Audience of the 1960s Lingerie Ad

For the Warners "Floating Bra Corselette" lingerie ad, the targeted audience are middle-age women. These women are looking to feel sexy and "free" - as quoted on the ad itself. Using a woman who appears to be around the same age, will give the targeted customers a sense of hope to achieve the beauty that the woman in the ad displays. In the 60s, the feminist movement was prevalent, and this ad plays into that by showing a woman being "free", and not being restricted. The targeted middle-age women will be knowledgable of this feminist movement; some may even be apart of it. This correlation ties into the women buying the product as they enjoy the ad and how it displays the woman.

Audience of the 2014 Victoria's Secret Ad

When Victoria's Secret created their "A Body for Every Body" ad, they were targeting young impressionable girls, or girls who want to feel sexy. Looking at this ad, these girls see all of the stick-thin models with seemingly perfect bodies. Victoria's Secret knows that impressionable girls will see this ad and want to buy the lingerie, hoping to achieve the body image displayed. These girls will focus on the caption, making them blind to the fact that all the models look the same instead of showing "every body". On the other side, the girls that view this ad and want to feel sexy will immediately be interested in buying the lingerie. Seeing the confident, sexy models posing in the clothing will entice the customers to purchase the lingerie, as they hope to achieve the same amount of sex appeal. Victoria's Secret knows exactly who their audience is when creating these advertisements for their lingerie. 

Rhetoric Analysis & Stasis Theory in the 2014 VS Ad

With Victoria Secret being one of those most popular and advertised lingerie stores, the women of this century are led to desire a naturally slim figure. Women are not afraid to show skin anymore whether it is too much skin or too little. As shown by Victoria Secret model, Adriana Lima, with a slim body and plump curves, one should never be afraid to show off her body. This new ideal of a naturally slim body gives women who have one more confidence and the women who do not a self-esteem issue. Stasis Theory can help us discover the claim and the influence the 2014 Victoria Secret ad has on women today:

• The conjecture for this Victoria Secret ad is a group of women with "perfect" bodies, a slim waist and large breasts. The slogan is "A Body for Everybody" which implies that everybody should have a body like one of these women which has no variety in shape.     
• From  the 1960's to now, slim bodies have always been desired. With the promotion of this body type, the self-esteem of women will be affected. Those with this body will be raised and without this body will be lowered. 
• The value of this ad would be negative. The models will give women one desired appearance. There is no promotion for freedom or encouragement, but that everybody should have this body. Every woman should feel comfortable in her skin and have her own idea of her desired body. The world has variety sizes of women which should be promoted by Victoria Secret who make lingerie for all sizes of women. The product promoted have different sizes so should their models.
• The actions women can take now is either wear or not wear Victoria Secret lingerie or find another line of lingerie. 
• The advertisers for Victoria Secret should handle this matter in advertisements to compliment all their customers and the women of the world. Women should also take into their hands how they want to handle Victoria Secret, whether they want to shop there or not and/or make an issue of the misrepresentation of women. 

Victoria Secret wants women to think that if they wear the Victoria Secret product, they will look more like these models which is not true. Women come in all shapes and sizes which will become insecurities and self-esteem issues for women who do not look like these models. 

Rhetoric Analysis & Stasis Theory in the 1960's Lingerie Ad

Fashion was one of the first major changes in the 1960's feminist movement. The new trend of fashion showed more skin to ultimately change the view of women in the American culture. With more skin displayed, women craved to have a more attractive body. Sophia Loren from the film Millionairess (shown to the left) wears a corset to give her a waist "to die for." Skinny waists were most desirable in the 1960's.


This new sense of fashion made women feel empowered and in control of their lives and bodies. With the power in their hands, women felt freer which is promoted in the advertisement for Warner's Free Lift corset.




By applying stasis theory, we can dissect the meaning of this advertisement:

• The conjecture for this advertisement is a woman wearing a corset making her waist slimmer and curves more apparent which is what the women of the 1960's desired. The woman is holding an empty bird cage as the bird flies away to show that women who wear the corset will feel as free as a bird. 
• This ad made a slimmer waist more desirable causing women to wear more corsets at a tighter setting which later became a problem later in the 1960's. 
• The value of this advertisement is positive in some aspects by giving women the impression that they will be more free which they were craving in the 1960's. On the other hand, the women would be wearing a corset and not giving her body freedom which gives her body a more negative value if it's not as slim as the woman in the ad. For women who want and contain a slimmer waist, the ad is positive because they feel as though they will be free. For women who wouldn't want to wear corsets or are too large to be as slim as the woman in the ad, this has a negative value because they will feel as though they can never be free.
• The action women took was to take control over their bodies and made their own decisions whether they were to wear a corset or not and control how tight they would wear it to achieve the desired slim look. This made women freer in their appearance.
• Women and advertisement managers have the right to handle these matters. Women  can take the advertisement how they please while advertisement managers have to consider how it will make women feel and if it will sell the product.

The advertisement for Warner's Free Lift corset argues that women who wear the corset will feel free as a bird which actually gives women the freedom to control the appearance of her body. 

Logos in Both Ads

 

 

 

 

 

Above are two advertisements for lingerie, one from the 1960s and the other from 2014. Both advertisements effectively use logos to appeal to their audience’s idea that everyone wants to be “perfect” and “beautiful”.  They appeal to their demographic of young women most likely between the ages of 20 and 35. In the 1960s advertisement they appeal to logos through the use of images. The image of what may have been an average looking women at the time, would persuade whoever saw it to buy Warners’ Floating Bra Corselette Lingerie. They also use the slogan “Feel free to be beautiful”. The modern advertisement by Victoria’s Secret appeals to the audience’s logic by using supermodels to advertise their lingerie. The image of the slim, young looking supermodels with the slogan “The Perfect Body” is used to get young women to buy the lingerie featured in the ad. They create the allusion that wearing the lingerie will make you feel as though you have “the perfect body”.