Everywhere you go advertising is all around us. It is important to study as it tells us about how the mind reacts to pictures, colors, and words and how the right mix of these tools can subconsciously force us into buying products that we would usually not consider buying. Rance Crain states:.
"Only eight percent of an ad's message is received by the conscious mind; the rest is worked and reworked deep within the recesses of the brain, where a product's positioning and repositioning takes shape."(Kilbourne 74).
An "Herbal Essence" shampoo ad uses many different advertising tactics to sell their products. The wording, coloring, and even the placement of the bottle all play into the advertisers plot to get people to buy the product; the whole ad leans towards being "natural.".
The main picture in the advertisement is of the bottle at an angle with the shampoo exploding out of the top into flowers. What this suggests is that when the bottle is opened, the person is "hit" with a sudden powerful aroma of fresh flowers. The bottle bursts with natural fragrance. Also that the product is packed full of natural ingredients such as herbs and flowers. The liquid in the bottle looks more like water then shampoo, and water appears more natural then shampoo.
The background of the advertisement has been kept quite plain and off-white in color. By using the simple background it shows off the dark-colored bottle and flowers and makes it the main focal point. Secondly it is a natural color, fitting with the organic theme. The words are colored in green, which is the color that people think of when they think of natural. Green tends to be associated with plants, plants are natural. The advertiser, Clairol, wants to keep this natural image throughout the advertisement due to the current trends. In this day and age it is "fashionable" to eat organic foods and drink organic drinks; now it is becoming "fashionable" to wash one's hair with organic shampoos.
