Ad analysis

Fruit of the Loom recently published an ad in the latest “Sports Illustrated” advertising their new men’s white t-shirt. Since it is published in this magazine, their obvious target market is boys and men probably ranging from ages ten to sixty.  These boys and men all also have one thing in common, they enjoy sports.  Generally people that subscribe to sports illustrated are middle class but some buy it issue by issue. This is a prime location for an ad about white tees, which are generally worn by men under dress shirts or even just as casual wear.  Other ads contained in this magazine also pertain to this geographic. There is one ad with a famous basketball star selling the “got milk” slogan.  The demographic of the target audience is made quite clear by the ad and the product.  The ad effectively employs pathos, logos, and ethos to appeal rhetorically to their audience through such things as

Pertained in the ad is a very relaxed looking male in what appears to be his late thirties. He is walking down the street with his noticeably ripped chest and broad shoulders. He has almost that air of confidence but while being very relaxed and cool at the same time. The ad contains a woman on the right in a picture who appears to be starring at him. She has very bright red lipstick that draws your attention to her. Once you get past the lipstick, you notice her large glasses frames. Inside these frames are her dark eyes that you realized are fixed on the man walking down the road. You then start to notice the whole ad is pointing to the man walking down the road. Literally pointing at him. There is an arrow pointing down from a movie theatre directly above him. The man is conveniently just passing a left turn only sign that is pointing straight at him. Cleverly, the ad has the man perfectly in front of a van that is pulling out approximately ten feet behind him. The van is a sales van for a company whose logo is the sun. Yes, you guessed it, the man is positioned directly in the middle of the sun. Even better is the clock that is hanging off of the building right next to him. The time is cleverly 6:35, which means both arrows, are pointing at a southwest angle. The clock is northeast of him. The hands of the clock are even pointing at the man in the magical white tee.  Last but not least there is a traffic cop in the road. He is directing traffic to what appears to be the man since he is pointing directly at him.

The ad appears to be trying for the cool, laid back, nothing wrong with us image.  Credibility is trying to be achieved by their slogan, “The new men’s tee. A fit you can’t ignore.” This is followed by their famous symbol of fruits. Everyone knows this symbol and the company knows that. The company takes advantage of this because it symbolizes tradition. If you were to ask someone to name a company that makes white t-shirts, number one on their list would undoubtedly be fruit of the loom. They also add their website at the bottom. The website name is fruit.com. That is actually a pretty big deal if you are the people who hold the copyright to a website that is called fruit.  All these things contribute to the ethos of the ad.

Fruit of the loom comes right out and let’s you know what point they want to sell. At the very bottom it states, “ Feels softer. Holds its shape better. Lies flat in the collar.” All of these things are small gripes that people have ever had about the classic white t-shirt. They are trying to cover all the bases of the peoples wants with their t-shirts. Who wouldn’t want to buy a t-shirt that was softer and had a better shape? That is exactly what they are trying to get across. If you look at the man in the picture and the shirt he is wearing, all these things seem to be apparent.

This ad does not do too much in the pathos department. There is no real emotion you get from this ad other then a sort of relaxed one. Which is what they are actually going for because that is how you should feel when you wear the shirt. All the colors in the picture are very soft and light. Nothing quite jumps out at you being to bright and such.  The man is a pretty good looking guy so woman that read this ad will definitely divert their eyes to him and possibly think, if I buy this shirt for my husband, maybe he will look like this.  We all know that’s not true but woman will be more inclined to buy this product if the man wearing it is what they deem as very attractive.

I believe the ads objective is not to be boastful or to outgoing but more clever and subliminal. The ad doesn’t jump out at you but it is very interesting at the same time. It makes you stop and take time to look at, and the more you look at it, the more you notice in the ad. From the arrows to the woman starring at the man to the traffic cop pointing at him. You stop and look at the ad and go, hmm that is very clever. It is a win win ad. They have a great tradition and just use the logo to do most of the work while giving the reader a little something to think about. Their claims are not outrageous because all of this is revolved around a white t-shirt. That’s what it comes down to, selling this white t-shirt. But since you can’t really do too much with a simple white t-shirt, they use their tradition, simple design, and implicit details to compliment it. They combine ethos, pathos, logos, and other devices to successfully sell a product that is as simple of a product as you can get.