Week 8: Deconstruction of an alcohol advertisement

  

 Deconstruction of an alcohol advertisement

     I figured a Bacardi advertisement would be different and fun to dissect. In my younger years this was a drink of choice so I thought what about their ads would draw people in? It made me wonder if liquor advertisements are geared more toward young men or women and if they are geared more toward young people or older people? The ad I found (hope it shows up in my blog) is of (what seems like) a young and attractive woman. We do not see her eyes, hair, ears or eyebrows; only her nose (nostrils really), her lips, a couple teeth and her tongue. To me, highlighting this part of a person's body is extremely sexual and suggestive. On the tip of her tongue is a leaf and I believe the creator may have done this to highlight her tongue. The article also features a bottle of Bacardi Mojito with a glass, sugar cubes and a lime. Everything in this article is simple, clean, crisp, and refreshing to look at. I believe that only seeing part of the woman's face is a bit intriguing and mysterious. It's like they want you to buy the bottle to see the rest of the woman! Many alcohol advertisements (including this one) seem to be sexual and mysterious. If they created this ad with everything but the woman it would have seemed completely different; it would have been more sophisticated and less dramatic. Adding the sexual innuendo definitely gives it an edge and some excitement. I wonder if this hurts them or helps them; are more people buying this product because of the sexual content? 

     I believe the purpose of this ad (and many others) is to lure people in; your eyes are immediately drawn to the mouth and then you realize, "oh, it's a Bacardi advertisement". I guess their hope is to catch the public eye and then entice them to buy their liquor. I would imagine that many men would be attracted to this and many women may think, "I need to drink Bacardi to be sexy". Sadly, sex sells and Bacardi is completely taking advantage of that! 

     As a mother of a four year old daughter, seeing this makes me a little upset. I don't want my daughter to grow up looking through magazines and seeing these types of ads. I wouldn't want her to ever think that she needs to drink to be sexy or that drinking makes you more attractive to others. This ad definitely sends those stereotypical messages to the consumer. As far as race, it's difficult to distinguish what race this woman is from the ad; I don't think race has much to do with this ad in particular. I think the overall message it's sending is the distinguishing factor; sex sells. 

     Possible consequences from this message include young women having false beliefs; that they need to drink to be happy, sexy and adventurous or that drinking liquor will make you more attractive to others. This can be harmful to a young girls development (especially when she starts to explore the world and starts to drink). It also gives men a false reality; when women drink they don't start licking their lips and becoming more sexy and promiscuous. Nobody should be led to believe that alcohol makes you less considerate of your self-worth. I also think it's unfair that you mostly see women in alcohol advertisements; why are women always the center of sexual attention? You don't see ads with a male mouth like this? Do they create ads like this to promote sexual dominance over women? I do not believe this ad to be socially responsible; they don't know where it can pop up, who's looking at it and what it's leading people to believe. I realize everyone is their own person and forms their own judgements and ideas but this definitely helps to form them (even if subconsciously). 

     I can't help but think of when Kress and van Leeuwin talk about interactie participants and represented participants; "there are two types of participant involved in every semiotic act, interactive participants and represented participants. The former are the participants in the act of communication – the participants who speak and listen or write and read, make images or view them, whereas the latter are the participants who constitute the subject matter of the communication; that is the people, places and things (including abstract things) represented in and by the speech or writing or image, the participants about whom or which we are speaking or writing or producing images” (p. 48). As the interactive participant I see this advertisement through my eyes; I use my own understanding of the world and my individual background to determine what it means. 

Kress, G., & Van leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading Images: The Grammer Of Visual Design (2nd ed., p.   312). Routledge.