This is an imperative Ad about smoking Marlboro cigarettes and how its superior mildness and fine taste makes you want to escape into a different, luxurious, and exotic world. But what are the implicit details of this advertisement?
This Ad was brought out in the 1950's, a time when airplanes were first commercialized. Well you may ask, SO?? Well travelling in an aircraft wasn't very economical nor very cheap back then and only the affluent people had the money to spend on it. This is the ESCAPE bit as in the Ad the picture is of the Archway of Santa Catalina in Antigua, Guatemala which was a very popular and exotic tourist destination for the Americans in the 1950's. The fun bit though is some people might think the people in the picture are actually in Guatemala but they are two separate ones and the couple's photo might have been taken in America itself :P
This aspect of international travel which 'virtually' (weasel word) everyone likes to do, draws in the readers and then they are persuaded to look at the captions or statements made by Marlboro. A very intelligent move as it marginalizes no one from it. The reason is because people might think that they can smoke Marlboro like the affluent people and still get their experience right in America. I mean it is one way to look at it...... Also in another perspective, we can see that the Ad actually might be marginalizing the poor people or even the middle class and would persuade them this way into buying Marlboro cigarettes.
Philip Morris really knew what he was doing. You probably can't see, but just below the cigarette packet it reads 'Ivory tips, Plain tips, Beauty tips (red)'. This caption proves that Marlboro is for everyone and also women can have it because the red beauty tips would have prevented lipstick marks on the cigarettes. It also shows ivory tips and plain tips to draw men in as just saying beauty tips would have marginalized men. This is because, men in the 1950's were increasingly hesitant to buy cigarettes marketed towards women. Smooth.....
Also stating that Marlboros have finer taste and superior mildness brings out the stereotype back then that women were weak and wanted mild and soft things. It also brings out a 'unique and different' claim by saying 'So, if you need a change, remember.....' which states that Marlboro cigarettes are beyond the norm and is not common. It kind of marginalizes people who don't smoke often by saying that 'Marlboros are better in everyway, for those who smoke throughout the day'. But this in a way tells the people who smoke often that they are special and they need a change and hence implicitly persuading them to buy Marlboros to increase profits......
I guess these persuasive advertisements that include all the advertising claims that I have learnt of :P further proves why Marlboro is the largest selling brand of cigarettes to date.
