Here's the ad:
The ad itself is for Belvedere Vodka and it features a girl with a surprised look on her face putting on red lipstick whilst her face is right beside an assumed male’s private area. We all know what sexual act this is a not-so-subtle reference to and it is quite obvious that the ‘hidden’ meaning behind this ad is alcohol equals sexual activity, but not just any alcohol, specifically Belvedere Vodka ‘The world's first super premium vodka.’
I find this ad to be important because I think it’s weird that there was no controversy surrounding it. Though, maybe these days an ad doesn’t spark a social backlash unless it uses a staged gang rape a la Dolce and Gabbana to sell products. Maybe I am just too old and set in my ways to see the humour or relevance of using oral sex to promote and sell alcohol. Despite not agreeing with this image’s message, especially in accordance to the product being sold, I find the colour usage to be very aesthetically pleasing. The ad subtly uses two sets of complimentary colours which drew my eyes in a lot more than if they had chosen to use a batch of random colours. The complimentary sets are blue/orange and red/green. This colour usage makes the ad pop out more which in turn leaves a lasting impression on the viewer. Terry Richardson, the person who took the photograph for this ad definitely knew what to do to grab people’s attention. The use of complimentary colours I am sure is not an accident – it wasn’t an accident when Van Gogh painted his room using the same colour schemes, so the he obviously knew something about art and how to draw people in through use of colour. This and the ad’s lack of intimidating or graphic sexual content make it so it doesn’t cause a lot of people to be speaking out against it, but it keeps you thinking about it, which is exactly what Belvedere paid for when hiring a professional photographer to do their ad.
I think there are two social issues at play in this ad. The first one is the fact that she is the one about to perform the act on the male, not vice versa. Feminists from the second and third wave would probably say something here about the fact that he probably treats her like a sexual object, he dominates her, and she more than likely feels as though she has to perform this act on him for him to like her or to not seem like a freeze or a prude. The second, which ties into the first issue, is the promotion of alcohol in a magazine for hipsters in their twenties, as well as relating alcohol to sexual acts. Personally, I feel weird not drinking because I know almost everyone else my age is perpetually wasted, and this ad enforces the stereotype that everyone college-aged should be drinking and having fun, which makes those who do not engage in such activities feel like social outcasts. To tie the alcohol to sexual acts specifically, the ad portrays a generation of people who get drunk and ‘fool around,’ in a society that hasn’t been as openly and acceptably promiscuous since the age of the Roman Empire.
Conclusively, I feel that this ad is a terrible image of the state of what we now consider social norms. I’ve scoured the internet for any sort of negative feedback regarding the image and found nothing. The ad has good usage of colours but sets a bad example of what normal, beautiful twenty year olds are actually doing. If the female/male roles were reversed I might have a completely different opinion on the subject, but until then, this ad is too concerned with enforcing negative stereotypes for me to put any more thought into it.
I got an A! It's kinda everywhere sometimes because I did it the day it was due.
Evening classes are beautiful.
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