Polo Black Rhetoric

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The Power of Black During any given day people see many different advertisements for products. Some advertisements are powerful and attention grabbing. Others are subtle and make lasting impressions. Yet what makes each advertisement effective can vary greatly depending on the audience that is targeted. Certain companies advertise heavily to different demographics to drive sales for their products. Polo Black by Ralph Lauren, a men’s cologne, has advertisements that do a very good job at influencing buyers with simple designs. The design of one specific Polo Black advertisement however stands above all others. It states through its use of strong advertising strategies that men who wear the cologne will be successful and attractive. This advertisement…show more content…
This advertisement is actually targeted much more accurately to a specific demographic of men. As stated in the article “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals,” advertisements use images to cause “subrational impulses and desires” in the targeted audience (Fowles). This means that the targeted person will without knowing it, have a desire for the advertised product because it fulfills a basic need that they crave. Once the person viewing the advertisement makes that connection, even if they do not realize that they have made it, they now want the product (Fowles). Using these facts we can make more than just an educated guess on who the target audience of this advertisement is. Both the image of the male model and the words below the bottle of cologne “The Men’s Fragrance” determine that the target audience is of the male gender. At the same time the male model wearing a black suit and the sleek clean font of the letters target men who appreciate formality and attractiveness. On top of this, the male model looking at the camera invokes the person looking at the advertisement with the feeling that he is looking at…show more content…
The order of material in advertisements is that “the first is the appeal to deep-running drives in the minds of consumers. The second is information regarding the good” (Fowles). What Fowles is describing here is how the initial appeal to the target audience’s deeply laying desires hooks them on the product. Then after the target is hooked the information specially pertaining to the product is processed. This is a very effective way that advertisements appeal to the target audience. In addition to basic order principals that are used in advertising, other factors are just as key to the appeal of the advertisement. The male model in the advertisement appeals strongly to a sense of affiliation. Men viewing this ad see the male model looking at the camera and they want to be associated with him. Fowles states in his article that “All sorts of goods and services are sold by linking them to our unfulfilled desires to be in good company” (Fowles). The male model’s attractiveness, his clothing, and his demeanor all appeal to the targeted audience and suggest that he would be someone to associate

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