David & Victoria Beckham - Emporio Armani Advert

John Carson – Media Studies

Media Textual Analysis || Emporio Armani Underwear Advertisement – David & Victoria Beckham

The advertisement shows David Beckham, lying on a bed covered in white sheets, in his underwear only. Below him, sitting at the side of the bed is Victoria Beckham, also wearing nothing but underwear. The logo for Emporio Armani is in the bottom right hand corner, and above it is a link for their website. David and Victoria's names are also above the logo.

David Beckham is lying above Victoria, this connotes that David has power and dominance over Victoria, as being physically higher than someone is symbolic of having dominance over that person. This hints toward a typical patriarchal relationship in their marriage, that being that the male in the marriage has power and dominance over the female. This tells us that the target audience for this media text, as the idea of having power of a women in a relationship would be more likely to appeal to a man than it would a woman.

Victoria looks away from the camera, almost as though she doesn't have to deal with the audience and is disinterested by it, whereas David looks directly into the lens. This implies that he bears the responsibility of dealing with the audience members. This further implies how David has power over Victoria in this media text, this would also appeal to men as a man would enjoy the power over a physically attractive women, as Victoria is.

Victoria is positioned in the centre of the frame, this is to draw the audiences eye to her immediately. This is designed to be sex appeal for the male audience, the implication is that purchasing Emporio Armani would make you more likely to have an attractive woman as your wife. This would directly appeal to men as they would clearly want an attractive woman to be married to.

The media text is shot in monochrome, this is to give the advertisement (and the product it promotes) an executive feel. This gives the illusion that the product is rarer and harder to gain, when in reality it is simply more expensive. This motivates the audience to buy the product as people are more likely to buy something when they believe it has some kind of rarity. The use of monochrome also makes the photograph seem like a moment that was captured rather than just a still frame, this makes the photograph feel more authentic and real. Making the endorsement from the celebrities feel more genuine.

The use of celebrities in the advertisement is designed to appeal to male audiences. David Beckham is a sporting icon and is generally considered a hero to anyone who follows football. Since a large majority of Football fans are male, the use of a footballing icon is purposeful as it would appeal to men who aspire to be like David Beckham. The audience would possibly be persuaded into purchasing Emporio Armani underwear as they believe that doing so will bring them closer to David Beckham's status. The use of Victoria would be sex appeal to the male audience, the advertisement is trying to persuade them that if they buy their product then they may be able to have Victoria Beckham as a wife.

In summation, the target audience for the advertisement is men because it uses icons such as David Beckham (who is famous for his footballing, which appeals to men) and uses Victoria Beckham as sex appeal whilst implying that she is submissive to David Beckham, again appealing to a man. The monochrome gives the photograph an executive and authentic feel which motivates people to purchase the product.