Everyone is familiar with the Abercrombie and Fitch ads. As you walk past the store in the mall, you turn to see where the loud music is coming from. Right as you look in the store, you are greeted by giant pictures of beautiful girls and muscular boys. Clearly, Abercrombie and Fitch is trying to send a message: if you buy our clothes, you will be able to look just as good as the models. What’s extremely ironic is the fact that some of the models aren’t wearing any clothing! The two boys in this picture (bottom) are not wearing any clothing at all, yet they are advertising for a clothing store. As a consumer, I find this very off-putting. I like to know what the company’s clothes look like, not what their most attractive models look like. Assuming I had never heard of Abercrombie and Fitch, and had just seen this ad, I would choose not to shop there because I did not know what their clothes looked like.
Another Abercrombie and Fitch ad (top) portrays a young couple in love. This one is a slight improvement; at least the girl is wearing some clothing. Unfortunately, we cannot really tell what it looks like. This ad is clearly targeting young teens by sending the message “if you wear our clothing, you will be able to find true love with an attractive partner.”
These ads reminded me of the Verizon Wireless ad we discussed in class, with the message “you’re either in or out.” Both the Verizon ad and these Abercrombie and Fitch do not have pictures of their product in the ad. Instead, the entire ad focuses on the importance of being cool and looking good. The advertisers are trying to convince teens that if you have a Verizon phone, or wear clothing from Abercrombie and Fitch, you will be cool and liked by your peers. It is important for consumers to evaluate the quality and necessity of a product instead of being swayed by the advertiser’s subliminal message.
Another Abercrombie and Fitch ad (top) portrays a young couple in love. This one is a slight improvement; at least the girl is wearing some clothing. Unfortunately, we cannot really tell what it looks like. This ad is clearly targeting young teens by sending the message “if you wear our clothing, you will be able to find true love with an attractive partner.”
These ads reminded me of the Verizon Wireless ad we discussed in class, with the message “you’re either in or out.” Both the Verizon ad and these Abercrombie and Fitch do not have pictures of their product in the ad. Instead, the entire ad focuses on the importance of being cool and looking good. The advertisers are trying to convince teens that if you have a Verizon phone, or wear clothing from Abercrombie and Fitch, you will be cool and liked by your peers. It is important for consumers to evaluate the quality and necessity of a product instead of being swayed by the advertiser’s subliminal message.
5 comments:
I always found it interesting as well how Abercrombie and Fitch's models don't wear clothing, yet advertise for the store. The advertisers really deserve some credit here, the store is still wildly successful. Until the activity in class the other day, it never bothered me when the product wasn't even in an advertisement, I guess I just fell into their trap like so many others do.
I agree with you, Courtney, and Lena. It's funny how advertisers play on our desires to have good bodies and be in love. Even if we never see the clothes that they are advertising, we want to buy them because of what the advertisements are promising: good bodies and love. It weird how when what we want is depicted, we ignore what is actually being sold.
AHHH THATS INSANE I've never thought about it in that way the what is Abercrombie doing as a cloth store with majority of ads with shirtless guys. I also find it funny that when you pass some of the stores in the malls they have a male model practically standing there naked also. What would a advertisement meeting be like for this company? Oh no she's wearing to much oh no she's not skinning enough! Pure irony for a clothing store! This blog reminds me of the discussion at the beginning of the unit where products come from and who and what went in to making them.
Kolbe! I love this post! Although I'm not a huge fan of shopping or of Abercrombie, I somewhat understand why they do it. Their targeting teens and young adults, and quite frankly their ads make people look. If you saw some random guy wearing an Abercrombie shirt would you stop? I wouldn't. But, if I saw a cute girl I might. So although I feel that the ads have little to nothing to do with the actual store and their products, I admit that the marketers for Abercrombie are geniuses. Now every teen/young adult is going to stop and at the very least look at the ads.
Great discussion, guys!
Post a Comment