Desires In Advertising Essay, Research Paper

The following advertisements promote new desires and new cultural mythologies towards our society. The older desires are still evident because they are used in nature differently, but now new desires are emerging. These new desires include the power and freedom of women, a new rugged view of sex and sexuality, extreme risk, and strangely enough truth has been a new evident trend.

The largest new trend or desire of our society pertains women and the new role they have in our society. In today s world women have a more prominent social standing. They are now stronger characters, and are viewed as being more independent and sophisticated. The women of today have a new freedom. This has not happened until recently. The world today is no longer a man s world; they are no longer portrayed just as housewives or sex objects. The women of today are shown as not just being beautiful, but successful and powerful at the same time. It is a desire of all women to posses power, to feel strong, and yet still express their sexuality. This change is evident in our advertisements. These advertisements promote these new desires of women.

Individuality is a desire that is related with the new role of women and also their sexuality. The women of today want to differentiate themselves from the housewives they were portrayed as in the past. In the Winston cigarette advertisement the following caption is displayed, Until I find a real man, I ll take a real smoke. This advertisement illustrates the point that women have a new stronger role in our society. The woman in the ad still expresses her sexuality, but it is used in a different nature then it was in the past. Now the woman is declaring her power. A contributor to the desire of women to have power and be strong is the rise in popularity of women s sports. In the Adidas advertisement it contains a timeline highlighting the struggles of women in sports and again shows the newfound popularity. The ad shows strong women and contains the slogan, Be a Superstar. This is another fine example suggesting to women that power and strength are something to be desired. Sexuality is related to the new social standing of women. The ways of expressing sexuality of the past are still used, but in used differently in nature. Now there is a new rugged sexuality of men and women. Yes, this is too desired by our society. The sexuality of women does illustrate their individuality and power. In the Calvin Kline jeans ad a woman is made to look dirty on purpose. The society we live in today has an easier time accepting different styles of sexuality. The advertisement makes this appear desirable and again suggests individuality and sexuality. This has been a past desire but today it is used in a different way, but what it shows is our new views towards sexuality and that is a new desire.

Risk is something new to our society. Our society is afraid of it at times. We want the positive side of risk, but we are afraid of its consequences, or the negative side. We desire to be a risk taker. The Toyota advertisement suggests the idea to be a risk taker. They illustrate how the car does not know any limits. Toyota wants the consumer to feel adventurous. By being adventurous they want us to feel no boundaries. There was a time where we did have to live within boundaries.

Perhaps the most interesting new trend or desire in advertising is the idea of truth. In the past advertisers were afraid to tell consumers the truth. Now as consumers we sometimes demand the truth. Today some advertisements present reality because it is a desire of the consumer. In the anti-smoking advertisement titled The Truth , the ad not only gives the truth about cigarettes but also criticizes cigarette ads in general. The advertisement has the look and feel of an actual cigarette ad. The imagery contains a cowboy on a horse riding in a western type of frontier. This type of look has been associated with cigarette ads for years. Most interestingly Winston cigarettes portrayed this image, but now as we saw before Winston changed to show the new role of women. But in this truth ad the cowboy has a bodybag with him suggesting the truth the cigarettes do in fact kill people. The truth would not be told to consumers in the past. This shows that today s consumer and even society is smarter and does want to hear the truth. The Truth advertisement even makes the statement You too can be an independent, rugged, macho-looking dead guy. It is interesting to know that the government forces cigarette companies pay for these truth advertisements. It is almost a slap in the face. This is only one example of today s society wanting to know the truth in advertising.

In conclusion, the world is a different place today. We are a different society. Advertisements promote and illustrate our desires. The new desires of today s society are the power and individuality of women, risk, rugged sexuality, and truth. These desires or trends are witnessed in advertising. The interesting part will be to see how long advertising promotes these or what our newer desires will be.