M.F.

Flipping through Vogue magazine, I came across an ad featuring Alize, the popular French cognac. The first thing I notice about the cartoon of two women sitting on a high-rise rooftop drinking Alize margaritas is that one of the girls' heads is not screwed on right. I guess that's what bugs me the most about this ad, that and some other disturbing factors. I start to look closer, trying to figure out how in the world the artist of this ad ever thought that the position this girl is in is physically possible. She's so skinny in the first place, and her legs are facing one way as her body faces another, her neck twisted all the way to the side so she's looking you in the eye. My eyes wander up the page and I notice a caption:

"Cathy and Rita could have stayed late at work and looked really dedicated, but that would have entailed staying late at work and looking really dedicated. "

I notice next the recipe at the bottom lower-left comer of the page, enticing you to try these Alize margaritas yourself. In the lower-right corner is a big bottle of Alize, looking quite refreshing next to a caption calling: "An alluring blend of fine French cognac and passion fruit juice."

Of course these are the obvious hooks that draw the consumer in, but there are several other subliminal techniques being utilized here, and you don't even know it. Let's examine the ad more closely.

These two women sit atop a roof that appears to be one of the women's patios, for there are no waiters around and they are sitting at a patio table. It is dusk, and you can see the high-rise buildings of the city in the background. The women are dressed stylishly, one in a low-cut, bright orange wrap- around jacket with a crisp white shirt beneath it. She's got on matching pants that not only match her orange jacket, but her carrot-colored French twist as well. The other woman, the one that's contorted, is wearing a short-blue sleeveless shift dress, and it is quite possible that she's Rita, her long brown hair and features being very Latin. Rita's looking pretty cold right now and a bald, fat man sitting in front of a computer at his office desk is visible in one of the high-rise windows in the background.

So these women are working women, as we can tell by the caption at the top. They are dressed in the city-girl fashion, right down to the high-heels. They are very young and beautiful and as the cartoon ad suggests, fun. It seems as if the ad designers want you to think, "Forget about your worries, relax, have fun." Besides, doesn't this scene call to mind a girls' night out? Hey, these girls are fun, not like the fat loser guy at his computer, he's no fun.

In actuality, when do we ever see women this beautiful and young in the working world? That goes without mentioning the corporate working world. These women appear to be living the high life. They seem to have wonderful jobs in an exciting field, are single, beautiful, and wear expensive clothes. These women don't look old enough to even have college degrees, much less have careers in a big city that would allow them time and money to sit on a high-rise rooftop in their expensive clothes and sip Alize margaritas, which is an expensive drink itself

Going by all that these women represent, their appealing lifestyle, it is obvious that the ad designers are trying to appeal to young women. Not just young working women, in fact, their probably aiming at the woman in the opposite role of the young working woman. This woman is young, single, maybe married, and works at a fast food joint or department store. This type of woman dreams of making it in the world and being able to sit back after a day at work, at a job they want to work at, and have extra money to spend on expensive clothes and drink.

These women in their working women, money bearing, fashion conscious roles suggest a type of independence and strength. "We do what we want, when we want, and we make it look good." Yes, perhaps the ad agency was attempting to aim at young working women and their young dreamer counterparts, but instead they succeed in capturing the young teenage girl's interest. The young girl flips through the magazine pages thinking,(or perhaps not thinking, since in most cases ads are successful subliminally), "Gee, that woman is pretty, she's in the big city with her friend and she's got great clothes, and money, and ooh, they're drinking "an alluring blend of fine French cognac and passion fruit juices.' Mmmmm!" Of course the young girl will wish she were in these women's places right now, instead of in her room, grounded, dreaming of leaving some small farming community. So this weekend she'll go out and tell her friends that she heard of this new drink in a magazine that she wants to try, and the ad will have succeeded without her even noticing it.

That is the thing about this ad that is most disturbing, this ad's success relies on the common-sense we all have somewhere in the back of our minds that says drinking is a cool pastime, something we do with our friends, it's fun. This is all the result of social drinking being a major part of American society. The use of women in this ad is also very exploitive of the female role in regards to the product being sold. Alize', a sweet, fruity cognac, in our society would be regarded as a "woman's drink." It's not like beer, in fact, if a man drank Alize, he'd probably be seen as a sissy. In placing women in this ad, the agency contributes to the placing of women in a box, in aiding the rest of society, and women themselves, in the conditioning that women drink light, fruity alcohol. Why must we be placed in a box?

This ad also plays on other aspects of our society's gender roles as well. Inasmuch as these women look strong and independent, smart and fun, the ad agency nevertheless succeeds in portraying them in the stereotypical woman role. Just by the way the women are positioned, we are being suggested to that these women are sex objects, "pretty little things" on display, as women in ads often are. Although this ad sells to women, it also is suggesting to women that we sell ourselves this way, that we must look good for men. One woman is in a low-cut suit, the other in a short dress, that's Rita, the one that looks cold. Rita also looks a bit lost and confused, not exactly the description of an intelligent working woman. They should have put a jacket on her or something. Cathy's looking a little suggestive by the look on her face, her little smirk makes you wonder what she's thinking about.

By and large, these women are not typical women, and, no matter how convincing the ad may be, their role is not that for which all women should be striving to attain. Of course, ad agencies cannot create an ad that appeals to every type of consumer and succeed in doing it without offendin'g at least one group. If that were possible, that ad agency would have a virtual monopoly over the advertising market. However, many advertising groups are wrong in using the hook of many common stereotypes. In doing this, as mentioned before, they contribute to the continuation of stereotypes that already exist in our society. So you see, these women aren't exactly realistic role models for young working women, young dreamers, or young teenagers for that matter. Their lifestyles could not be realistically attained by these types of women. Perhaps Rita's a good role model for girls whose heads aren't screwed on right.