James Allbright Allbright 1
College Writing II
June 22, 2012
Look Younger
After evaluating these two Barbasol ads, Barbasol is targeting middle-aged men based on the design of the ads. Youth is the focus point behind the ad and how it makes men portray confidence. With youth men can now get the beautiful young women, feel better about themselves, be confident, and in return Barbasol will get repeat sales.

In the first ad that was analyzed let's start by talking about the different placements of objects in the ad. The ad starts with a title that says “you're so much younger since you…,” And immediately the first thing you see is a picture of a beautiful 1940s pinup girl. This draws the reader in especially with the Madonna like cone shaped top.

Another thing the advertiser dollars to draw the reader in is the use of simplistic but vibrant colors, mainly consisting of red, white, and black. The advertiser uses these colors as the only colors in this ad to seemingly paint a picture of the product so when the reader goes to the store to buy it, they will have no problem remembering what the product looks like.

Advertiser also uses text to draw the reader in; both large and small texts are used. The large text grabs your attention initially along with the beautiful pinup girl, but then keeps you looking at the advertisement by having the reader look closer to read the small print underneath. Now that the consumer is drawn into the ad that starts out with “stays smooth longer. If you're getting on to 40 more…,” It targets a specific audience ages 40 and older.

This ad seems to be saying that even though you are 40, you can look young enough to get a beautiful young looking girl, like the one in this ad. It's almost like they're saying if you use Barbasol shaving cream, you'll be handed these beautiful woman on a platter. That will come flocking to you.

Now that the reader has been drawn in, Barbasol starts explaining what else the product can do for the consumer. Barbasol claims to take minutes off of your shave time and the point that they put in the ad is right after targeting middle-aged men. The placement of that claim is almost like saying don't waste any more of the short time you have left shaving.

Barbasol shaving cream “helps keep your skin in good condition too,” it “won't tighten or dry your skin.” Once again Barbasol keeps relating back to the use factor here which just good advertisement is not getting too far off track.

At the bottom of the ad, Barbasol closes up with a nice big image of their shaving cream to coming out of the box as if you were taking it out of box. Like the reader can picture themselves using the product. Within the logo, Barbasol also mentions the ease of use for this product. Barbasol puts a big red dot down there to draw your attention to the fact that there's no need for a brush, lathering, or the need to rub it in.

The reader would probably most likely appreciate the fact that Barbasol also places the cost of the product in the ad. Now the reader doesn't have to drive all the way to the store and find out whether they can afford it or not, they can decide yes this is for me and drive to the store and just buy the product.

One thing is that seemed a little out of place was the box of razor blades. The advertiser does mention the razor blades in the small printed description, but the picture of the razor blades seems a little out of connection with the tube of shaving cream. The shaving cream is coming out of the box towards the reader and the razor blades are not

The second ad to be analyzed is another Barbasol ad. Right away I noticed that Barbasol is using younger and more beautiful looking women of that time. This leads to believe that Barbasol uses the “sex sells” approach to advertising their product. Like the first ad, it catches your eye