Advertising During the Ellen Show

The theme of Ellen's show was truth or dare. Each celebrity guest had to tell the truth about a private question or do a dare. However, she also made it so that she did a dare as well. Her audience was mostly women, and many of them were under forty years old. In her introduction to the show she had a clip of a woman who was around sixty years old who was skydiving. The older skydiver had an instructor with her, but when she went to smile her false teeth flew out. Ellen said, maybe she should try an new adhesive next time. I recognize that Ellen is a comedian, but I felt that this comment was said because younger people might find funny. Personally, I feel that it was pretty cool that an older woman was able to skydive. I don't care if she is doing it with teeth or not!
The advertisements during the break in the show were also geared toward women. One of the advertisements was for an upcoming talk show with Dustin Hoffman. The only snipit that we got about this interview was a question. What is your secret of success for your long marriage? Dusitn Hoffman answers, giving my wife control, and being completley afraid of her. This kind of advertising is targeting the women who are independent and strong-willed that could be watching the Ellen show. The next advertisement was for Ford Fusion. It had a beautiful woman driving a sexy, black, and powerful Ford Fusion car. While going through a dry cleaning drive-thru, she sees a sexy and rugged looking hunk driving a Ford Fusion. An older lady is giving her back her dry cleaning and the beautiful woman says, "I would like to pay for a few of his shirts, and will you give him my card?" It is obvious that this is an independent woman who goes for what she wants. The car was a commodity that symbolized her confidence, power and sexual allure. The commercial insinuates that if you have this car, you will have the sexy man, power,and confidence to go after all that you desire. By the end of the commericial you are certain that this car will give you the ability to make bold moves. Another advertisement that came on the show was for Garnier Frustus conditioner. The slogan for this commercial was, have the strength to bounce back. It takes the stance that the independent woman needs to have this shampoo/conditioner. If you buy this commodity, you will be ready to face the world and bounce back into your control position. The commercial was in an ideal time slot, being at around 10 am in the morning, and many women are sitting down to a cup of coffee.
It is obvious that advertisements target certain audiences, at specific times, to reach the right consumers. I think that the images in the commercials mentioned are targeted at white, independent, middle class women between the age of 21-35. I never saw any older people in any of the ads during this show. I never saw any men in the commericals, unless they were a figure that represented a woman's sexual interest. It was obvious that the man in the car ad was the woman's object of desire, and the sales target was the woman. Advertisers gear their ads toward a specific audience and will constantly try to get the message to the audience they desire. It is up to the consumer to have a critical eye on what they want, and not be manipulated by the constant barage of commericials targeted at them.