Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 11, 1991 TAG: 9104110284
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Flash forward to the 1990s. Calvin Klein's new perfume, Eternity, is heralded by the same photographer, the same subdued black-and-white tones, but in place of naked muscular flesh we see a father cuddling his son, a mother lounging with her daughter.
"This is a marked departure," said Klein spokeswoman Jennifer Cohan. The Eternity man "is a lot softer than the real stud monkey that you're used to." In other words, they're not selling sex, they're selling family, and America is buying.
The reason for all this familial bliss? The largest chunk of the population - the 74 million baby boomers - is mostly married, and marketers want its dollars. Of course, domestic scenes have always been magic for Madison Avenue, selling such homey items as Cheerios and Chevrolets. The difference today is that products aimed at a hipper market - jeans, stereos, cologne - are being sold by baby-huggers.
Bob Garfield, advertising critic for Advertising Age magazine, says one shouldn't try to draw sociological conclusions from the confused language of advertising. For example, the bare-chested man holding a baby - a device in a new jeans ad - is hardly new. "It's probably the most hackneyed image in advertising," he says. But Garfield agrees that "there is a greater emphasis on reaching people who have families with images of families." - The New York Times
by CNB