product: cars
This Australian ad for Lipton tea suggests that it’s mind clarifying qualities are so good that it could help even George Bush achieve the feat of naming all 50 states.
This Brazilian ad for Rolling Stone, featuring a picture of George W. Bush, reads: “We don’t show naked women to sell more. At the most, we show some asses.”
This Chinese Greenpeace ad, portraying Bush’s spin on global warming, reads: “Everyone’s entitled to an opinion. Voice yours at forum.greenpeace.org.”
This Chinese ad for an erasable pen reads: “Everyone makes mistakes.”
In Malaysia, Bush is used to sell Smart cars. Text: “Still looking for weapons of mass destruction. Not smart.”
Also in Malaysia, Amnesty International makes fun of Bush in their effort to inspire opposition to Guantanamo Bay. “Write to him and help stop torture at Guantanamo Bay. Remember, use simple words.”
This is a Mexican ad for a dog kennel. “We don’t discriminate any kind of breed.” (The source says that, in Mexico, like in the U.S., “dog” is a name for a bad person.)
This ad for a Mexican newspaper reads: “Such a complex world needs a good explanation.”
This is an ad for the movie American Psycho in New Zealand.
In Portugal, playing war games (paint ball) is advertised as equivalent to playing George W. Bush.
This Swiss ad threatens, if you fall off your bicycle without a helmet, you may end up as dumb as George W. Bush.
These and more borrowed from here, found via adfreak.
Update: There have been some really nice points in the comments about how, in the process of making fun of Bush, we are also seeing the further stigmatization of “people with developmental disabilities, brain injuries, and psychological diagnoses” (that from Penny in the comments).
Emily sent us this classic Goodyear tire ad. The ad starts out talking about mileage and showing men, but then moves to a segment where a woman is driving and there’s scary music and we’re to presume that she’s maybe being chased or is in danger–and you want to be sure your wife has good tires so she can get away.
NEW! This ad for the VW Bug also plays on the idea that women are terrible drivers:
Text:
Women are soft and gentle, but they hit things.
If your wife hits something in a Volkswagen, it doesn’t hurt you very much.
…
She can jab the hood. Graze the door. Or bump off the bumper.
It may make you furious, but it won’t make you poor.
So when your wife goes window-shopping in a Volkswagen, don’t worry.
You can conveniently replace anything she uses to stop the car.
Even the brakes.
This interactive chart in the NYT uses shapes to represent how much the average American spends in different categories. Larger shapes make up a larger part of spending; colors show changes in prices from March 2007 to March 2008. Red means an increase in the relative cost, light tan and white relative stability, and blue a decrease.
Note from Gwen: Since it was causing some people with Firefox problems, I’m changing it so you have to click to see it, rather than having it come up automatically when you visit the site. Hope this helps.
I found this ad in Rolling Stone and thought it was an interesting take on class. The text at the top says:
This isn’t trust-fund luxury. This is start-up, do-it-yourself, this is gonna be the next big thing luxury. A new generation has arrived.
At the bottom it says:
Introducing the all-new Acura TSX. Forget silver-haired luxury. This is modern, i-VTEC, ELS Surround Sound luxury. Luxury that innovates, with features like the most advanced on-screen weather information and alerts. And luxury that thrills, with an aggressive new body style, a re-tuned engine, and a sport-minded suspension. The TSX with Technology Package. It’s luxury for a whole new generation. See it at acura.com.
So they’re playing on the idea of the self-made man–he creates the “next big thing,” he “innovates.” And he’s young and “modern.” And “aggressive.” All in contrast to those who inherit wealth, who are “silver-haired” and, presumably, not aggressive or brave enough for this car. This could be useful for a discussion of social class, in particular the old-money/new-money divide, as well as different ideas of masculinity.
.
In this commercial a cadre of communist icons are gathered in a delapidated estate. Fidel Castro approaches Karl Marx and Che Guevara. Che says: “It’s time for a new revolution.” Karl says: “It’s about what people need.”
And the last line, according to googe translation German-English, says: “The first estate, which everyone can afford.”
A great example of something we’d NEVER see in the U.S.
Found here. Thanks to Miguel for the image and the translation!
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
One of my favorite things to do in class is to show students that advertisers target their images to the audience. Students are often resistant to the idea that advertisers consider every aspect of an image, or that gendered or racialized elements are used intentionally. Showing ads for the same product that are targeted at very different audiences can be a way to get students to think about the fact that marketing is very deliberate and nothing in a multi-million-dollar ad is left to chance.
I previously posted this Cadillac ad:
Then I found this one in QVegas, which targets the GLBT community:
These might be useful for sparking a discussion of how advertisers alter their message based on the desired consumers, and that they know what kind of image will resonate with various demographics. And note that the second ad doesn’t have the menacing tone of the first one. Other examples: here and here.
This Australian ad for Lipton tea suggests that it’s mind clarifying qualities are so good that it could help even George Bush achieve the feat of naming all 50 states.
This Brazilian ad for Rolling Stone, featuring a picture of George W. Bush, reads: “We don’t show naked women to sell more. At the most, we show some asses.”
This Chinese Greenpeace ad, portraying Bush’s spin on global warming, reads: “Everyone’s entitled to an opinion. Voice yours at forum.greenpeace.org.”
This Chinese ad for an erasable pen reads: “Everyone makes mistakes.”
In Malaysia, Bush is used to sell Smart cars. Text: “Still looking for weapons of mass destruction. Not smart.”
Also in Malaysia, Amnesty International makes fun of Bush in their effort to inspire opposition to Guantanamo Bay. “Write to him and help stop torture at Guantanamo Bay. Remember, use simple words.”
This is a Mexican ad for a dog kennel. “We don’t discriminate any kind of breed.” (The source says that, in Mexico, like in the U.S., “dog” is a name for a bad person.)
This ad for a Mexican newspaper reads: “Such a complex world needs a good explanation.”
This is an ad for the movie American Psycho in New Zealand.
In Portugal, playing war games (paint ball) is advertised as equivalent to playing George W. Bush.
This Swiss ad threatens, if you fall off your bicycle without a helmet, you may end up as dumb as George W. Bush.
These and more borrowed from here, found via adfreak.
Update: There have been some really nice points in the comments about how, in the process of making fun of Bush, we are also seeing the further stigmatization of “people with developmental disabilities, brain injuries, and psychological diagnoses” (that from Penny in the comments).
Emily sent us this classic Goodyear tire ad. The ad starts out talking about mileage and showing men, but then moves to a segment where a woman is driving and there’s scary music and we’re to presume that she’s maybe being chased or is in danger–and you want to be sure your wife has good tires so she can get away.
NEW! This ad for the VW Bug also plays on the idea that women are terrible drivers:
Text:
Women are soft and gentle, but they hit things.
If your wife hits something in a Volkswagen, it doesn’t hurt you very much.
…
She can jab the hood. Graze the door. Or bump off the bumper.
It may make you furious, but it won’t make you poor.
So when your wife goes window-shopping in a Volkswagen, don’t worry.
You can conveniently replace anything she uses to stop the car.
Even the brakes.
This interactive chart in the NYT uses shapes to represent how much the average American spends in different categories. Larger shapes make up a larger part of spending; colors show changes in prices from March 2007 to March 2008. Red means an increase in the relative cost, light tan and white relative stability, and blue a decrease.
Note from Gwen: Since it was causing some people with Firefox problems, I’m changing it so you have to click to see it, rather than having it come up automatically when you visit the site. Hope this helps.
I found this ad in Rolling Stone and thought it was an interesting take on class. The text at the top says:
This isn’t trust-fund luxury. This is start-up, do-it-yourself, this is gonna be the next big thing luxury. A new generation has arrived.
At the bottom it says:
Introducing the all-new Acura TSX. Forget silver-haired luxury. This is modern, i-VTEC, ELS Surround Sound luxury. Luxury that innovates, with features like the most advanced on-screen weather information and alerts. And luxury that thrills, with an aggressive new body style, a re-tuned engine, and a sport-minded suspension. The TSX with Technology Package. It’s luxury for a whole new generation. See it at acura.com.
So they’re playing on the idea of the self-made man–he creates the “next big thing,” he “innovates.” And he’s young and “modern.” And “aggressive.” All in contrast to those who inherit wealth, who are “silver-haired” and, presumably, not aggressive or brave enough for this car. This could be useful for a discussion of social class, in particular the old-money/new-money divide, as well as different ideas of masculinity.
.
In this commercial a cadre of communist icons are gathered in a delapidated estate. Fidel Castro approaches Karl Marx and Che Guevara. Che says: “It’s time for a new revolution.” Karl says: “It’s about what people need.”
And the last line, according to googe translation German-English, says: “The first estate, which everyone can afford.”
A great example of something we’d NEVER see in the U.S.
Found here. Thanks to Miguel for the image and the translation!
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
One of my favorite things to do in class is to show students that advertisers target their images to the audience. Students are often resistant to the idea that advertisers consider every aspect of an image, or that gendered or racialized elements are used intentionally. Showing ads for the same product that are targeted at very different audiences can be a way to get students to think about the fact that marketing is very deliberate and nothing in a multi-million-dollar ad is left to chance.
I previously posted this Cadillac ad:
Then I found this one in QVegas, which targets the GLBT community:
These might be useful for sparking a discussion of how advertisers alter their message based on the desired consumers, and that they know what kind of image will resonate with various demographics. And note that the second ad doesn’t have the menacing tone of the first one. Other examples: here and here.