Attracting the opposite sex is probably one of the most common aims of advertising companies. This particular text is completely focussed on this target. This advertisement was likely published in a newspaper/magazine in 1996 in the USA. During this period, gender stereotypes were different and feminism was becoming more prominent. However this advertisement does somewhat promote outdated gender stereotypes. The purpose of this text is to sell books and cassettes that teach the purchaser how to find relationships with the opposite gender. The intended audience of the ad is evident through the product and the stylistic features, which is single men. Through the use of an unconventional selling point, men should be passive when pursuing relationships, the use of text and images and ease of purchase, this advertisement effectively sells its product. 

This advert mainly targets single men that do not have significant others, since it does appeal to them by letting them know that there is still hope and it re-assures them that attracting women to them has never been easier, especially now, since it is acceptable for men to be passive throughout their relationships. The use of the word ‘passive’ in the middle of the advert in bold font, shows the importance of passiveness to the advert as well as towards the attitudes of the males. Usually, passiveness is seen to be as a more of a negative thing, whereas in this ad it is being portrayed as something rather positive. The ad has further narrowed its target audience and has divided the group of men into two groups ; ‘aggressive’ and ‘passive’, as men are either seen to be passive or aggressive, nowhere in between. The advert states that “most men make the mistake of trying to stand up to her by being more aggressive… is simply a turn-off”. This implies that men who consider themselves aggressive often see themselves as confident, and therefore they would not need this advert, whereas this is aimed more at the quieter, more passive men who find it difficult to talk to women. This was carefully thought out and shows that the passive men have an upper hand in this situation, finding it easier to attract women. This further would allow more people (specifically men)  to read the advert, hence gaining more attention from the more passive or introverted men, as it boosts their self confidence. Often, we can see that women like to be controlled, but this ad is different. 

 The main purpose of this written text within the advertisement is to make a connection with the readers life and then convince them to buy the products that are being advertised. This is shown right away in the large bold capitalised headline, “HOW TO ATTRACT WOMEN WITHOUT EVEN TRYING!” this is written with the intent of grasping the readers attention, especially since the wordings are bigger than any other text in the advert. This hooks the audience’s immediately, and further appeals to the passive men who tend to be more shy and quiet. The simple use of an exclamation mark is also a way to draw the reader into the text, and also makes the text exciting to read as it could be a point of interest to some men. The use of rhetorical questions on the top right hand side corner of the advert creates a very controversial tone, but yet this puts the ‘passive man’ at ease since it is confirming any doubts that they currently have. This further gives a sense of reassurance to the reader, and furthermore leading them to buying the product. The structure and layout of this ad is further designed to make it clear what the product is, enhance its credibility and give ease of purchase.  Simple details such as the use of anaphora to answer the questions of why this product is designed this way creates a sense of logical order which makes the ad more credible as a whole. The tone throughout the ad seems to be informal, this is very evident as the author uses words such as ‘cockidence’ which is a combination of ‘cock’ and ‘confidence’. This way, the reader subconsciously feels more at ease whilst also being entertained as the writer and the audience share some humour. 

 There are a few images in this advert. Firstly, the main image shows that the woman is the one that is in control, whereas the man is sitting passively. This ad is a complete contrast to other ads in the 90’s as the role has been reversed, and this ad shows that there is an expectation out of women rather than out of men. There are also two additional products offered on the bottom left side of the magazine are also adverts, they too promote the product being sold, this enhances the credibility of the company. The images are of two stereotypical, beautiful women in 1996. The image of them might be kept there to draw the attention of the men, hopefully attracting them to women, hence convincing them to buy the product. Both women maintain a strong eye contact with the camera, making them look more attractive and seductive, in hopes to attract men into buying the advert. This image is also similar to the big image in the center of the ad, of a man and a woman. In that image, the woman looks as if she is about to kiss the man, this could possibly be the intention of the author as they would want the image to appeal to the ‘passive’ man, hence wanting them to purchase the product. This image would give the man some sort of hope that if he too acts passive, he might receive the same love and affection, therefore he might be more likely to buy the product. 

Advertisements are all made with a purpose in mind, as well as with some sort of contextual background. For this specific advert, the images and headlines played a huge role in underlying the theme of the exploitation of insecurities that any human has.  Like all advertisements they target activating their audiences requirements and desires. In this case the ad focusses even more narrowly on insecurities. By identifying their audience closely, that is passive men, it allows the ad to use that to craft the text and the images to achieve their purpose.