The Axe Effect

The Axe Effect

            People pass by hundreds of advertisements every single day. They are created by the advertisers and are presented on many platforms in order to bring a message to the consumers. Cognitive or not, the impressions and messages of such advertisements intrude into the brain and get processed as if those messages created by the advertisers are part of people's innate ideas, "since visual communication better suits more primal levels of the brain" (73). The advertisers exploit this human nature to scan his surroundings and temporarily store up the images, create eye-catching and vivid advertisements, scatter them around the world in order to spontaneously establish a domino effect process, in which "attention is caught, communication occurs between producers and consumers, and sales result" (87). Although most people understand this fact that advertisements are created to sell products, people still fall for them. So how do the advertisers accomplish this? Apparently, American businesses "spend a total of fifty billion dollars annually on these messages" (87) in order to research consumers' minds and publish well thought advertisements consisting of many important elements such as colors, models, settings, texts, and displays of products. Scent Changes Sight, an AXE deodorant advertisement, which can be found in many different magazines, comprehend many advanced techniques with which the consumers' drives for its products to increase. This ad may seem like it is simple and superficial, but by carefully analyzing it, its deep and well-knit messages can be interpreted.

            Its colors and contrast are purposely used in such a way to implement the sensational impression into its consumers' brain. This ad is expressed in an excessive contrast of dark and light. First off, the deodorant is very bright; not its can, but the deodorant itself. It is acting as a shroud of light that brightens up the surrounding area. Away from the deodorant, nothing much in detail cannot really be observed since such areas darkened completely. Also, the skin color of the model is pale while he has a brunette hair. These create a great contrast between the attractive features of the model and the dark surroundings which lures the eyes of the consumers to the main point of focus in this ad, which is the model's chest area. In this ad, however, not just the contrast of light and dark is well organized, but also the colors are strategically picked in order to derive the most effect out of them. The colors of items and props used in this ad follows a rule of being naval. The lockers in the background is navy blue and the towel that the model is wrapping around his waist is light-blue. The color, blue, is said to provide a peaceful, calm, and sedulous yet mysterious impressions. This illustrates how the advertisers are trying to implement the ideas that to be attractive, like the model in the advertisement, one must acquire such qualities listed above and that this deodorant is worth purchasing for to be as attractive as the model. On top of that, the color blue makes people to feel the time to be slowed down and concentrated. By understanding the usage of the naval colors in the ad and its effects on human impressions, it can be easily assumed that the advertisers' intentions were to make the consumers dazzled in front of this ad and closely observe it for more and more desire to emerge.

            The model featured in this ad is an attractive, young, and Caucasian male who expresses the idea that the deodorant showcased in this ad made him look as so. It can be inferred by observing the background that he is not exclusively tall which provides a relief to one that the model is actually not an illusion but a figure that is substantial. He stands still half naked with his chin up and his hair well fixed, which is intended to express masculinity. With the Computers Graphics technology, the advertisers decided to edit in a way so that the attractive model gets revealed from his previous obese figure after spraying himself with the deodorant. In a process of revealing himself with the deodorant, he loses his body hair, builds muscle, and gains freshness. His skin is lit up in a way that the obese figure provides a dim and torpid impression while the attractive figure provides a blight and energetic impression. His refreshed and satisfied facial expression is also an essence that contributes to making this advertisement such a successful one. Such accomplished expression exclusively provides an impression that his burden was relieved while also establishing a point that his old figure is impure and that his new figure is the perfect one which is also virtuous and commendable. With the use of this model in a way represented on this ad, it can be understood that its theme is that by the usage of this deodorant, the figure featured on this ad was and is able to get lid of his hideous and neglecting body features to instantaneously gain body features which is commonly regarded as attractive and desirable.

            The advertisers selected the school locker room as the ads' effective setting to target teenagers who attend school. By the fact that model is standing in front of the lockers, it is most intelligible to state that the model have just finished taken a shower after he exercised and is spraying himself with the deodorant to refresh his scent. This is an ordinary scene or a portrait that can be seen at any school. However, that is what the advertisers intended in creating. This actually acts as a tool of camouflage to conceal plentiful amount of ad's unrealistic fabrications that exist in it. The ordinary setting of this ad misleads the consumers to think that, although not everything occurring in this ad is true, maybe the deodorant might have some effect in making a person more attractive. Such misleads can be difficult to identify in most cases, but at the same time, they act as a lubricant to assist the messages artificially created by the advertisers to swiftly dissolve into the consumers' brain.

            Only phrase appearing in this ad is "THE AXE EFFECT." However, because it is compressed and concise, the phrase gets drilled into the consumers' memories. Out of these words, the word "EFFECT" carries the most superb image to the consumers. First, it embeds and idea that the usage of this product will doubtlessly bring a positive change to one. The scent of the deodorant is not the element that is changing how attractive the model becomes; the element is the model's outlook. The combination of the deceiving image and the misleading term establishes concrete but illusionary image into the consumers' minds. Also, The phrase is expressed in adamant and confident font which also emphasizes masculinity. The color of the words are white and since the phrase is placed at the darkest section in the ad, the phrase projects toward the consumers' eyes. Such prominent factors, which are relatively hard to perceive, are what makes this simple phrase dominant and persuasive.

            The product, the AXE deodorant, is adeptly placed at the definite center of the frame. It is held by the model but away from his body at the center of the frame in order to lucidly highlight the product. It is also placed exactly at the height of the model's chest, where the consumers will look at most likely, to lure the eyes of the consumers toward the product. Additionally, the product itself has a dark aura shooting out its nebulous but vivid content, which attracts the consumers' eyes in looking there. The advertisers purposely positioned every aspects of the colors and the objects where they are to call for the customers' attentions to that product.

            Scent Changes Sight, an AXE deodorant advertisement, is targeted exclusively for the products to be purchased by teenage male students. They are usually the ones who undergo a massive change of physical features throughout their growth period. Most will not be able to tolerate every body features and thus acquire the desire to change or to improve. The advertisers of this ad exploit this innate human quality in order to sell their products. The message that this deodorant will improve the consumers' outlook and attractiveness expressed by this ad can easily be understood as contradiction when it is described in text, but since the ad is visual and observed only for a brief period, such message will reach the core of the consumers' brain but will be concealed within the advertisement itself. Every factor of the Fowles' fifteen basic appeals can be found in this advertisement. The innovative techniques researched and established by the advertisers will be more stealthy than the ones people see now in the future and, thus it is important for the consumers to understand the effects of the advertisements in not only raising the desire to purchase an item but also forming their thoughts and ideas into artificial ones.

Response

            Axe deodorant is a product I use every day. From previous studies about advertisement, I knew that AXE ads contained many inclined sexual views. However, I did not quite know exactly how. It was just a blob of image I had inside my head. However, as I did some research and analyzed it on my own, the images became more lucid. The techniques including color, posture, body image, etc. appeared in the ad and although some were obvious, some were hard to determine. Without deep analysis I could not have reached deep enough in order to configure them.

            I think I did well on the introduction. I was able to provide an overview of my essay to the readers very clearly. However, I did not do well sentence structure wise. Although I think my logics and back up explanations were good, the essay itself did not flow as I wanted it to be. It was staggered. I need to work on my sentence structures and vocabulary usage in the future.