Professor Amy Bolis
WRIT 1301
14 October 2014
More Than Just Cars: The BMW Lifestyle In our world today, we see many advertisements every day. For the most part, these advertisements tend to follow a few conventions and formulas. It might be a simple plug to get a consumer to buy a product by simply showing them the product to increase awareness of the product. It might also use certain factors such as aesthetics, focal points, and taglines to target a specific audience or consumer. These are both very common practices in most advertising. However, in a less noticeable way, the advertisement may also be selling something other than just the product displayed. An example of just such an approach is exhibited in a particular …show more content…
Aside from the small logo and branding in the lower right corner of the advertisement, the image is allowed to speak for itself. This makes the advertising part of it less “in your face” and thus gives off the feeling that they are selling something other than just their product. This is possible because of the brand recognition of BMW. Not all companies can just show a product with little branding on it because the average person wouldn’t know what the picture is selling. BMW, however, has certain things that set it apart from others. For one, you can see that the car in the picture looks like a luxury sports car because of the sleek, low to the ground design, and that it is has only two doors and seats. The type of car narrows down the possible brands that most consumers would think of. For example, most people would not expect this car to be made by a brand such as Toyota or General Motors, which are known more for their practical and affordable cars. Most recognizably, though, is the car’s grille consisting of two rounded rectangular shapes which BMW themselves call the “Kidney Grille” (bmw.com). These factors, along with the small amount of branding, are enough for consumers to know what they are looking at without feeling pushed, which gives a more sophisticated