No matter
how it is achieved, a product that can be made to appeal to the young
generation as well as the mature audience is a successful product. Love’s Baby
Soft is a brand that has done just this for their line of body care
merchandise. By creating a link between adolescence and sexuality in their
advertisements, this company has managed to craft perfumes, lotions, and body
washes that have an “irresistible, clean baby smell, grown up enough to be
sexy”. Although this gap seems too wide to be connected, the image and textual
elements they chose for their ads have done just that. Many adverting companies
just like this one are taking full advantage of our appearance-obsessed
generation of people and are broadening their horizons to target the younger
generation as well as the older. One advertisement in particular has gone to
dramatic lengths to create a brand with far reaching demographics, from young
girls dazzled by maturity to older females intrigued by the playful
youthfulness of their products. However, one may be lead to believe that the
images on the advertisement are solely meant to attract pre-teenage girls, when
really this ad does a successful job at attracting the eye of young children as
well as pre-teens.
This
advertisement for Love Cosmetics is a blatant display of the targeting of young
girls. The main image consists of a very young child with hair curled and
styled to be big and luscious, eyes boldly wearing dramatic and dark mascara,
lips made glossy and plump with lipstick, and arms clenching a white teddy bear
to her chest. From the way she was beautified to a look similar to that of
Marilyn Monroe, to the intense head on look she is giving the camera as her
dainty hand holds the bear, this image was clearly created to apply a more
sultry and grown up look to a young girl. The color of the stuffed bear, the
child’s shirt, and even the slogan are all white, which I believe was
selectively chosen to apply the feeling of purity, innocence, and virginity to
the sensual-looking child. Their slogan is boldly placed in the top middle of
the advertisement and it states “Love’s Baby Soft. Because innocence is sexier
than you think.” This line clearly portrays the message they seek to get across
to the viewers. They are making a connection between the innocence of adolescence
and sexuality to appeal to a younger teen who is in the process of becoming a
woman and also to a child who looks up to matured women and desires to be like
them. The slogan alone undoubtedly shows the preposterous advertising
techniques used in the textual elements of this ad. Additionally, in the bottom
left corner there is an image of the different products they sell along with a
few small sentences promoting them, placed below. The products themselves are
petite with cute girly colors and fonts that attract the same youthful
generation. Although it may seem obvious, a counter argument could be made that
the advertisement is not in fact targeting pre-teenage girls.
Looking at
this advertisement, one may say that although the foremost image is of a child,
it does not necessarily mean that the intended consumer is in fact children. The
innocent little girl could be present simply to give a youthful vibe to the
advertisement and to promote the “baby” softness of the product. Although I can
see why one could be lead to believe this by glimpsing at the advertisement, having
prior knowledge of this product I can say that the point of having the little
girl on the cover is to make other young girls look up to her and want the
product to create a similar look for themselves. The grown up beauty she has
complements her prepubescent features in a way that makes her a role model for
the younger generation to incorporate the more sultry components into their own
looks. The slogan even says that innocence can be made to be sexy, which
implies that it strives to do just that.
The target
audience for this advertisement is young girls who are starting to become women
and even younger girls who look up to the mature feminine characteristics of
women. More specifically, according to the VALS2 Network, the closest general
audience this advertisement is aiming towards is the strivers. They fit in this
category because although they understand the importance of status and highly
value it, they do not have the resources to supplement their desire to form
this enriching brand. The purpose of this advertisement is to attract a younger
generation of girls to this brand of products by showing them an image of a
girl that could potentially be a role model to them. This girl can spark the
thought that if they get this product they can be like her or they can obtain
similar traits that she has that make her physically attractive. It
simultaneously attracts the attention of a little bit older girls by giving the
child mature features and describing it as sexy. I believe that, although it
uses a dramatic tactic to do so, this advertisement is effective and
successfully conveys its message. It effectively shows an image that is both
youthful and lustful which can very well cause younger girls to buy their
products because of the girl they see and the lines they read. The emotional
appeal it uses also ensures that the audience will remain familiar with their
brand.
In
conclusion, this advertisement for Love’s Baby Soft products successfully, yet
controversially, attracted an audience of very young girls as well as girls who
are becoming women. The sultry and mature image of the young child provides an
innocent and pure take on sexiness that makes this a very effective ad for that
young crowd. It provides a new take on adolescence and gives children a new
kind of girl they want to be. This advertisement is just one of many dramatic
yet powerful advertisements that are being to widen their demographics to
children. Who knows what kind of products will begin to appeal to the younger
generation in the future due to the cleverness of advertisement companies.
No comments:
Post a Comment