Ya-Ting, Lee
Michael White
ENG 1201.B01
18 April 2018
Visual Analysis: Suntory beer
Suntory. Advertisement. “Suntory All-Free.” Pinterest.com.” Web
Drinking culture has existed for thousands of years, and alcohol advertisements have a history of over one hundred years. In the past, alcohol marketing advertisements usually highlighted the feeling of pride and emphasized the year, tastes and quality of the wine. Those advertisements often linked the alcohol to success, sexiness, and celebration. However, over the past two decades, such alcohol marketing advertisements have gradually changed. Today, wine merchants use a variety of elements to create some concepts, and put those concepts into the products. The advertisements no longer stress the characteristics of the products or tell consumers the production process, but internalize the product into the consumer’s lifestyle by advertising a variety of elements, images, text or symbols which convey emotional ideas to the consumers. Alcohol makers are not selling alcohol but images of infinite possibilities to the consumer by their specific advertisements. As Japanese Suntory conveys the images that women may get rid of traditional stress and restrictions to pursue their own lives by the emotional appeals in the advertisements. CITATION ALe17 l 1028 (ALexander) Beer, in the Japanese life, is an indispensable important product. Most of the beer advertisements usually show that beer can help men relax after hard working and get ready for the next day. Besides, in the traditional Japanese cultural customs, the status of Japanese women is suppressed, and women are difficult to be themselves. Therefore, the beer companies start to notice the domestic female market. The second advertisement, for Suntory is a combination of gold, blue and white colors. The background of the scene is blue sky, sea and mountain which reveals nature, free, comfortable, and unrestrained life, the kind of refresh feeling is like your drinking a cold beer. CITATION Bal16 l 1028 (Carlos)The composition of this advertisement two women in the center of the advertisement stand for the new generation of female. The left is a woman about thirty years old, and the right is a twenties young woman, They wear very casual, jeans, long skirt, flats, and tie up their hair, and holding a glass of golden beer full of bubbles, and sitting comfortably on the floor, with a happy smile on her face. The golden beer symbolizes the dazzling sun shining on them, bringing the feeling of warmth and happiness. Those white bubbles stand for every period in the life which is meant to be gone one day, so everyone should enjoy one’s wonderful moment full of beautiful bubbles.
This print ad appears in Japanese and English. Japanese means: Free and delicious. In addition to literal meaning, it also symbolizes the freedom that the body and mind yearn for, and in the repressed Japanese social culture, women should be more open to their greater freedom. Delicious is not only the taste of tasting food, but also the life experience brought by tasting life.
“All-Free”, in the middle of advertisement, is in white font, not only standing for calories free and carbohydrates free, but also meaning worry free, hassle free, and trouble free. Furthermore, the slogan, “All-Free”, echoes the meanings of freedom and good taste in Japanese.
Once, we all think that past alcohol advertisements always start from lust, conveying the concept of pressure relief. Today, these alcohol advertisements, however, take advantage of their centuries-old historical experiences to tell the public that people always have to go through the test of time before achieving their own goal, just like the process of brewing wine which takes time to go through step by step. Rome is not built in one day. Nothing is easy. Life must go through all kinds of test till the payoff comes. Before that, people need to keep moving forward, find their own sky, stick to their dreams, show themselves, and create a wonderful life. The future of infinite possibilities is just over there.
Works Cited
Alexander, Jeffrey W. “Beer and Whisky in Japanese Marketplaces.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History. 2017-09-26. Oxford University Press. Date of access 18 Apr. 2018, <http://asianhistory.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277727-e-176>
Balsas, Carlos. “Japanese Shopping Arcades, Pinpointing Vivacity Amidst Obsolescence.” TPR: Town Planning Review, vol. 87, no. 2, Mar. 2016, pp. 205-232. EBSCOhost, doi:10.3828/tpr.2016.15. Accessed 14 April. 2018
Suntory. Advertisement. “Suntory All-Free.” Pinterest.com.” Web. Accessed 14 April. 2018. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ab/73/5d/ab735d351335336da6ce12ce3ba30004.jpg
