The message being put forth in this advertisement is fairly obvious; that innocence is sexy, that love’s baby soft is innocent, thus it is sexy. The intended audience of the advertisement is aimed at women looking to buy cosmetics. This ad also appeals to men, insofar as the ad is selling “sexy”, a concept that appeals to both men and women. The figure that is the focus of the ad is a young girl made up for the purpose of appearing “sexy”, the fact that the figure is a female appeals to both men and women. Women want to be sexy like the girl, and men want a woman who is sexy like the girl in the ad. Of course, this is a gross generalization, but functions as the basic thought process behind the creation of the ad.
The emotion that is supposed to be exploited by the viewer is the desire to be sexy, thus the desire to buy the product that will make the viewer sexy. The emotion that I felt upon viewing the ad was disbelief and disgust. I had to research the ad to insure that it was not already a subverted image. I felt as though selling a young child as “sexy” is inappropriate. To subvert this image I inserted the face of a male pedophile into the image, looking at the girl. I felt this addition subverted the message of innocence as sexy in this context, highlighting the implications of making up a child to look “sexy” in a disturbing way. Perhaps this ad was effective in the 70’s when this ad was published, however I believe that in the 21st century consumers would reject any ad with similar content.
