Chance Fragrance Ad Analysis

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A Departure into Fantasy for Chanel An advertisement appearing on the back cover of a 2006 women’s fashion magazine for Chance, a fragrance from the fashion house Chanel, departs from its usual practice of selling luxury and sophistication, and instead depicts a nude mode lying on a life-sized bottle of perfume with her lover. The image looks like it could be taken off a romance novel cover but there is very little text in the ad. Jib Fowles in “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals” makes the point that because we have become desensitized to the sheer volume of advertising that gets thrown our way, advertisers have become increasingly adept at employing emotional appeals that speak to the “unfulfilled urges and motives swirling in the bottom half of [our] minds” (414). The Chance ad seeks to slice through its female audience’s mind clutter and appeal to its need for aesthetic sensations (beauty) and sex, attention and escape. The theme of fantasy is employed in the ad as an effective vehicle to deliver the ad’s appeals and to manage possible objections over the inevitable depiction of the model as a sex object, Chanel has been a supplier of luxury goods to affluent, high-status women for the last century. The brand certainly has been around to witness women’s evolving roles in society, from roles that were traditionally domestic to those now outside of the home and family: women are now leaders of state, CEO’s, fighter pilots and firefighters. The ad seems to antithesize the ideals of women’s independence and strength by displaying a nude model draped over the top curve of a giant Chance bottle. The model is covered, barely, with red and pink rose petals, and she is accessorized--a pair of expensive gold heeled sandals, and a dark-haired Casanova nuzzling her neck. Unlike the cool, dark, shades used to convey drama and sophistication in other Chanel campaigns,

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