Noxzema’s “Take it off” advertisement

Noxzema’s “Take it off” advertisement

In the previous articles, we have touched upon the necessary theoretical background in order to analyse logos, imagos and any kind of advertisements with the help of semiotics and discourse analysis. From now on, the following articles will mainly be analysis of diverse advertisements, starting with the 50’s-60’s onwards. As I was surfing on the web for a source of inspiration, I found a TV ad which amused me by its extreme contrast with what we are used to watch nowadays. I would like you to first watch the video without reading my analysis and then re-watch it afterwards, so that I do not influence you in your personal interpretation of it. The semiotical analysis will be based on Machin’s (2007) Introduction to multimodal analysis.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho9XNfy6JBM

 

According to Machin, visual communication can be analysed in terms of social relations, that is how we as viewers relate to “the participants in the image, how we are encouraged to relate to them and how we are encouraged to assess them.” (p.109). The very first step of the analysis is to look at how the viewer is positioned in relation to the represented people. Firstly, we need to observe the gaze of the participants. Do they look at us or not? In this advertisement, there are two participants: a beautiful blond woman who is directly talking to us and her man who is shaving. The woman does look at us with an intense and seductive gaze, which goes with the charming connotation of her speech. The main functions are namely to acknowledge the viewer and to produce an image act; that is to ask us something. Machin argues that other factors determine this request, such as the way she plays with her natural assets to seduce the viewer. Indeed, the actress bites her necklace with sensuality to then drop it and letting appear a charming smile, full of tenderness, while holding the product in her hands as if it was an object of desire. If we listen to her discourse, she says that “Nothing takes it-off like Noxzema” to later continue with “Take-it off… Take it all off”. I guess the demand here is very explicit! The man, on the other hand, does not stare at us but at the imaginary mirror which supposedly stands behind the camera. However, he nearly looks at us, which creates a kind of link between the viewer and him. This kind of “not looking at the viewer” image is called an offer, which means that there is no request asked by the participant. Machin argues that it might be an invitation to get into the thoughts of the actor. Here, by looking at the satisfactory expression of the man, it is clear that men are more likely to “feel” the comfortable shaving the actor is having. Both actors more or less look at the horizon, even a little bit up, which emphasize the positive feeling and high status they have by using this lotion.

Then, Machin suggests the angle of interaction creates power relationships or also involvement. The camera is placed in front of the woman during the entire ad, which is done in such a way that it provokes a kind of tension to the viewer. In regard to the man, he is taken from a front angle as well, but this angle changes a few times in order to show the entire process of shaving. There is one moment where the angle is moving around him, which let us better observe the action than before. Ultimately, the distance between the viewer and the participants might either suggest intimacy or remoteness. In this advertisement, the camera only takes close shots, which create on the one hand intimacy with the seductive blonde woman, and a sense of identification with the male on the other hand.

The second step is to analyse the participants in the advertisement. In this case, there is a strong individualisation of both protagonists, which draws us closer to them. Also, there is a “positive” connotation in the sense that the woman is depicted as a kind of femme fatale, who seduces her man and is being seduced by him, whereas the actor is shaving to please his wife.  Another factor, which is the third step of the analysis, might help us to better understand the social relations in the ad. Machin calls it the functional semiotic of images; that is the agency in the images (who does what) and actions (what gets done) (p.123). In this ad, the agency is clearly to use the woman and her charms to convince the audience to buy the shaving cream, inducing that a man shaved with this product will be more likely to seduce his wife.

 

Source:

 

Machin, D. (2007). Introduction to multimodal analysis. London: Hodder Arnold

Marchand, R. (1985). Advertising the American Dream. Making Way for Modernity, 1920 –1940. Berkeley etc.: University of California Press.

Tungate, M. (2007). Adland: a global history of advertising. London and Philadelphia: Kogan Page Publishers

sarahn

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