Paper 1 response on the advertisement- “How to attract women without even trying!”

The advertisement, “HOW TO ATTRACT WOMEN WITHOUT EVEN TRYING!”

Guiding question – Discuss how the language features, both written and visual, aim to persuade readers of this advertisement to think and behave.

The Newspaper advertisement, “HOW TO ATTRACT WOMEN WITHOUT EVEN TRYING!” was published in the USA in 1996 in strive of persuading male readers to buy different books that will help them in attracting women without even trying hard. The main purpose of the text is to advertise the books at the same time give teaching to the target audience on how to attract women. The advert also seeks to gain attention and at the same time, the author is trying to create relations between the advertisement and the reader by using dialogues that seems like a conversation and convinces the target audience of the benefits of buying the product that is being advertised. For example, “sounds too good to be true?”, “You see, the women of the 90s….” drawing them more into the advert. The author of the advert also uses different fonts of letters (capital, bold) for titles and other texts where the readers are drawn to and he uses women to portray different facial expressions (beautiful and cheerful, pretty and aggressive) and their attractiveness and he is trying to convey the message to the target audience that they can have the opportunity to attract those kinds of women who are pretty, smart at the same time aggressive without evening trying so hard. The advertisement shows two main texts/purpose which is to advertise the books and at the same time teaching the target audience how to attract women. They persuade the readers to purchase the books.

 The title reads “HOW TO ATTRACT WOMEN WITHOUT EVEN TRYING!”  The title is all written in capital letters and in a larger font than the rest of the text in the advert. Also the use of exclamation mark at the end draws readers attention. The title establishes itself as a point of interest, big enough to read even while people are going through the rest of the newspaper or magazine. In addition to that, the middle title “Passive Man’s Guide to Seduction” with an image of a man and a woman kissing on his cheeks shows overall content of the book in the advert and again draws reader’s attention to the advert. The man’s face look innocent, gentle and shy where the woman looks so pretty and she is attached to him as she is hugging at the same time kissing him on his cheeks while he is doing nothing. This particular visual image of a passive looking man and beautiful woman gives the target audience a motive to buy the book and test them as they might think that they can have a chance to attract women. On top of that, the image has been placed in the centre to show focus and it gives the reader the sense that the book can also give the reader this sort of experience. However, if women were to read this advertisement, they might feel offended because the advert views women just as something that men need to obtain. This might lead to negative response from them. 

The advert tells the readers that most of the men try to be aggressive to attract women but often they fail and get rejected easily by attractive women, nevertheless it appeals to them that attracting women has never been easier. As we go through the advert, the advert narrows its target audience ‘men’ into “passive” and “aggressive”. This idea was mainly taken from the advert’s beginning point of women in 90s. In the advert, “Instead of attracting a women, the aggressive man is simply a turn-off” the highlighted phrase simply indirectly tells the target audience that being aggressive and cocky to attract women is the biggest mistake for them. In reality most of the men think that if they act aggressive, confident or cocky in front of women, they will gain attention from them and have them attracted to you but that doesn’t work. Women don’t like aggressive men who seek attention. However, passive men are most likely to attract women because of their passive nature. Passive people usually don’t take actions but they let things happen to them, they are shy, lacks confidence, they listen to others and normally don’t share their feelings that much. Thus, this kind of personality makes women curious about men and naturally they make the first move as they think that making the first move can make them noticeable to the passive man. On average, single men with passive personality gains more attention from women than single aggressive men. 

In the beginning of the advert, women are described as being the “aggressor” the ones who insist on being in control over men. This  particular point overlaps the idea of persuading the target audience (men) in the advert. Because of that, the author uses exaggerating words like ‘ballsy’ ‘assertive women’ of 90s to describe them in a better way. The author also provides some of the questions and statements answered in the book as dot points in the advert. The questions are short and very specific and the use of anaphora in it like ‘why’ ‘how’ ‘if’ gives the readers a glimpse of the context of the book and makes them curious about knowing the answers so that they can actually buy the book and try it. 

Towards the bottom of the advertisement, another book is being advertised which also draws attention from the readers as they both have their subtitles capitalised and in bold. The subheadings also start with “How to..” which immediately allows the readers to get the main theme of the advert and relating back to the above advert. Over again, the advert establishes relationship between the reader and the text. The advert has repetition of the word ‘you’; for example, “make shyness work for you”, “how to get women approach to you”, “do you get tongue-tied around attractive women?” which makes the reader connect his personality with the texts.  The phrase ‘tongue-tied’ literally means not being able to say anything because they are shy or nervous and this phrase shows the innate insecurities of the target audience. Also in the same sentence, the adjective ‘attractive’ gives the idea to the target audience to reflect back about the product advertised (books) which can help them to attract women. In addition to that, the advert repeatedly refers to the author of the book ‘Eric Weber’ who is a really famous author in the world (as mentioned in the advert to the readers), he is also a director, screenwriter, producer, an advertising executive and he is currently the president of the Tenafly Film Company. His achievements adds potential and credibility to the products as it appears to the readers that the books have been produced by an honoured/ well known author

In the Eric Weber’s book advertisement, two women of 1996 who look stereotypically beautiful and attractive are portrayed. They both look glamorous and have direct eye contact with the camera. The one on the left looks fresh and charming and the one on the right portrayed herself by exposing her skin more and looking sexy. Both of them shows the type of women that most of the men (target audience) hope to attract. Thus, this also promotes the products advertised as it conveniences the readers to purchase the products for their benefits.

The order coupon is one of the most important parts of the advertisement. however , it was intentionally put next to the two small adverts so that the readers pay their attention first to the advert instead of the price but at the same time, they don’t miss to check the order coupon later. The order coupon contains specific details such as the price of each book, address of the company, the discount that the purchasers will get upon purchasing all three books and it was written in bold so that readers can notice it easily and might consider buying all three of them since they can save lots of money.  Also, when they use the phrase “order today-attract women tomorrow!” it’s like as if the readers can get the product as soon as they order it; trying to show the speed of delivery but it actually says that it will take 2-3 weeks of delivery. Nevertheless the phrase makes the readers order the books as soon as they can so that they can start practising it tomorrow to attract women.

To conclude, the author’s advertisement is very effective and eye catchy. The advert shows its full aims and purposes to advertise the books which can help the readers/target audience to attract women without evening trying and it conveniences the readers to purchase the products advertised. The advert was really convincing starting from the titles, visuals to how they can order the products on discount and save money.  All the aspects in the advert were well connected to each other and thus showing a strong motive to the target audience to purchase the books advertised on how to attract women without even trying hard.

 

2 thoughts on “Paper 1 response on the advertisement- “How to attract women without even trying!”

  1. I think that overall your essay is quite good and well-explained, as well as, shows insightful analysis of the text to how they shape the meaning of the text and the authorial choices. I think that you also show insightful interpretations of the text. However, I think maybe you could add the implications on the reader, what’s significant about how it may be perceived (both what’s written and the visual). also if you want to add in some more of the specific terminologies. I’m a bit unsure what you’re trying to say in the third paragraph maybe try making it more clear and focus on linking it back to the question. good job 🙂

  2. Criteria A:

    The text shows a high understanding of the purpose of the text. The text also mentions the target audience and the context behind the body of work. Implications are analyzed with references to the text. (4)

    Criteria B:

    The text shows the analysis of the authorial choices and textual features. The understanding is clearly shown using references as well. The text mentions textual and visual elements. A good evaluation of how features shape meaning. (5)

    Criteria C:

    Well focused, and organized well. (5)

    Criteria D:

    A clear, effective, concise language that makes everything run quite smoothly. High accuracy in grammar. Appropriate register and style (5)

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