Advertisement: Appeals To Women Essay, Research Paper
Sept. 29, 1998
Appeals to Women
Most advertisers use different appeals to create stereotypes about their audiences
because people often buy magazines which fit the stereotypes they make about themselves. For
example, people who always read Newsweek are mostly people who are at work, who are
economically stable, and who are interested in the world situation. On the other hand, the
audiences of Shape are mostly young women who are interested in reducing their weights or
shaping up. In Jib Fowles’ essay, “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals,” he discusses the
fifteen emotional appeals that are often seen in many advertisements. To corroborate his
postulations of advertisement, I focused on a specific magazine, Cosmopolitan, and checked if
I could determine the stereotypes the advertisers make about audiences by applying appeals he
had listed.
After analyzing ten ads from Cosmopolitan, I realized that there were two common
appeals in most of the ten ads: sexual, and autonomy. First, let’s look at the three ads about
different perfumes, “Splendor,” “Dazzling,” and “True Love.” Both the ads of “Splendor” and
“Dazzling” have women clad in strap dresses and held by men. The photo of “Dazzling”
shows a woman in black party dress, dancing with a man in tuxedo. Next to her dazzling smile
is the word, ‘Dazzling,’ and the two perfume bottles. In the ad of “Splendor,” a young,
attractive, blond woman with her left arm around a man’s neck is about to kiss him. Its copy
reads ‘A fragrance Sensation,’ ‘A Sparkling Love Story,’ and ‘Wonderfully Romantic.’ These
ads surely involve sexual appeals because it is obvious that the advertisers are trying to make
the women look as feminine as possible by having them expose their skin and embrace their
men. Also, the copies of “Splendor” fetch audiences’ attention by appealing to their longing for
romance and affections. The ad of “True Love” also appeals to sexuality by showing a
woman with a drowsy expression in a lying down
The second appeal I found is the need for autonomy, the need to credit the self. The
three ads about women’s suits, glassware, and make-up are great examples. An ad of
women’s suit has five women in five different gray suits who look competent. The catch phrase
says, ’Let’em know who you are.’ The other ad of glassware shows a beautiful white woman
in a white blouse with glasses. She has her blond hair put up, and she is reading a paper. The
copy on the upper left corner reads, ‘Endless Possibilities.’ The third ad of Maybelline’s
foundation cake also has a white woman wearing white blouse with her hair up. All of these
three ads have women who look aspired, intellectual, and independent. These ads strike
women’s strong need to become the way they want, and to endorse themselves.
These appeals are effective in persuading women to buy the products by giving women
illusions that they will look ‘sexy’ or ‘independent’ just like the women in the ads if they buy
the products.
By finding the appeals advertisers use, one can tell how the advertisers view the
audiences. Women usually buy perfume to add to their charm and confidence. Especially,
women who are physically matured are easily attracted to sexual appeals as advertisers intend
because such women consciously fear the fading of their sexual glamour as they age. Also,
women at work or women who want to work strongly seek independence because women are
usually oppressed by the society, for the stereotypes about women that they are incapable have
not completely been removed. To overthrow such false assumptions about women, many wish
to prove to themselves and to the society that she is aspired, and she has abilities to deal with
things. With such women’s tendencies in mind, the advertisers of the magazine, Cosmopolitan,
are stereotyping about their audiences that they are young women of age twenty’s to early
forty’s who are living in cities, who are interested in relationships with men, and who are
seeking to be looked as independent women.
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