America's Nail Polish Ad Analysis

The September Edition of Cosmopolitan presents an advertisement about “America’s nail salon expert…since 1981,” Essie. Essie’s nail polish brand is one that targets a wide variety of women. The purpose of this ad is to find a topic that all women can relate to, and that topic is the Nineties. Elements like a huge cassette tape and the phrase “as if” transports the viewer back in time, so Essie can introduce their new line of nineties themed nail polishes. This ad’s theme of the nineties evokes nostalgia in women of all ages and connects them to the Essie brand. To start off, this ad has a lack of color except for the periwinkle polish that is apart of the large image. This lack of color helps to highlight the pigmentation of the nail polish as well as the main focus of the ad. The brand name is even in white, but it is being outlined by faint grey shading to make the letters seem three dimensional like on the nail polish bottle. In the middle of the page, there is a huge, clear cassette tape balancing on top of a bottle of Essie nail polish. The periwinkle color polish in this bottle is being
As if!” The use of this phrase presents a double meaning with this ad. One, it is talking about creating a “perfect ‘90s mix” on a cassette tape, but they were also alluding to the “perfect 90s mix” of their fall collection. The color used for the text “as if!” is the same periwinkle color that is on the cassette tape and in the nail polish bottle. This effectively highlights key factors on this ad to illustrate the bridge being created between the nineties and Essie nail polish. Down in the left hand corner, the viewer gets to see a preview of the colors for the new fall collection as well as their names. With names ranging from “Saved by the Belle” to “Mixtaupe” to “Knee-high Life,” almost every area of the nineties is covered from television shows and music to popular clothing