Ginger Singer

Rhetorical Theories
October 25, 2010

Skyy Infusions Rhetorical Analysis

Persuading and audience to purchasing a product can be difficult. People have different

likes and desires. It is tough to advertise to a general audience of people from different

cultures, ages, and genders. It is important to use effective text and visual elements to

intrigue an individual to purchase a product after looking at an advertisement. Skyy

Spirits LLC has created a products line that adds flavor to the original Skyy Vodka. One

example of this product line is called Skyy Infusions All Natural Ginger. To sell these

products, Skyy created a sexual advertising campaign to grab the audience in order to sell

the product. My thesis is that this advertisement is effective by using Classical Theory.

In this paper, I will show how Skyy used rhetoric effectively and infectively to

communicate a message to the audience.

The purpose of this advertisement is to sell Skyy Vodka Infusions. This full page

magazine advertisement has a bottle of Skyy Vodka on the right hand side of the page

and a woman in the center. The woman has red hair, red lips, and red nails. She has sky

blue eyes that match the blue bottle of Skyy Vodka. The woman is lying on silk sheets

that match the color of the ginger root. She is holding a cocktail and a part of a ginger

root on an olive pick. Written on the Skyy bottle is “All Natural Ginger.” Located at the

bottom of the advertisement is text that says “Go Natural” in the same font type as what

is on the bottle.
The woman appears to by lying on sheets with her head back and her moth partly open.

She has a seductive look on her face and appears to be enjoying her drink. Even though

she is not taking a drink in this photography it looks as though she has or will take a drink

from the glass. The perception of the audience is that she is naked because it does not

appear that she has any clothes on. It can be assumed that the cocktail she is holding is

made from Skyy Infusions because the bottle is positioned next to her.

The context of this advertisement is to persuade the audience to purchase Skyy Vodka.

By using a colorful and sexual advertisement campaign, this advertisement stands out

from the rest of the pages, which makes it likely that the audience will stop on that page.

There is evidence that suggests that incidental exposure to marketing communications

can have an influence on consumer behavior (Janiszewski, 2001). The audience is anyone

male or female reading the magazine and in this case it is Cosmopolitan. The author is

Sky Spirits LLC located out of San Francisco, California.

The main elements that stand out to the audience are the bottle of Skyy Infusions and the

woman. The bottle of Skyy clearly indicates that it is vodka that is infused with “all

natural” ginger flavors. The woman has physical features culturally known as “being a

ginger” appears to be drinking a cocktail mixed with Skyy infusions. Her body language

says to the audience that she is enjoying the taste of the drink or she enjoys holding the

drink. The enthymeme of this advertisement is that Skyy Vodka tastes good because the

girl looks like she is enjoying drinking it. The induction is that since the girl in the

advertisement likes Skyy Vodka everyone will like Skyy Vodka.

There are several elements that make up this advertisement that relates to another element

in the advertisement. This is intended to persuade the audience that they will like this

alcohol in hopes that they will eventually purchase a bottle. To start, the product name is

Skyy. The word Sky can be related to the color blue. The bottle Skyy is the color blue.

The woman eyes are blue and almost the same color of the bottle. Her eyes depict to the

audience that she is enjoying her cocktail. The symbolism of blue eyes are strong,

steadfast, light, and calming (Kaya & Epps, 2004). Since many people like a shade of

blue the use of blue is intended to intrigues the audience into liking this advertisement.

Skyy is known to be expensive compared to other vodkas indicating that it is more

sophisticated vodka. In the advertisement the woman is covered by a silk sheet in a

similar color to that of the ginger root. The symbolism of silk is associated with luxury

(Hills, 2006). Luxury can be associated with spending more money for something nicer

than generic brands. The advertisement shows that Skyy is a higher quality alcohol than

other vodkas by the depiction of the woman being rapped in silk.

The claim on this advertisement “all natural” means that it has some relation to nature. In

this case the nature relates to the ginger root as a natural ingredient. The word “Ginger”

and “All Natural” can be seen on the bottle. The phrase “All Natural” also relates to the

French term “Au Naturel” which means nude (The American Heritage, 2003). With that

in mind, the woman’s nakedness relates to the phrase “All Natural.” The natural

campaign is all brought together by the phrase “Go Nature” at the bottom of the

advertisement. The font type of this phrase matches the font type on the bottle.
The next association between the ad and the product is the term “Ginger.” The word

“ginger” is located on the product and a picture of a ginger root is below it. A real ginger

root is located in the woman’s hand and it the other hand is a cocktail filled with the

ginger infused vodka. Ginger is an herb that is known to help cure nausea, digestive

problems, circulation and arthritis (Hoffmann & Manning, 2002). Recently American

culture depicts red heads as “Gingers” so the woman herself is a symbol of Ginger. This

advertisement uses symbolic representations of ginger throughout the artifact to indicate

the product is infused with ginger flavors.

The problem with this advertisement is the ginger root. Not everyone in the audience

would know what a ginger root looks like. In order to show what ginger looks like they

place a picture of the ginger root on the bottle located right below the word ginger. The

only way the root relates in the advertisement is the woman culturally known as a

“Ginger” is holding the ginger root. The other problem is the campaign is the phrase “Go

Natural.” Although the term “Natural” is depicted well in the advertisement by the root

and the naked woman the idea of vodka is not natural. If a person were to “Go Natural”

by drinking something it would seem more appropriate to drink water or something to

that affect. At first glance it seems more appropriate that the phrase “Go Natural” to

mean get drunk and get naked. With that in mind, there can be a negative perception of

this advertisement toward the audience.

This advertisement can be interpreted in different ways between men and woman. The

male gaze in advertisement may see the woman as what is being bought. The message
implies that if you buy this product you will get the girl. A woman might see this as if

she buys the product then she will get male attention. In a negative interpretation, the

male might see that this message implies that alcohol will lower a woman’s inhibitions.

The negative interpretation for women would be that lowered inhibitions from alcohol

would cause her to hook-up (Wykes & Gunter 2005).

Another problem with the aesthetics of this advertisement is the position of the woman in

comparison with the position of the cocktail glass. Initially, it seems as though the

woman is lying down. It makes sense for her to by lying down because she is on a sheet

and covered by another sheet. Sheets are associated with beds and it is natural to think of

lying down if a person is on a bed. The problem is that if the woman is lying down it

would be impossible for her to be holding a cocktail glass without spilling it. By these

standards it would seem that she is sitting up. Therefore the orientation of the woman

and the cocktail are almost unnatural.

Altogether this advertisement was very well put together. While flipping through the

pages of the magazine I stopped on this advertisement because of its use of color, visual

elements, and text. All of the symbols presented in the advertisement relate to each other

creating a central theme. Initially the advertisement draws the reader in then relates to

the audience by creating meanings to each element in order to convince the audience they

want Skyy Infusions then eventually purchase the product.

Logos is based on the audience’s idea of what is true. In this case the advertisement is
for vodka infused with ginger. Ginger is a natural herb and considered beneficial for

nausea, digestive problems, circulation and arthritis. The woman sporting “Ginger”

characteristics is going natural by being naked and appears to be healthy.

Ethos is based in the audience’s perception of the speaker’s character. This

advertisement uses the woman to depict the message. The woman uses seduction to draw

in the reader. By using seduction the advertisement shows that the woman is enjoying

her cocktail.

Pathos is based in audiences’ feelings. Since the woman appears to be enjoying her

cocktail the audience is able to believe that they will be enjoy the drink. Since cocktails

are known to be associated with clubs and clubs have a sexual environment the audience

may feel a seductive emotion towards this advertisement and Skyy Infusions.

This advertisement uses middle style because the visual elements are visually pleasing by

using bold colors. This advertisement draws in the audience’s attention by using a sexual

ad campaign. Metaphors are presented throughout the advertisement through the use of

symbolism.

Through this evaluation, I have come to the conclusion that the rhetoric used in this

advertisement is effective in selling the product by classical theory. Even though there is

some contradiction in the advertisement there are effective symbols that relay a particular

message to the audience. Even if the audience perceived a negative massage from this
advertisement they still stopped to look at the ad. As I stated earlier, exposure to

marketing communications can influence a consumer’s behavior (Janiszewski, 2001).

Repeated exposure to the stimuli in this advertisement makes it more likely for the

audience to notice the bottle of Skyy Infusions when they walk into a liquor store. It is

likely for an individual to purchase a product when they have some sort of knowledge of

the product or the brand.

References

Janiszewski, C. (2001). Effects of Brand Logo Complexity, Repetition, and Spacing on

Processing Fluency and Judgment. Journal of Consumer Research, 28(1), 18-32.
Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

Kaya, N., and Epps, H. H. (2004) Relationship between color and emotion: a study of
college students. College Student Journal, 38.3: p396(10). Retrieved from
Academic Search Complete database.

HILLS, P. (2006). TITIAN'S VEILS. Art History, 29(5), 771-795. doi:10.1111/j.1467-

8365.2006.00523.x.

au naturel. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth
Edition. (2003). Retrieved November 2 2010 from
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/au+naturel

Hoffmann, F., and Manning, M. (2002). Herbal Medicine and Botanical Medicine Fads.
Binghamton: NY: The Haworth Press, Inc.

Wykes, M., and Gunter, B., (2005). The Media and Body Image. London: Sage
Publication Ltd.