Advertisements And The World

Ben

3/20/2006

English

Comparison Essay

In today's advertisement rich world, advertisements are plastered throughout society; permeating every essence of life; from work to pleasure, ads can be found on anything from the smallest things we use, to the newspapers we read, advertisements really are everywhere. In all industries advertisements help to boost sales, some take them to another scale by literally littering society with them. The biggest example of this is the alcohol industry. I have taken two ads that various companies in the alcohol industry; Bacardi and Crown Royal have done, and compared and contrasted two ads, showing and explaining the various techniques, catch phrases, and creative aspects that the alcohol industry uses to catch your attention.

Bacardi. One word that describes the world's best known rum. Started in 1862 by Don Facundo Bacardi Masso. Founded in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba; its logo was created after the fruit bats that inhabited the original dwelling in Cuba where the new rum was created. Since then, Bacardi rum has grown into the largest privately held spirits company in the world, with ads running everywhere; clubs and bards the world over serving there line of drinks. With all these ads and years experience in the field of advertising, they know techniques to advertise with. As everyone has heard... Sex sells.

Sex. The ad I chose that Bacardi Created, is literally selling sex first, alcohol later. Even the catch phrase places emphasis on the sexually related theme of the advertisement. It reads as 'Pussy cat by day. (Bacardi bat symbol) Bacardi by night.' Right from the start of the catch phrase sex is implied. Not only in an offensive and considerably sexist manner, but also with a not-so-subliminal message in the slang reference to a women's sexual organ. Even the literal interpretation happens to be sexually provocative and sexist. 'Pussy cat by day" implies a shy, person if not perhaps slightly weak and submissive. And since the ad is displaying a woman in thong underwear, there is the implication that the woman is submissive there. To make matters worse, the rest of the catch phrase 'Bacardi by night', along with the suggestively low cut pants and thong imply the 'looseness' that it creates in women. Although this seems to be very male oriented with its sexual implication and female model for the shot, there is still a bit of appeal for the female sex, in the implication made that Bacardi Rum can help you to shed that 'pussy cat' shell. All in all the advertisement and its catchphrase imply sexuality used to sell the liquor, albeit the liquor coming second to that of the sex appeal, interesting considering the lack of it in the other advertisement by

Canadians. Long a British commonwealth gained formal status as a parliamentary democracy in 1982, but has had, and continues to have a very long history of being a big part of the British Empire, know known as the Commonwealth of Nations. Well, to bring pertinence back around, in 1939 Canada had its first tour of the British first family, King George and Queen Elizabeth. In honor of this incredibly momentous occasion Samuel Bronfman, President of the Seagram bottling company created a whiskey packaged in a bottle sealed in royal purple colours that quickly took off due to its unique styling. Since then just like Bacardi Rum, Crown Royal has become a club and bar favorite for fine whiskey. Ads can be seen across the US on TV, magazines, newspapers and as props in movies, this just being the tip of the iceberg. Unlike a lot of the other alcohols however, Crown Royal's Advertisements tend to be slightly more refined, or if not, just less sexually oriented.

Well this is