Myths and ideology in ads

Myths

 

Taxotere

 The Taxotere’s ad is a tableau of Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People. Pink silk flags substitute for sabres, muskets, pistols, and tricolour in the original painting to evoke the pink ribbons of the (drug industry sponsored) breast cancer awareness campaign. It implies that commitment and belief are more important than blades and bullets in the fight against breast cancer, a message simplified by removing the naked and dead littering the foreground of original.

 

 

Mini Cooper

 

In this Chinese Mini Copper’s adverts an Ancient Greek mythology had been used. The ad uses a story of the Trojan Horse. The Trojan Horse is a tale from the Trojan War about the subterfuge that the Greeks used to enter the city of Troy and end the conflict.

 

 

 

 

Agent Provocateur

Ads from the Valentine’s Day luxe British lingerie line Agent Provocateur new collection called Virgins. It can be seen that the ad campaign features surreal and sexed-up scenes borrowed from Ancient Greek mythology, capturing nymphs and satyrs cavorting in approved Dionysian style.

 

 

 

 

Icebreaker

Icebreaker is one of the most successful companies producing Merino wool clothing. This brand is known for using evocative images in their advertising, and we can see it in its Summer 2010 ads. In one a fair-skinned, wide-eyed naked woman rides a dark-skinned, naked Merino-ram-headed man who is at least three times her size. Another ad shows a white-haired woman with sheep ears. Beast-humans have a long mythological history—witness creatures like satyrs, centaurs, and the Minotaur. According to Greek legend the Minotaur, born with the head of a bull and the body of a man, was the offspring of a mating between the wife of Minos, ruler of Crete, and the Cretan Bull. We can suspect that Icebreaker is merely pushing the notion of symbiosis into mythological imagery.

 

 

Nina Ricci

The new Nina by Nina Ricci was released in France in July 2006. In this advert we can notice a usage of mythology. Nina is an allusion to an "apple of love", as the story line goes, suggesting to "Give way to temptation..." thus conflating ancient stories or beliefs about Eve in the Garden of Eden as well as The Judgement of Paris. The latter chose Aphrodite as being the fairest over Hera and Athena by giving her a golden apple marked with the words, "to the fairest" because the goddess of love had promised him he would be granted the most beautiful woman in the world, i.e., Helen, wife of Menelaus. All these ideas are hinted at with a pretty figurative flacon of a red-pink apple adorned with silver leaves.

 

Ideology

 

Martini Gold

The Dolce and Gabanna’s Martini Gold advert , came out in 2010. In this portrait we see a beautiful woman in the centre. This gorgeous woman, in her pretty black dress, is being surrounded by handsome men, in what seems to be a classy bar.
They are painting the picture of how the perfect women should look. We see how three guys are trying to get her attention. She seems to like the fact she is being admired, like she is on top of the world. This, besides the fact that she is placed in the centre, makes her the dominant figure in this portrait.We can decode an ideology of this ad: The feeling of power, women are in charge, upper-class customers etc.

 

 

Louis Vuitton

This full page image appears next to an ad for Louis Vuitton shoes which is titled, “The Craftsman with his Brush.” A picture of a craftsman painting a shoe’s sole transfers an ideology of LV’s products being a masterpiece, a unique thing which costs a lot but worth its price.