In class we have discussed how advertising can be focused towards men or women. For example, with A Christmas Carol, the advertising within the story seemed directed at families. In conversations about contemporary advertising, it is impossible to ignore the abundance of advertising for the new Star Wars movie. I’ve seen advertising for this all over the place, from music shows, to sport’s commercials, on apps, on television, on billboards, it’s everywhere. One particular part of the advertising that has been surprising to me is the fact that they have very targeted advertisements, but with the large number of advertisements they are producing, they are advertising to several different groups.
The most interesting to me is the advertisements targeting women. They have created a makeup line by Covergirl and a fashion line available at Hot Topic for the new Star Wars film. I have included images of both below.
What was previously viewed as a franchise for Males, has begun targeting their women audience as well. An article from Forbes.com discusses this current change in advertising at the following link http://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinecusumano/2015/11/11/why-gender-disparities-in-star-wars-product-promotion-really-matter/
I have a feeling this new advertising is really going to increase the amount of money that this new film makes off of both ticket sales and merchandising. Targeting particular groups has always been a method used by advertisers, but this change in who advertising addresses could really alter the future of advertising and merchandising as a whole.