The Opposite Interpretation
Analysis of the Dove Ad
This Dove advertisement is taking place in the subject’s home; most likely her laundry room but there is not enough detail to conclude this for sure. I assume it is in present day, because her hair style, her makeup, her shirt, and the modern art hanging on the wall behind her suggest so.
The young blonde woman pictured is our subject and the iron also has a big role in getting the point of this advertisement across and this can be concluded simply because they both take center stage. But, to add more emphasis on them, the creator of this ad took the background out of focus which naturally allows your eyes to be drawn to the woman ironing her hair. Then, to add even more importance on the hair and iron, the woman’s eyes and face lead your eyes directly to them because not only is she looking there, but she has a slightly worried expression on her face. Seeing her expression immediately brings your eyes right where the creator of this ad wants them; to the hair damage! The product of course is this new conditioner and treatment that “…takes care of the damage.”
I found this ad in the May 2010 edition of Cosmopolitan, so generally the ads in the magazine are going to be directed at a female audience between the ages of 18 and 40 because that’s the audience that reads this magazine. This ad does a good job of capturing that audience because of the woman’s young appearance and her beauty. She is the “beautiful blonde bombshell” that every woman wants to be, with her delicate features, plump lips, big green eyes and most importantly her gorgeous, shiny, HEALTHY hair. Who wouldn’t want to be the girl in this picture?
Now, focusing on the iron; the response from the audience that the creators are aiming to get is most likely to get the person to think about what they do to their hair, and then compare it to what this woman is doing. In general, the population blow dries and possibly curls or straightens their hair so this will come to mind. Then the fact that ironing it with a clothing iron seems much more extreme than curling or straightening or blow drying, which would hopefully get the audience to think “but if her hair is so healthy looking after that then surely that product would work on mine too!” This ad also brings out the aspect that women will go to any extremes to look beautiful and it will play with the audience in that sense and draw them in. So basically what the ad is saying is that no matter what extreme thing that you could do to your hair, this new conditioner by Dove will provide so much nourishment for your hair that nothing can cause damage to it.
The text color is white in the first sentence and blue in the second, which goes with the color theme throughout the ad; its general colors are white, navy blue, gray, and gold/blonde. The font is bold and in all caps which stresses the statement but it’s not over bearing in the ad because they would rather you focus on the picture. But I think the way they formatted the text, unevenly like that could be symbolic of the damaged and uneven hair that Dove is going to help you treat.
The ad is also directed at a mostly Caucasian audience, given the Caucasian woman in the advertisement. The Dove Company makes their products for Caucasian, Asian, Indian etc… hair types and textures that tend to be more on the fine side; African-Americans generally have coarse hair and a different texture which requires different care. But where Asians and Indians and many other cultures have the same or similar hair types, this ad is obviously directed toward the Caucasian audience because the model in the ad has very fair skin and blonde hair.
Consumer Comment
I am one of the few young women that doesn’t wake up every morning and style my hair for an hour and then put on makeup. I shower and brush my hair and go to class and let my hair air dry, so I don’t do much if any heat damage to my hair. This ad really doesn’t have an effect on me personally for that reason and that I think my hair is healthy. I do think the concept of the iron is interesting though because I remember my mom telling me that her mom used to actually straighten her hair with a clothing iron. Back before flat irons, that are designed for your hair, that’s how girls got their hair straight. So I just thought that was an interesting piece of history that they used in the ad, whether or not they did it on purpose I don’t know.
No comments:
Post a Comment