Louis Vuitton Monogram Vernis Advertisement

Louis Vuitton is a French retail company famous for their designer handbags, jewelry, travel luggage, and more. It has a long, rich history, as back in 1837, a then 16-year-old Louis Vuitton had chosen a career as a trunk-master and began his apprenticeship in the French capital, Paris. Years later, Vuitton would decide to open his own workshop in 1854, the start of a company that would become renowned for their merchandise after being hired by Napoleon's wife to personally handcraft her boxes and luggage.

Released in April 1999, this advertisement was created to promote the luxury brand on an international market with all of its extravagance. The advertisement is the work of the BETC advertisement agency, then known as BETC Euro Rscg Paris. It was published in Paris but was spread across the nation and then the globe because of the vast international connections the company has.

This advertisement depicts a woman with fiery red hair eating the strawberries, red currents, and cherries that are tumbling out of her handbag. The color red is given great emphasis as it is the color of all of the fruit, the woman's hair, and her nails. Even her cheeks are a darker shade of pink along with the hints of auburn and dark orange in the wood of the table. The background is a light color that eventually fades to white on the left side of the picture, accenting the foreground with the table, handbag, and most notably the woman.

The woman is wearing a simple, silk outfit and the tone of her skin is very light, directly being contrasted with her auburn hair and the deep red tones around her. This contrast is significant as it emphasizes the woman's sexuality in the picture in direct relation to the handbag that is providing her with these fruits. This layout of the picture with the woman right next to the handbag shows the bag's importance in love and sexuality. The lack of words on the advertisement not only shows the brands prominence, as no explanation is needed for who the brand is or what they sell, but also shifts the importance to the picture rather than any words that could detract from the photo.

On a larger scale, the color red symbolizes ideals such as romance, love, dominance, and sexuality in the advertisement. This constructs the concepts of lust and passion, clearly emphasized in the image. This is furthered through the use of fruit, a common symbol for pleasure and temptation. While the fruit is applicable to lust, it is also applicable to the idea of gluttony. Fruit can also represent temptation in the form of excessive eating or extravagance. This is also represented with the large amount of fruit prevalent in the picture.

The intended audience for this advertisement is adult women of all ages. It is directed for the top of the upper class economically as the brand is extremely expensive. Some of their cheapest available jewelry still costs upwards of $5,000 and their most expensive items go well beyond that.

It is also targeting women who follow the trends of society because Louis Vuitton models their items based off of the current fashions. Their brand is immensely popular, thus having merchandise from them would, in the minds of many, help boost someone's social status. This is apparent with their lack of words to describe who they are as a company in their advertisement. Furthermore, the audience has to have some cultural knowledge of the company's prestige in order to invest. This shows how the advertisement draws on the societal awareness of the company, which in turn furthers public opinion and works in Louis Vuitton's favor.

Overall, this advertisement conveys the connotation that if a woman purchases this handbag or an item from Louis Vuitton, they will have the same degree of sexuality, passion, romance, and dominance as the woman depicted in the picture. This idea is constructed by the handbag being the source of these red fruits, symbols of sexuality and romance. This is a manipulation of the audience because certain factors in the picture are clearly playing on the emotions of the audience. This advertisement uses the deadly sins of lust and gluttony to try to attract buyers that have an emotional response to these concepts, such as wanting these qualities, or what they imply, for themselves or others.

Works Cited:

"A Legendary History." LOUIS VUITTON Official USA Website, Louis Vuitton, us.louisvuitton.com/eng-us/la-maison/a-legendary-history#tumbler.

BETC Euro Rscg Paris. "Seven Deadly Sins VII." Coloribus.com, Coloribus, www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/prints/monogram-vernis-seven-deadly-sins-vii-1349605/.

"FINE JEWELRY." Louis Vuitton Jewelry - Women's Fine Jewelry in Gold | LOUIS VUITTON, Louis Vuitton, https://us.louisvuitton.com/eng-us/women/fine-jewelry/_/N-75u08p/to-2.

"Louis Vuitton Biography." The Biography.com Website, A&E Television Networks, 2 Apr. 2014, https://www.biography.com/people/louis-vuitton-17112264.

Olesen, Jacob. "Color Symbolism in Literature: What Do Colors Mean in Literature and Poetry?" Color-Meanings.com, 7 May 2015, https://www.color-meanings.com/color-symbolism-in-literature-what-do-colors-mean-in-literature-and-poetry/.

Bee-Wolf and Honeybee

The name Beowulf in Old English translates to mean Bee-Wolf, an Anglo-Saxon kenning for bear. This is comparable to my own name as Melissa is a Greek name that means "honeybee" or "bee". While both of these names pertain to bees, the similarities end there. In Greek mythology, the name Melissa was a feminine name that had many different important carriers that shaped the connotation of the name.

First, it was the name of the Princess of Crete who was able to turn into a bee after learning how to collect honey. This is represented in the picture above. The picture shows the connection of bees to divinity and royalty in Greek mythology. It also represents the importance of nature, fertility, and beauty as depicted by the flowers.

Second, it was the name of the nymph that took care of Zeus while he was an infant, hiding him away from his father who was planning on eating him like he had already done to Zeus's siblings. She cared for him and instead of feeding him milk, she fed him honey. The name Melissae was given to all of the nymphs that cared for Zeus during his infancy in her honor.

Third, in the Goddess Aphrodite's temple, the name Melissae was collectively given to her priestesses while the name Melissa was given to the Goddess herself, directly meaning Queen Bee. This shows the divinity and crucial role that bees played in Greek mythology. Bees were sacred in Greek mythology for their integral role in agriculture, their symbol of fertility, their matriarchal society, as well as the understanding they gave to the universe through geometry.

While my name does not define me in the way that I see myself, it is interesting to think about how it could change the way others perceive me even before they have gotten to know me. My name has a significant nurturing and caring connotation in Greek mythology that could pose expectations on me, as any name with a certain meaning could. This is interesting to think about in relation to Beowulf as well because with his name meaning bear, his name, father's reputation, and societal norms were all weighing on him to be heroic, strong, and a capable warrior. His name added more pressure for him to succeed. I do not find that this is the case for my own name because I was not named specifically after someone else and only with a lot of research did I discover the true origins of my name. Despite not being applicable to me, pressure from one's name is definitely still prevalent now as people have to live up to certain standards or feel pressured to follow the footsteps of their name-sake.

In her essay "The Name is Mine", Anna Quindlen speaks about how there is one version of herself that is an individual and another that is a part of her family of four. She goes on to discuss how this  marginalizes her, with the three other family members sharing a different name. In regards to my own life, there have been two versions of myself when one version is me as an individual and the other is me as a twin. While my twin, Nicole, and I are two extremely different people in the way we think and act, we still share a bond that connects us both by our own definitions as well as society's.

These two versions of myself pose dilemmas in more than one facet, but most remarkably in social settings. Beyond the common mixing of names, which happens more often than one would think with fraternal twins, the two versions of myself work against each other in this setting quite often. While Nicole and I are both very different individuals, we are often perceived as just one unit. But in some regards, we are almost polar opposites of each other and so when taken together as one, it is often difficult to express our vibrant individuality and unique traits. For example, Nicole loves dancing, singing, and other means where she can express her creativity and artistic abilities. This completely contrasts with my own love for soccer, math, and science. When we are taken together as one unit, it can be difficult to each show our own unique capabilities. I find that when we are together, we are referred to as "the twins", or some variation of the sort, that undermines our individuality.

This is often difficult to deal with because the standards that one twin sets often puts pressure on the other one to do the same. For example, if Nicole does really well in all of her classes, I feel pressure to do the same. While this can be motivating in many cases, the pressure can make one of us feel inadequate if we don't do as well as the other. It is as if we feel like others are constantly comparing the two of us because they see us as one entity and thus we each do not want to be seen as the "lesser twin" in any way. Thus, lumping us together puts a lot of external pressure on each of us to do as well as the other one. This imposes yet another standard that limits our individuality as we are trying to conform to the each other's goals and expectations.

While this is one way to look at it, another is to say that being a twin is unique in and of itself. Being referred to as "the twins" is special because while everyone else is their own entity, we are each half of a whole. Not everyone has this special bond with someone that they have lived their entire life with and grown up together with. This has its own advantages in a social setting as well because I have met a lot of new people through those that Nicole has become friends with, and the same is true for her. So while it can often be difficult as not being thought of as my own individual, it has its unique characteristics that can make it very special. The two versions of myself do often clash, so finding the place where we each feel we can express our individuality, while still sharing a connection, is vital to having a healthy bond between the two of us.

Works Cited:

Maes, Annemie. Melissa: The Origins of the Word Honey Is Feminin, annemariemaes.net, annemariemaes.net/melissa-the-origin-of-the-word-honey-is-feminin/.

"Melissa." The Bump, www.thebump.com/b/melissa-baby-name.

"The Melissae of Ancient Greece." Blue Star Owl, 9 Apr. 2013, bluestarowl.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/the-melissae-of-ancient-greece/.

"Nymphs." Paleothea, 16 July 2011, www.paleothea.com/Nymphs.html.

Zupan, Melissa. "The Melissae in Greek Myth and Legend." Three Hundred and Sixty-Six, 3 May 2013, threehundredandsixtysix.wordpress.com/2013/05/03/the-melissae-in-greek-myth-and-legend/.