When it comes to developing an ad for a certain product, it is all about knowing your audience. Take alcoholic beverages for example, beer and hard liquor are thought of as “manly” drinks. Whereas wine and fruity drinks with low-alcohol content are thought of as “girly” drinks. And depending on the age group, your social status is determined based on what and how much you drink.
The Three Olives Vodka ad is an example of the advertisers knowing their audience; young females who like to have a good time. 
The ad pictures a woman, about 21-26 years of age, dressed up in a sexy cowgirl outfit sitting in a martini glass. The way she is positioned tells us that she is relaxed and possibly looking for attention from a companion but the look on her face shows she can be fun as well. The red, silky backdrop sends a powerful sense of confidence in her sexuality. Clearly this ad is meant for women; to persuade them that Three Olives is a beverage that will present them as classy yet fun. The commentary in the bottom left corner presents the vodka as the best of the best, a must have; which will make women want to try it even more.
“Knowledge presented as common sense or natural, especially when its social construction is ignored or suppressed” is known as an ideology (Griffin, 329). In A First Look At Communication, we are introduced to semiotics, “the study of the social production of meaning from sign systems” as well (Griffin, 323). In other words, the beliefs and understandings that are instilled in us at such a young age that we do not even question it are broken down. We learn what common sense really is and how it came to be. For example, when we were children, girls played with dolls and boys played in the mud. If we saw a young boy playing dolls, we would be puzzled as to why he is doing it and question the situation. The same goes with drinking, boys drink beer and girls drink frilly drinks. We don’t know why we think this, but because everyone thinks it, it has to be true, right?
Advertisements are targeted at specific audiences to buy their products; women to buy cleaning supplies, food, make-up, etc and men to buy cars, power tools, lawn care equipment. Women are usually thought of as needing to be saved, or not supposed to speak out of turn. “In consequence, they are often perceived in ‘decorative roles’ as self-conscious figures whose rewards are generally concerned with the self ‘enhancement’ or social ‘approval’ related to a product’s consumption rather than any pleasurable or practical rewards yielded by the product (Aronovsky, 2008). So when a new product, such as Three Olives Vodka with a woman expressing herself loudly for example emerges, women want to be just like her and be fun and someone a man will want to be seen with. And guys just have to show up looking good, and girls will give them attention.
Because our culture is so different than any other generation’s, we are instilled with different ideologies and beliefs when it comes to professional and social encounters. Women are emerging out of the kitchen and into office buildings, men are slipping back into the house to spend more time at home with his family. Socially, men and women have friends of the same and opposite gender and no one even questions it. Men and women are seen as equals of each other today, as opposed to our grandparents’ and parents’ generation. So when this ad emerges in the 21st century as a drink for women, is there some kind of inequality presented? “When it comes to alcohol, men and women are inherently unequal and no legislation can impose sexual equality on them. It’s absolutely essential for the health and safety of women to understand this inequality and act accordingly” (Hanson, 1998).
The parody ad I edited, I replaced the woman with a man in a martini glass, showing that Three Olives is not only for women nor is a martini. 
Because of our culture and general equality, my parody shows that if a man drinks a “frilly, girlie” drink he is not going to be judged any differently than if a woman was seen drinking a beer. It gives a sense of drinking equality; “drinking patterns become not a matter of science but rather an ideology—a ‘body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class, or culture” (Room, 2005). It also gives the ad comedy; knowing that the original ad had a sexy woman in the glass, who is now replaced with an almost naked man makes the audience think twice about the original. Is the woman really trying to be sexy, or is she craving attention? Imagine a social gathering of people ages 21-26. Women and men are congregated into separate groups, some of each gender floating around talking to everyone they know. The men are drinking either beer or hard liquor and women are drinking fruity martinis. If a man was drinking martinis with the girls, he might be seen as gay; vice versa if a woman was seen drinking beer with the guys. The parody ad gives off the vibe that men and martinis is socially acceptable in our culture.
Whether we like to admit it or not, our culture and generation, more specifically, are extremely affected by the way the media presents itself. It is human nature to want to be seen as cool or up to date with the latest trends. We like to fit the “normal” mold. By advertising the woman in the martini glass, Three Olives is sending the subliminal message to women, “wouldn’t you like to be just like her? “ Women see her as an idol for alcohol; she looks to be fun and sexy while drinking a woman’s drink. Not only is this drink for women, it is one of the best out there. The hegemony, “the preponderant influence of domination of one nation over another,” the nation being alcohol, of this ad is captivating to the audience it is being presented to (Griffin, 336).
Once we are taught how things should be or just are, we stick to it. We become familiar and comfortable with our beliefs and the ways we do things. Advertising has always been persuading people to by a company’s product; they were taught how it should be and stuck with the comfortable familiarity of success. It is human nature to want to be able to fit in. We learn how to speak the right language, dress appropriately for certain events, even buy the latest products once we know they are (sometimes) worth buying. Because the Three Olives Vodka ad has a young, sexy woman dressed in trending clothes and testimony from critics, people are going to want to buy this product. If the woman was dressed in a turtle-neck sweater and khakis, sitting conservatively, people would not be as interested in buying this product because it is not cool and its presentation would not be taken seriously. Through semiotics and hegemony, we now know who and what to blame for what we know as common sense; society and ourselves.
Sources:
Aronovsky, A., & Furnham, A. (2008). Gender portrayals in food commercials at different times of the day: A content analytic study. Communications: The European Journal Of Communication Research, 33(2), 169-190. doi:10.1515/COMMUN.2008.010
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Griffin, E. (2009). A first look at communication theory. (7th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.
Hanson, D. J. H. P. D. (1998). Drinking: Men and women are unequal. Retrieved from http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/HealthIssues/1055861926.html
Room, R. (2005). Drinking patterns as an ideology. Addiction, 100(12), 1803-1804.