The advertisement I chose to analyze was a Tag Heuer ad from an international culture Tag Heuer is a

manufacturer of luxurious Swiss watches. On the ad, is a picture of golf’s greatest player and probably
the world’s most famous athlete, Tiger Woods. Tiger is swinging a golf club right toward the center of
the ad. On the bottom right of the ad, is a three dimensional photo of a Tag Heuer watch, which is very
noticeable.  On the bottom left of the ad it says, “What are you made of?”, and the end Tiger’s golf club
is pointing directly at the viewer. At first glance, it might seem as though this is a very busy design. There
are a lot of objects in this design, but if you take notice of how everything is arranged it actually quite
simple. I think the dark colors help offset everything else in the picture which adds to the overall
simplicity, as does the Helvetica type phase.  Tiger Woods is a cultural superhero, so to say. Whether
you’re a fan of golf or not, I can almost guarantee that you know who Tiger Woods is. If any company
can get Tiger Woods to endorse an ad for them, they have nothing to worry about. Everyone wants to
be like Tiger Woods and this ad shows that. The words, “What are you made of?” shows that if you want
to be like him, you have dress like him and where the same watches as him. Overall, it is a very effective
ad.   Another thing to notice in the Tag Heuer ad was the “tough face” that Tiger Woods displays.
According to me it implies that only strong, tough men can pull of the look of a Tag Heuer watch; which
is appealing to many guys because who everyone wants to be as manly as they can.

Another ad I looked at was a Nike ad showing off a pair Nike shoes.  The entire advertisement is in black
and white except for the pair of shoes. Apparently there is a homeless person in raggedy clothes
wearing a brand new pair of Nike’s. This ad is very humorous (although it’s not warranted) and it gets
the point across very well. Instead of the traditional “Just Do It” slogan, it says “Just Blow It” and on the
bottom is says, “Worth Going Broke For.” This is implying that no matter how little money you have, put
it all to the purchase of brand new pair of Nikes.  Again, it is a very simple ad with very little color and
same font throughout, but the irony makes it an effective advertisement.

These two ads are very similar in that they are both very simple designs containing very minute
distractions.  They also do an exceptional job of using the materials in the ad to make an understandable
design, one that is easy for viewers to understand. However, if foreigners were to see the Nike ad I don’t
think that would catch on right away, whereas the Tiger Woods (Tag Heuer) ad is very easy and doesn’t
require much thinking. Another difference is that the Nike ad, along with many other U.S ads, uses
humor to get its point across unlike the Swiss ad which is very straight forward.