http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6rAQHa1gmcJason Na, Cliff Brady, Xinyi Wang
The commercial above is an Axe body spray. It ran approximately in the year of 2007. It is a European commercial that took place in a factory. A white muscular man sprayed two bottles of axe across his whole body. Then he put on the shirt that says “Axe” and took it off constantly on the conveyor belt. The girls next to him in a line, who were waiting for the shirts, took a sniff of the shirt and the first one fainted. The commercial pans to the lady packaging the deodorant, who was wearing a nose clip, so she can’t smell the deodorant in order to work. The commercial then switched back to the testers and the next two preceded a fight for the shirt. It was a long and fierce fight where they pulled each other’s hair, punched in the face, and pushed them around just to smell more. The girls who were the next to smell just stood there and watched them fight. At the end, the two girls who were fighting appeared to kill each other. At the last scene of the advertisement, the narrator said “The Axe effect” and some other lines in other language. Also, they put the price tag up next to the Axe package.
The good looking guy in the beginning appeared to be an athletic, muscular, clean, short cut, and wearing soccer jersey. They chose a man like this so the viewers would see him and want to be like him. Also, the attractive man like this associates more with the people. The fact that he puts on a sport jersey is important because it associates the product with sports. People who play sports generally use deodorant more so it appeals to a larger audience. When the viewer sees this men using Axe’s product, they see that people like him use it and more inclined to do so in an effort to be like him.
The next thing we see is the lady packaging the product. She was wearing a nose clip so she couldn’t smell the deodorant. This implies that even if she wanted to ignore the smell, she wouldn’t be able to so she had to force it to block the scent. The reason she did this is to be able to work and not act the same girls in the video. Another interesting point is that her distance from the actual smell. She is quite far away which implies that the smell is strong and long-lasting. When the viewer sees this, they see that girls can’t resist the smell even if they want to.
The last thing that we saw that was interesting was that a long line of girls were waiting to smell the shirt. They were dressed in a white, fit, and low cut uniform that showed a lot of cleavage. This is an odd uniform for a factory worker. The first girl that smelled it fainted by the strong smell. When the next two women smelled the shirt, they go crazy for it and proceeded to fight over the shirt, just like drugs. They weren’t able to control themselves and were almost like animals. The fact that they were stereotypical sexy and attractive women implies that when the viewers see this ad, it urges them to buy the product so that those kinds of women go crazy for them.
Is there a reason that the color scheme make the viewers feel cold? All the colors are white, blue, and dark. There weren’t many bright colors. Is there a reason that the product is overwhelmingly strong? The man sprays himself once and puts on many shirts. It seemed to last forever when he kept putting and taking the different shirts on and off. Why didn’t anyone seemed to be surprised or concerned by the fight that was happening right in front of them? Both the man and women packaging the product just watched unaffected by the fight. Even though the two women fought until death, nobody appeared concerned.
This is a 2011 advertisement for Abercrombie and Fitch. It features a buff man in the middle of two thin, tan women with long, flowing hair. All three people are shirtless. The picture is black and white. The guy is smiling and looks overall pretty happy. The women are kissing his cheeks with their eyes closed and one is stroking his shoulder. One of the women is wearing a black bra, while the other is wearing white.
