What is it that you want from a product? It is enough anymore to simply have a product that works efficiently and accomplishes the goal for which you purchased it for? No. Not anymore. Not in this day and age where there are forty different types of ketchup and seventy designers claiming that a particular type of boot was their original idea. In this modern age what is it that makes you want to buy a specific brand instead another one? Advertisement; the fact that you can associate this product with being cutting edge and better than the rest because of that advertisement that you saw in which it tells you that with this product you will be loved. You will be popular. You will be the person everyone wants to be. Advertisements are meant to not only entice you to buy their product, but to become their product. They want you to live and breathe their product so you always come back for more. Through tag lines, a sense of revolution and emotional appeals, you want this item more than you want to breathe. Why? It’s their job.
This advertisement concerning the Diesel brand and their jeans is less about the jeans and far more instead about how they want you to feel about buying these jeans. Clearly this is more common than not when dealing with advertisements; far less ads thoroughly describe the product, but rather they use ploys to make you buy the product on how you feel. In fact, the definition of emotional appeal is “type of advertising in which the copy is designed to stimulate one's emotions, rather than one's sense of the practical or impractical. When copywriters use emotional appeal in advertising, they are attempting to appeal to the consumer's psychological, social, or emotional needs. The copy is written to arouse fear, love, hate, greed, sexual desire, or humor, or otherwise create psychological tension that can best be resolved by purchase of the product or service” (Barron’s Marketing Dictionary). Now look at this print ad: immediately the half naked yet attractive woman is the first image that captures your mind. For women, how do you feel? For men? It is clear that women want to be this girl. Women want to be attractive and thin. Women want to be desired and looked at. As for the men, men want attractive women. Often times men want a carefree woman who is outgoing and fun; clearly this woman flashing a camera has little reserve. Another question: did you look at the jeans at all? Diesel used this attractive and seemingly exciting woman for one reason. That reason is to arouse love, lust, sexual desire, and greed in order to make you want to wear these jeans, to be this woman or to have this woman. Now doesn’t that sound an awful lot like the previous definition?
When emotional appeal is addressed, it’s not only the glaringly obvious examples, such as the half naked woman, that peak our interest. In fact, aspects such as color and font play a major role in how people will respond to an ad (Dr. Lars Peterson). For example, the line on the right hand of the page is in large bold font with bright pink letters. The large bold font clearly demands attention and gives a sense of a non-apologetic expression of the tag line that is written out. Furthermore, the pink is not a calm and serene pink, but instead it is loud and in your face. Pink is known as the color that symbolizes acceptance and contentment; both feelings are exactly what the company is looking for when they are trying to push a product (Emily Gems). Diesel wants the potential customer to feel accepted by the company and to know that Diesel is content with their lifestyle regardless of if the rest of the world finds their lifestyle silly or stupid. Diesel accepts all and welcomes the brave and bold stupid people.
Outside of the woman logistically placed in the middle of the shot, off to the side there is a quote which reads, “Smart may have the brains, but stupid has the balls.” This tag line is not only the entire principle of this ad, but it is also very powerful. Who wants to be smart, safe, and boring? No one wakes up in the morning thinking, ‘I just hope I have a boring day’. All people, but especially the younger generation, aims to have a crazy party or crazy vacation in which they will remember for the rest of their lives. This ad overwhelmingly gears towards that population of teens, twenty, thirty year olds who are not necessarily at the top of the class, but pride themselves on their status. This ad is saying it’s ok to be stupid, in fact it is necessary and welcomed. In order to understand the complexity of this ad, you must understand the entire principle behind it. Diesel has in fact ran an entire campaign about this one principal; an entire four and a half minute video is dedicated to it. Combining both the print ad with this video, one thing is clear. Smart is no longer “cool” or “hip”, you must be different and an original. Instead of holding the high business offices or running for president, it’s the silly things that make life interesting. All you need in Diesel jeans and your natural self to have the life that you have always wanted. Be stupid! Be cutting edge! Be an independent thinker! Be part of a revolution! Be Diesel!
Works cited:
"Color Pink Meaning." Gem Stone and Crystal Healing, Love Symbols, Totems, Magic Spells. Web. 03 Feb. 2011. <;http://crystal-cure.com/pink.html>.
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