Advertising Meets Ballet (featuring Misty Copeland) 11/23/14

This is an ad from Under Armour, a brand for sports clothing and athletic supplies.  Recently they have been having a campaign focusing on women.  They want to empower women to achieve what they want in the world.  They have been using Misty Copeland, a ballerina with American Ballet Theater in New York City, as one of the subjects for their commercials.  In New York, you can see billboards with her muscular body plastering the sides of highways.

The brand uses her inspiring story in the video ad.  The ad retells her struggles of trying to make it in the ballet world by having a voiceover of a rejection letter Copeland received when she tried to audition for a ballet school at age 13.  By having this story, Under Armour is hoping that the audience associates their brand with resilience and positive outcomes.  They may wish that when a consumer watches their commercial, the consumer believes that if they wear Under Armour products they too will be successful.  Under Armour is also hoping that by appealing to hardworking women, they will gain acceptance from that demographic so that when a women wants to get workout clothes, she will turn to Under Armour first. 

This ad doesn't touch on the subject that it was not just the clothes that made Misty Copeland achieve greatness.  In fact, Copeland most likely never wore Under Armour when she was trying to make it in the ballet world.  She probably wore tights and a leotard made by a dance company instead.  The ad is trying to get people to believe that if they wear these pieces of clothing they will be like Copeland, even though she didn't get to where she is today by wearing the clothing.  

I personally like this ad.  It features ballet and it tells an uplifting story.  Even though the ad wouldn't necessarily convince me to buy Under Armour all the time, it does make me think higher of the company that other stores.  Though the ad certainly has flaws, like omitting the fact that Copeland got to where she is by hard work and not wearing a certain brand, I think that it was a good ad.  

-Liv