I wanna look like that, too!

Advertisements in magazines consist of photographs accompanied by text with the intention to capture the audience’s attention. Pictures of humans, especially a recognizable face, will gain maximum attention. The “Got Milk?” advertisement uses this strategy effectively by portraying celebrities, recognizable and real, wearing milk mustaches who like milk. To persuade and inform the audience, the celebrity shows how milk can play a role in maintaining a healthy weight.

Figure 1.  Serena Williams "Got Milk?" 2424 advertisement

The “Got Milk?” 2424 Milk advertisement (Figure 1) in the Shape magazine shows Serena Williams, a recognizable sport celebrity, as a sexy “Lean Machine” holding an hourglass shaped tumbler in her right hand. The advertisement purposely targets Shape’s audience who place a high priority on physical heath and beauty. The textual presentation “Milk your diet. Lose weight! 24oz./24 hours” in the bottom right hand corner provides a strong visual link between milk and weight loss by placing a narrow and curvy line between the text to indicate a physical result of weight loss and turning into a “Lean Machine.” The narrow and curvy line symbolizes a silhouette of a female body. The endorsement by Serena that “24 ounces a day of lowfat or fat free milk in their reduced-calorie diet” persuades the audience to drink milk so they can have a body like Serena Williams. The image of the hourglass shaped tumbler in Serena’s right hand and her stance emphasizes curves to show the audience the result—a specific body shape and a “Lean Machine” if you drink milk to lose weight. The curved tumbler in her right hand symbolizes it’s the right decision to drink milk for weight loss to achieve the perfect body shape.

The advertisement functions to inform and appeal to the audience’s needs and emotions by using both the words and photograph. The placement of this advertisement in the Shape magazine was strategically placed in the Look Great section, for here it contributes to the rhetorical situation.

  

 If you didn’t know:  Serena is notably called the Lean Machine by the sports community and the marketers of the “Got Milk” campaign capitalized on the reference for this advertisement.  

Sources:  “Got Milk?” 2424. Advertisement. Shape. Jan. 2006: 51.