Advertisers have the knowledge to appeal to emotions of people, both men and women, in their attempt to make them buy the goods they are selling. Women have been appealed to through body shape of a woman, as well as, a thin, skinny body. On the other hand, men have been appealed to through the need for power and prominence, as well as, autonomy and satisfaction of curiosity. This paper is going to argue that, in advertising shoes, men are appealed to through the need for prominence, affiliation, and autonomy; while women are appealed to through the need for satisfying aesthetic sensation, attention and affiliation.

The need for affiliation is so strong that it is an appeal applied in both men and women. This need easily commands the aspect of human beings that is composed of emotions. Concerning the fifteen basic appeals of advertising, Fowles (38) connotes about affiliation that advertisement apply the need for an association to a great deal, and in most cases, it is the best appeal.The advertiser uses famous men in the nation, or the world to advertise their shoes by appealing to the need for men to be affiliated. On the same note, they use celebrity women to advertise women’s shoes. In the need to feel associated to these people, both men and women’s emotions are appealed to, and they end up buying the shoes.

The need for prominence is much applied in men. Men will always like to be associated with prominence. Many societies in the world regard men as being the head of the family. They are regarded as symbols of authority. The symbols of authority in the society are prominent people. By using prominent people, the advertisers are sure that they will capture some men who would like to wear the same shoe with a prominent person. To take it even further, advertising companies give gifts of their shoes to prominent people so that they can wear them in public. When other men see this, they are appealed to and are attracted to the shoe. When this is backed up with a media ad, the men end up buying the shoe. Further, autonomy and class are characteristic of men. They would like to wear that shoe that separates them from those they regard junior in the society. For this reason, advertising companies will try to show the men how wearing a particular shoe will differentiate them from others in the society.

The need for satisfying aesthetic sensations and attention is applied much in the women than the men. Advertising companies knows this and how well it works for them, and they will apply it at the fastest opportunity. For example, an advertising company will use an image of a beautiful, skinny, thin lady wearing the shoe they are advertising. This is because their understanding of the psychology of a woman points to their ease to be appealed by body shape. Almost every woman in the world is appealed to such a shape. Upon watching the image, the women will be appealed to, and will end up buying the shoe. Again, the company can decide to use the television to advertise the shoe, it is most probably going to use a thin-body shaped woman to walk across systematically wearing the shoe that is being advertised. Women will associate these aesthetics with the woman, and they will buy the shoe.

On the other hand, aesthetic satisfaction is not as strong an appeal in men like it is in women. For this shoe advertiser, they will major more on aesthetic sensations when targeting the women and not the men. However, every human being loves cleanliness and smartness, and also men love to be associated with the beauty of a woman. This is the best way that the advertiser can appeal to aesthetic sensations in a man. For example, in a television ad, the advertiser can run a clip of a slim, beautiful married woman buying the shoe in advertisement for her handsome husband. At the same time, the handsome man can buy the shoe foe his beautiful woman. Through this ad, the advertiser will have used it to appeal to the aesthetic sensations of both men and women. Fowles (37) agrees that; even though aesthetic sensations are very strong in the women, the advertiser can play with the psychology of a man to appeal to his aesthetic sensation, to some degree.

The appeal that commands the need for durability and reliability is mostly used by the advertiser in men and not the women. Fowles (39) assert that the advertisers use the appeal because men value durability and reliability. Men are not the people who will like to go to the shopping Centre now and then to shop. For this reason, they will like to associate with an item that is durable and reliable. They feel safe through consumption of such product. On the other hand, this appeal is different in women. Women are the type of people who will like to pass by the shopping Centre now and then to keep to date with fashion. To appeal to men about the shoe, the advertiser will convince them that the shoe is durable, while to the ladies, the advertiser will try to appeal to their need for keeping up to date with fashion.

The use of sex has for a long time promoted fashion advertising. This is an appeal that is very applicable to both men and women. For example, an ad for advertising men’s shoes may be made with shoelace that looks like a breast. Then the wording following the ad reads thus: “everything a man desires in shoes”. By looking at this advertisement, men are appealed to in a great deal concerning sex and the shoe. They will tend to associate the satisfaction that comes through sex with the wearing of the shoe. For this reason, they may end up buying the shoe. Similarly, a woman can be enticed easily using sex and associating it with the shoe. For example, in the advertisement, a man can be shown buying the shoes to the lady, and then the ad is developed in a romantic scene, where the lady receives the shoe gift with some exchanges of kisses. Upon watching such a clip as an ad, women are appealed to, and they may make a decision to buy the shoe. Sex appeal, therefore, induces strong sensations and can be used in the advertisement of many items including shoes.

In conclusion, advertisement uses appeals to confuse people’s decisions to buy items. Some appeals work better in a particular gender than the other. Some appeals like autonomy and dominance work better in men than women. On the other hand, aesthetic sensation, including body shape and beauty, works better in women. Going by these facts, advertisers choose their targeted audience carefully.

Work Cited

Fowles, Jib. “Advertising’s 15 Basic Appeals.” Common Culture: Reading and writing about American Popular Culture. Ed. Michael Petracca, Madeleine Sorapure. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1998. Print.