Have you ever wondered why a clothing company would try to sell its clothes by putting them on a model who’s taking them off? Does this strategy make any sense? Have you ever heard the phrase “sex sells”? What does that mean, exactly? These are all questions we can explore together.
To begin, take a look at this London Fog ad from the August 2009 issue of Vanity Fair magazine and consider the following:
• What product is being advertised? How can you tell?
• Typically, what images do you associate with a raincoat? What comes to mind when you look at this specific one? For example, is this raincoat different from a yellow rain slicker from LL Bean? How?
• Who is the model in the ad? Why would London Fog want to use her? For instance, why didn’t the advertiser use an older model?
• How do you feel when you look at this ad?
• Has this ad convinced you to buy this piece of clothing?
For me, the design layout makes it hard to concentrate on the product. Even though the raincoat should be the focus of the ad, it sort of fades into the background. Instead, the beautiful model becomes the product, and I’ve just made a connection between buying the coat and looking like Gisele. If I start thinking, “Buying a London Fog raincoat will help me feel more attractive, sexy, famous, successful, rich just like supermodel Gisele Bundchen,” then the ad is successful. But will buying the raincoat really change the way I look? How much money I make? Or how many dates I get? Plus, how will I feel when that transformation doesn’t happen?
That’s my take. What’s yours?
Next time, we’ll look at another ad that tries to attract customers through images of attractive girls and women.