and positive on the subconscious making it easier to accept the folly of your advertisement. Although technically fully clothed the woman wears low cut shorts and a top with a neckline plunging near to her navel. By the end of the advertisement the photographed pair is half naked in what is meant to be an intimate embrace.
The statements that the dietary supplement would result in rapid weight loss, that the consumer would have appealing results, a brand new body or anything of that nature is what one expects from a dietary marketer. Instead you insult your audience. With your models you tell the nation to look at them, they are so thin that their guaranteed to be able to have sex with anyone, specifically as thin as them. They are guaranteed happiness in that state. With the statement “It’s Great to be thin!”, you suggest to the majority of your audience that their lives are miserable and lonely because they are fat, overweight, obese or not as thin as your models.
Have you forgotten that the majority of this nation averages at an estimated minimum of thirty to forty pounds overweight? As recent studies have shown there is an increase of live births for the past five years which goes on to declare that those that do not look like your models are having sex. If sex makes you happy then there are alot of happy overweight people in the country. To answer your question of, “This must have been written by a fat chick or dude.”, rest assured that your hopes are wrong because this is written by someone more on the “lower” side of the spectrum, to be more specific on the healthy yet non model waif thin side of the spectrum. What the average weight of a real person is, dissimilar to either of your models and your misrepresentation of feeling great.
This is not to suggest that being overweight is healthy or everyone should be fat and happy like Santa Claus and the yo-yo dieting Mrs. Claus. It is suggested that your marketing, advertising and promotions department work on alternate commercial content, in other words stop being lazy with the sex sells theory and make a commercial for the people, also known as, your consumers. That’s kindergarten tactics; the boy insults the girl he likes so she would like him back. Yes, America needs to lose weight when it interferes with their healthy but thin does not equal health if it does not consist of diet and exercise. That is simply making someone addicted to a drug that without, they will return to the sad, sexless life you have suggested in your advertisement. Then we have another epidemic involving anorexia, bulimia, addiction to laxatives, dietary supplements and related disorders.
First of all, I have never seen the commercial until now and I am completely appalled.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on everything. This commercial is an insult, telling its audience that ‘You are not truly happy and you will never have a good life unless you take this product.’. It’s horrible that they show off these models, who most likely have been put through photo-shop themselves to make them look as appealing as they do, and in the process lower the self esteem of another person purposely so that they will go out and buy the product. This is something I completely hate, feeding off of others insecurities and rubbing it in their face to benefit yourself.
I agree that they should definitely change their commercial. It is downright wrong to make people feel horrible and advertise a product that may not even give them the results they want alone. Being healthy takes more than taking a pill. It takes diet and exercise. People don’t need to be thin to be happy anyways. The consumer should stop focusing on selling sex and feeding off of the misery of others to sell the product and focus on how to make the consumer feel good about taking the pill and loosing weight.
Awesome. I appreciate that you decided to choose an ad that isn't an obvious candidate to this assignment (i.e. ads selling booze, cigarettes, clothes, accessories.)
ReplyDeleteYour points are legitimate, thoughtful and I agree. However, I'm trying this thing where I argue the other side. I think it's just as productive so bear with me.
In their defense, if you are trying to sell some BS product that promises to provide the magic pill to looking like models, the only way to market that is to show models. Think about it, if a weight loss company showed only 30-40 pound overweight people, the credibility of that company is shot. Also, sex gets a reaction out of people whether consciously or subconsciously. I will be the first to admit, when I see something that looks good on a woman, I definitely do take a split second longer to "admire." The same is true for menswear and men's fashion. If something catches my eye that I find to be tasteful and looks good, I remember the brand and the outfit and then emulate it (obviously I don't buy the EXACT product because I'm not rolling in the money like that.) That's right, I blatantly admitted I am a product of the media. So in this society, if you want to sell something, pair it with sex.
I never really thought about it but you are right white is supposedly a sign of purity. Although I am consciously aware of this when it comes to wedding gowns and the like, I never really noticed it as an advertising tool. Also, Isn’t it interesting how the ad claims that a person can have rapid weight loss and look like the models on the screen as if a person who lost weight that quickly would not have loose skin, or stretch marks. The add claims that a person will loose weight but it doesn’t acknowledge that loosing weight is not enough to look like the models, to even try to look like them a person would have to exercise to tone up as well as find a way to take away blemishes and stretch marks. Exercise takes time and commitment as well as the physical ability to work out without hurting oneself. Even if the add is telling the truth about the fast weight loss results, and that’s a big “if”, it is lying about the fast appearance of a sculpted body. It is impossible for a consumer to look like the models in the advertisement, even the models don’t look like that without the help of personal trainers, lighting, and make up. As you pointed out the add assumes that only thin people can have sex, and sex should be the end all be all of all a person is striving for. But supposedly sex sells, so the idea or hope that just a small potion of consumers could look at the advertisement and think maybe one day they could look like the models and one day have the sex life like the ones portrayed on the screen could lead a person to “buy” almost anything, this is what the people selling the product, the advertisers are counting on. I hope they are steadily proven wrong.
ReplyDelete