The Preferred Unknown
Canadian Club launched their vintage ad campaign in 2007, while looking at these ads you see photos that have a time stamp of the 1960's, suggesting a more high profile time. This is an interesting time to make a debut for this ad campaign because the popular TV show Mad Men had just been launched. If you have seen Mad Men you know that Canadian Club is ad executive's Don Draper's beverage of choice on the AMC television series. There is an obvious product placement in this pop culture TV series and in my opinion Canadian Club is marketing with the media.

At first glance the eye popping words "Your Mom Wasn't Your Dad's First" immediately catch your eye. These words are an attempt to tug at your subjective thoughts and tap into your emotions. They suggest that your dad was a player and depending on what your gender identity is could give you a sense of pride or a feeling of disgust. These words hail you into believing that there is a side to your family's past that you do not know, it is synonymous to an average college student's life. Forcing you to open your mind to the possibilities of the unknown. The finer print reads, "He went out. He got two numbers in the same night. He drank cocktails. But they were whisky cocktails. Made with Canadian Club." Served in a rocks glass. They tasted good. They were effortless." Then in much bolder and colorful print the words and campaign slogan, "DAMN RIGHT YOUR DAD DRANK IT". There is a phallocentric nature around this phrase; all of these words are an attempt to embody masculine language. If you have a stereotypical working, dorky, and caring father you might be thinking, "what is this drink that could make my dad into this Casanova type person?" The answer is Canadian Club Whiskey.



As a heterosexual male I cannot help but to look at this with a sense of voyeurism. This term is defined as an active way of seeing that objectifies what it looks at. The onlookers see these people in the ads not as relatives, but objects of desire. The objectification of these people make it to where the person that is seen is desired not only by the viewer but by the culture that it immerses itself in. There are an amount of subliminal messages that are affiliated with different ads. "Silverman refers to situation in which there is an 'absence of evidence that the individual is aware of the impinging stimulus before its effect is felt'(Kilbourne, Painton, and Ridley 49)". This phenomenon explains why and how there is a rise of emotion just from looking. One sees the cultural bounty that is associated with the lifestyle of this ad making the heterosexual male want to be him. The man in the photograph is gazing into the camera with a devilish smirk, almost as if his expression is saying in regards to the woman, "she can't resist me, I have got her in the bag." I conclude by contemporary cultural standards, this man is a player. Viewing this ad as a heterosexual male gives me visual pleasure because this man is what the culture hails us to be. "In the realm of advertising, the primary goal is "fetishizing" the product with attributes such as human qualities, self-transformation, and emotional responsiveness (Soukup 21)". Fetishizing the product makes the viewer want the life that the ad. Wanting and fetishizing a product helps interpellate the viewer into buying into the myth that is associated with whiskey culture. This shows that the product of one's "self" is therefore culturally constructed. "The sense of self is arguably the most idiosyncratic and most personal of all mental processes. Nevertheless, as humans are cultural beings, the sense of self also develops through culture, and the processes of the self could not be fully understood without considering the role of culture" (Hamamura 2). The process of one's self is an identity that is constructed through the interpellation of our culture. Ads hail us to become the hetero-normative subjects they want to produce. When I view this ad the man pictured as the centerpiece is a man that is drinking his whiskey straight, has a beautiful woman on his lap, is dressed nice clothes, as well as he is shown as the dominant figure in the picture. He is in control the woman is laughing at what he has seem to say, and he is propped up in a chair giving the viewer the devilish smirk. This shows to the male viewer that the ability to have power according to Foucault, "power can matter and hold us because 'it traverses and produces things; it induces pleasure, forms knowledge, produces discourse' (Johnson 195)". Power is a benefit of drinking whiskey and can be seen as a root of masculinity.



Much like the ad above one can interpret the idea of self and the identity constructed around the object of whiskey. The J&B ad has much of the same effect, however, the gaze has shifted from a man to a woman within the constructs of the person pictured. This ad reads, "I don't know who he is but he just ordered J&B". The cherry blonde woman has eyes that can burn a hole right through you, they are eyes filled with desire. Eyes that can make you want to drop everything you believe in and want to the change person you are just to appease her. She is the prime example of fetishistic scopophilia; she is beauty and sadly only an object of display. Her role is not an object that changes the identity of whiskey but reaffirms it. She is constrained by the role of phallocentrism. Her role in this ad is to reaffirm the male gaze; she is bounded by phallocentric nature of the whiskey ads. The female is seen as an, "erotic spectacle, she 'holds the look, plays to and signifies male desire"... she is described as the passive object of the active 'male gaze' (Helford 148)." Her gaze is what makes one want to become the person they are looking at. The imagination runs while the viewer processes the interrelation between the subject and the other. "J&B" scotch is framed in this ad as the representation of importance, a means to an end. With the just the purchase you turn the heads of some of the most desirable women. This ad tugs directly at your subconscious and interpellates the viewer to desire that particular woman; the only way to accomplish that feat is to drink J&B Scotch whiskey. As seen in the previous ads one can denote that you are supposed to drink it straight. The connotation around a neat drink is the purpose of not to get drunk however to show you are a man. With the portrayal of being a man come benefits these ads are showing, women, a classy lifestyle, and power. The woman in the J&B ad is seen as a subject of this power when she states, "I don't know who he is but he just ordered J&B". You aren't a desired man until you order J&B.



| Opening Page | What's In The Glass? | Women and Class|

 

 

References

Hamamura, Takeshi. "A Cultural Psychological Analysis Of The Interplay Between Culture And Individuals." China Media Research 7.3 (2011): 1-10. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 7 May 2013

Helford, Elyce Rae. "The Stepford Wives And The Gaze." Feminist Media Studies 6.2 (2006): 145-156. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 7 May 2013

Johnson, Rebecca. "Law And The Leaky Woman: The Saloon, The Liquor License, And Narratives Of Containment." Continuum: Journal Of Media & Cultural Studies 19.2 (2005): 181-199. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 7 May 2013

Kilbourne, William E., Scott Painton, and Danny Ridley. "The Effect Of Sexual Embedding On Responses To Magazine Advertisements." Journal Of Advertising 14.2 (1985): 48-56. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 7 May 2013

Soukup, Charles. "Techno-Scopophilia: The Semiotics Of Technological Pleasure In Film." Critical Studies In Media Communication 26.1 2009): 19-35. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 7 May 2013