My own Interpretation

Today I am going to try and analyze a subliminal message in an ad by myself. There is this website that shows you a few ads and then asks you to try and analyze it yourself. So today, I am going to try and do that. Below you will find the link to the ad that I am going to analyze.



http://www.goatstar.org/CanadaDrySex.jpg



Now although in that picture of the ad the word, "sex" is blatantly spelled out in the ice cubes, I think that there is more going on in the picture besides just the word, "sex." What I think is that the creator of this ad took into careful consideration the placement of every object in the ad. What confused me at first about the ad was the knife. Now, I know that it is there because it cut the lime, but that almost seems out of place to me. I think the knife is there for a more subliminal reason. After looking at the ad, I think that the knife and the word, "sex" in the ice cubes are meant to mean something when put together. Maybe when you use Canada Dry Tonic Water as a mixer you will have violent sex? I don't really know. All I know is that when you really look at the ad, the knife seems out of place. I also noticed that there is a puddle of water by the knife that could symbolize blood. That puddle of water was also placed there very carefully as to convey a violent message.



So now that I have given my opinion on the ad, let's look at what Bill Chapman, the teacher who created this website, has to say about the ad.



Well Chapman sort of follows along the same lines as me, in that he believes that the ad is meant to convey a violent message. Although he takes his one step further. He says that the knife laying there threatens castration if targeted at men. He goes further to say that this ad if targeted at women, targets the women who get beat up by drunk men. He says that the knife is there to get back at the drunk men.



So overall, Chapman and I realized the same ideas of violence in the ad. Chapman, however, went a bit further to explain himself as to what sort of violence. To me, his interpretation seems a bit far stretched with the whole castration conclusion. I feel like there really is no evidence to support the castration theory. But, overall, the ideas that the ad contained violence were ever present in both of our theories.



Well, this concludes my last blog post. I had a great time learning about subliminal messages in ads, and surprisingly in Disney movies. I had no idea so many companies used subliminal messages in their advertising. Overall, I feel this topic has inspired me to keep a look out for such ads in the media.

Reference: http://subliminaladvertising-caitlin.blogspot.com/2008_11_01_archive.html