Cologne and perfume advertisements have always had an essence about them that has caused ridicule. They often have a goal of promoting an idea of “sexiness” or “appeal” to their viewers. They do this by portraying an individual who is possibly getting his or her way with a partner because they have an appeal or sexiness to them because of the cologne or perfume they have used, but must cologne and perfume companies use controversial gender roles to promote their product? The name of this specific cologne/perfume is “reveal,” which alone begins to promote that idea and has what could be an interesting idea behind it. It seems that the name “reveal” could possibly refer to the user of the product being able to reveal the partner-of-their-choice’s body. The selected advertisement is the male cologne version of this product and has a target audience of most likely young men around ages eighteen to around thirty-five. This advertisement persuades its viewers and promotes its product using a visual appeal to attract the eye and an appeal to emotion.

The setting of this advertisement seems to be in some sort of nice, elegant room perhaps during or after a nice, formal event. The male in the image appears to be wearing a nice button down shirt with a blazer. He has his hair brushed nicely and looks like he is dressed for a nice occasion. The woman in this image appears to be nude. She appears to be hugging, holding, and hanging onto the male in the picture. She also seems to possibly be smelling the man as if his scent is pleasing to her. The man also has his hand wrapped around the naked female and has his hand placed toward the bottom of the back of her torso. There seems to be some sort of drape or curtain behind them with what looks like the shadows of the outlines of big city buildings. They could possibly be in front if a window with a sheer in front of it and that could be the city outline that appears, or they could be opposite a window that looks out to a big city and that could be projecting a shadow off onto them and the curtain behind them.

The advertisement first uses lighting to optimize its effect on the viewer. Because the target audience for this product is a young man from the possible ages of eighteen to the early thirties, the advertisement uses something that easily gets the attention of the target: the female body. The general male public is attracted to females and the sex appeal of their bodies. This is something that this company knows and has decided to utilize to their own advantage. This advertisement uses this idea to attract its audience/’s attention specifically through lighting. The lighting of this image attracts the eye to the nude body of the female in the picture. The lighting in this image effectively emphasizes two things that the company would like its viewers to notice and pay attention to: the contours of the women’s body and the name of the product and the product itself. The company wants the lighting to draw the eye of the viewer to the product so that they know what the advertisement is promoting, and it wants the lighting to draw the eye to the female body because this company knows the effect this can have on the target audience.

The advertisement also uses a form of pathos and seeks to harp on an appeal to its viewer’s emotion. The main idea of the advertisement seems to be the general idea of many advertisements, especially those in this field of cologne and perfume. This idea that the advertisement seeks to promote is that if one uses their product, they will be able to accomplish what the advertisement depicts. This means that this company is using this image to try to get its young male audience to believe that if they use this particular cologne, they will be able to “reveal” their desired female partner, and will be able to have that desired partner clinging onto them while she is without clothes and fully “revealed.” This is an appeal to emotion by the company because the creators of the advertisement know that this is a desire of many men in the targeted audience, so they will feel inclined to purchase the product because of their emotion, creating a successful use of pathos.

The text in this advertisement is also interesting to note. In the text, the image reads “A NEW FRAGRANCE FOR HIM #REVEALMORE” (Klein). This is interesting because it seems that it is even more of a blatant claim that the goal of the entire advertisement is to promote that in using this product, a male can reveal more of a woman and her body. Other aspects of the advertisement more subtly promote this, but this line is quite obvious and deliberate in its message to the viewer.

In assessing the effectiveness of this advertisement, I would say that ultimately it is ineffective in its rhetorical strategy. I believe that this advertisement does indeed get the attention of a person in the target demographic range if they were to come across it in a magazine or internet page or some other media source, however, I would venture to say that it is also ultimately ineffective because it only goes as far as attracting the attention of the target. I do not believe its appeal to the viewer − that it is a necessary purchase − is effective because a viewer may simply be drawn to the image, but put aside the idea that purchasing this cologne will actually affect their chances of being a part of an actual situation like the one depicted in the image. While some viewers may fall victim to believing what the company wants them to believe, I think many viewers will have enough rational to understand that it is simply an advertisement attempting to persuade, not that it has any concrete merit to its ideas, therefore making the rhetorical goal of the advertisement ineffective.
