This advertisement features pop star Amber Rose, and is a promotion of two new flavors of Smirnoff brand vodka, hereafter known as "Fluffed" and "Whipped." The most obvious cultural myth used in this ad is that of class. Smirnoff attempts to associate itself in the minds of viewers with the upper class, that of wealth and frivolity. All of the people in the ad are well-dressed, all wearing suits and dresses, and the drinks are poured into clean, sparkling glasses. After Amber decides to leave the first club, she is taken in a private car to a private jet, where she is waited on, hand and foot by stewardesses wearing gold uniforms, before arriving at a ballroom filled with diamond chandeliers and extravagant outfits. Did that sentence feel like a mouth-full? Because it's certainly an eye-full as you are bombarded with all of those images in just a few seconds. During the club scene depicting the Fluffed flavor, two expensive-looking, well-groomed white poodles are shown at Amber's feet, and during the Whipped scene there are two handsome dobermans in their place. All of these things are associated with wealth; private jets, being pampered, pure-bred dogs, diamonds, etc. All to give you the impression that Smirnoff vodka is the missing link between you and a life of luxury.
The advertisement more subtly includes myths of race that are intertwined with those of class. Throughout the ad, only a very few people of discernible ethnicity other than white are shown, most of them are very lightly-skinned. And of the two dark-skinned black men, one is wearing a bright white suit, and the other is waiting on Amber. This is because there is a myth that white people are more high-achieving and make more money. When one thinks of the upper-class, whether one likes it or not, one probably thinks "white." But the advertisers are surely afraid to appear racist, and so they include lightly skinned Asians and black people, but also do their best to make them appear as "white" as possible with clothing and context.
Gender is an important aspect of this advertisement, and it appears as though the advertisers were careful to appeal to both men and women through their perceived gender roles. The ad shows a woman partying and having a good time, and depicts her with many of the things associated with women: poodles, dance clubs, diamonds, fancy/alluring dresses. But the ad is not feminine, in the sense that these alcohols are not depicted as just for women. Here the myth of gender is linked to one of sexuality. Amber, as a character in this ad, is both masculine and feminine. She is a woman and is waited on by men constantly throughout the ad, and yet she is very sexually attractive, and her breathy voice is seductive.
She depicts an empowered woman, but not so much as to be off-putting or deterrent to men. At one point she pours whipped cream into another woman's mouth, which is both extremely suggestive and extremely masculine in its suggestiveness. Amber is visually both masculine and feminine: she wears clothes that show off her attractive figure, with classic feminine attributes (long legs, ample cleavage), but also has very short hair which is a more masculine trait, and she never really does anything feminine like dance or show interest in the men. The ad is split in half by the two different flavors, but also by the music. It begins with Amber's pop song "Fame" for the Fluffed scene, but ends with heavy rock and roll and a man's gravelly voice in the Whipped scene. That way, if men weren't comfortable drinking alcohol associated with pop music, they can just associate it with the rock and roll. This separation is helped by Amber saying "I might choose Fluffed, then again... (rock intro) I might choose Whipped."
That is the key to this ad's success (a judgement I base off of my own initial reaction to this ad): it displays myths that will appeal to both men and women, and allows the viewer to choose the aspects of this commercial to hone in on (subconsciously of course.) A woman might choose to focus on the fact that Amber is also a woman, is obviously wealthy, and lives a fabulous and fun life. But a man might choose to remember that Amber is a very attractive woman, who is obviously wealthy, and obviously a sexual dynamo (here we remember the whipped cream, the breathy voice, and the sensual eating of the marshmallow near the beginning.) As I mentioned, before I really examined this ad it worked on me, because my brain didn't have time to analyze those hundreds of images crammed into those 31 seconds. Even after recognizing the myths involved, it is hard not to associate Smirnoff in my mind with luxury and sex. It's difficult not to think that way when Amber states "Either way... Vodka never felt this good."
