Alzayer 6
Mohammed Alzayer
Mrs Engstrom
English 250 RD
Audience: classmates and instructor
9 October 2013
Assignment #2: Rhetorical analysis of advertisement
The first thing you notice when opening the September issue of Esquire magazine is the four-page Tommy Hilfiger fall season ad. It is impossible to close the magazine before going back to the ad to imagine yourself in one of the models’ colorful outfits. The magazine specifies its target audience as “30+ year old males who are at the top of their professional and personal life” ("Esquire: Man At His Best”.) Statistically speaking, Esquire is read by 4.4 adult readers per copy, 2.87 of which are men with a median age of 38.7 and an average outcome of over $60,000 yearly ("Demographics.) The ad, which is a part of the Fall 2013 advertising campaign entitled University Club: cärpe-díem mañana, captures the essences of the autumn season. Tommy Hilfiger ad succeeds in convincing customers to start the year fresh with new outfits although it lacks a verbal connection with the reader and fails to announce a newly launched mobile application effectively.
Earlier this summer, Tommy Hilfiger started working on a campus themed photo session that was eventually turned into an advertising campaign. According to Tommy Hilfiger, the founder of the brand, the campaign imagery is heavily inspired by collegiate traditions, especially those established by Ivy League schools in the north east of the United States (“Cärpe-díem mañana”) Esquire magazine used three photographs from the campaign. The first photograph shows a big lecture hall with students and teachers dressed up in beloved American style outfits. Another photograph shows a recently graduated student sitting on her classy luggage and leaving the campus with the help of two of her male friends. The last photograph in the ad shows a student wearing a unique Tommy sweater and a scarf standing in front of a campus building and holding his bike. Although Tommy is famous for its signature red and blue colors that appear in its logo, the outfits’ colors range from yellow to green and orange, which captures the freshness of the fall season.
The ad appeals to number of the 15 needs identified by Jib Fowles in his 1976 study “Mass Advertising as Social Forecast : A Method for Futures Research.” One of the obvious emotional appeals that Tommy used to advertise their fall line is the need for affiliation. The ad promises its buyers to make them a part of the campus community if they choose to be dressed by the ‘cool’ Tommy outfits. The ad also appeals to our need for aesthetic sensations by using attractive models in a beautiful campus (Fowles.) The photographs were taken in Yale University campus according to a blogger who attended the photo sessions (Zalazar.) Even though Tommy does not imply this fact explicitly, the reader can easily tell that the models are in a fancy college. Hence, it seems like the ad appeals to the need to achieve, especially to those who are applying for colleges. Other appeals may include our need for attention by wearing stylish outfits like the ones worn by the models in the photographs (Fowles.)
The use of three photographs instead of one in this ad makes it even stronger and illustrates the campus theme of the campaign even more effectively. It is hard not to notice the ad since it appears on the first page of the magazine and one of its photographs is attached to the cover which can be folded. If the ad was placed in the middle of the magazine, it might have been lost and the reader wouldn’t be able to recognize it as an ad for the fact that fashion is one of Esquire magazine biggest interests. Tommy also enforced its signature elements in order to make the ad even more recognizable. For instance, the brand can easily be identified through the way they show their logo. The logo is placed in a thread that goes through all the photographs in the ad. The blue and red thread looks like a watch strap or a belt designed by Tommy. This is a clever move as it makes the reader who is familiar with the brand identify it right away. The ad went for a simple approach by not crowding it with graphics and focusing on the expressions of the models appearing on it instead. Each model has a different character and personality that the customer can relate to, such as the athlete, the smart, and so on. This approach helps customers choose the way they would like to dress according to the character they most relate to. Crowding the ad with graphics wouldn’t have the same effect since the customer wouldn’t be able to focus on the outfits. Verbally, Tommy let its big name speak for itself by being straight to the point. The only text shown in the ad is Tommy’s website URL, store locations, the title of the campaign, and an announcement of a newly launched mobile application.
With all the good verbal and visual choices made by Tommy in this ad, there are still some problems. For example, the text being in white works very well in all the cases except the announcement of the application which has a contrast problem. The light beige background blends the text and makes it difficult to read. The announcement reads “get your Prepview. Download the Tommy Hilfiger app to unlock exclusive content.” The ad does not highlight the word “Prepview,” which is the name they gave to their app, and makes it look like the word “preview.” If Tommy intended to introduce this app through the ad, they failed to do so due to the position of the text and its color blending with the background. The slogan of the campaign is another bad choice made by Tommy. The slogan is a combination of the Latin expression “cärpe-díem” which translates to “seize the day” and the Spanish word “mañana” which means “tomorrow.” This statement does not seem to make sense and does not relate to the message behind the campaign. There is no attempt by Tommy to explain the slogan either visually or verbally in this ad.
The ad looks more appropriate for young customers who are in their early 20s to mid-30s which does not agree with the demographics of the magazine. However, Esquire still has its loyal younger readers from both genders. One interesting feature in the ad is the inclusion of three professors who are 50 to 60 years old in the lecture hall photograph. Tommy’s intention is not to sell to this age category through this ad but rather add a realistic and humorous touch to the picture. The ad is successful in making a nostalgic connection with the customers from all ages by reminding them of classic motion pictures and television shows, most notably The Breakfast Club and Beverly Hills, 90210. Both of these works have the ordinary American coming of age characters that people fell in love with and are considered to be classics in the history of American cinema and television. The confident poses of the models in the ad and the way they dress is reminisce of the characters seen in The Breakfast Club or 90210.
In the campaign’s seventh season, Tommy Hilfiger is still at the top of its game in terms of advertising. The University Club campaign is a brilliant way to connect with Tommy’s loyal fans who like to maintain the traditional American style but with a modern stylish touch. The ad that appears on Esquire magazine September issue is effective in every way for its simplicity and professional photography and does not get any less effective even with the vague slogan that was given to the campaign or the unclear text about the mobile application.
Works Cited
"Cärpe-díem mañana -The Hilfigers: Tommy Hilfiger Multi-Media Ad Campaign. By Sylvia G." Great-Ads. Blogspot, 22 Jul 2013. Web. 28 Sep. 2013. <http://great-ads.blogspot.com/2013/07/carpe-diem-manana-hilfigers-tommy.html>.
"Demographics." Mega Media Marketing: Your Link to the Media World. Mega Media Marketing. Web. 28 Sep 2013. <http://megamediamarketing.com/demographics.html>.
"Esquire: Man At His Best." Magazines. Summit Media, 30 Nov 2013. Web. 28 Sep 2013. <http://www.summitmedia.com.ph/magazines/esquire>.
Fowles, Jib. Mass Advertising as Social Forecast : A Method for Futures Research. Westport, CT: Greenwood. 1976. Adaption found on Auburn University web page: http://www.auburn.edu/~lef0009/website%20teaching%20materials/15%20Basic%20Ad%20Appeals.pdf. Web. 28 Sept. 2013.
Tommy Hilfiger: University Club. Advertisement. Esquire. September 2013. Print.
Zalazar, Cecilia. "Cärpe-díem, Tommy is going to College this Fall 2013." Ella Universe. 17 Aug 2013. Web. 28 Sep. 2013. <http://ellauniverse.blogspot.com/2013/08/carpe-diem-tommy-is-going-to-college.html>.