Sunday, October 4, 2009

Dentyne Ads


For my essay I’m going to be focused on the Dentyne Ice advertisement which was launched last year and featured four teenagers lying suggestively on top of each other with the words “Chat room full” underneath it.


I think that this is a good advertisement to analyze because of its sexual innuendos as well as its play on words with technological concepts. Due to the proliferation of technology, face to face interaction has severely declined and Dentyne Ice is making a play on this concept by showing that “Chat room full”, a concept meant for something which occurs online, should also apply in real life. The fact that internet/technology is causing a decrease in face to face interaction is an ideology that people need to be aware of before understanding this advertisement fully. Dentyne Ice did a series of advertisements which used words which were associated with the cyber world and applied it to real life situations.

In addition, Dentyne also made sure to use good looking people in their advertisements, proving that once again, sex sells. Their advertisements were pretty racy (not compared to fashion advertisements but for gum advertisement standards), as they were all focused on “making face time” and kissing; this advertisement in particular definitely embodies sexual qualities as four friends are suggestively lying on top of each other and one boy at the bottom has his shirt off, which definitely isn’t necessary to get Dentyne’s point across but is done anyway.

Furthermore, it is apparent that Dentyne included different races in these ads, but the fact that the seemingly “foreign” girl is put in the left corner and given the least space shows that she is valued the least and the fact that she is the lowest position shows a sense of subordination.

4 comments:

  1. i actually like this advertising campaign-you most certainly have a lot to work with in this single ad. I totally agree with you that they intentionally used good looking people however i don't necessarily think it's sexual. I look at it as a bunch of good ol' friends just "hangin' out." It could even be placed in a college setting since they appear to be in their PJs. But you do raise an interesting point about the two guys' chests being exposed, with one of them being completely shirtless. Why are only the girls fully clothed? Would it have been different if the guys were fully clothed and the girls were in sexy night gowns? Are they trying to target women by showing half naked men?

    The way the ad is shot also gives it that we're-not-trying-too-hard look. It looks like a "candid" picture, giving the audience the illusion that they're getting an inside, authentic look of a group of friends engaged in a face-to-face chatroom.

    Just trying to give some suggestions but of course, ultimately, the most important thing is how you view the ad. This should be a fun one to analyze. Good pick :)

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  2. Thanks for your input!:) Yeah I agree that there's a lot to analyze!

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  3. this is perfect!
    I like this ad series because they don't look overly "photoshopped" or something too unusual (although the shirtlessness is kinda pushing it) but rather just a casual photo of a bunch of friends having fun, making more face time. I feel like it emphasizes getting away from the virtual world more than it does the gum. (but I get it)

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  4. this is a really great ad i feel like theres tons you can say about it!

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