Avertisement Analysis
Advertisements have always been seen as a way to mass market a certain product or idea to a large number of people quickly. Most companies believe that one of the best ways to market their product is by getting it out to the people and informing them of it while other prefer to rely on referrals from current users. For example, on a college campus, Keystone Light is marketed as being cheap beer and for most students it gets the job done. Meanwhile companies like Goose Island and other micro-breweries rely heavily on word of mouth marketing. That being said, I shall take a look at two different advertisements for Marlboro Cigarettes. The first from here in the United States, the second from Spain’s Catalunya region.
USA Ad
I’ll begin by looking at the image from the United States. In true typical American fashion, this advertisement relies heavily upon envy. In the image, there is a cowboy which for most red-blooded American males is something everyone dreamed of at one point or another. Essentially, the idea of being able to be a true American cowboy is part of the calling of this poster. The rugged man, possibly use of sex appeal in suggesting that if I look like that women will like me, the lasso and the gloves refer to labor of the hands and thus appeal to blue collar workers.
Catalunyan Ad
Meanwhile, if we take a look at the image from Catalunya (The region in which Barcelona is located) Spain, we see a very different approach. In the image there is a large number of young men in the background who look like they are all at a sporting event. At the bottom of the image are the words, “Nueve de cada diez aficianados son hombres. ¿Habeis oido eso chicas?” which translates to, “9 out of 10 fans are guys . Have you heard this, ladies?”. While this may seem like its geared towards women telling that guys are the majority of smokers, I find it counter productive. It doesn’t seem to be promoting the women to smoke. It doesn’t seem to be promoting guys to smoke. Instead its telling women that 9/10 smokers are guys. I personally think this is horrible advertising. However, having been to Catalunya I know that all they do over there is smoke. Everywhere I went it was smoke. So I’m going to make a guess and say that if women are going to date a smoker, date one who is a fan of Marlboro.
Essentially, both advertisements eventually played back to sex appeal. The US one for bringing us back to the fact that all girls want a cowboy and the Catalunyan ad for telling girls to date a Marlboro smoker. I personally find the US ad more potent and would be better swayed by that one than the foreign one.
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