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African Soap Ad

American Soap Ad

African Advertisement

In this ad we see a young Zimbabwe woman holding a box of Jamilah soap. The model is wearing a simple v-neck, mildly conservative white top, and accessorizes with a sterling silver watch. The basic color scheme, layout of the blue and green background, and the simplicity of the model parallel trends we found in our research. The box of soap located in the middle of the page and “Jamilah Soap” in large serif High Tower Text, relays that the purpose of this ad is to sell soap. The soap box design is rather straightforward, with the product’s name, the scent and a small image depicting the scent. The scripted slogan “Fair & Beautiful” anchors the image while informing the consumer about the wonders the soap can do for the skin; Jamilah soap can make you fair and beautiful. In many African adverts for skin care products, the ad emphasizes fairness. It is the hopes of many African women to lighten their skin through bleaching products, so “fair” helps companies sell their products.

American Advertisement

In this ad we have a young Mozambiquen woman in a bath tub covered with soap bubbles. Her hair is down, her legs are exposed, and as viewers, we can assume she’s not fully clad. Her beaming smile and direct eye contact with the consumer leads us to think that she is welcoming or comfortable with our gazes as she bathes. In the left middle section of the page we notice a hand pulling back her shower curtain. So, not only does that confirm her comfort with the viewer looking at her, but she’s made their viewing experience easier by allowing a random male hand to assist her in showing off her bare legs. American ads tend to relay a relative comfort with sexuality and use this mentality to sell products. Also, in general, the race of the model is ambiguous. At first glance, the woman appears to be white, though with closer inspection, her olive skin and dark features alludes to something else. Racial ambiguity is important because it reaches a wider pool of consumers; consumers want to look at an advertisement and be able to relate to it somehow in order to be compelled to purchase the product. The product here, Jamilah Soap, is never shown and if it weren’t for the small text in the bottom right-hand corner, the consumer may never quite know what product was being sold. The larger scripted text “Irresistible” is the tagline, despite being bigger than the name of the product. With American ads, our research has found that it is difficult to make out exactly what is being sold just by looking at the advert. The product is rarely shown and the consumer may need to search for the product’s name in the advertisement because flashy words like “Irresistible” stand in the way. The slogan is left up to interpretation by the consumer, who or what is irresistible? Maybe it’s the young woman, or the bath that makes one seem like they’re soaking in clouds…In general, American ends tend to have open-ended meanings and presentation of ideals, boggled down with complex and superfluous images and words.