Dolce & Gabbana Advertisement Analysis Essay

Dolce and Gabbana is a luxury fashion house initially founded in 1985 in Milan, Italy. They are known for transforming the typical masculine suit into a female emblem of strength and confidence, however, their advertisements usually contradict their idea. Considering most of the ads published by Dolce and Gabbana where there is both a man and a woman in the same shot, the woman is most likely shown to be overpowered by a man. Their style is shown to be Mediterranean and vintage since they want to convey the image of olden Italy. 

Dolce and Gabbana are a designer brand that retails their products at a very demanding price, thus wealthy people being their obvious intended audience; however looking further into their audience becomes clear, people who desire to be wealthy. In their ads, the usual common factor is wealth, in the first ad, the couple is lying down in a boat, in the ocean of Capri, in the second ad the couple is in a movie set located on the beach. The common Dolce and Gabbana intention is to not just selling their audience a product but they are selling them a lifestyle idea and their brand. 

Advertisement is a way for a company to boost sales. It has usually three purposes, to persuade, to inform, and to remind. Advertising conveys a sense of brand quality and credibility. In dolce Gabbana its main focus is to remind and persuade, thus creating various slogans such as ‘The one’ and ‘The Only One’ to remind us that numerous products exist in the collection conveying its successfulness. Various ads utilize sex appeal in Dolce Gabbana, is usually due to it successfully captivating the audience's attention. 

‘the one is an ad which was published by Dolce and Gabbana to sell the new perfume to their existing collection. The one has many collections to it such as The One for men/women. In this specific ad Scarlett Johansson and Matthew McConaughey are starring; this can be used for the appeal to experts and celebrities. The ad has many other advertisements images and videos which show the same celebrities and clothing, almost creating a story; this can be used for advertising purposes to remind. The background is a movie set located on the beach which conveys importance and idealism, which is also shown by the illuminating light placed in the background whereas the models are in much darker clothing and light to create contrast. The lights in the back are like the ones in old movies. In title one, no letters except for the title Dolce and Gabbana are capitalized which brings out irony since the one should be special. The color used for the perfume is beige which connects to scenery and represents wealth and money coins, gold.

‘light blue; is another ad published by Dolce and Gabbana to sell their perfume collection. The collection of light blue is meant to represent holidays lived wealth, exclusivity, and power. In this specific ad, the intentions are to covey possession and fierceness, this is shown when the man is lying down in his boat awaiting the woman to come to him. The ad is placed in a cove located in Capri Italy. Italy is the main point for all shoots for Dolce and Gabbana since they want to influence the ‘dream’ lifestyle. The ad uses mostly sexual appeal and the appeal to dreams and fantasies. The background in the image is of an intense turquoise and emerald green color which can connote to their audience peace, freedom, stability, loyalty, luck, wealth, and nature. The light in the background reflects onto the rocks in the cove which creates a magical sensation for the audience. The rocks in the background of the image are named the ‘kissing rocks’ which adds to the story that Dolce and Gabbana want to convey. Both models are looking straight into the camera which is intimidating and shows power; both of their eyes are blue which creates a strong contrast to the background, showing power and superiority. Her body posture is complementing his to show superiority to the man, give him god-like features. Due to them both wearing white we can connect the white to biblical imagery, obtaining the connections of angel and exclusivity.

The ads presented above consist of many characteristics alike. Both ads have the same layout where the couple indicating the product placement, ‘the one where the man is pointing to the perfume, and ‘light blue’ where the woman’s body traces down towards the perfume. Both collection fonts are smaller and uncapitalized except for Dolce and Gabbana. Both women in the ad are being overpowered by men, ‘the one where the woman looks vulnerable and like a damsel in distress and ‘light blue’ where her body posture is adapting to his. Both ads show couples wearing similar outfits, designed by Dolce and Gabbana, where they are complementing each other and the surrounding; giving the effect that they are meant to be and belong there. There is an ocean background in both of the ads which communicate relaxation and wealth. Each of the perfumes in the ad has different perfume bottle shapes for men and women, the men's being taller and bigger than women’s. Both ads have filters in the image which connects to their intention of persuasion which is both olden days, wealth and modern, sexy. 

The ads also have many differences, the one ad is black and white except for the color in it's a product and the other ad is very colorful and its saturation is very high. ‘the one is meant to represent the old days in Italy whereas ‘light blue’ is meant to represent modern days in Italy. The perfume bottles in 'the one’ ad have different bottle sizes and colors, where the men perfume is darker and taller than the lighter and smaller women’s. ‘light blue’ perfume bottles have the same shade however the women’s bottle size is smaller and it's round where the men are taller and has a box shape. In ‘the one’ ad, they have the appeal to snobbery, wealth, and celebrities wherein in the ‘light blue’ ad they have the appeal to dreams and fantasies and sexual. The couple in ‘the one’ ad is looking at something behind the camera whereas in the ‘light blue’ ad the couple is looking straight into the camera at the audience showing the power they both hold. One of the ads is to show romance, the other is to be sexual. 

The Dolce and Gabbana ads can show a lot of how the advertisement industry is and how we get influenced by little things every day. It also goes to show how everything we see is made up of people who know what is going to influence us. Dolce and Gabbana get various sales just from people getting influenced by their ads, they show what is most captivating to us, sex, wealth, and power; every ad made by them shows one or more of those components. Italian industry is seen as wealthy and vintage which is how they place their products are store as. With these two ads, we can see Dolce and Gabbana’s style and how it is continuous from each of the ads they produce. The ads seen by their company are used to expose their products and connect them to the real world and how they are many to make us feel.