Ad Analysis

Lovely on the Inside

The LOVELY advertisement in the February issue of Cosmopolitan, explicitly sells perfume but while implicitly selling confidence and inner beauty to single, middle aged women. I have to admit that I really don't care for Sarah Jessica Parker. While that maybe my opinion there are many, many people out there in this world who do adore her and everything that she may do. To them she is not just another face, but to most she is an icon, a role model, and she is someone that most women her age give a little hope for. Take in her situations and see her problems and they can relate them to their own lives.

She may be a decent actress at times but in the advertisement for her new line of perfume, LOVELY, she seems to be in a state of complete contentment. She seems almost like she is withdrawn and just gazing off into nothing. Her sandy blonde hair is pulled back into a bun and not in any shape of neatness, rather quiet a mess. She is wearing large diamond earrings that dangle maybe a quarter of an inch from her ears. She is also wearing a pink ballerina tutu and appears to be kneeling or sitting with a black background all around her. She is leaning forward and resting her right elbow on her thigh and her hand on the right side of her neck. Her left arm is slightly behind her and away from the body, bent so that her hand is on her left leg. In her left hand she is softly

clenching her pink tutu. Across the middle of her chest it reads, "LOVELY ON THE INSIDE."

I got his advertisement out of a well-known women's magazine called Cosmopolitan, which is written for middle aged women who are more than likely single or not yet married. The ad uses an ethical appeal by using a famous, trustworthy, and most credible celebrity. This add features Sarah Jessica Parker who is well-known and more so for her role in the ever so famous Sex and the City. Although Parker herself her is happily married with a child, her role in Sex and the City as that of Carrie Bradshaw is not, and one that many women can relate and understand to. Carrie Bradshaw is just another woman in the world facing all the things that women go through and these women watching this show see that. HBO had written an article about the show Sex and the City, and in it was a paragraph describing a little about the character of Carrie Bradshaw.

No one captures the lives of the lovelorn and the love-seeking in New York City better than columnist Carrie Bradshaw does. As fodder for her column, single and fabulous Carrie looks to the experiences of her best friends and her own. Never shying away from difficult or delicate subjects, Carrie has covered everything from emotional dependence to sexual independence. And somehow, through all her research and realizations, she's remained open to the possibility of finding love among the ruins. (HBO)

I find some irony to the ad only because Sarah Jessica Parker is forty-two years old, and is not so lovely anymore in the eye of many people in this society. Maybe the wording across her chest is symbolizing that she may be old but she's still "lovely on the inside." In most perfume ads a person would see would advertise with young sexy females rather instead Sarah Jessica Parker and her forty-two years. A picture of an older woman wearing a pink tutu just seeming to be staring at you isn't very "lovely" to me. The word lovely as defined in Merriam-Webster means, "delightful for beauty, harmony, grace" (def.1), or in other words attractive. While Sarah Jessica Parker may be "attractive" to most she certainly isn't to me. And if they want to advertise that you're lovely on the inside that what is outside does not matter, why is Parker look so graceful? Parker is wearing a pink tutu; pink is a stylish feminine color. Her face looks beautifully untouchable and she is wearing a shade of pink lipstick along with large diamond earring that dangles from her face. Parker herself is cares about her looks and her character Carrie Bradshaw is obsessed with the way that she looks. For those