Zitty to Pretty?

As teenagers, one of our biggest fears is looking in the mirror to find a pimple on our face. It's obvious that we all try to get rid of these imperfections because many of us have at least one product that helps decrease the chance of these annoying red dots from appearing on our face. Selling products that claim to help get rid of acne is a great way for a company to gain some profit because a lot of the time, we are still looking for that perfect product that will make our worst nightmare disappear.

The target market for this specific ad are women from the ages 14 through 20, which is roughly around the time acne is at its peak.

One of the advertising techniques used in this ad is simple solutions. The three biggest words in this ad are what triggers many women to buy the ad. You will go from zitty to pretty with this product. This technique goes hand in hand with the technique of transfer/association technique. The word zitty has the negative connotation of being terrible and uncomfortable, while pretty has the positive connotation of being attractive and nice.

Another advertising technique used is magic ingredients. The ad describes the product as a "new emergency zit blitzer" that can reduce the size and redness within 4 hours! It's funny how at the very bottom, in the smallest font, they put that this product has only been tested on 174 teenagers. It is a large number, but I don't think it's enough to state that this product will reduce in a matter of hours. Talking about the word reduce, reduce is a weasel word. The connotation for the word is positive, but the word doesn't really specify how much it will reduce. The word reduce for some people could mean very minimal reduction or almost close to gone.

One of the needs this ad satisfies is the need for attention. By using this product, you will be seen similarly to the attractive zit free girl with brown hair and blue eyes in the ad. The user will also feel special and unique. By using gestalt with the unusual colors and designs in the ad, the consumer will feel that they are different, which satisfies the need for autonomy.

One of the thins I found interesting about this ad is that the two girls are two different people. It's not a before and after kind of message. The girl the back with acne has black hair, dark eyes, black lips, and black blush, while the girl in the front has multicolored hair, blue eyes, pink rosy cheeks, and a bright pink lip color. I'm not too sure why the advertisers did this, but it is definitely interesting how the advertisers chose to do what they did instead of doing a before and after of the same girl.

The colors of this ad caught my attention while searching for an ad to write about, but after reading it and breaking it down, I don't want to buy it. The vagueness of it just doesn't have me convinced, even though it claims to solve one of our greatest fears.