My
first advert is for William’s shaving cream from the 1920s. It depicts a
picture of two men and two women playing cards together. The men are
in tuxedos and seem suave & sophisticated. The men are wearing tuxedos to show that they are cultured & well-off. This helps promote the
shaving cream as the cream will apparently make you have money, power and
intelligence. They have obviously used William’s shaving cream as
they do not appear to have any hair on their faces. They are both looking at
the women, each man at a different one which gives an air of romance. They are
represented as clean cut, important and happy men who are enjoying an evening
with their girlfriends or wives. The group are playing cards, which
implies they are cultured and have money & power. The men are an idealised
representation of a 1920s upper class man.
The
card game symbolizes these men’s intelligence and wealth as cards is usually
associated with gambling and with people of a slightly higher intelligence. The
women look like they are chatting to each other as opposed to the men who are
staring intently at them. There is a cigarette dish on the table, with a
cigarette in it, this is because the advert was made and printed before people
knew of the dangers of cigarettes and it was very cool to smoke. This shows
that these men are being represented as an ideal man of the era, with a woman
by his side, a smart tuxedo, sophisticated, and a smooth fine face. It is
heavily implying that he has become that man because of he uses William’s
shaving cream to shave his face.
The
slogan ‘your strong suit – a face that fits’ is a pun on the fact that the
group is playing a card game, and that the men with clean cut faces will get
the women because of how well they have groomed their faces using William’s
shaving cream. This is catchy and will stick your head for a while afterwards.
It helps sell the idea that you will be more intelligent if you use this
shaving cream because of the fact it is a joke which needs a certain
intelligence to understand it. This
means the slogan will help promote and sell the fragrance. The bottle takes up
a quarter of the page which is very good use of product placement and, again
helps to sell the shaving cream.
This
advert for William’s shaving cream is very different from my other two adverts
as these men are sophisticated and classy and the man in my second advert is
very care free and loose. The men are
wearing tuxedos with bow ties in my first advert however the man in the second
advert is in a suit and smart shoes, however he does not have a tie and his top
button is undone. These are very different attitudes to the way the men dress
in the different periods.
