Yamileth Camarena

October 12, 2015

Comp 105
Ashley Whitmore
Hey look its a sex ad! Oh wait its just about whiskey, silly me.
Can you recall a day when you saw or heard any advertisement? I wouldnt think so. It is
impossible nowadays to escape from the big screens of advertisement. They are everywhere we
go including: malls, on the sides of the road, or in more traditional places such as TV, radio, or
magazines. The whiskey advertisement I will discuss was created in 2012 by Evan Williams
Kentucky straight bourbon whiskeys company. The target audience is both males and females in
their late teens to mid-twenties. The denotative of this ad is whisky. The cogitative is that if you
drink the whiskey you will become better looking for females and for males it implies that the
longer you wait for a female the better she will get just like the whiskey. I used ethos, pathos, and
logos to analyze this whiskey advertisement.
This company gets the males attention and interest drawn to the attractive woman on the
right with bright colors by drawing your attention where she is as well as the bottle of whiskey
which is right in the middle of the page. What they do to keep the attention of males in the ad is
they show an attractive woman wearing almost nothing. How they try to capture the womens
attention is by on one side showing a very typical girl while on the other side they show the same
women but much older and looking more desirable. Which unconsciously makes women wonder
how the women on the right (the pretty one) got to look like a model when before (the women on
the left) she looked shy and boring? When a female looks at this ad it makes them think that if
you drink Evan Williams Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey they will reach this level of

confidence that the women in the right shows opposed to the women in the left who doesnt seem
confident at all. Both of the images on this ad are the same women just at different ages in her
life.
The purpose of this advertisement is to get young adults to drink their whiskey, even ones
that are under age. Whiskey is aged for seven years before it is sold. They use this theme to
show how the grl just like the whiskey became better as they aged. Luckily (for the men) there
is a statement right in the ad which says the longer you wait the better it tastes, this portrays
women as an object and makes male think of the woman in the picture and any other women in
general not as a human but rather makes you think of them as something desirable and for your
own need. The companys whole purpose is to sell Evan Williams Kentucky Straight Bourbon
Whiskey to kids under age. I think they are trying to sell their product or target a young audience
because the women on the left seem very young. Almost under drinking age I would say and the
bottle of whisky is in between each of the pictures. The picture on the right shows the women a
couple of years later but she still seems very young almost like if she was in her early 20s. I also
think that they are trying to sell to under drinking women or men because the women on the left
doesnt look like shes older than 21. On the left image it says March 22nd 97 that would make
her only 15 years of age. This is not right because she is six years under the legal drinking limit.
The author of this advertisement uses typical stereotypes of white women such as blue
eyes, blonde hair and very large breast. The advertisement tries to portray that if you dont look
like the women on the right who looks more appealing to the audience you wont have any
advantages in life and wont have the same opportunities if you look like the women in the left.
This advertisement doesnt seem ethical to me because they send a false message to women who

come across this ad. That is they show that if you dont wear sexy clothes you wont be as
appealing to other people.
The truth behind this advertisement is that they are using sexual appeals to sell their
product. They use a woman who is very attractive with bright colors standing next to a bottle of
whiskey. They try to apply the same concept that as you let something age it becomes better to
women. In the advertisement they show how much better she looked once she aged. This is
very degrading to the woman who is in it and also reflects our society because they seem to say
that the women was ugly but after putting all that makeup and essentially taking most of her
clothes off she became better looking and more desirable. The problem I see with this ad is that
they create an unrealistic idea to the public by showing that you will look like the women in the
picture just by drinking this whiskey. The body on the women in the left sets a bar that is
unrealistic of what typical women should look like. Needless to say there was nothing wrong
with the women in the first place on how she looked on the left picture. When you have to wear
almost nothing to be recognized it just shows that you dont have a mind of your own and you
are accepting to be treated like an object, Another way they try to make the women on the left
seem more boring is by her wearing a vest and using plain and simple colors.
The company tries to play sexual emotions in this advertisement. They show an attractive
woman and next to bottle of whiskey. They try and make it seem that if you drink their product
that you can get this woman. And how they play the emotions of the females is by showing how
a humble looking woman can become very attractive in a couple of years just by drinking
whiskey. The advertisement also portrays the younger looking women on the left look like shes
not confident about herself. While the women on the right who is older looks more confident
about herself. This advertisement in my opinion is also very wrong because it can bring down

any womens self-steam by saying that as you age you become better looking which is usually
the opposite because you wrinkle more as you age. The advertisement also shows that if you
wear less clothes and are good looking you will be more happy which is not true at all.
I personally think this types of advertisement are horrible. The only problems is that all
companies advertise this way and unfortunately in our society this seems to be the big thing and
everyone buys into this false image of what a women should be. I noticed that all of the different
angles this advertisement uses they are all very similar. The markets new approach as we see is
in this advertixsemnet is to use sex to sell anything and everything. I dont think these types of
advertisements will end soon I just hope one day we will stop these advertisements from
happening and show what a women should really be which is hard working and doesnt have to
wear almost nothing to feel confident because every women should feel beautiful and not have to
meet a certain criteria.

Works cited
Evan Williams Provocative Ad. Slater Communications. N.p., 17 Mar.2014. Web. 21 Oct.
2015. https://slatercommunications.wordpress.com/2014/03/16/evan-williams-provocative-ad/.

"The Coopered Tot." : May 2014. The Coopered, 8 May 2014. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.

Semiotics and Sexual Spirits. Media Through My Eyes. Np., 14 Oct.2012 Web. 21 Oct.
2015. https://annieplowman13.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/16//