Advertisement Analysis

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.