Hugo Boss Ad (Ryan Reynolds)

We see a lot of the color black in this ad, which gives off a sense of mystery and power. The ad starts off with a revolving black bottle of the perfume and day turning into night with a shot of high-rise modern buildings, . The shot then goes into this bedroom which is again dominated by the color black , the house is decorated in a modern , expensive way and you can see buildings in the background high-rise fancy towers, which makes the target audience powerful men or men who seek power. He walks in this apartment and throws his suit coat aside like he doesn't care about the expensive piece of clothing.

Ryan Reynolds undresses with an expression of nonchalance on his face, and we then see a woman coming into the frame with the city in the background it seems like she's appearing from the city , It seems to represent that all the women of the city are attracted towards him. She's slim, blonde and wearing a hot black dress,blue eyes depicts the typical American beauty. It also shows that he is so desirable that the women are the ones who make the first move even though it usually works the other way around.

Then he has a sort of non-surprised look on his face like all this is a typical day for him. While he undresses the woman undresses too, but he still has a stone expression on his face though he looks away from the audience.

Then next scene he looks at the audience and it seems like he is trying to make a connection to the audience.

In the final scene he smiles at the audience sort of in a " see what can happen if you buy hugo boss?" way and he turns and walks into a room. The final shot shows the bottle of Hugo Boss perfume covering him as he walks into a bright room and closes the door .This gives an element of mystery because we don't know if the woman was in the room with him or if he's leaving to meet her.

Discussion Questions:

Ryan Reynolds and the blonde woman are never shown in the same scene yet we know that theres a connection between them. Do you think the ad would change if they were shown in the same frame if so , how?

Why does Ryan Reynolds seem to have such a nonchalant expression on his face even though theres an attractive woman undressing for him?

Guilty by Gucci

In this ad for Gucci Guilty, we see a man and a woman embracing one another. Neither the man nor woman appear to be wearing any clothes. The man is kissing the woman’s neck, while the woman is holding his head and looking toward the audience. A bottle of perfume is in the lower right hand corner of the ad, and the name of the perfume is used as a header across the top. The woman is wearing a bracelet with the Gucci logo, which matches the bottle of perfume. The colors used are generally neutral skin tones, except for the pink that is highlighted in the woman's lips. There is a black background and the people are the central focus of the ad.

Gucci Guilty is a womens perfume, so the target audience of the ad is women. The woman in the ad is holding the man's head and he is kissing the woman's neck. This shows the women has apparent sexual control over the man. He is also showing that he wants to pleasure her by kissing her neck, and her facial expression indicates that she enjoys this. From a woman's point of view, she may think that if she is to wear Guilty by Gucci, men will try to pleasure her and she will gain more attention.

It is interesting that the woman directs her attention toward the audience, rather than the man she is sexually engaged with. This implies that he is more invested in the act than she is. Generally, women feel subjected to only please the man in their relationship when it comes to sex. This ad suggests that men will be more inclined to pleasure a woman wearing Gucci Perfume.

The black background conceals the location of the featured couple, and this adds a mystery element to the ad. It implies that this could be taking place virtually anywhere. This adds sex appeal to the ad because it can associate with viewer’s fantasies. In other words, different viewers have different interpretations of where the ad could be taking place. The woman has a tattoo across her back that is illegible, which contributes to the mystery/fantasy aspect as well.

The words "GUCCI GUILTY" are printed across the top of the ad in large white letters, while the Gucci symbol is repeated on the perfume bottle and on the woman's bracelet. This repeated use of the logo emphasizes the product being advertised, while adding to the sex appeal of the ad because the bracelet draws further attention to the woman's naked body.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Do you think there is something significant about the fact that the woman is looking at the audience rather than back at the man? What could this imply about their sexual relationship? How does this compare to the way the man is looking at the woman?

2. Why was the use of color in this ad limited? What else about this ad is "mysterious"? What is significant about the pink tint that is used solely on the lips of the woman?

3. Does the woman's physical position in the ad mean anything? What about her position in relation to that of the man? And why is the bottle of perfume positioned to cover her lower back, a place on a woman that can be very visually/sexually appealing?

John Ross, Ian Rowland, Nadiah Mohamed-Azmi, Caleb Mihalik
Blog analysis

In this ad for Elite Rent Luxury Car Rental service, we see a number of things. Moving from top to bottom, we see the bottom half of a woman. Next to her are the words “Get There Faster”. One can also see that the woman is wearing a black leather jacket, red undergarments, red leggings, and red high heels. The very bottom of the ad shows a pair of Porsche keys with the company name on them. The whole ad is back dropped with more red. One can also see that the heels of the high heels have stripes on them, as do the leggings.

Let’s start by looking at the colors. The main color in this ad is obviously red, as seen by the woman’s leggings, shoes, undergarments, the Porsche keys, and the background. But what does red mean? Well, it means a lot of things, for instance red is often considered the color of love and passion. It is also often associated in the car industry as a flashy or powerful color and is known for drawing attention. So, in a subconscious sort of way, this ad could be saying that by purchasing from them, you will find passion, be powerful, or draw attention, possibly from the other sex, while driving their rental cars. Also, the keychain at the bottom with the company name on it is gold, which is often associated with opulence and wealth, thus possibly saying that people who drive these cars are wealthy.

One feature of the ad that stuck out to us the most were the words at the top of the ad that read, “Get There Faster”. At first we figured that they were trying to say that the cars they rent out are faster than other cars, which makes sense because they have a Porsche key at the bottom, which is a notoriously fast car. However, after reevaluating the ad, we noticed the stripping on the back of the woman’s leggings. The stripes appeared to resemble the dividing lines one would find on any given road. If one looked at the woman’s leggings as if they were a road, the ad could be implying that when the ad says “Get There Faster” they really mean getting to the woman’s undergarments faster, thus adding a sexual component to the ad.

Another question that came to our mind was why the ad chose a female model instead of a male model. A reason they might have made this decision is because a car rental service that deals with sports cars like Porsches, tend to cater towards men more than woman. Because of this a man seeing this ad is more likely to be sexually attracted to a female model than a male model. Thus by putting a woman in the ad, a woman who is sexually posed no less, the ad is more likely to attract men to it. It could also imply that by driving one of their rental cars, a man has a chance to attract a woman who looks like the model.

Discussion Questions:
1. Do you think sex actually does sell? Do you think sex sells more for men or for women? How would the ad be different if the female model were fully clothed instead of in her undergarments?

2. Why do you think the ad does not show the woman’s top half? Why do you think the ad has the woman posed in the way she is? How would the ad be different if it was a male model instead of a female model?

3. What did you find interesting about the colors chosen for the ad? Do you think the stripes on the woman’s clothing mean something other than earlier stated? Do you think the fact that she is wearing a black jacket significant?