Marie_Claire's_Advertisement

While browsing through the new issue of Marie Claire I flipped to an LG Chocolate Touch ad. At first I assumed it to be a neutral point of view for the phone but with further analysis I realized that this ad was definitely a cultural determinist point of view. It displays the Chocolate Touch in its social context and draws attention to how society is conditioning the phone's development. The promotion of this ad is centered around the Chocolate Touch's sound capabilities. In order to amplify this message the headline of the ad states "Listening to Ciara on the new LG Chocolate Touch sounds almost as amazing as listening to Ciara herself." This line plays to the popularity of Ciara as a musician because the advertisers want to connect with a the public by targeting their interests. The portion that states "almost as amazing as listening to Ciara herself" paired with the image of a regular Joe surrounded by Ciara and her back-up dancers almost allows the viewer to mentally tele-port to one of her concerts to remember what the music sounds like; for it to be so intense that you could feel the beat vibrate throughout your body. The two phone models that are on either side of the centered image of Ciara, dancers and average Joe makes the phones appear to be concert speakers. This contributes to the product's catering to pop culture in order to capture the attention of an audience. On the upper left side of the ad in red font color it states "So, is it a phone' Or something better'" This line along with the LG logo and the word 'Chocolate' are thoughtfully placed one underneath the other on the left hand side of the page for a reason. It guides the viewers eyes to make a connection between the tag line and the word chocolate as a treat. The fact that most people enjoy chocolate and that their phone model is chocolate colored reiterates that point. The viewers focus goes from the tag line to the phone model displaying a manual sound EQ control on its screen to the name ''Chocolate' to the LG logo which stands for 'life's good' and finally directing ones attention to the three podiums that are outlined in red. The placement of images and text for this ad is strategically done in this format to stress the idea of having a whole concert experience in the palm of your hand. By asking if it's a phone or something better, the ad is playing off of another social interest. Paired with the seductive poses of the back-up dancers an underlining message is sent that this phone's sound experience could possibly be better than sex. In "How Media Change: Theories of Media Technology and Society" Brian Winston presents the economics of sound in film by examining the circumstances in which a technology is introduced and diffused through society. The questions that a cultural determinist answers about a technological development are the when, how, why and for whom the technology is made for. Winston points out that those that have money hold the power to make a particular technology 'standard' even if they did not introduce it to begin with. LG is trying to do just that in its ad for the Chocolate Touch phone. Sound amplification is not a new technology for phones but it is the aspect of the phone that the advertisers chose to focus on allowing them to use a well known musician to push their product out there and to set a standard for sound capabilities of a mobile phone. The ad answers the cultural determinist questions by informing the viewer that the phone is presently available only at Verizon, sound is improved through Dolby Mobile technology, it is introduced to compete in the mobile market and this phone is for teens and young adults who look for their phones to provide them with entertainment. The Chocolate Touch with Dolby Mobile technology is seen as human-made, carrying the imprint of the social circumstances that formed it.