"Class" Advertisements

The first ad I've found is for a Bendate & Co. Geneve diamond studded wristwatch in W magazine. The image is of a "beautiful," skinny, blond woman giving the viewer the "hush" sign. Her finger is held up to her lip with a large image of the watch beneath the woman. The headline reads, "Very famous amongst the very few" and in the bottom right hand corner reads the name of where one could purchase the watch, Saks Fifth Avenue. The second ad I found in Spin magazine and is selling Anchor Blue clothing. The main image is one of a young, attractive man dressed in Anchor blue jeans and t-shirt, standing in front of a young, attractive woman in an Anchor Blue (I'm getting revenue for mentioning their name so much in this blog!) sun-dress and boots. They are surrounded by a hip collage of city buildings, spray-paint cans, palm trees, helicopters, bright yellow sports cars, a boom-box, brass knuckles, a watermelon and a field of flowers...whew! The headline reads, "Welcome to La La Land." And a list of states where Anchor Blue stores can be found, including California, Colorado, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Texas (not hotbeds of high couture), lies discretely in the bottom left hand corner of the ad. 

Right away I see the opposition present in the ideas the headlines are invoking. The one for the diamond watch says, "Hey, there's only so many people that can afford one of these bad boys and are you one of them? Don't you want to be? Look at this hot blond you could nail if you were deemed worthy enough to wear our exclusive watch." And the other headline for the clothes is saying, "Yeah, people in LA might be in "La La Land" but we're cool as hell and look at all the cool stuff that we get to play with and we look bad as fuck doing it, for christ sake, she's wearing cowboy boots and the headlines written in a badass tattoo font on a scroll, man!"

Both ads seem like they're trying to make certain groups or "classes", the few wealthiest socialites vs. the young, hip and urban LAians, appealing to the viewer and portray their product as the key to join the fun of being rich enough to bang hot blonds or jamming out in LA. with the youth underground. The watch ad makes no qualms about the fact that only a few wealthy souls will be able to actually afford their product. The layout of the ad is "classic" with a black and white image and sleek design. 

On the other hand, the clothing ad shows two hip (the man's Hispanic) youngsters standing in a funky and crazy layout with a head line that spunkily makes light of themselves as they stare off into space. These points tell me that this ad is geared toward the younger generation and lower class, more interested in having fun and breaking the rules and you're invited, just put on this Anchor Blue windbreaker.