McDonalds Advertising Analysis Paper

Evan Andrew

JAMS 214

Professor Popp

3/9/13

Advertising Analysis Paper

Part A

For group A, I chose to take a closer look at the Sharper Image ad. Out of the three ads that were given, this one stood out to me the most because from class Wednesday talking about Erving Goffman's ideas of femininity and power in advertising. Through Goffman's principles, this ad embodies almost everything that we talked about in class.

For the first question, I studied the ad and looked at the question again and found that I would have no trouble providing two examples. Everything in the Sharper Image screamed Goffman's ideas of femininity in advertising.

The first example I saw is the feminine touch. This woman delicately touches the headphones that she is wearing. She shows no authority in her handling of the headphones, instead lightly touching it which according to Goffman shows no power. That is something that the marketing team at Sharper Image probably wanted and that, while not saying that the ad itself was successful, they did play off the need for authority for this women.

The second thing I saw in this ad was the gaze that the woman had. Her eyes didn't connect with the camera and she looks like she is in a daydream, clearly out of touch with what could be going on around her. She is lost in her own little world, and with Goffman, that would indicate her need to rely on someone else to take care of her.

The third thing that I saw was her overall posture. She is slouched on the chair in a very childish pose. Most adults sit up straight in a chair while the pose that she strikes seems childish to me. Another element of her body position is the bend in her knees. This implies that she is off guard, which would go with the theme of gazing off into space.

There are so many elements in this ad that show vulnerability in this woman. Clearly this woman shows no power in this ad. While Sharper Image doesn't put a man in the ad itself, it clearly indicates that this woman needs a man to make decisions for her and take care of her.

Sharper Image is an upscale, luxury brand. Their products say, 'sleek, cool, sexy, elegant, sharp.' The woman in the ad embodies what Sharper Image is selling, and she fits the bill of who Sharper Image is trying to sell to. Sharper Image adds style and "cool" to simple products sold at stores all around the country. Everything about this ad screams that. The women herself seems very cool, and add in her surroundings and this add and everything that it says about the social power play from Goffman's concepts. With this woman portraying herself as vulnerable and in need of someone to take care of her, I think this fits with what Sharper Image might be going for. Technology seems to be a market dominated heavily by men, and this ad plays off of a man's perceived desire to help this woman with all of her technological needs through Sharper Image.

I think to make this ad more symmetrical, there are a few minor changes that could be made to this woman that would change the whole way Goffman and others would perceive her in this ad. First, I think that if she were looking at the camera, that would make a big difference. In some of the ads that you showed us in class, we saw that in most of them with men in it, they were looking at the camera, which demonstrates power, something that this woman lacks. Also, by looking in the camera would get rid of her gazing off into nothing which would take away another sense of vulnerability for her. Another thing would be grabbing her headphones with a purpose. Something as small as this little detail would show a strong sense of purpose that she currently lacks.

Part B

For part B, I chose to write about the McDonald's advertisement because that