A Comparison of Two Advertisements - FCUK and Giorgio Beverly Hills

Advertising is a tool used by businesses to inform us about their products and to persuade us to buy them. Advertisements are all around us: on billboards, in magazines, in newspapers, on the Internet, on airplanes, in shop windows, on posters and banners, on leaflets and so on. Advertisements attempt to persuade the subconscious that our lives would be improved if we bought the product on offer. Advertisements affect our lives because we see a product that we want and love so we buy it and when a new and better product comes along we push the old product to the back of the cupboard or even throw it away; this encourages us to waste money and is bad for our environment.

The first advertisement I will be looking at is selling FCUK deodorizing spray, eau de toilette no 1, body wash and soothing after shave balm. The second is for another perfume 'So You' by Giorgio Beverly Hills. I found both of these advertisements in an issue of UK Fashion magazine.

The FCUK advertisement uses amusing word play, at first glance it looks like 'FUCK'. The use of what appears to be a swear word has the effect of grabbing the readers' attention. This word play is used effectively to get the message across that the product is simple and quick to use 'FCUK grooming', this advertisement is aimed at men who want to smell and look good without spending too much time in the bathroom. The use of such potentially inflammatory word play also gets the message across that this product is suited to a fun-loving, laid back kind of man, the kind of man who wouldn't be offended by such language. 'Grooming' is something that we associate with women, this advertisement gives the impression that this is a very masculine product.

The impression I got from my second advert was that the product is aimed at women who are bright, fun and reading for a party. The women featured in the advert are smiling and dressed in brightly coloured clothes, these bright colours are what attracted me to this advertisement. Bright colours are often used in advertisements to catch the eye of potential customers.

I found both advertisements in UK Fashion magazine, a lifestyle magazine aimed at professional women in the twenty five to forty age bracket.

The 'So you' advertisement asks the rhetorical question 'So you… so why not?’ this invites the reader to assume that the perfume really is suited to them, so there's no reason at all not to buy it.

The FCUK advert does not invite such dialogue with its target audience, the product is portrayed as being simple and so the advertisement contains the simple statement 'FCUK grooming'. The message of the advertisement is presented as being something ...

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I found both advertisements in UK Fashion magazine, a lifestyle magazine aimed at professional women in the twenty five to forty age bracket.

The 'So you' advertisement doesn't give away much in terms of what the fragrance actually smells like, but it does give an impression of the fragrance of being fruity and lively, this impression is given by the use of brightly coloured, eye-catching images, most noticeably the orange and white striped zebra.

The FCUK advertisement gives away little information about the product, other than to say briefly where it's available. The fact that it is available 'exclusively' at only certain shops aims the make the reader believe that they are buying something special, something that's not available to just anyone, that buying into the image of this product would make them something special. The advertisement also displays a web address. The website may offer more information about the product, but more importantly it gives the product a contemporary feel, this is a modern, forward thinking company which is comfortable with technology.

FCUK brings your attention to the plain black background, broken up only by a small picture of the range in the middle of the page, this again shows us that this is a simple to use, no fuss product. The writing on the advertisement is white, in complete contrast to this black background, this emphasizes the clean effect of the image, which is very appropriate to what the product offers.

The 'so you' advertisement uses bright colours to attract attention. The bright orange zebra is unusual, the zebra being brighter than other zebra may indicate the perfume itself is better than others, it's a perfume like any other, but also distinctive.

The keywords in the 'So you' advert consist of the slogan 'So you…so why not?' because it tries to tell you that you can go out, have a good time and try something new, it appeals to girls who want to have fun and to take risks.

The slogan in the FCUK advertisement, 'FCUK grooming', again emphasizes the simplicity of the product.

The characters in the 'So you' advert have been chosen possibly to show that any woman of any ethnic background can be very glamorous. Of the three women featured, two are white with long, glamorous blonde hair and the other is black with a very large Afro hairstyle. These women are all slim and glamorous, with perfectly styled hair and skimpy, revealing, brightly coloured clothes. They invite women of any ethnic background to attempt to obtain their image of glamour and happiness. One of the women is playing the harp, another is admiring herself in a hand mirror and the other is sat posing on the back of an orange and white striped zebra. Their surroundings are old fashioned and sumptuous, with dark polished floors and ornate pillars but modernized by sixties-style orange coloured walls and art-deco mirrors. The sixties are seen as a time of experimentation and fun which fits in well with the image of the product, the company is trying to persuade women that if they experiment with this product, they can let go, be themselves and have fun. The older fashioned polished floor gives the scene a more classic feel.

In the 'So you' advertisement, the predominant colour is orange, this was probably chosen because it is such a bright, eye catching colour.

In the 'FCUK' advertisement, the only two colours featured are black and white. As mentioned earlier, this makes the image striking and attention grabbing as well as adding simplicity to the image of the product.

The layout of the 'So you' advertisement is effective because it's big and takes up the entire page, so it would be difficult to ignore it. The major image is in the centre of the page, with a small picture of the perfume bottle and its box underneath, to make sure that customers know what they are looking for. The rhetorical question 'So you… so why not?' is featured underneath the main image, so that the image can take its effect on the customer before the customer is invited to answer the question. The name of the company who makes the perfume is shown at the top of the advert and at the bottom of the advert, this provides some advertisement for other products from the same company. We see the name of the company at the top as an introduction to the advert, we then experience the impact of the images shown here before being reminded again of the company's name. `

On the FCUK advert, the pictures of the product and the slogan are centered on the page, so they're easy to see. The advert gets its message across as briefly and simply as possible, giving away only the essential information and using small, fuss free lettering.

Company names are carefully selected to give them the right image to appeal to their target audience. 'So you' is produced by 'Giorgio Beverley Hills', the Beverley Hills area is associated world wide with wealth, fame, beauty and glamour. By buying their products, the customer is trying to buy in to this image and to come closer to having a life style like those people who live in Beverley Hills.

Both advertisements fit in with the image of the magazine that I chose them from. UK Fashion is a lifestyle magazine aimed at professional women in perhaps their 20s, 30s and 40s. This group tends to have a large disposable income as well as being concerned by their looks, careers, social lives and love lives, advertisers frequently target them. The target audience of this magazine raises the question of why FCUK chose to place an advertisement for a range of men's products in this magazine. Advertising in national magazines is extremely expensive, so advertisers must always have strong reasons for choosing to feature their products in particular publications. I can only assume that this advertisement is intended to persuade women to buy these products for their partners and husbands. Many men still consider grooming to be for women and so wouldn't go out and buy these products for themselves, by targeting their wives and partners in this way, the company is cleverly selling their products to men who still have this attitude. Women definitely want their men to look good and smell good but know that many of them don't want to spend hours grooming themselves so this product will appeal to women for this reason.

The 'So you' advert would definitely appeal to the target audience of this magazine. Women with careers and families do still want some old fashioned glamour in their lives and would be tempted to buy this product as a way of achieving it.

Both advertisements appeal to me and make me want to go out and buy them either for myself or as a present for a friend or a family member. They both come across as being exciting and glamorous, but in very different ways.