Post #5: Fragrant Advertising
When flipping through any fashion magazine, you will find it full of perfume advertisements. These advertisements have only a few seconds to catch your eye. This is obviously why most of them are pictures with very little writing. Perfume advertisements were not always like that.
In the 1930s, perfume advertisements were mostly drawings or paintings—some more realistic than others. In the “Fragrance” advertisement the picture was drawn in a cartoon like manner. The woman looks very elegant with an elite group of people surrounding her. This made women think that by using Yardley’s perfume they too could be like her. The advertisement has a lot of writing. The caption talks about how Yardley’s “Fragrance” was a big hit in London and now in America. Many of the perfume advertisements lured American women in by appealing to the fact that they wanted to be like the rich and elegant Europeans.
The “Irresistible” advertisement is also from the 1930s. It is drawn like the other ad. This ad is a colored, more realistic picture of a woman who has a lot more sex appeal. In the background you can see a little town in Paris with the Eiffel Tower in the back. The caption says that by using the “Irresistible” perfume women will be irresistible to men. This ad would have appealed to the younger women who wanted to feel sexy and attractive.
The DKNY “Be Delicious” perfume advertisement has a huge picture of a very attractive woman. She is seductively eating an apple. The only words on the ad are the name of the perfume. The ad instantly intrigues a consumer’s eye because it has a close up of the girl’s perfect face. Putting very attractive people in ads has always made people stop and look because we like to look at gorgeous people. This is exactly why ads have always used pretty people—not average looking people.
One thing advertisers picked up on, even in the 1900s, is that sex sells. They all try to use sex appeal to sell their product. In the DKNY perfume ad, the only thing selling the perfume is a hot young girl. Most, if not all, advertisements for perfumes have gorgeous young women and men in them. The old perfume ads also had a central good looking female figure in them. Both the modern and old ads made sure to show a picture of the perfume bottle. Women like to see the exquisite bottles that perfumes come in. Some simply buy the perfume because they love the bottle so much. The modern perfume ads are always real pictures, not drawings like all of the old ads were. The photos of people are more appealing because they are real people. The drawings in the old ads felt unnatural and looked more like art. Another key difference between the two eras is that the old ads had a lot of writing. The modern ads put as little writing as possible because who would want to read paragraphs of writing just to find out what that actual product is? Overall, the modern advertisers took the old ideas and added some fresh twists to appeal to the fast paced world of Americans where only a few seconds have to make a big impression.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12392051@N04/sets/72157603129959843/detail/
