Observation 7: Advertisements

I found an advertisement on Youtube.com featuring Paris Hilton. In the commercial, she is seemingly advertising a six dollar BBQ burger from Hardees, but other visual elements suggest that she may be selling otherwise. Paris Hilton is a sex symbol in Hollywood today and is admired by both male and females. The commercial starts with Paris entering some sort of garage; she is wearing a revealing bathing suit and an expensive fur wrap. It then shows her begin washing a very expensive car and you can see on her finger that she is wearing a large diamond ring. The actual sandwich Hardees is trying to sell does not appear in the commercial until seven seconds into it, where it only makes a brief two second appearance. The burger does not show up again until nine seconds later. She continues to wash the car and splash herself with water and soap in a very sexual manner. In between Paris washing the car and washing herself, the burger makes few appearances and only for brief seconds at a time. Throughout the commercial there is a song playing by Peter Cincotti called "I love Paris". The ending slogan for the burger flashes during one of the last frames of the commercial saying "That's Hot". I think that the commercial is not selling the sandwich as much, but more so selling Paris herself. The song is advertising her name and how people admire her and the slogan is a phrase that Hilton coined herself. The sexuality she is displaying appeals to men, obviously for the reason that the commercial is raunchy, but also towards women. I think it appeals towards women because Paris Hilton is (unfortunately) a sex symbol and girls often look to her as being the definition of "sexy" or "pretty". If a face, and body, as famous as Paris Hilton is eating a Hardees BBQ sandwich, it will give people who want to be like her or who admire her to go get the sandwich as well.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=P82hABWq1To