United Colors of Benetton is a fashion apparel brand. But the ad above does not really sell any article of clothing. Where are the shirts or sweaters? Jackets, blouses, or dresses? There aren't even hats or accessories to advertise. Nothing is accompanying the green blanket they are wrapped in. There are no captions or explanations to what is going on, other than the United Colors of Benetton logo. It seems like they are just trying to nail it in the audience's head that the company is about being worldly and cross-cultural, since their advertisements are usually made up of models of different races and cultural backgrounds. Check out this other ad of theirs.
Once again, no actual articles of clothing are displayed to be advertised. UCB is using emotions to appeal to as many consumers as possible. As discussed in class, using people of different races portray an image of being "worldly" and exquisite, so these UCB ads are a great example illustrating that practice. Seeing an ad of a white, black, and yellow person next to each other definitely grabs the attention due to their blatant physical differences. The white, black, and yellow person's hearts in a row illustrate that we are all no different in the inside. We empathize and find it good to be diverse, so we tend to trust the company, then ultimately buy their products. This is of course an over-simplification, but the point is, advertisements target people's emotions. A fashion apparel company does not necessarily need to display their clothing collection to truly advertise themselves. It is all about thinking outside the box, and appealing to the majority of the audience right?
But as much as we are advancing towards a society without racism and fear, there are still so much tension, anger, and hatred towards different races. If you look at the first advertisement again, you can notice that none of the people are smiling or expressing any kind of emotion. Yes there are three different races together wrapped in a cozy blanket, but why are they not happy? This may be a stretch, but maybe the ad is reflecting our current society's state. Yes, it appears as if we are getting more accepting and open-minded, but at the same time, are we truly breaking down the walls and racist attitudes?
Exactly. Benetton is not selling clothes, they are selling a kind of "consciousness" that they have and say you should also have. The ads are not very subtle and direct you, exactly, to how you should feel about them as a company and as a brand.
ReplyDelete