Rich CeccoliCeccoli 1 SterlingEffective WritingNovember 10, 2000Man Enough?Advertising plays an essential role in our society today. On some levels, it shapes us into the people we are by implanting in our minds certain ideas of what we should own. Advertising agencies are out to strike a nerve or hotspot in our consumer driven minds that will lead us to buy whatever product they may be selling. In recent times we can see a rather disturbing and not so subtle advertising strategy developing. Agencies are associating their products with masculine homilies such as sex appeal and the male competitive drive. The new trend among ads and commercials is to question the consumer’s masculinity and align their product with masculinity.Men are very concerned with their sex appeal and how women view them. Many new ads are sending the message that their product carries with it the essence of sexiness. A perfect example of this is a “KOOL” cigarette ad in Playboy magazine. The ad depicts an overly crowded bar packed with young attractive people. In the back of the room there is a sign that says “BE KOOL,” which jumps right out due to its green lighting. Everyone in the bar is preoccupied Ceccoli 2with conversations except one girl. She is a very beautiful twenty-something brunette with a very seductive and hypnotic look on her face. She is locked in a dead stare with a man’s hand holding a KOOL cigarette. The only part of the man showing is his hand and forearm and it is clearly apparent that this girl is staring at it. The add is basically saying that this girl singled this guy out of a packed crowd just because he smokes KOOLs. The fact that she is staring at his hand and not him is very interesting. The girl in the ad cares nothing about the man holding the cigarette or any other men surrounding her. She is simply entranced by the cigarette itself. The ad agency is directly aligning its product with sex appea...
