Oneof the most interesting facets of advertising is targeting ads to the group or groups to whom you wish to sell your product. This probably works more often than we unwitting consumers are aware of, but such strategies can backfire as well. We see this all the time here at Dartmouth. College students, many with a satisfactory supply of disposable income, are a perfect group to focus on when selling a product.
While blatant appeals to "the college crowd" sometimes provide a good laugh, in a similar way that insincere campaign signs or ridiculous credit-card application packets can, such advertisements can also be very disappointing and cause a great deal of frustration for those of us who realize how stupid and ignorant the designers of these ads must think we are.
One of the most important dictums in the advertising business is to know your audience; looking at some particular ads that appeared in The Dartmouth in recent weeks, let us hope that the pitch-men have pinned us incorrectly.
The first advertisement that comes to mind is the quarter-page spot for Playboy on the second page of the April 3 issue. There are many insidious messages in this ad, which have already been examined in a recent column, and those will be left untouched for the time being. The dominant theme in the Playboy ad appears to be similar to something the character Vizzini says in "The Princess Bride" as they abduct the princess and attempt to start a war: "It's a prestigious line of work, with a long and glorious tradition." After all, many Playboy posers have moved on to careers in modeling, acting, etc.
Taken in this light, posing for Playboy can be seen as a twisted and perversely intimate mode of networking; what could be better than freeaccess to living rooms, locker rooms and executive suites on an international level?
Another ad that is particularly annoying and disturbing is the one for the LifeStyles "Condoms and Safer Sex in the 90's" Video Contest on the page seven of Mar. 28 issue. The copy reads, "Looking for people with sex on their mind! Must be willing to perform, creativity a plus! Call 1-800-551-5454."
Of course, it gets better; the message is super-imposed on the background of a bathroom stall with names and phone numbers scribbled on it, and a pay phone installed next to it. Let's forget about the obvious question, "What is that pay-phone doing in a public bathroom stall?", and look at the message that this particular advertisement is sending.
First of all, the copy is designed to catch your eye and get you interested in the contest. This is done by the classy and catchy slogan, "Looking for people with sex on their mind!" because after all, what do you expect of Dartmouth students anyway? Once this goal has been accomplished, one can call the convenient 800 number to register. The one catch that is not mentioned until the very end, and in smaller print, is that there is an "entry fee" of $9.95. When you register, you can even give them your credit card number to make it easier for them to take your money as you join the game and compete to win the prize.
Ignore the fact that this corporation cannot lose; it will make money from your entry fees even after it has paid out all the prize money. And, of course, the company will get a nice ad, hopefully one that appeals to us college students even more than theirs already does.
Why do we need to buy LifeStyle condoms? Maybe by being truthful and forthright about the reasons why we should be using these condoms, the company would shed a different light on the issue.
Consider these figures which can be obtained from the Alan Guttmacher Institute: More than one out of every five Americans are now infected with a viral, sexually transmitted disease (STD); even more Americans are likely to contract an STD during their life, and these diseases would have the greatest effect on women and those of us under the age of 25; twelve million new sexually transmitted infections occur each year, two-thirds of them to people under the age of 26 and one-fourth to teenagers.
By law the company's condoms do not even have to be 100 percent effective in preventing these physical consequences, and that latex sheath won't do much to help you with the emotional and spiritual fall-out.
The ad is truer than may have been intended. The condom corporate structure depends on such devastating consequences as a selling point leaving out that the way of life that they are suggesting is a large cause of the problems that they purport to alleviate. Their market expands as we become more promiscuous; we get "safe sex," casually or anonymously, and they get cash.
Could there be a link between this and the many other problems that we are now facing? Putting that question aside for a moment, there is no doubt that a link exists between the two ads that have been mentioned in this column -- the one is the natural result of the other's Hugh Hefner-inspired ethos.
Take a minute now and attempt to imagine an AIDS patient or any one of the 56 million Americans suffering from a viral STD right next to the beautiful and healthy Playboy models from the Ivy League. When will we get the picture?
