Thrown into Elle Magazine is a “Lollipop Bling” ad that attacks the senses with color and candy. Had anyone other than Mariah Carey been the center of attention, slinging candy and cleavage, they would have probably been arrested (picture a creep in a dark blue van without windows and the acrid scent of exhaust in need of a trip to the muffler shop). An air-brushed Carey wears gleaming ring pops as she sits on a pink cloud of teenage girl delight. This is clearly not an ad for women past their prime, or is it?
The last time I heard Mariah Carey having a breakthrough on the car radio was twenty years ago or maybe it was when I was at my mother’s house on her 54th birthday. Do teen girls even know who Mariah Carey is? Does she have that kind of sway over the target audience of the ad? Does my mother really want to wear candy rings and smell like a bomb-pop? I shudder to think. I had to dig deeper to really get the goods on “three irresistible flavor inspired fragrances.”
Sold exclusively at Wal-Mart for around thirty-five bucks, it’s clearly a product for teenage girls or twenty-somethings that haven’t quite made it out of the dance club scene. Carey is almost saying “you work too much” or “you study too hard, you should just relax and be more sexually active.” Carey is clearly not wearing any pants and her shirt is completely unbuttoned, all the while smelling like candy and adrift in some kind of creepy drug-induced ‘60s dreamland. Maybe I have the target audience all wrong; this is looking more and more like a strip-club flier. I wonder how many exotic dancers purchase these perfumes; maybe I should do some more research on that. Maybe I’ll just assume Carey is not attempting to get girls to dance naked and smell like candy.
All-in-all the ad is certainly inviting, with its bright colors and star power it entices you to relax and enjoy the sweeter things in life. Purple and pink bubbles rise and float around the page suggesting that maybe, just maybe, wearing this perfume will give you a bubbly personality and you’ll stick out from the drab gray faceless masses. Apparently candy is no longer just a treat, it’s also an accessory.
It has also come to my attention (from various web sources) that the image used in this ad is actually just a Photoshopped version of an old promo picture of Carey.
2 comments:
I heart Mariah Carey. I have her entire collection. The best collaborations she has ever done, have never been played on the radio. This chick is the Queen of the Collabo. Her voice is SICK! Not much of a performer - but girl can sang. That's all.
... and oh yeah, the ads are way bad.
Post a Comment