Textual Analysis Of A Woman

Has it ever been brought to one’s attention that there are three important elements that distinguish one advertisement from another? These elements are time, place, and audience. There is a specific advertisement that will be explored to actually explain and showcase these three elements. That advertisement would be “What Do Women Really Want” done in 2013 by Gillette, a brand for shaving products. This advertisement uses a man who goes around at a party and talks to three women individually, who all prefer their man to be shaven a different way. Then, a narrator explains the shaver’s capabilities. Finally, the advertisement finishes with the man at the party saying, “the night is yours.” If the Gillette shaver ad had been written in a different time or place or language for a different audience, the ad might as well have not used the difference in gender to convey its meaning, or might not have existed at all.

If there were a different audience, and Gillette were aware of that, they might have not used gender to the extent they did to speak their piece. Which is to get men to buy their shavers. Building on that, the audience intended to be reached by Gillette is adult men. Their hope is men will be tempted to buy the shaver. The other angle is that women will be interested by the shaver too. A result of the ad portraying that men will be even sexier than before, better yet, they can get the exact sexy shave the woman is looking for. Looking at men again, there is a sense of pathos in that if one doesn’t utilize the shaver’s capabilities, he might as well not be manly, or manly enough to get the woman he wants. Finally, targeting this ad to woman in addition to men is an intelligent marketing strategy, which in theory will result in more sales of the shaver, because they were able to appeal to a larger