Undoubtedly, the picture in this article is a significant factor which could draw attention to readers. It is not necessary to tell the readers that the picture is an advertisement of mobile phone. Moreover it would certainly be the mobile phone that would attract the eyes of female teenagers.
LG recognizes that mobile phones have become such a necessity in the daily lives of all teenagers especially young girls, who consider their mobile phones as dating devices, fashion accessories and organisation tools. Statistics from Marketing Charts show that 73% of young teenagers use their phones to tell the time instead of watches. Hence, phone companies such as LG advertise their phones in magazines that would attract young teenage girls.
This advertisement clearly investigates the stereotypical view of young girls by using the pink as a main signifier which represents femininity, beauty and flirtation. These connotations are mostly used to describe popular, materialistic and beautiful girls as it is most commonly seen in the teenage life. Furthermore, by using the colours dark blue, pink, lime green and red in the top left hand corner, the colours of Britney Spears’ perfume FANTASY bottle, attention is drawn to the fact that this perfume is included with the purchase of the phone. It indicates that you can always be beautiful when you carry this phone as it has an instant perfume phone charm.
In addition, Britney Spears was famous back in the year 2007 when this advertisement was advertised, therefore the technique of using celebrity inclusion will help attract young teenage girls to buy this item as teenage girls are more celebrity crazy. This connotes that teenage girls are more into beauty that is why they “need” this phone.
In relation to slogan “Pretty n Pink”, it is a catchy slogan with pink colour and intentionally written as capital letter and bigger than other reading parts. It has only two key words; namely, “Pretty” and “Pink” which both unquestionably refer to femininity even though it is short but powerful in meaning and easy to remember. That is another technique for advertisement. It cannot deny that this part exactly highlights the feminine side to this advertisement.
Another important part on this advertisement which can convince the target for buying the mobile is what kind of privilege or bonus they will be given after purchasing the pink mobile. The young teenage girls always chat and have gossips with each other. Therefore, the sentence “GET FREE CALLS AND FREE TEXT EVERY NIGHT 7PM – 7AM” may speed up their decision. Such a sentence tells the target a they will get a bonus feature at prime time. It means that teenage girls, who have the mobile in their possession, are able to get free calls and texts to socialize and catch up with their friends throughout the whole night. This seems to be another part of the advertisement which reinforces the aspect of the stereotypical image on femininity.
Look at the detailed part which tell the targets where and how to get the mobile phone along with an affordable price. Usually, it is the last part that the readers or the target audiences will read or some targets never read it. It is the small piece of writing under the phone in the advertisement which tells that this product is available at local stores such as Kmart and Target. This means that it is very easy to find this product. More importantly, the price is only $99 on the Boost Network plan, which connotes that it is affordable for young teenage girls to get it.
The representation of the values and beliefs of femininity is mainly focused of this advertisement. The values and beliefs that most young teenage girls hold are friendship and conformity. Basically, if one has something new, the other must have it also. This advertisement shows to the target audience that, any young teenage girl could buy this because of the cheap price. Therefore, the marketing company will be successful if the trend passes on. This implies the belief and value that “you can afford to be beautiful and attractive all the time”.
The image of the product communicated to the audience could be slightly changed. If the advertisement included an image of the celebrity herself, Britney Spears and her autograph, girls would be more attracted to it than just having her name mentioned. The features used for the ad such as promoting perfume is more likely to be girl attracted and the techniques in advertising such as colour choice is more ideal to the feminine side. Therefore, this advertisement could be slightly changed because it encourages the feminine side more.
Finally, it can be evidently said that with its image, colour of the product and the magazine the advertisement is on, this intentionally targets the young teenage girls. It absolutely reinforces the stereotypical side of femininity. The major key signifier of femininity is pink colour; the others are the female perfume, Britney Spears’s Fantasy, which comes with purchasing the mobile and the slogan, “Pretty n Pink”, which all words unquestionably refer to femininity. The advertisement supports the beauty and attractiveness of young teenage girls, who mostly have limited budget, with pink mobile and perfume which are necessity for girl in the present and create belief and value for all teenage girls that “Attractiveness and beauty are affordable”.
The Marketing Charts
http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/cell-phone-is-single-females-new-best-friend-877/
