TOW #6 - Lugano

Rich, pure, smooth, famous Swiss chocolate.  From Tobler to Lindt to a small brand called Teuscher, Switzerland has always been known for their chocolate expertise.  In the advertisement above, E. Marinella, one of the most coveted necktie brands in the world, takes advantage of this general knowledge.  E. Marinella is an Italian brand, so the logical question to ask would be, “why is this brand referencing Switzerland?”  Well, the connection becomes clear once the audience realizes what Lugano means.  Lugano is a city in Switzerland that lies within the Ticino region, an Italian-speaking territory.  Now, the connection between the Italian brand and Swiss chocolate makes sense.  This advertisement is a very simple one, relying on color contrast, symbolism, and a very specific audience to convey its message.  This advertisement uses color contrast in order to immediately catch the eye of potential any potential customers.  The bright white background contrasted with the dark tones of the chocolate bar is quite eye-catching.  That, compounded with the simply yet bold lettering above the subject, achieves the first step of the advertising process.  Now that the company has caught the attention of the public, the next step is to make a meaningful sales pitch.  E. Marinella makes this effectively with the use of the chocolate bar/tie combination.  The end of the tie comes out of the chocolate bar, indicating that the tie itself is made of pure chocolate.  The sentence at the bottom of the poster adds to this effect.  It reads, “Since 1914, the taste of elegance.”  Since nearly everybody loves a rich, high-quality chocolate bar, E. Marinella relates its product to a universally appreciated one in order to establish a connection.  Now when people think of E. Marinella ties, they also think of beautiful, elegant chocolate.  The final aspect of this visual text is the very specific target audience.  E. Marinella is a luxury brand: they are expensive, lavish, and have brand name value.  Because of this, the company is trying to target the very upper class who can afford to buy the neckties.  This upper class is the same market that expensive chocolatiers appeal to.  Since there is a shared market, E. Marinella taps in to this similarity and in essence uses all of the chocolatiers advertisements the came before them.  In effect, E. Marinella accesses and entire catalog of past advertisements in their single poster ad.  This renders the visual text a very effective one.