New York Times Ad Analysis Essay

The view is breathtaking. It’s nighttime in New York City: buildings are lit and sparkling, brightening the clear, purple-hued sky and reflecting in the otherwise dark water. On the right, a young man and woman are visible through a partitioned floor-to-ceiling window in a skyscraper they occupy. It is not the view of the city you’d expect to see: the United Nations building looms large in the foreground, and the man and women face the water, the city hidden mostly behind them. The man and woman are distanced from the hustle and bustle, high above the traffic-clogged freeway. They are ambassadors of the city, ambassadors of the lifestyle the advertisement seeks to endorse. Dressed in cocktail attire, the woman holds a glass of a drink resembling
Condominiums are high-end, and Times readers are more likely than the general population to be able to afford such luxuries: fifty-six percent of readers are college graduates, and thirty-eight percent have an annual family income of at least $75,000 (Pew Research Center, 2012). Additionally, the man and woman in the advertisement look young, while thirty-two percent of New York Times readers are under thirty. However, there is still ambiguity surrounding the characters, and it is ultimately left up to viewers to determine the man and women’s backstory. This vagueness is a purposeful tactic to widen the advertisement’s appeal: even those lacking the economic status required to purchase one of the condominiums can still envision themselves in the advertisement. Why would the advertisers care that others, and not just those who can afford the condos, identify with the ad? Another goal of the advertisers is to get other people—not just potential buyers—to see these condominiums as valuable. Value is subjective, and in order for these condominiums to reach the desired status that will ensure occupancy and drive up prices, many people must perceive them as valuable. Thus, this ad is selling the condominiums’ worth to every reader of the New York Times Magazine, not just to eventual
The advertisers capture a strategic snapshot of New York City, one that places the couple and the condominiums out and above the the city and in their own private, luxurious world. The position they occupy, at the forefront of the city, above the clogged freeway, looking out at the water, is one of importance, power, and dominance. The nighttime setting furthers this goal, as nighttime is when the natural beauty of the landscape is subordinated to the man-made beauty of the city—the lights emanating from buildings and other development. This primes viewers to associate development positively and connote privacy and luxury with the condominiums being advertised. The limited text that appears furthers these aims, as it signals an abundance of space and time, emphasizing to buyers a sense of their own importance and the life they could live in one of the properties. With its promotion of development, luxury, privacy, and self-importance, the ad is an endorsement of wealth and financial achievement directed in part at an audience of young, ambitious, readers of The New York Times Magazine who either occupy or aspire to occupy the positions of the man and women in the