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Mainstream Advertising

In: Social Issues

Submitted By tgbakima
Words 1034
Pages 5
Mainstream can be defined as products and services that are readily available and appealing to the general public. This is as opposed to being of interest only to a very specific subset of the public. As you watch and listen to commercials on television and radios, you are been thrown into the world of advertising. Companies around the world depend on advertising to sell and market their products. One of the most notable advertisement plots out now is the Geico commercial, which uses persuasion to lure you into purchasing their insurance. Their best advertisement to date is the hump day camel commercial. The general idea of this commercial is to infuse a mid-week metaphor with the physical appearance of a camel in hopes of grabbing your attention while making you laugh. Begin to pay attention closely to the commercials you see and you will notice how they all use certain tactics to market and sell products to buyers.
Both Secret and Old Spice use sex appeal, movement and tone to attract consumers. These are some key factors used to gain the consumers attention, which prompts their interest for potential buying. Both commercials used attractive persons as the main focal point showing that as vain as it may seem people are attracted to attractive people. As observed in the Secret commercial it was fun and flirty it showed how the man and woman took interest in one another even though their dancing took a spontaneous course across the floor. You can also take notice of the fact that it gives you a sense of intimacy one being the way the male and female interacted on the dance floor moving slowly and together. As opposed to the Old Spice ad where the man is the only person and he himself was the statement of the commercial. Being the only person in the commercial he had to appeal to the sexual nature of the female. By doing this they used and actor with an athletic build showcasing his well-groomed physique. It is never a bad idea having a handsome and shirtless guy in a commercial ask any woman and I am sure they’ll agree. In todays society sex appeal can be considered quite risky and pushed to the edge of viewer digressions advised and parental warnings. It is in my opinion that the sex appeal used in both advertisements was tastefully done.
Now onto the movement of the ads, movement and motions play a great deal in commercials. The Old Spice commercial uses rapid movements to pull you. In the commercial the actor first starts out in a bathroom, then transitions on a horse and then finally a yacht. The movement and pace of this ad is rather rapid, constant and there are quite a few changes in scenery, three to be exact. The quick transitions attract the minds of the consumers so that they continue watching to see what will happen next. Now if you look back to the Secret commercial it is completely different the movement, motions and pace. For instance the couple is Salsa dancing to seductive music. The dance of salsa is commonly known for being sexy with slow, soft and swift movements. Although it was a lot of movement happening throughout the commercial take notice that it was only one scene. The movement in commercials really set the pace of how the ad will flow and come across to the viewers.
Last but certainly not least is the tone. Tone can be best describe as the voice or the even the narration of the commercial. Most commonly actors and/ actresses being famous or not are used to narrate commercials. Often times you hear people say use your inside voice and then there are other times when you may need to be loud such as if you were at a sporting event. Notice that in the Old Spice commercial the actor is being loud and direct, he is trying to get a point across to the viewers. He says repeatedly “look at me, now look at your boyfriend” giving direction for you compare the two convincing you with only his tone of voice. In the second scene he is outshouting the waves in the background making it seem as though he is shouting but in actuality his tone has remained the same. The Secret commercial differs from the Old Spice because a narrator has been used. The narrator plays a vital role in this commercial because it forces you to focus more on the dancing and the product than the commercial itself. Notice the narrator doesn’t begin speaking within the first 10 seconds of the commercial. This is giving you time to become engaged into the commercial because you really don’t know what it is about. An accurate and precise description of the product is given but there is only a small portion of the commercial that actually shows the product. You see onlookers staring at couple dancing, then the man rubs her arm as the lady watching says, “Oh lay”.
In conclusion Marketers study the human emotions and reactions to better sway tem into buying their products. Utilizing the key senses into a commercial to entice the consumer is the ideal method of persuading humans to purchase their products. Ideally both these commercials are focusing their efforts to entice the female population. Under the Secret commercial they use salsa dancing with intimate music to grab your attention and also put forward the fact that it stops irritations. In the Old Spice commercial they are using a very attractive man to lure in a female audience with his athletic body and uses gimmicks like concert tickets, gems, boats and horses. The main idea of an advertisement is to consume as much of the consumer’s attention to persuade them to go out and try the product. Sex appeal, movement and tone are just three of the many factors business owners use. They use these factors plus more and study the competition on what will attract potential consumers into purchasing or even considering the product. Mainstream advertising is highly favored through businesses across the world via television, radio, and even social media.

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