Decoding/Deconstructing Advertising

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqflNCQmHi4&feature=player_embedded

Hair Bath by Diesel

Summary of the commercial: In ad there is a women who is naked in a bath tub filled with hair. The hair swallows her body, leaving her legs,arms and head exposed. In the commercial she is opening letters and talking to her audience about the letters she has received. These letters are from people who are writing to her about their hair and how they feel about it. Each letter includes a snip-it of that persons hair. Once the hair is added to her bath tub she talks about how she loves to collect hair, and then she encourages the viewers to send in their hair. The ad ends with a thank you message and an address where you can send you hair. After that 4 is shown in roman numerals and then diesel.com is underneath.

What I see from this commercial in a broad sense, is a women with a seductive attitude in a bath tub full of hair. Her voice sounds seductive, but at the same time creepy, which is amplified by the music that plays in the background, and the black and white film that is used. The setting for the film is plain and I feel that this is to make the viewer pay closer attention to the girl.

By the end of the commercial I was left a bit confused not knowing what the commercial was trying to sell to the audience. I also didn’t understand what the commercial had to do with the diesel clothing line.

When I looked at what the commercial was trying to represent to the public, I noticed that she is promoting us to send her pieces of our hair. I feel that the hair is to represents pieces of the audiences self, and by send pieces of our selves to the company (diesel) we are feeding into the franchise.

The company has also decided to use a woman for this ad. This changes the type of impact that the commercial will have on the audience. This impact is also different depending on if the viewer is male or female. I know that the when a women is placed in the media there are different meaning then men. This is because when women are placed in the media, her presence is “manifested in her gestures, voice, opinions, expression, clothes, chosen surroundings, taste” (Berger 40) and this is what the audience focuses on. Because, the audience is focusing on this were transfixed on her and we pay more attention to what she’s saying. I know that when I watched it I was sucked in by this and I felt that she was selling her self to the audience more then the idea of sending her my hair in the mail. I feel that this ad is geared towards guys more because of the sexual nature of the commercial.

Work Cited

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London, England: Penguin Books, 1972. Print.