Recently we've been looking at the practice of advertising
and also what it says about our culture and society. In order to investigate
this further we were divided into groups and given an advertisement to analyze.
This is an advertisement from Marlboro - a popular cigarette
brand - which was produced in the 1950s. At the top of the ad we see the
tagline "Escape from the commonplace" and underneath we see an image
of an attractive and happy couple. In the image the man is lighting the woman's
cigarette and they appear to be in an exotic location which is identified as
Guatemala. Below the image in large font is the phrase "Enjoy something
different...Try Marlboro Cigarettes" and also a small section of text
describing the cigarettes quality. We also see a picture of a cigarette box and
text which says "Beauty Tips (red)".
As mentioned before this advertisement is from the 1950s and
by analyzing it we are able to gain a better understanding of what the culture
and social ideals were like at that time. This ad demonstrates the importance
of appearances and looks at the time. This is seen in the attractiveness of the
couple and also the exotic location in which this scene is taking place.
Another example of this emphasis of appearances at the time is the "beauty
tips" style of cigarettes. The idea behind the beauty tips was that the
red filter would prevent your lipstick marks from being visible on the
cigarette since the colour would be the same (red). Therefore the designers of
this advertisement were obviously trying to create a link between their brand
of cigarettes and beauty.
Focusing on the happy couple I mentioned earlier, this
advertisement demonstrates the idea of trying to sell happiness. From this we
can assume that at the time happiness was a very important thing to not only
achieve but maintain. What this ad is basically saying is "With these
Marlboro cigarettes you too could be as happy as the couple in the
picture!". While we know that this isn't true, that picture and the idea
of linking those particular cigarettes with happiness will remain in the
viewers mind and might subconsciously affect their decision to buy those
cigarettes later on.
After analyzing this advertisement I would say that no
groups in particular are ignored or marginalized. However there is the fact
that the advertisement contains only white figures which is simply a reflection
of the racist attitudes at the time that it was published.