What the Hail?

One of the smartest ways that the media works is in advertising, and it does so in a sly manner. A now popular form of advertising is to target certain audiences by showing them what positive changes can be made to their lives with a certain product, even if the product is completely irrelevant to that aspect of life. This is how companies advertise themselves.

With the recent outrage on who the CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch, Mike Jeffries, wants to target with his clothing, I decided to look into A&F advertisements. With no surprise, I found that almost all of their advertisements were of half naked teenagers. The ad in the following link (http://robertmoss.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/abercrombie-fitch1.jpg?w=640) is made to target adolescent boys and girls alike. For me, it implies that if I shopped at their store, I would be much more popular among attractive young men (and vice versa), although there is hardly any clothing being advertised. Although this marketing does not attract me, it is successful based on the impact of A&F, which to say the least, is huge. “When we think of our own subjectivities it is helpful to see both the autonomous power we have…and the determined quality of our identity or subjectivity” (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, pg 190).

For example, an image of an “average” teenage girl appears, followed by an image of mascara, and followed again by an image of that same girl with flawless skin, dressed attractively, and edited to perfection. Although the last image did not pay particular attention to the use of mascara, the advertisement was made in such a manner that it allowed the targeted audience (teenage girls) to make a connection between purchasing this product and resembling the flawless and perfect physical appearance. This is what A&F has done with that advertisement.

Jeffries recently said that he only wants to see the “attractive kids” wearing his clothes and that they are designed to fit a certain physique – the tall and attractive girls, and the athletic and muscular guys. While many people found this outrageous and consequentially boycotted A&F, another group found that if this is the image that A&F was targeting, they could improve their own image by wearing that clothing: “If we accept values…then we carry those ideologies as part of who we are. The idea here is that our identities (our concepts of who we are) are…constructed…” (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, pg 184).

Whether or not these advertising schemes successfully represent me is debatable based on my views of the media. This applies equally to everyone in my demographic. In general, I can conclude that they work based on the success of the advertiser. Abercrombie and Fitch, although controversial in its marketing, has successfully reached its target audience and, as a result, is a very successful clothing company. Instead of saying that they did not reach their entire target audience, I prefer to think that I (and anyone else it does not effectively reach)  am not part of their target because I have seen myself fall for this scheme with others. Ultimately, it is an effective marketing strategy.