Gulya Umarova
English 112-001
Prof. Margene Petersen
30 Jan. 2017
Common Themes in Ads
“The consumer is not a moron. She’s your wife.” said David Ogilvy, “the father of advertising,” in 1955. And yet, although it has been 60 years since then, many companies continue to think they can easily fool us into buying their products using sub-par advertisement techniques. Without thinking about this, many companies still market their products today the way they would have advertised decades ago. Consumers’ preferences and the social and historical context have changed so much during these years, so do the same rhetorical appeals used long ago still work now?
Fig. 1. Del Monte Catsup, Del Monte Foods, 1953. Print
A 1953 Del Montead (Fig. 1) depicts a typical 50s woman with short bangs and tight curls, perfect eyebrows, bright red lipstick, and matching red nails, set against a solid yellow background. She is looking at the reader, wearing a surprised expression on her face – eyes open wide and O-shaped lips – with a Del Monte Catsup bottle near her face. Her left hand is delicately positioned next to the bottle’s cap; her thumb and middle finger form a circle. The lady’s body language aims to fully express her surprise and delight at the writing underneath the image, “You mean a woman can open it?” The words are written in bold black letters and “woman” is underlined, to emphasize the fact that the company’s bottles can be opened “without a knife blade, a bottle opener, or even a husband.”
Del Monte’s ad primarily appealed to pathos, as it made their product accessible even to women. That way, they would be more useful as housewives and would no longer have to be a nuisance to their husbands. In the same way, it convinces men to have their wives buy the product as they would not be bothered by them anymore to do simple tasks such as opening a bottle. Considering that Del Monte Foods had been a major food production and distribution company for more than 6 decades at the time of this commercial (Del Monte History), the ad was meant to appeal to ethos as well. Del Monte had become a multinational brand after the end of WWII, and owned more than 100 facilities and multiple farms. Furthermore, the company had introduced several manufacturing and packaging innovations (History) that became popular and started being used by most manufacturers.
An ad similar to Del Monte’s was released about 60 years later by one of their major competitors, Heinz. The ad (Fig. 2) features a young blond woman on the left side of the image, set against a pale gray background. The woman seems to be wiping her lips, while her eyes are closed. Her bright red nails are very noticeable and her fingers point to a ketchup bottle on the lower right corner. Right in the middle of the empty part of the ad, “Makes anything easier to swallow” is written in maroon letters.
Fig. 2. Heinz Tomato Ketchup Ad, Heinz, 2014. Web.
The phrase is anobvious play on words containing heavy sexual undertones, as it refers to the woman giving oral sex. Heinz Tomato Ketchup is trying to say that it is so good it will moisten any food and make it tasty enough for the user to want to swallow it, no matter what the original taste is. The ad’s main appeal is to ethos. Heinz is a well-established brand and its ketchup has been used for more than a hundred years, being the company’s top-selling product worldwide (Heinz History). The ad’s sexual references are meant to make the ad memorable to viewers and to cause a somewhat emotional attraction.
Although there is a large time difference between the two ads and the socio-historic context has changed dramatically, they share multiple similarities. The most obvious one design-wise is the use of red on the female models to match the color of the product, as well as to create contrast between the foreground – the focal point – and the background. As for the social aspect, blatant sexism is quite visible in both ads. While it is true that sex sells, and is often used in media to attract attention and clients, these ads are clearly degrading to women, and neither company has tried to make its references subtle. Although the Del Monte ad (Fig. 1) would be heavily criticized now, it was perfectly normal at the time it was released, just as a lot of other sexist ads of that time (11 Sexist Vintage Ads). Meanwhile, the Heinz ad (Fig. 2) had to be removed after the company came under fire by social rights groups.
Risqué ads, as the name suggests, are not guaranteed to be effective. Often, they fail to convey the desired message and in some cases, they have negative effects, as exemplified by the above images. The key to good marketing is carefully studying the trends of the moment and finding a way to be different, while at the same time matching the context, which is why there are very few campaigns that remain engrained in the public’s mind through the years. As the Del Monte (Fig. 1) and Heinz (Fig. 2) ads show, sticking to the same techniques, especially when they are offensive to a group whose pursue of equality has continuously increased during the last few years, is probably not a good idea and will likely fire back. It should not be so hard to be funny without being offensive in 2016, and yet we can only hope that major companies will be swept by a sudden wind of social decency.
“11 Sexist Vintage Ads That Would Be Totally Unacceptable Today.” Huffington Post, 5
Mar. 2014. Web. 21 January 2016.
“Heinz Tomato Ketchup History.” Heinz Inc. 2015. Web. 22 January 2016.
“History.” Del Monte Foods, Inc. 19 May 2015. Web. 22 January 2016.