How to win a consumer in 10 days

Mass media hosts such as radio stations, television programs, newspapers, catalogs, and billboards have long been a battleground for advertisers to fight over, in order to establish their product to the largest audience possible. Advertisers want to feature their product in the medium that gets the largest amount of viewers or readers, so as to maximize exposure for their product and increase sales. TV stations, magazines, and the rest try and make their product as attractive as possible, to increase ratings and readership so advertisers will pay top dollar and go into bidding wars against each other to get their product in the most possible venues. This process creates a constant circle that is positioned to produce the highest revenues possible for the product maker and the product placer.

Advertising through mass media became popular in the early twentieth century when advertisers realized that their messages could be manipulated and changed to appeal to specific demographics who were more likely to go about purchasing the product they were trying to sell. Jackson Lears in Advertising and the Idea of Mass Society writes about the process of advertisers trying to direct their product to certain demographics with the following quote:
"To know consumers, one had to do more than speculate about their psyches or observe them in hardware stores: one had to count them, categorize them by income, neighborhood, ethnicity, and religion, correlate these data with their brand preferences and test their reactions to specific ads."

The use of market research to evaluate the effectiveness of ads in mass media is two-fold. The media itself tries to appeal to a certain demographic so that they can come back and show the advertisers the type of people who watch their station or read their magazine. Secondly, the advertisers are able to take the market research on the people watching or reading the station or newspaper and are able to make their ads fit into the demographic of the people who are partaking in the media. That is why an advertisement for hybrid vehicles is more likely to appear on MSNBC then Fox News. Advertisers realize that the people who regularly watch MSNBC's programming are more likely to be liberal, eco-friendly people then the viewing audience with Fox. An oil company like Exxon would find Fox to be a better host for their advertisements then MSNBC. The constant development of new media has created more and more marketing opportunities for advertisers. In the old days advertisers would have to spend most of their money in a newspaper or periodical that had the widest readership, but did not necessarily appeal too much to the certain audiences the advertiser wanted to reach out to. However, the growth of mass media has led to greater opportunities to appeal to a specific audience. They key concept that has been developed over the past century with advertisers has been refinement.

As mass media has expanded, people now have a greater sense of the world outside their own small town. They have been exposed to lifestyles other than their own. It allows people to imagine what it must be like to be rich and famous. Advertisers have been able to take advantage of these yearnings and through the use of celebrity pitchmen and creative marketing schemes have tapped into the psyches of people wishing to mimic the celebrities they see on TV. For many years advertisers have tried to portray their product in such a way that captivated the imagination. Rosalynd Williams in Dream Worlds of Consumption writes about this advertising phenomenon:
"From earliest history we find indications that the human mind has transcended concerns of physical survival for a finer, richer, more satisfying life....But in the late nineteenth century, commodities that provided an approximation of these age-old longings began to be widely available. "

The concept of evoking fame and fortune can still be found in advertisements today. The image I chose for the assignment is a magazine advertisement for Dolce & Gabbana's "the one" cologne. It is a two page ad. The entirety of the left page is a large image of Matthew McConaughey from the waist up. He is wearing a white dress shirt and has a serious look on his face. He is shown in a luxurious looking room that is likely a rich penthouse suite or part of a mansion. The right page has an image of the cologne bottle itself and the phrase: "The new fragrance for men: Dolce & Gabbana the one" written in large white letters. The advertisement has an air of luxury to it. By showcasing the product next to Matthew McConaughey and in the setting of a luxurious room, the advertisers are trying to portray the cologne as a must have item that will leave the buyer with feelings of wealth and celebrity.

Matthew McConaughey is featured in the ad in a different way then we usually see him. Generally when people think of McConaughey bongos and surfboards come to mind. However, he is all cleaned up in this ad and has an air of domestication about him. By showing McConaughey they way that they do, the advertisers are able to appeal to free-spirited people who are fans of McConaughey, and more conservative people who wish they were more outgoing. The ad speaks to men stuck in office buildings that there are ways to be like Matt that do not involve quitting your job and living on the beach.

I think this is a very effective advertisement because Dolce and Gabbana is able to hitch their product to Matthew McConaughey, and tie in their product with all the symbols that McConaughey represents: celebrity, luxury, living life to the fullest, adventure, romance, sex appeal, and fame. Advertisements that are able to make their product become associated with these ideals will always be successful and tap into the public's collective desire for celebrity and a better life-style.