“A Sign of the Times: A Study of Male Wristwatch Advertising in the 21st century.”
By Dominique McMullan
Introduction
In studies of consumerism it has become almost a truism to claim that the purchase, use and display of goods in some way expresses social identities. Such acts of consumption are imagined as symbolic work in the reflexive project of the self, communicating to others messages of identity, belonging and distinction.
Every day for most of our lives we in the western world see, listen to and are surrounded by advertisements. No other messages confront us so regularly as the ones which tell us to consume. This is a fact of which we are all aware; we may forget or remember these messages, nonetheless they inform society and in doing so, the way we live. Judith Williamson, as cited in “Media Semiotics” declares that advertising “...in many ways replaces that (space) traditionally fulfilled by art and religion. It creates structures of meaning” Advertisements are there to persuade us that if we buy something, our lives will be better for it. However in doing this the message relayed is that consumption (and excess consumption) is necessary for a fulfilling, happy life. The success of an advertisement depends not on its logical propositions but on the fantasies it offers the consumer. We are, according to Gillian Dyer “invited to live an unreal life through the ads” We come to believe that consuming commodities will enhance our identities and that people will admire and revere us if we purchase the “correct” goods. Where the products are affordable this fantasy strategy works well, people purchase goods after observing advertisements and feel as though they are “adding to themselves”. However, what happens when these goods are simply unobtainable but to the few? In many cases this “fantasy” strategy depends largely on ideas of luxury. When considering products such as luxury goods, how do advertisers persuade people to part with large amounts of money based on just a double page spread advertisement in a magazine?
One particular strand of luxury goods advertising is prevalent and fascinating; the advertising of the wristwatch. The era of IPods, mobile phones, PC’S, laptops and blackberries, all with the time built into them and accessible at a glance, seemingly makes the watch redundant. However, assessing the shear amount of advertisements which appear for wristwatches, they are still very much a part of our modern world. How do advertisers achieve promoting a product that is realistically no longer necessary? Or to put it more simply, why do people want wristwatches? Are they symbols of status? Are they pieces of jewellery, fashion statements? Are they nostalgic items, representative of society’s desire to return to simpler times? Or are they merely pieces of beautiful machinery which people still appreciate in our technological world? As cited in Swiss News, April 2008: “Gone are the days when a watch was just a simple timekeeping device. Today, a watch is not just a fashion statement, but also an expression of personal values and style.”
According to Karl Marx there are two kinds of consumer goods; consumer necessities and consumer luxuries. True articles of luxury are items that only the capital class consumes. A consumer necessity is something that is in general and habitual use among the working class – like tobacco, whether or not it is physiologically essential to life. A wristwatch is no longer a necessity in the world the world we live in today and so watch manufacturers are faced with a challenge. They need to approach consumers differently than in “reason-why” advertising. “Reason-why” advertising simply informs the consumer of the reason why their product is better than any other. However in a saturated market advertisers need to appeal to the emotional side of consumers just as much, if not more, than the rational side. They want to evoke non-rational responses such as sexual desire, patriotism and desire for glamour and status. According to Goldman:“Advertisements began to stress the “psychological utility” of their products” By creating “wants”, and making these wants so powerful that they become needs, one can advertise a luxury product such as a wristwatch. These advertisements are never a celebration of the product; they are instead about the future buyer – offering him/her an image of themselves made glamorous and therefore happy. According to Berger:“Publicity is about social relations, not objects. Its promise is not of pleasure, but of happiness: happiness as judged from the outside by others. The happiness of being envied is glamour.”
To gain a better understanding of why it is people purchase wristwatches, and relate wristwatches to glamour, it is necessary to examine the history behind the object and also the advertisements and visualisations of the object today. Throughout this thesis a series of these advertisements and visualisations are analysed as well as a brief history of the wristwatch. The advertisements that the analysis will be concentrated on are advertisements found in magazines. After researching magazines and the quantity of wristwatch advertisements in each over any given month, one begins to recognise that, more than anywhere else, there is a considerable amount of wristwatch advertisements present in these publications. Magazines are fascinating in themselves: the target audience is usually specific to an age, gender or income group therefore providing advertisers with somewhat of a captive target audience. The magazine market is also highly competitive, especially an area such as men’s lifestyle magazines, which are specifically (but not exclusively) examined in relation to this paper. This highly competitive market results in magazines targeting the audiences the advertisers want: the ones which lie at the wealthier end of the scale and therefore may be more interested in luxury products such as wristwatches.
The following thesis will discuss six advertisements found in magazines in the last five years and how these wristwatch companies target their potential buyers. In each advertisement there are distinct similarities in the advertisers approach, such as the evoking of a desire for glamour by the consumer through the use of certain connotations and signifiers, however, there are also distinct differences which will also be examined. Chapter one gives a brief overview of the history the wristwatch. Chapter two discusses the advertising techniques of the most well known brands; the “giants” of the wristwatch industry – Rolex and Omega. These two companies both approach the advertising of their watches in extremely different yet somewhat comparable ways: one opting for sponsorship as a method of promoting their brand and one connecting themselves with a well known name in the world of fantasy and glamour; James Bond. Both use another brand or collection of people to promote themselves and attach themselves to the glamour that is necessary to sell these luxury objects.
Chapter three examines the advertisements of Swiss watchmakers Rado and the well known designer label Dior. Interestingly neither of these companies connect their watches to another brand or use celebrity endorsement in any form. Instead they rely solely on the product and their own brand name, for these companies product is king. Chapter Four discusses advertisements for the watchmakers Breitling and TagHeuer. Both of these companies use celebrity endorsements that are in some way connected with sport, to promote their brand effectively. Breitling makes use of John Travolta and his connection with aviation as a method of promoting the “precision” and “pure quality” of their watches. TagHeuer employs successful golfer Tiger Woods to appear in their advertisements and cajole potential buyers into self reflection with the question “what are you made of?” All of these advertisements, in opposing and comparable ways, provide a fascinating insight into the luxury market and how company and potential buyer interact to sell wristwatches today. However, wristwatches were not always considered a part of the luxury market. To gain a full understanding of the wristwatch as it is now, it is essential to examine its history and origins; how the watch, and indeed the clock, has changed society since its emergence and how the wristwatch became the symbol it is today. As M. Schudson states:
If one is to arrive at an understanding of the modern passion for goods, an examination of advertising is an essential step but it is not the first step... The first step, it seems to me, is to gain an understanding of the role material possessions play in human lives not just in advertising saturated societies but in any society.
Throughout the centuries wristwatches have gone from being a fad, to a luxury item, to an item of necessity, back to being a luxury item, to simply a consumer essential and to where wristwatches are now; once again an item predominantly of luxury. How can one product have so much flexibility in how it is viewed within the market place?
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