Fashion magazines are full of ads doting towards beauty. Clothing ads, jewelry, makeup, skin and hair product ads, and fragrance ads. Almost all are presented in a way that make the model look beautiful, sexy, and healthy. The ads show that if you use the product, you'll look and feel just like the photoshopped model. The ad I chose came from the October 2008's back cover of Vogue magazine. It is a fragrance ad for Calvin Klein's "Secret Obsession" perfume for women. The ad features sexy actress and model Eva Mendes. In the photo, Mendes is giving off a vibe of strong sexual desire, seducing the viewer into buying the perfume. The ad is glamorizing the perfume and selling the idea that if you buy and wear it, it will be your key to desire,and give you the ability to attract men and attain sexual pleasure.
The ad creates desire for the product and pleasure through the placement of Eva Mendes' body, her facial expression, and her lack of clothing. The shot is from mid-torso up, as if you're on top of her, in what may be a sexual position. Her hands are placed on her neck and chest as if she is in pleasure and is sensually touching herself. Her facial expression is one of lust and seduction. She's seducing the viewer into buying the product. A big factor into her being able to create desire is by her being nude. Nudity is most often suggestive of sexual activity. Her hair is long and tussled, giving it that "sex hair" look. Despite all of these somewhat scandalous features, the photo still manages to promote a clean and simple sexy, versus a "dirrty" sexy. All of Eva's physical features and placement of her body gives her a sexual appeal and an aura of desire and pleasure.
In depicting this sexual appeal and desire, the ad is promoting that by using the "Secret Obsession" perfume, you will look and feel sexy. If you spray on the fragrance, men will be automatically attracted to you and you will be able to achieve sexual pleasure. Everyone knows that sex sells, and this is a clear depiction of it. With the perfume's title "Secret Obsession, " it promotes the idea that the perfume is a big kept secret for sexual pleasure and attraction, and it's right there for you to find it. It's Eva's secret, and now it can be yours too. Especially by her eye contact with the viewer, she is seducing you into buying the perfume.
Not only can this perfume be the key to attracting men, but it can also be the key to pleasuring yourself. This idea is better depicted in the commercial, rather than the print ad. Here she is rolling around nude, touching herself, and clearly enjoying it.
People have always had a strong desire for sex. After-all, we need it to produce, so it's a natural instinct. I think these ads, however, take the desire for sex to a whole new level, giving hints at how our society feels towards sex these days. Now, people are very open about it. Looking and feeling sexy is something you can be open and proud of, unlike in the Colonial and Victorian era, when that was shunned and never seen. Sex, then, was just something you had to do to produce offspring, not something of pleasure, and certainly not for women. These ads make women out to be powerful seductresses. These are women that feel lust and sexual desire, which is now attractive and highly sought after by men. Men would want their woman to have this perfume just as much as women would, so that she is aroused, lustful, and smells sexy.
Dior's perfume, "j'adore" is advertised by Charolize Theron, also a beautiful, sexy actress and model. The picture shows her tugging at her clothes, revealing her chest. She has a clean and fancy sexy about her. She's staring directly into the camera, as if seducing you directly. Her eyes and lips express lust and arousal. Like the "Secret Obsession" ad, "j'adore" is suggesting that if you wear this Dior perfume, you will look and feel sexy, and want to pull your clothes off.
These two ads both carry the same theme of sexual pleasure, desire, and attraction. They use women, staring into the camera to seduce the viewer into buying the product. What I find most ironic, is that the ads are selling a scent, which we can't even smell when looking at the ad. These types of ads are in great abundance, so this sexual appeal apparently works to attract buyers. Sex sells.
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