Advertisements can be found almost anywhere people in society look. They have been around for centuries, and can easily be found on our televisions, billboards, social media, and the radio. Over time they have gotten better with technological advancements, and have noticed what grabs the audience’s attention and uses that to their advantage. Often times, people do not even realize the effects an ad can have on influencing your decisions. A person may be walking down the street to the local fresh market, and pass an irresistible Burger King ad. It then makes it harder for them to decide whether or not they should continue on with their healthy choice or turn around and go for the one that was so effectively advertised. One of the biggest forms of advertisements are fast-food ads. Creators of advertisements target many ages and different groups of people. They do a lot of research to find things out like what age groups are more likely to fall for an ad. “In some ways, you’re more vulnerable [to advertising] once you hit middle or high school than you were when you were younger, because you’re more independent” (Reiff 1). Not only are you more independent, but this is the age where a kid’s mind starts to expand, and they become more curious.  This is a really good way to grab the viewer’s attention, especially with this type of advertisement portrayed. By looking at Gender roles, origin and dark/light contrast, we can see how these two factors play an important role in convincing a consumer to buy a certain brand of food, which most people do not see. This is important because without these methods, the advertisement would not be as effective.

In this advertisement, it shows an older, attractive female about to bite into one of Burger King’s sandwiches. This advertisement first wanted to grab the attention of men, or technically speaking, anyone attracted to females. By slightly sexualizing the picture, it almost shocks the viewer. It is known that people will most likely turn to something that appeals to their curious minds than something plain and simple. Showing this advertisement in a sexual way that makes you want to buy the product, it creates an image in your head that is hard to forget about. 

By making the female young and attractive, it shows many women that it is healthy enough to be something they choose to consume. A lot of women spend hours working on their appearance and overall health. They tend to read several articles, watch videos and see on social media how other women look and what it took to look that way. The majority of them care too much about their body image that they will avoid unhealthy foods as much as they can. But when an attractive woman with clear skin, a skinny face (and body), perfect make-up and healthy glowing hair is choosing this meal, it convinces others to do the same. If instead there were a middle aged women with chubby features, acne on her oily pores and no make-up on, it would not be far as effective as it is with the lady showed in this advertisement.

When looking at the way the advertisement was done, we can see how it shows a very light and dark contrast. Since the brightest point is in the woman’s face, that is what the viewer would notice first. This is very effective when trying to make something stand out. Since the creator of this advertisement chose to use an attractive woman, he made it to where she better stands out. Also, the big bold white words in the front play an important role. By using a play on words (It’ll blow your mind away), it grabs the viewers’ attention by using a shock technique. It is almost as if it is just a sexual ad, but in reality it is Burger King’s way of attracting previous and new consumers. If it were simple and to the point, it would not stay in someone’s head as long as this almost too inappropriate to be an ad would.

This advertisement being made in Singapore has a great effect on it. Because it is such a shocking statement, it brings up many questions. But, people have to realize that different things are appropriate from country to country. For example, it is obvious that most American women in this day and age would find this ad to be degrading. Because they are using a female as a sexual object, it would most likely offend and disgust many American women. But because it is in a foreign country, one must keep in mind that different cultures have different ideals. Even though it appears to be an American woman, it was put together in a different country.

Advertisements are everywhere, but are also so different depending on the culture and country it is made in. On the contrary, they still use the basic elements to grab the viewer’s attention. In this example, it portrayed many of the effective ways to properly make an advertisement one that grabs the attention of many different types of people. By using gender roles, it appealed to both men and women. This helps because the more people it attracts, the more consumers the brand has that want to buy the specific product. When giving background on the origin, it gives the viewer a better understanding of why it was created a certain way. Something that may be considered rude and offensive in one type of culture, might be something normal and non-offensive to another type. Dark/light contrast is also a very good way to make an ad, specifically certain points of an ad, pop out. When using something effectively, like an attractive woman, you want it to leave its mark. When you focus all the lighting on that certain spot, it helps to bring the point across and better convince a consumer to buy this product. Advertisements are much more effective when using these elements within them.
