Elle the Fragrance by YvesSaintLaurent

Analysing Printed media advertisements
The model is standing in a suggestive manner and she looks very seductive and attractive, she is wearing a suit implying she is sophisticated and intelligent but the suit is very revealing and also tells us that she is very beautiful. The open suit adds a sense of eroticism to the whole advert. The way the model is dressed also adds a sense that she is very dominating the open erotic suit in black alongside the heavy make up and tied back hair makes her seem very dominating and powerful. The model is aged around 20 to about 25 years of age this makes woman aged around 20-25 years old relate to the image and find it more pleasing and more of a necessary product to make them more beautiful and intelligent like the advert implies. The model is wearing very heavy make up and the bright pink lipstick perfectly matches the colour of the product and also making the woman seem more glamorous and stylish. The advertisement is shot in a studio we can tell this through the artificial or non ambient lighting in the background, the lighting also reveals the ideas of good and evil on the woman’s right side the light is bright however on her left side the lighting is very dark and shows us the idea of good and evil or naughty and nice perhaps. The bright background lighting contrasts with the dark clothing the woman is dressed in. The colouring of the advert is very clever as the majority of the advert is black and whites but the actual product is very bright and colourful and clearly highlighted to show consumers what they are buying, the product is also being used as a spray can and the products name “Elle” has been elegantly sprayed in a large font across the image. The product being sold is a fragrance and clearly this would not leave a trail of pink writing this has been edited on via computers and software. The writing is bright and vibrant and attracts attention instantly and is easily recognised and acknowledged as the product title. The camera angle is looking directly at the woman showing her whole body waist upwards. The image itself isn’t particularly culturally specific but the name of the company “Yves saint Laurent” is French which adds a slight French theme to the advert making it more culturally specific. The product itself is a bright pink bottle which draws attention and then the detailing of the bottle is all gold adding glamour and elegance to the product and making it seem far more attractive. The model, the bottle and the font all combined add a very high class or wealthy feel to the advert and product. This advert would be sexist but the product is trying to be sold to women making it acceptable but if the same advert was selling say a brand of beer to men the woman would be being objectified and revealed to sexism, however being that the product is for women the advert is acceptable and allowed to be produced. The whole advert gives off the theme of glamour, style and eroticism making this advert very drawing for women as I’m quite sure most women want to look sexy, beautiful, powerful and intelligent at the age of 20-25 and this advert really sells that point and implies that if you wear this fragrance you will become this attractive and powerful woman. The advert gives the impression that wearing this fragrance will make you a powerful and dominating woman the woman is alone on the camera giving us the idea she is single and successful as she looks wealthy and upper class in her suit I get the impression that she would be working high up in a successful organization or the leader of this company or what ever it is, this idea of being single and working and being an independent woman is a recent idea and isn’t the traditional thoughts of women, this advert gives off the impression of the very modern woman who is powerful wealthy and independent.

Harley Evans