|
|
West
West is a German brand owned by the British company Imperial Tobacco.
West was the principal sponsor of the McLaren Formula One team, renamed West McLaren Mercedes from 1997 to July 2005.
West terminated its relationship with McLaren due to a European Union ban on tobacco advertising.
West cigarette advertising, once again maintains a long tradition of attempting to
maintain an association with cigarette smoking
and sexual behaviour.
The cannot present their message as overtly as they would like so they have to resort to covert means
of presenting their message. Viewers appreciate the contribution of the models and their meaning but this can be discounted.
It is after all pretty obvious.
However, what they do not appreciate are the supplementary, semi-subliminal,
elements that also present the same type of message. If these are attended to uncritically and
become part of the store of mental imagery that viewers relate to cigarettes it is not surprising that cigarettes are deemed sexy.
Various German cigarette brands make use of semi-subliminal content in their advertising.
Marlboro use this technique ad as does Winfield. West also seems to be another brand
that draws upon semi-subliminal content to enhance a particular interpretation of an ad or to add additional meaning.
Despite the ad on the right being a German ad, the caption is in English.
'Test it' would clearly make sense to literate, English speakingextract showing embedded element in horses leg Germans.
But would they be sufficiently sophisticated or ad-literate to appreciate that what is to be tested is not simply West cigarettes?
The sexual interpretation of this second Test It ad is very similar to that evident above.
In this ad, published shortly after the ad discussed above, a woman in a red dress is clearly sitting in a suggestive pose.
This is more overtly suggestive than the pose of her predecessor. However the message is pretty much the same.
|
|
|
 |
|
