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Hostess: Advertisers have used beauty to sell fashion and glamour products to women for decades and now it's being used to hawk other products too,everything from beer ,the breakfast food to cars,like this one,from General Motors.
Chev(rolet) Cobalt has more standard horsepower than the TOYOTA Corolla or HONDA Civic and the 5-year, 60 thousand-mile power- train warranty. COBALT--An American REVOLUTION.
Hostess: Barbara Lippert is a critic for Adweek Magazine. Hi again, Barbara.
Barbara Lippert:Hi,Hannah.
Hostess: What's the point of head-head, if it makes you feel younger to drive a car like that?
Barbara Lippert: Well~It's not very generous to the woman who needs a face left-drive. (Really?) Actually it's appealing to the younger girls ,so maybe she's hostile feelings about her mother. No~It's only a visual metaphor about the speed(It's not that obvious) yeah and there's another one, a boy who gets his ears pinned back so it's certainly not politically correct in any way, it's just telling you about strict horse power...and they have never sold horsepower to women before so that's new~
Hostess: So,what's the advertiser trying to do?
Barbara Lippert: Tell you that with this speed you know~you'll convert your mother.
Hostess: OK~Barbara~OK~I~I~don't know if that's a motivation to buy or not. What we are seeing here is this trend of using beauty and sth that might, you know appeal to someone like a beauty product,where it's one thing in the print ad,right? It's actually about something completely different and this is nothing new using beauty to sell products,correct?
Barbara Lippert: But there is a new twist , a sort of post-modern twist like the McDonald's ad that you showed before, you know, that's a really good looking ad(Let's show that McDonald's ad here. Now,this looks like a mascara ad, OK?)that that that's a good looking eyeball, I would say(right) and it's much better looking than that pancake so it's couldn't get your attention than the eye gets your attention. I don't know whether it's kidding by saying you are gonna have long lustrous lashes or they're telling you because you can buy your breakfast, ...,you know in the car and go like this with your lashes, you know....
Hostess: Why,What it says is one another 20 minutes of meet time in the morning,when you do what I do?
Barbara Lippert: Right. Right, you know instead of this, while you are driving,but they know that women are time crunched,and that's a big trigger for women,you know,the multitasking in the time crunched. And so and I'm hoping that there is sort of saying it in a kidding way,because we know in the 50s ,advertisers gave everybody anxiety,you know,is your house clean enough? is your ,are your teeth bright enough? you know,is your floor waxy enough? and they aren't doing that any more,people don't believe that promise, miracle ,solution any more ,and so they are sort of kidding about that kind of familiar ad.
Hostess: Let's take a look at another ad,and I think it's pretty clever for Citi Group,(I quite agree.)because it actually makes sense here. Sort of discribe what Citi Group is trying to do ,they say "You really can prevent worry lines,Get a better retirement plan".
Barbara Lippert: Get a better retirement plan. And I think that's excellent,because it's sort of making fun of the fact that you can't prevent worry lines and it's also speaking to women saying this is what's important,you know,you might be spending your money on your lipsticks,but this is what's important,not everyone has the husband and can build a dream house the way we are used to seeing those retirement commercials,you'd better start thinking about you ,yourself.
Hostess: There's another Citi Group ad that's pretty clever too,at first glance it looks like a shampoo ad, but it says"Forget about split ends.Let's talk about dividends".
Barbara Lippert: And ,but you know,banking is a very dull subject,and they never speak to women directly like this. So it's just saying that this is about you, it's not about ,you know ,buliding for your family,it's not about ,you know , dreaming about what can be, this is reality. You've got to sit down and think about this, and it's more important than split ends.
Hostess: So are these ads actually getting womens' attention? More so that they like the standard ad?
Barbara Lippert: I think they are getting ,you know,certain things are triggers ,they look familiar and you wanna read it, but they are not breaking any new ground ,that's for sure.We need a new way of talking about women. And the interesting thing is that the only new image that I can think of is Gena Davis,as the president.
Hostess: em,right
Barbara Lippert: You know ,and, but Donald Caren had a female president ten years ago,(Right.)but she's wearing a boostie A and she was a model,so that was the problem there,but slowly advertisers will get there ,because it's all new.
Hostess: I know ,but sex still sells,doesn't it?Sex and beauty. (absolutely. It's all vanity.)Let's take a look at this ad for TideOPM ,like you said vanity,I mean another ad that looks like this would be for a facial moisturizer. Right?
Barbara Lippert: Right,right,and it looks she's really having a great time with that facial moisturizer, but...
Hostess: Let's says,sleep for a natural glow that won't smudge or smear during the day ,hello,you know, that's for Tide OPM.
Barbara Lippert: This is one that I like less ,because you know,it's talking about flawless skin and beauty,you have a lot more problems,if you are not getting a good night sleep ,you know,you have a lot more problems with your health and not just your skin,so I think...
Hostess: Does this just explain that sort of pop cultures,obessesion with outlooks and it has nothing to do with women in the elector,(Exactlly. So) or ability to choose products in an intelligent way,like someone is like figuring you out untill you're reading about their product.
Barbara Lippert: It's not flattering your intellegence,you know.
Hostess: It's not .Does that bother you?
Barbara Lippert: Yeah,I, some of them are better than others as with the Citi Bank thing ,but I do think that advertisers wanna use the familar,because they only have a tiny bit amount of time to get your attention,and so they think they will with this, if they showed you an asprin pill ,or if they showed you an ugly-looking flap jack,you know, you really wouldn't look.
Hostess: All right,Barbara Lippert from ADWEEK ,thanks ,as always.
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