Schiff 1Tyrone Schiff Kelly WilliamsEnglish 12520 February 2006Looking Your BestIn J.D. Salinger’s novel,

Catcher in the Rye

, the protagonist, Holden Caulfield,often puts on a red hunting hat to make him feel secure and give him a sense of empowerment about the world around him. Similarly, advertisements used in a variety of different forms, whether in sound, in motion, or in print, try and create an atmosphere for the audience in which they too can feel secure and powerful. Advertisements found inmagazines do an exceptionally good job of this. Advertising agencies work very hard to place a vibrant ad on a single page of a magazine, which not only is eye catching andembodies the core ideals of a given product, but also entices the consumer to ultimately purchase the product. Two advertisements that exemplify these characteristics are aDockers advertisement, published in Sports Illustrated, and a Nautica advertisement, published in Details. Both are for men’s clothing. The two advertisements for men’sclothing intend to construct a fantasy for the audience that relates to being attractive,acquiring an attractive partner of the other sex, and gaining wealth.The Dockers advertisement is stylistically formed to evoke particular thoughtsfrom the consumer. When looking at the Dockers advertisement at first, the most obviousand prevalent image is of the two individuals who are in the advertisement. There is aCaucasian woman and a Caucasian man. They are seen from a side angle and the womanis clasping the man by his tie. They are both very attractive, and are staring at one another

Schiff 2with a small smirk on each one of their faces. They are both dressed very well, obviouslyin Dockers clothing, and their different clothing products are enumerated on the right,“Shirts/Pants/Outerwear/Sweaters/Footwear/Belts/Underwear/Accessories/ Luggage.”Underneath all of these different products is a catchy phrase, “Dress to live.” At the bottom of the advertisement, centered in the page, is some large text that just states,“Dockers,” and below that it says, “San Francisco.”The advertisement has a distinct classiness about it. The feelings broached and the presentation of the advertisement indicate that Dockers is a high end product. The imagethat is captured incites a feeling of wealth and prosperity. Both the male and female aredressed and groomed very well, which are strong indicators of wealth. This is a veryappealing feature for both a male and female consumer. In particular, when a maleconsumer looks at this advertisement he would automatically be drawn to the attractivefemale that is gripping onto the man clad in Dockers wear. Dockers is trying to create animage of irresistibility that only they can provide. Males would be drawn to this product because of its depicted promise of drawing in an attractive mate. Furthermore, the maleconsumer would also notice that the male is quite good looking, and as a result of hisgood looks is gaining the attention of an attractive female. A male consumer will relatethis directly to the type of clothing that the male in the advertisement is wearing.A female can gain just as much satisfaction from this advertisement as does amale. Although the product is guided toward a male audience, a female consumer maythink that if there is a man wearing this type of clothing he is wealthy. Perhaps, a femaleconsumer may even think that by buying Dockers clothing for her partner, he will look more attractive, due to the positive image that the advertisement is trying to portray.

Schiff 3Thus, the advertisement constructs an identity for both a male and female consumer. Itworks off of the emotions that are inherent to both sexes, and tries to pluck a chord in theheart of each.Aside from the images used in the advertisement it is also noticeable to point outthe wording in the advertisement. There isn’t much to begin with, and the writing isn’tvery flashy. This is probably done intentionally trying not to detract from the actual picture in the advertisement. The different products that one can buy from Dockers is away for this advertisement to reach a large demographic; somebody will be able to findsomething on that list that may apply to them. An interesting phrase used on theadvertisement is the following statement, “Dress to live.” This is a statement that worksoff of the insecurities of the consumer. One will think that the only way to truly feel aliveis to dress in Dockers. Also, the picture in the advertisement is quite provocative; thewoman looks as though she may want to kiss the man. The consumer will think that if this type of scenario isn’t happening, then by dressing in Dockers clothing they will truly begin to live life in the fast lane.The Nautica advertisement’s style is presented in a vastly different way to that of the Dockers advertisement, but ultimately portrays the same type of elements usingdifferent methods. The Nautica advertisement is a compilation of different images of anattractive Caucasian man working on his yacht with his family, consisting of an attractiveCaucasian woman and two young children. The male in the Nautica advertisement is performing various tasks on his yacht, and in each picture he is wearing different clothes provided by Nautica. The various pictures are sized differently, and there is a distinctwhite line that separates each of the scenes. In three of the pictures the male is interacting