Chanel is a widely known brand that sells a variety of materialistic objects, from clothing and accessories to perfumes and colognes. In this Chanel advertisement, from the magazine Outside, Chanel has a cologne advertisement for their new Allure fragrance “Homme Sport.”The ad is a picture of a young, possibly 22 year-old man, who is both handsome and drenched in water. He is standing on a beach with his body showing from chest up and taking up approximately three fourths of the page. Behind him to the right is a few waves. He is staring at the bottom right hand corner where there is the product being advertised, a dark grey bottle of Allure’s fragrance, and in the top right corner is the Chanel logo printed in red.

The color schemed used in this advertisement is mostly of greys and blacks with one word bolded and printed in red in the upper right hand corner, “Chanel”. The color red represents beauty and sexuality thus personifying Chanel’s use of beautiful people in this advertisement.

Using beautiful people to advertise the product is Chanel’s most simply identified persuasive technique. They use an attractive male model to advertise that if you are purchasing this cologne, it will not only make you smell wonderful it will also make you look beautiful. This is planting a faulty idea into a man’s head that in order to be perceived as handsome you have to smell nice.

Symbolism is in this advertisement; the location of the cologne to the man in the photo is one symbol. The bottle of cologne is close to the location of the heart. Having the cologne bottle there symbolizes that the man in the photo keeps his cologne close to him, and that it means a lot to this individual. However, this throws off the consumer because they will purchase this cologne thinking that if it means a lot to this man, then it could mean a lot to them.
Group dynamics is in place because the consumer assumes if this man cares for this cologne then he should as well. And, he will think that other men his age will conform to this as well because they may feel self conscious when comparing themselves to this man. So, this conformity ends up having a snowball effect on the people that self consciously purchase this product when trying to conform to society.

Chanel omits key pieces of information. They don’t include the direct translation for the French words: “Homme” “Eau” and “extrême”. Thus, Chanel omits information that the reader may need to know in order to intelligently purchase this product. For example, a female could purchase this product if she didn’t know the translation of the word “Homme”. And another example, “Eau extreme” means extreme water. And the advertisement is of a wet man, who possibly just went swimming, with some riled up water in the background. This add implies that if you use this cologne you could possibly feel like you are wet, that even if you are completely dry you will stay cool from this cologne even in the hottest weather because of “extreme waters”. Other information that Chanel chooses not to include, is the price of the cologne, the smell of the cologne, how much cologne is in the bottle and who the model is. All of these points could influence whether or not someone is willing to purchase a product.

This ad is offensive to the everyday man who isn’t supermodel attractive nor in shape. The ad portraying a handsome young man implying that only attractive men can use this cologne, and only attractive men can maintain composure on “extreme waters” thus being insulting to those who can handle the extreme pressure of life while not being handsome nor in shape. Furthermore, this ad is objectifying men. Using a handsome man to sell their product is not only offensive to the male consumers because it makes them feel self conscious about their appearance. It is also offensive to those that believe the body is sacred and that it should not be exposed to the public eyes. This ad reinforces the gender bashing stereotype that not only do men have to be attractive to handle the waters of life, but that in order for men to be successful enough to afford this cologne they have to be handsome as well. A final stereotype is that men are supposed to be focused on one goal, they are supposed to be bullheaded. In this photo, the model ignores everything else in his surroundings and only concentrates on the cologne bottle. This is offensive to all men because it projects this sex in a poor way that all men are bullheaded, while not all are.

Chanel uses powerful, subliminal techniques of persuasion to encourage the consumers to purchase their product. Through symbolism and beautiful people, Chanel portrays an above average man, through reinforcing the stereotypical definition of a powerful man. The values portrayed in the ad are not the values that most men would want to be publicized about themselves, vanity and bullheadedness. Both characteristics that no one would want broadcasted about themselves. Chanel portrays a handsome man able to handle the “extreme waters” of life, but in all actuality, anyone can do it.