Advertisement World, Essay Example

The image looks like a person is conducting some kind of ceremony either with himself or with a religious entity. The image of the human appears to be a male. His arms are opened up as he is looking into the sky. There are also orbs of light or energy that seem to be either leaving or entering his body. There is no color in the image as it is in black and white. There is a caption on the image reading “we are all witnesses” followed by a unique looking check mark. For anybody with knowledge of prior knowledge of sports, it is quite obvious that this is the basketball player LeBron James conducting his usual pre-game ceremony in a Nike advertisement.

Although LeBron James is the focus of this image, he did not make it himself.  It was the Nike Company that generated this image. To be more specific, a team of advertisement specialists within Nike created this image. First, a photographer needed to capture a digital still image of LeBron. Once the desired image was captured, it was turned over to a graphic designer for editing. The graphic designer adjusted every detail from the original image from the texture, saturation, and brightness in order to make it fit the advertisement criteria. The graphic designer also inputted the text over the image as well as the Nike trademark. Once all of the adjustments were made, it was rendered into a final draft digital image file, ready to be posted as an advertisement.

The intended audience for this image is anybody that has an interest in sports or athletics. Nike is a major part of the retail industry with an emphasis on athletic equipment. LeBron James is the most popular figure in the sport of basketball. This image projects the concept of being athletic, dedicated, and if you work hard enough, a superstar; however, you must have the right equipment and sports gear to achieve these goals. This is where Nike captures their audience. They want to pry into the sub-conscious minds of their audience and wire their brains into thinking that if they purchase Nike merchandise, then they too can be like LeBron James. (Berger)

There is only one single agenda behind this image Nike imposed to the retail market. That hidden agenda is sales revenue. Despite what most people may think or even precept, Nike’s agenda behind this image has absolutely nothing to do with inspiration, motivation, or ambition. Those factors are simply a ploy Nike uses to take advantage of their target market. The target market usually falls for this advertisement as they treat their personal athletics –whether pee-wee league basketball or high school football—just as seriously as LeBron James takes his professional basketball career. Some consumers are fully aware that an image such as this one is a ploy to generate sales revenue but purchase the product anyways out of need or want for it based on requirement or media hype. (Investopedia)

The images intended effect upon the viewer is to arouse their inner emotions. With use of the deep shadowing edited on the image as well as the text, Nike can stimulate emotions of inspiration within their viewers. This is an artistic technique that uses graphic designs to pull viewers into the media hype.

This image fits into the social milieu at large in many ways. It primarily fits into the athletic culture. Despite Nike’s true intentions, the image does inspire young and upcoming athletes to train harder so that they can perform better in their respective sport. Athletes of all kinds may want to perform well in their respective sports for a wide array of reasons. Some high school athletes are trying to play well enough to get into a good college. College athletes may be trying to perform well enough to get noticed by the professional circuits. Most athletes are dedicated to their craft out of a combination of pride, ambition, and teamwork ethics. This image also influences pop culture as people outside of the sports realm may also be inspired by the dedication LeBron James puts into his basketball career. The same kind of dedication can be applied in other professions or academics such as dance, music, or even accounting. (Berger)

My reaction to this image is very diverse. In a way I feel inspired to better my performance in life itself because LeBron’s success makes me want to be successful as well, even if not in basketball. I also know that Nike is just trying to get into my pockets, but if I need training equipment, I’ll pay for their merchandise anyways. I do have an appreciation for the artistic development of this image attributing to the graphic designers.

What this advertisement tells me about the species that made it is that they possess a hidden level of power which is not a part of their normal lives. This advertisement also tells me that only the elite beings of this human species possess this hidden power and therefore are the leaders of this planet. Because I am an extra-terrestrial being new to Earth, I do not yet realize the full extent of this power. I am not sure if this is a physical, spiritual, or kinetic power the humans are capable of. It may very well be a combination of all three judging by this picture. Perhaps the humans conceal this power in regular life as a part of their culture. This would indicate that they are generally modest and humble. This advertisement may also represent political power over the general population. The caption “we are all witnesses” may be referring to the general population of humans, indicating everybody is aware of this particular human’s great power. However because I am not yet exactly sure what kind of power this is, I am not sure where it is coming from either. The human in this advertisement might be receiving this power from a religious source. If this is the case, then I now know how religious the humans are. Also, because they are all apparently witnesses, they all share a common interest whether it is religious, political, or cultural. This suggests that there is unity in the human race and indicates their morals. Or maybe this advertisement is the moral standard, to become powerful or conform to religious values. The symbol following the caption might also indicate that this advertisement caters to a specific group of humans, maybe not all of them. There is more text that is a part of the image itself on the man’s clothing that reads “Cleveland 23”. Perhaps this man belongs to a clan of the humans called “Cleveland”.

Bibliography

Berger, Arthur Asa. “Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture.” 2000. Investopedia. Target Market. 2015. <http://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/target-market.asp>.