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Evan Block
Professor Melisa Malvin
English 115
11 December 2015
Advertising Power
Whether it is for shock value, humor, or profoundness, people are always looking for a
way to get themselves or their products talked about. This is why many celebrities and others
with high status will sometimes do surprising and shocking things to attract attention to
themselves. Once they have the attention of the audience, they are free to do what they want
because they know they have listeners. I believe this was the strategy used by the clothing
company Rag & Bone, in their advertisement. The company depicts images unrelated to their
products so that they will attract new customers to their company by making the consumers
research the products that are being advertised. As shown through the image, Molly Bangs
Picture This: How Pictures Work,, Jennifer Seibel Newsoms film, Miss Representation, and
ads from other companies such as Apple and SanDisk, a surprising and strange picture can make
people want to talk about the company as well as the products that they are selling.
The advertisement is a very surprising picture standing alone by itself. It depicts an older,
black, Porsche in the middle of the white background. However, it is not just a car. The car has
had a large, white, concrete freeway barrier placed on top of it. The company name, Rag &
Bone, is written in the middle of the page at the top. The barrier has graffiti on it, which makes
the feel of the picture slightly edgy. The white color of the barrier is very different when
compared to the color of the car and this makes the car stand out much more when looking at the
picture. By placing the car in the center of the page on the white background, it gives the main

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object the most effective center of attention. (Bang, 22) The white background also feels safer
to us, which also drags your attention to the center of the image. (Bang 24) By using an
expensive car like a Porsche in the advertisement, it shows the company is trying to appeal to a
certain kind of audience. They dont want just anyone to buy their products, they want someone
who appreciates that kind of car. From this information one could infer that their target audience
is someone possibly who is older and saw that kind of car as they were growing up, or, someone
who is a young adult of today and would like to own a car like that someday.
While researching the company, however, I discovered something shocking. While
looking at the picture, one would think that it could be an advertisement against drunk driving or
texting and driving. This would be wrong because the company as actually a designer clothing
company. The company caters to high end clothing that should likely appeal to young adults.
This was very unexpected for many people because in the advertisement, there was no clothing
or people in the picture at all. The only way I could see that the advertisement and the company
match up is if the company is considering their clothing better than the car. That would explain
why it is crushed instead of complete and fixed up. When two people were asked about the topic
of the advertisement specifically, neither could guess what the company was advertising. One
said that it was a safety advertisement as stated previously and another believed they were
looking at an ad for an auto mechanic service. This shows how confusing the advertisement can
be when looking at it for the first time.
The misrepresentation of the company in this image is very characteristic of the society
that we live in today, in 2015. Companies will do anything to try and get their products sold,
even manipulate the consumers using their advertisements. This is mostly in advertisements.
They use models to show off their clothing but, those models are usually photo shopped so that

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they are the most perfect version of themselves. As shown through the film Miss
Representation, advertisements are skewed so that women appear to be perfect. The issue with
this is that the situation is not realistic. This is the same situation shown in the Rag & Bone
advertisement. The advertisement is an unrealistic representation of the company it is advertising
for, although in a much different situation.
Once you see the ad, a new question needs to be asked. Why would they use a crushed
car to advertise a clothing company? The answer lies within the shock value of the image. The
main object of the image is the car. The car that was used in the image is normally seen as a
luxurious and expensive car. This is why it is so shocking to see a freeway barrier dropped on top
of the car like it is shown in the picture. Anyone who owns that car and enjoys that kind of car
would know to be extra careful with it because of how expensive it is. The advertisement appeals
to the pathos of the viewer because it displays a car that many people would like to see in its
peak condition, not crushed. It evokes feelings of sadness and curiosity through the use of the
image and they mysteriousness of it. Seeing an image like this would get people to talk about this
ad and hopefully for the company, consumers will research what the products are and they will
talk about the products as well.
While the controversy of the image will get people to talk about it, this advertisement
campaign may be largely unsuccessful. The main reason why this company might lose money on
this advertisement is because their ads had nothing to do with what the company was selling. As
a clothing company, you would expect the advertisements to have models wearing the clothes
that the company was advertising. This advertisement is similar to other advertisements that have
failed such as SanDisks iDont campaign. In 2006, SanDisk printed advertisements for their

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new mp3 player, the e200. These ads did not depict any kind of mp3 player on them, much like
the current Rag & Bone ads. Instead, the ads had sheep on them and called the iPod users
iSheep. Needless to say, consumers did not appreciate being insulted by the company. The
company later bounced back from these ads and remains successful to this day.
Contrary to SanDisk, Apples advertisements generally have little to do with their
advertisements but, they are very successful. The images will usually focus on a much larger idea
than their computers or phones. The will often contain generic or motivating phrases such as
Loving it is easy, thats why so many people do, or Youre more powerful than you think.
These ads empower the users to believe in themselves and live happy lives, even though the
products are nowhere to be found on the image. Apples promotion strategies appeal to the ethics
of the consumer, which SanDisk also lacked. Apple makes their company look like it encourages
happiness and positivity through their advertisement while SanDisk does not. The SanDisk ads
show that they will go out of their way to talk badly about their competition which makes the
company look ethically bad. Because of this, Apples ads work and they are popular. They are
also talked about often by the average consumer. Even though these ads dont reflect the
usefulness of the product, Apple is still a highly successful company which is why I believe that
the provocativeness of these ads will help the company succeed.
As shown through the ad campaign of Apple, Bangs Picture This: How Pictures Work,
and Newsoms Miss Representation, an advertisement doesnt need to have the product in the
image, it just needs to get average people and consumers to talk about the products in a positive
way. Once the company puts themselves out in the open, the revenue will come flooding in as
long as there are no major mistakes in their ads, as shown through SanDisks failed ads. As long
as the customers are curious about the product, the company will be successful. As evidence

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shows, an advertisement is a companys first impression and the content of the ad could either
bring customers in or steer them in their competitions direction but, they will definitely get
talked about.

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Works Cited
Luchford, Glen. Rag & Bone Fall 2015 Campaign. 2015. Photograph. Vogue Magazine.
Bang, Molly. Picture This: How Pictures Work. San Francisco: Chronicle, 2000. PDF. 29 Oct
2014
Miss Representation. Dir. Jennifer Seibel Newsom. 2011. Film
SanDisk. iDont Advertisement Campaign. 2006.
Apple. Strength Advertisement Campaign. 2014

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ESSAY II: DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS
Write a 4-page essay in which you develop an analysis of the primary image you worked with in
assignments 2.1 and 2.2 that takes into account your images meaning and significance and how it (its
advertisers or creator) communicates that meaning. Your thesis should make a clear, focused claim
connecting the images physical qualities (sight, sound, touch, taste, and/or smell) to its emotional and/or
symbolic meaning. The body of your essay should include vivid sensory details, including at least 2
examples of figurative language (simile, metaphor, or personification) and make connections between
these sensory details and the images meaning or significance. Also include specific, detailed visual
analysis that addresses the three rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) supported with evidence from
Picture This and other readings for this progression.
Since your focus in this assignment is on analysis, you want to go beyond merely describing your image
or summarizing what others have said, to come up with some ideas of your own about your image and its
significance or to apply what others have said to your image. Feel free to use materials from your
assignments 2.1 and 2.2 in your essay and to refer to other images and representations in order to
contextualize your analysis. Focus on making one dominant impression and including only the details
relevant to and supporting that quality, mood, or atmosphere that you want to emphasize.

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My inspiration for this essay was the advertisement itself. When I first saw it, I was confused
because I did not know what was being advertised. I just saw the car that was crushed and I
thought that it was a strange way to promote your company. I greatly enjoyed writing this essay
because it was what actually happened to me when I first saw the ad. The picture made me want
to research the company and find out what they were selling and that made me pick that image
for the essay.