Good furniture buys obedience

Analysis 4

Product: Natuzzi Italia

Found on: Jet Wings, Page 29 (March 2012)

The ad is set inside a beautiful living room of a well to do upper class family. The room is dark. A window offers the sole source of natural light. . It shows a woman apparently playing with her child. The child is running away while the woman is down on her knees and hands. She seems to be looking up at kid. The kid is wearing dark colored clothes that merge with the furniture whereas the woman is wearing white that stands out.  She has been placed on the right hand side bottom corner and we can see only half of her body inside the frame. A copy in Italian has been placed on the left hand side top corner.

The copy literally translated means “Welcome home”. If we suppose that the home belongs to a family, then the only missing member is the man. This directly implies that the ad is targeting men and inviting them back to a wonderful happy home after a day of hard work. He comes home to a charming sight of his wife playing with his child against the background of elegant furniture. Now let’s analyse the body postures of the child and the mother. The child is quite mischievous. His body posture makes it clear that he has been running around for some time. This raises the question what is the woman doing on the floor. Her posture is especially interesting. This is an animalistic posture. It is often used when parents play “horse riding” with their kids. Unfortunately, the kid’s posture makes it clear that this is not the case here. On a single glance it seems as if the woman is looking at the kid. However, if one carefully follows her eyes, they are looking at something beyond the kid. Therefore, the woman is shown in an animalistic posture looking at someone above the kid. This portrays her as being extremely submissive and she can be easily for dominated and controlled. So, essentially the ad reinforces a traditional belief that if you provide good furniture and home, then your kids will be happy and your wife will be obedient! Even though the woman is wearing western clothes (the epitome of negativity in representing women), she can still be trained to be docile! How? Just give her the advertised furniture!!