Thoughts on ad

            “Sex sells”, is an expression we have all heard at one time or another in our life.  What started out as a simple observation has now indeed become the golden rule for ad executives everywhere.  Another expression we are all aware of is “truth in advertising”, what sounds like an ethical term for advertising agencies is actually a law.  The law states that a company cannot lie to the public about their product or make promises their product cannot keep.  One huge loop hole in this law however is the power of suggestion.  Welcome to the golden age of sexually suggestive advertising.  Ever where you look you can see ads objectifying men and women alike, making them out to be nothing more than sexual objects or for lack of a better word whores.  Guess has used this style of advertisement as good if not better than any other company in the world to reach their target demographic of rich white young teen girls.

In one specific ad Paris Hilton is sitting in a restaurant wearing a pink choker a thin denim jacket covering a pink bikini top.  She holding one end of a pencil in her hand and the other end in her mouth; her head slightly turned to the side with a look of come and get it in her eyes.  On the table in front of her sits a glass of pink lemonade, a notebook and in her arm she is cradling a dog.  The dog is wearing a short sleeve button up shirt with an eggs and bacon design; on his front paws he is wearing yellow sneakers.  That is what is technically going on in ad, but there is a hidden suggestion in the ad.  The suggestion being wear Guess clothing and release you inhibitions like just like Paris.  Given her fame and life style it is safe to assume who Guess is targeting with these ads. 

Young rich teenage girls across the county seem to look up to Paris as a role model in spite of her less than stellar moral fiber.  Miss. Hilton has had more than her share of bad publicity.  We are all aware of her infamous sex tape “One night in Paris”, but even so she is still looked up to by teens all around the country, even other young celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyrus have followed in her footsteps because she embodies the spirit of the Me Generation.   As such Guess’s ad is not objectifying Paris; it is using the persona people already have of her and using that to sell their clothes.  Even though Guess is not objectifying Miss. Hilton is this ad they are Objectifying young women.

In this Me Generation we as a whole find ourselves in different but similar circumstances than the generation before us.  We are trying to free ourselves of the majority way of thinking.   We are trying to determine what is best for us, what is cool, and what is right.  We are shooting for individuality but falling well short.  We think that we are your own person and we decide how we should live our life but unfortunately it is not the case.  We are pushing so hard to get away from our parents views on life that we are not taking the time to discover are own we are just being manipulated by the media.   A perfect example of this is advertisements weather it is on T.V or billboards.  I hated to admit this to myself then I took out my iphone and couldn’t deny it anymore the media plays a big factor in to what we think is cool.  It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just material things we could buy that they were pushing on us but it’s not.  They are telling us what is and what isn’t sexy.  This is not as big of a deal to a guy, but for a woman it can be deadly.  Magazines, television, radio and even posters are telling our young women there not sexy or they are not good enough.  They are promoting women like Paris Hilton as being sex and cool.  We see this every day and we buy in to it.  You would never see me in an ad for anything except maybe a before picture in a Jenny Craig ad.  Because I’m not good enough, I’m too old and too fat, but according to Banana Republic if I wear one of their shirts women will want me.  And that’s what Guess is doing with this ad they are telling young women to wear there cloths and men will see you as they do Paris.