Study of an ad

On the ad we can see a woman's legs. Her legs are shaved, thin, with no flaws (no pimples or freckles, etc.) and shiny. Her legs represent the classic stereotype of an ideal shape for a woman's legs thus it represents what is in a westerner perspective a form of beauty. Hence, this product is associated to a form of beauty that is easily accessible since all a person has to do is to buy the product and use it after shaving. The fact that there is a close-up of the model's legs is important. Actually, let's picture this ad with a close-up of a woman smiling because she is satisfied with the product. In this case, the effect would have been different because the fact that the readers see these perfect legs makes them want to get as close as possible to this ideal, whereas a woman's face would have been boring and wouldn't have drawn the reader's attention. The product is presented as something necessary that everybody should use to make their skin better.
             The composition of this ad is not very complex. There are two split images. We can see the use of flashy colors, a cold light blue for the first picture's background that contrasts with a warm yellow for the second picture. There is also the use of pink and red. In the picture on top, there is a close-up of a conic shape cake with melted cream and a raspberry on top. It is obvious that here, there is use of sexual connotations, because the picture resembles a woman's breast (the fruit being the nipple) with cream on top of it. I think that the advertisers used this image to get the reader's attention while going through the magazine. A notation says about the gel that "It's like dessert for the legs". A dessert is supposed to be good and tasty. It refers to the multiple flavors contained in the product that according to the ad are supposed to smell good and to have good effects on the skin. The second image is a close-up of a woman's legs from her upper legs to her feet.