Bartons Chocolate commercial
Imagine the Photoshopping I could have done with this image.This commercial drives me nuts. I've seen about a billion times over the past week and a half, and each time, it irks me even more.
Are they selling chocolate, or are they selling a sexual fantasy involving the women in the commerical (which may or may not include the chocolate)? Because, I've eaten plenty of chocolate in my time, but I've never mouthed it the way these ladies do.
4 comments:
As someone who has worked in advertising and marketing for years, I get several messages that the company is trying to send with this one, and they are gender specific.
For women:
-This Chocolate is as good as sex. or,
-This product will make you sexy.
There are also connotations of "You won't get fat on this" (Note ultra-skinny, nearly anorexic women ala Giada) and even though the stigma of the ultra thin being sexy is fading, it's still fully in the forefront of most women in the 35-55 demographic, and they buy the most high end chocolate.
For Men:
-Buy her this chocolate and she'll look as good as the women in the commercial. Or, (And this is the important one, from a marketing standpoint!)
-Buy her this chocolate and she might do that to you!
Sex sells, and most of America is still buying. In a marketing sense, it's a great commercial. No matter how stupid you think it is, you're going to remember it.
I'm really glad you wrote this. When I teach a mass media class, one of the most popular activities we do is analyze the subtextual messages in advertising. Over and over (and over) again, sex and sexuality pops up to sell products that have little to do with sex.
The last food ad I remember seeing that was this overt was for Trident gum. The print ad featured a couple (well, at least their bottom halves) at a night club. The woman, very close to the American ideal of female attractiveness, was dressed in tight jeans and had a pack of Trident gum tucked into her back pocket. The man's hand was seen reaching for her derrier, and the ad's tagline was "Grab a Piece."
I had a field day in class with that one.
I am reminded of the Dilbert cartoon which described everything you need to know about advertising.
For women....this product will make you as sexu as a super model.
For men...this product will guarantee that you will DATE sexy supermodels.
So basically..."what Jerry said".
Sadly I was actually happy to finally see this commercial. It was shown late at night on sprout, which is a 24 hour kids channel. My 3 and a half year old, very much the night owl, saw this commercial and rambled on about bartons chocolate and its exquisite taste for almost a month before we finally saw the commercial...she loves dark chocolate best of all but we cant find a bar to put into her stocking :( Luckily I gave her a piece of a special dark bar and she thought it was bartons...:hehe:
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