ZU Shoes: December 3rd, 2008
The advertisement is targeting young adult women. Most likely these women are middle class women in Australia, given that the prices of the brand are fairly reasonable before the company went under in 2015. The cultural knowledge of the audience would be urban and suburban heterosexual culture given the demographic of the models in the advertisement.
The advertisement on the left is of one woman in high heels and short silver clothes walking confidently on pavement away from a city with a clear blue sky in the backdrop with a line of well muscled shirtless white men in jeans behind her. The advertisement on a right is a mirror of the advertisement on the left, with the exception of the woman having orange hair, a short yellow dress with long sleeves, and yellow heels.The woman on the right is also walking on grass in the country with a similar line of shirtless white men behind her and reaching towards the woman. Both women are ignoring or oblivious to the pile of men behind them.
Though the object being advertised is shoe, the focus of the image is to communicate a feeling of confidence and desirability that can be achieved by wearing these brand of shoes. The trail of men are physical manifestations of the phrase “men throwing themselves at your feet” though that phrase usually has the genders reversed. The men are made helpless in their pursuit of lust and desire for these women because of their beauty or their superiority in class or wealth indicated by the women being nicely and fully clothed where the men are not.
The deadly sin being used as a persuasive tool here is lust. This is shown by the men on the ground leaning up towards and reaching towards the woman.The angle they are placed at also makes it look like the men are looking up under the dresses of the women. The image plays on the stereotype that women snub men they think are not good enough for them, which is supported by the woman on the right tilting her head up. The femininity of the women is emphasized by the hand on each of their hips which would draw attention to the sway of their hips while walking. The state of undress by the men is supposed to appeal to the lust of heterosexual women. I feel like the advertisement also reflects an aspect of representation of different races in Australian media but I do not know enough about the interaction of race and the media in Australia beyond acknowledging it is a former colony that still has issues in negotiating with indigenous populations, like America.
I like your choice of advertisement. Very odd in my opinion. I liked your analysis as well. You discussed both the deadly sin of lust and gender roles. I hadn't thought of the men looking up her dress until you mentioned it. I also thought it was thoughtful that you identified the audience as heterosexuals to take into account that this ad doesn't represent other sexualities that exist. I enjoyed reading your post!
ReplyDeleteI thought this advertisement really portrayed the sin of lust like you said because the men in the picture looked desperate for the woman, even showing one trying to reach out and touch her. I like how you identified that this ad portrays the opposite of what is usually said to men if they look good ("women will be throwing themselves that their feet"). This ad shows men doing what they want women to be doing to them. The men look like the week ones and women the all powerful. Great post and interesting choice of advertisement!
ReplyDelete