Aren’t ads supposed to get you’re attention by new and clever means? Aren’t they supposed to speak to you on literal and subliminal levels? Well that’s exactly what one of the new ads for Newport Cigarettes does. The ad shows ten people made up of five women and five men posing together in a huddle, dressed down in clothing suitable for playing softball. All of the people in the photo are attractive, young and full of spirit and energy. This ad is very coercive because it contains the basic appeals of affiliation, aggression and the need for escape. (Maybe even aesthetic sensation).
The apparent excitement of the faces of the people in the ad instantly grabs the reader’s attention. A group of ten people are facing the camera in a huddled fashion each person showing a bright perfect smile. Dressed in softball clothing, the huddle looks like they could be celebrating a game they recently won. Upon closer inspection, the reader finds that all of the men and women are young, fit and attractive. The age bracket looks to be 25-35 years of age. After seeing the picture, the reader’s eye next moves to the bold wording at the bottom of the page reads “Newport Pleasure!” This is when the reader actually finds out what the ad is all about. Tracing the eye back up to the picture, the reader notices that three of the ten people are holding cigarettes. The combination of the smiles and the word “Pleasure” instantly brings good times and camaraderie to mind. Though everything seems to be peachy keen in the ad, there is much more under the face value to consider.
The purpose of the Newport ad is to sell cigarettes. Newport achieves this by using literal (face value) communication and by subliminal means. Most advertisements appearing in national media can be understood as having two orders of content. The first is the appeal to deep-running drives in the minds of consumers. The second is information regarding the goods or services being sold; the product’s name, it’s manufacturer, it’s picture, it’s packaging, it’s objective attributes and it’s functions (Fowles 2). Let’s look at the subliminal side first.
According to advertisement critic Jib Fowles, there are fifteen basic appeals applied to all ads. A lot of the appeals are taken in subconsciously when the audience views the ad. These appeals are the underlying drives inherent in human nature. When a reader sees and ad that catches their attention, the subconscious takes over and searches for fulfillment of the major appeals. If a fulfillment is made to a particular appeal or drive, the ad is catalogued and saved on the memory of the reader or viewer. Because eighty percent of all ads are filtered out by the public’s minds, the advertisers have to resort to this strategy to gain any kind of interest in their product or service. Advertisements – no matter how carefully “engineered” – cannot succeed unless they capture our attention (O’neill142). Gaining access to the audience’s subconscious greatly increases the possibility of a sale for the manufacturer.
Affiliation is a drive that is programmed into every human being. This ad immediately fulfills the need to be affiliated by presenting the image of a group of people having fun, and sharing leisure time together. The ad also implies that this particular group spends time together on a regular basis by showing the comfort of the people around each other. In general, this ad is extremely effective in providing a sense of, or the appearance of, belonging.
The need to aggress is a very valid avenue for advertisers to venture down. Advertisers have to conceal the aggressive implications in their ads so that it’s not detrimental to the opinions or sales of the product. The pressures of the real world create strong retaliatory feelings in every functioning human being. Since these impulses can come forth as bursts of anger and violence, their display is normally tabooed (Fowles 6). The group of people in the Newport ad shows a hint of aggressiveness. The mind won’t pick up on it right away but the subconscious already checks the box for that basic appeal. The rough and tumble look of the people in the ad lightly touches upon the aggression that the audience is looking for. Baseball hats, a scoreboard in the background, and athletic looking bodies all attribute to the subtle aggressiveness.
Everybody has or will want to escape the dregs of everyday life. People will always dream of a place far away, a vacation or just a day off. It’s very hard today to keep life, work and leisure time in order. The Newport ad finds that unfulfilled “escape” portion of your mind and exploits it by presenting a picture of people apparently on a day off spending free time out doors. Instantly, the reader or viewer is drawn into a world in which they wished they were spending their time. The lush colors of green in the grass and trees and the paused motion of the huddle of people make the ad absolutely effective in conjuring up images of great past times with friends while getting the audience to hunger for their next day off. The slogan at the bottom of the page also adds to the overall picture of a good time. Mixing “Pleasure”, friends, sports and the outdoors gives a great escape to anyone who wants it.
Certainly Newport is not selling the prospective customer the outdoors or friendship. The product is the cigarette. The content of this particular ad is doing nothing more than provoking a potential buyer into purchasing Newport cigarettes. Ads play a role in moving customers through the sales process. This process begins with an effort to build awareness of a product, typically achieved by tactics designed to break through the clutter of competitive messages (O’Neill 141). Advertising language is simple language; in the ad’s engineering process, difficult words or images – which in other forms of communication may be used to lend color or fine shades of meaning – are edited out and replaced by simple words or images not open to interpretation (O’neill147). This ad is relatively simple in the literal meaning it holds. It basically says that if you buy our cigarettes, they will provide you the sense of belonging you’re looking for. They will let you spend you time as you want to. They will give you great pleasure when you smoke them with your friends. You can even celebrate something while having a pleasurable Newport smoke. Who wouldn’t want all of that and maybe the added bonus of staying fit and healthy (implied by the muscular men and thin women)?
The main point of this analysis is for the consumer to keep in mind that this is just another ad trying to sell you a product. Newport is trying to lure in potential customers by means of targeting your vulnerable subconscious. After you’re finished daydreaming about friends and baseball, you must realize that smoking has also been proven to be harmful to your health as the Surgeon General’s warning at the top of the ad states. Nevertheless, this ad is very inviting for both smokers and non-smokers. Newport has put together a very effective campaign by targeting some basic human drives including affiliation, aggression and the need for escape. An ad like this may actually get me to try a cigarette. Then again, maybe not. Need a light?