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It seems like everywhere you turn these days there is some beer or hard alcohol advertisement showing up in magazines or on television carrying promises of success and eternal happiness if you use their product. While flipping through several magazines I came upon a series of ads for Bacardi Rum. In the ads a bunch of happy go lucky twenty somethings are shown partying enjoying various drinks in a club environment. In each ad there is a catchy little slogan tailored especially for the situation running across the bottom of the page such as: Cubicles by day. Bacardi by night, Trading floor by day.
Bacardi by night. , and Buttoned up by day. Bacardi by night. While many might dismiss these ads as cute and hip there is much more influence resting behind the words and pictures that cover the page. By deconstructing, or looking at all the pieces that make up the ad, the messages and marketing techniques that are used in selling the product come to the surface. This technique is is modeled after the work of Susan Douglas whose essay Narcissism and Liberation tore apart and reveled the selling strategies of the cosmetics industry. Here, the cultural myth that drinking is cool is played upon.
In this case the most obvious tactic used it the cultural expectations of the generation X business people and how they are supposed to lead two very different lifestyles. During the day at work they are expected to be professional and task orientated but when the clock strikes five they are supposed to rip off their clothes and rush to a bar where they can be up all night getting drunk. How in the world would people be able to hold down steady jobs if they are up all night drinking? Doesnt anyone get hung over or sick? Apparently not because it is assumed that these hipsters will be perfectly fine with putting back on the business suit the next morning and getting back to the grind. There is not one person I know who lives the routine as suggested by the ad.
The Happy Ending Approach, as i have coined, says that if you use a certain product you will be able to wipe away all your fears and problems just like magic and wind up happily ever after. Here, it suggest that after you have suffered through eight horrendous hours of work you need to go out and get bloody drunk to forget about all the stress and problems that plague you all day long. This approach can also apply to other product advertisements such as cigarettes where business people are shown enjoying a cigarette after a long day of work. Additionally, what kind of values is this teaching younger generations about work? According to these ads, work is something dreadful where people stare at the clock all day waiting to get the hell out of there and do something fun. These ads are a breeding ground for future alcoholics of America.
Imagine some young kid looking at this with all the people having fun, dancing and laughing who also all have drinks in there hands. From a young age children can establish a connection between socialization and alcohol. For an added dose of irony, the captions mention cubicles and trading floors are but just the opposite is being shown with crowds and a dance floor where everybody is having the time of their lives. The suggested advertising technique in this situation relates closely to the Building Construction approach identified in Douglas in her essay. In this approach something very basic and simple is built up to a level where it represents something that will have a dramatic effect on your life. What is essentially silly putty for the face is built up to be a revolutionary new product called Line Fill that conceals the wrinkles on face and reestablishes your character to help you live a better life.
Here in this situation through the Happy Ending Approach, alcohol is given qualities that far exceed that of a colored liquid. In the ads, the actual bottle of rum is shown in a little picture in the bottom corner of the page. One could draw the conclusion that the advertisers are not trying to sell the actual product but the effects of using it. Through the advertising techniques happiness, comfort, and social status are all seen as possible outcomes of drinking. This series of ads, through the advertising techniques, is targeted towards men in their twenties to thirties with college educations working white collar type jobs.
All three examples from the deconstruction came from primarily men's themed magazines such as Men's Health and Details. However, many different types of people have access to these publications. Details, for example, is notorious for having scantly clad women on the cover of the magazine. This marketing technique draws in men of all ages to their pages. You may have to be twenty one to drink but there is certainly no age restrictions for reading this magazine.
For teens and those others who are still legal not old enough to drink it may promote experimentation and limited thought about the negative effects that alcohol can have on a person. It is clear that these and other alcohol ads are having a part in corrupting the nations youth by given them false ideas about the way the world works. The methods that alcohol companies are using to sell their products have changed dramatically over time. Gone are the days when a product can simply sell its self.
In advertising from prior decades the main focus was on the product it self not on the effect that it would have on your life. Marketing strategies have gone from general to focused as many new and specialized products have come on to the market. Today there are more brands of products than ever before and each has a certain niche that it is aimed to opposed to days past where there might have been only a handful of companies competing with Bacardi. Increasingly through the decades, competition has risen forcing companies to try new strategies to attract customers.
Much of this has been unregulated by the government until recently where bans are being placed on advertising in conjunction with sports teams and and in the stadiums that they play in. Today now more that ever, advertisers are are using more resources, techniques, and money in order to sell a product. According to the Center for Media Studies alcohol advertisers devote over seven hundred million dollars a year to promotion of their products. Increasingly, alcohol companies are launching massive web sites that promote the good times more than promoting the actual product.
When at the Bacardi web site there was a disclaimer that that material contained with in the web page should only be viewed by persons over the age of twenty one. There was no age verification system so someone like myself who is only eighteen years old could have full access to the site. What was even more interesting was that the material contained at the web site did not differ dramatically from the material being published in magazines. In both cases there were pictures of people drinking and socializing along with the stupid little slogans for the product.
Essentially, Bacardi is admitting that the material it presents about its product is not appropriate for any one under the legal drinking age yet the same material is being published in magazines that everybody, regardless of age, has full access to. As a whole the alcohol industry continues to target children even today. Methods such as use of cartoon characters, youth slang language, branded merchandise, and contests all are a common practice of the alcohol industry. Industry giant Anheuser-Busch advertised on MTV for over ten years before it voluntarily pulled its ads from the channel. Part of the problem is that there are few restrictions placed on the industry as a whole. Most of the alcohol manufactures have voluntary codes on advertising practices but they remain weakly worded and serve only as a publicity stunt.
The Center for Science in the Public Interests Alcohol Policies Project has been compiling information such as this for years and is urging Congress for stricter monitoring of alcohol advertising. Meanwhile groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving and The American Advertising Federation are proposing their own codes for alcohol advertising that do not allow for targeting anyone under the legal drinking age. Over time the alcohol industry has gained much power and force in the country but is still greatly under regulated. However, by deconstructing advertisements we can become more aware of the influence that they have on our daily lives and recognize the methods that are used to sell these product. In addition consumers will become less likely to fall for he values and beliefs that are trying to be sold to us. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Legal Drinking Age Happy Ending
