Advertising Strategies

Advertising Strategies

When an advertiser places one of their advertisements into a newspaper, they want their advertisement to appeal to the readers of that particular magazine. They could have the exact same message, but considering their audience, they could make it more effective if they use a different strategy to market their product. This is very common for advertising strategies to change when the content of the magazine changes. You can relate the way that the magazine producers choose their ads by when Steve Craig says that “…program producers and schedulers must consider the target audience needs of their clients” (162). The types of advertisements are driven by the content of the magazine. Sports Illustrated provides a great example of how advertisers adjust their ads to their perception of what the readers are interested in. When comparing ads in a regular edition of Sports Illustrated and a swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated, one particular company really stood out by the way they marketed their product differently.

In the regular edition of Sports Illustrated, there is an ad published by Evan Williams, which is a brand of whisky, using what Craig categorizes as a “men’s men” strategy. A men’s men advertisement are “…frequently portrayed as men without women. On the other hand, the absence of women must not suggest homosexuality. Men’s men are clearly heterosexual” (165). Some typical ways of showing heterosexuality are by showing three or more men in the ad, or by showing a woman in the background to suggest that they may have an interest in her. In the ad that Evan Williams published in the regular edition of Sports Illustrated, he doesn’t show multiple guys in the advertisement, but rather one man that is out on his own fishing trip. The advertisement is split down the middle depicting two pictures. On the left shows an average Joe that is standing in a boat, fishing. He is standing in a plain metal boat, which is another way to back up the fact that he is not anything special. The entire picture is in black and white to suggest a dullness feeling about his fishing experience. At the top of that half of the page, the words “The longer you wait” are there. On the other side of the advertisement, there is a professional fisherman standing in a professional fishing boat which is sponsored by Evan Williams. He is also wearing a jacket that has the Evan Williams logo across the front. He is clearly is more “special” then the average Joe seen on the left side of the advertisement. In order for the professional fisherman to look better, that half of the ad is printed in color to give it a more lively feeling. At the bottom of the picture, the words “…the better it gets.” are there creating a suggestion to the reader that if you have the patience, things will always become better. To tie the picture back into a promotional opportunity for Evan Williams, there is a picture of a bottle of Evan Williams whiskey in between the two pictures claiming that it is “Extra Aged”. In the bottom right-hand corner of the advertisement, it also says “Evan Williams. Aged longer to taste smoother.” The ad is trying to sell the fact that because the fisherman waited a long time, he turned out to become a professional, and since the whiskey they make was aged, it also became better, just like the fisherman. The reason that they chose to connect the fisherman to the quality of their whiskey was because they anticipated a lot of males that read Sports Illustrated to be sports-minded and be just like that average Joe fisherman.

Evan Williams also featured an advertisement in the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated. Since they were advertising in the swimsuit edition, they changed their ad so that it would appeal to a man with women on his mind because the entire magazine was filled with beautiful women. This strategy is what Craig calls “men’s women”. In the “men’s women” advertisements Craig says, “When women do appear in men’s commercials, they seldom challenge the primary masculine fantasy. Men’s women are portrayed as physically attractive, slim, and usually young and white, frequently blond, and almost always dressed in revealing clothing. There are almost always hints of sexual availability in men’s women, but this is seldom played out explicitly” (166). In the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated Evan Williams advertisement, they use a very similar format for their ad compared to the fishing one in the regular edition of Sports Illustrated. The advertisement is split into two parts, on the left hand side, there is a photograph of a girl that looks almost like a hobo that was picked off of the streets. She is dressed in clothes that look like they were fashionable back in the late