¶ … Captain Morgan Black Spiced Rum advertisement in the recent issue of Miami New Times is dark. A black candle on a black candlestick smolders in the air, presenting one of only three traces of light colors via its cream colored smoke, billowing about. Directly above it, the white phrasing of "Introducing a darker, bolder spiced rum" leaps out at the viewer, in stark contrast to the opal shades that characterize the rest of the advertisement. The final light shade on the ad, the label for the bottle of Captain Morgan Black Spiced Rum, displays a grinning, sword clutching captain standing on a barrel mounted atop the distant cliffs of some shore. Other than the warm, reddish tinged liquor cooling on a couple of ice cubes in a transparent glass, everything else depicted in this ad is black. The table containing the bottle, the glass and the candle is black, a chair, looking as though it were recently pushed back, is so dark it is hard to discern in the room that is undeniably ebony. These simple, stark colors and the haunting, smoke filled imagery of piracy and hard liquor they contain are all a very clever, well-designed marketing tools attempting to cash in on the 'bad boy' image and persona that will appeal to certain consumers of liquor. If the imagery, the colors, the smoke filled room and the Captain himself do not make this point apparently clear, there is one final aspect of this ad that truly emphasizes this is a liquor for men who buy into the miscreant conception of manhood. Both the label on the bottle and the fine print at the bottom of the ad state that this is Caribbean rum with select spices and natural flavors that is DOUBLE CHARRED (these two words are capitalized). Whereas most conventional rum is 40% alcohol by volume, this particular one is 47.3%. And whereas most liquors are 80 proof, the writing on the bottle and...

Always in moderation." However, the message of the ad itself is certainly conveyed a lot more prominently than this small writing in the bottom left hand corner of the page. When considering the marketing appeal of this particular print advertisement, it is necessary to examine the motif of piracy and the grinning, armed figure of Captain Morgan that this particular company has banked on. Pirates and the figure of Captain Morgan, in particular, are noted for a liberty and an autonomy in which they simply took whatever they wanted, whether they had to despoil people to do so or not. It is this autonomy that the figure of the Captain has been branded with, and which is denoted both in his name and in the rendering of his image as a marketing tool to appeal to the same sense of strength, freedom, and unmitigated reliance on action that the manufacturers of this ad are attempting to appeal to in viewers to get them to purchase this product.
The dark coloring of the page, and the smoke filled haze that harangues about it, was purposefully designed to adhere to this form of sensibility in the viewer. The branding of the product and the tones of the ad both emphasize the fact that this is no mere alcoholic product for average men and women. The subversive figure of the Captain that stands in stark contrast to the subdued, shadowy elements depicted on the page represent an appeal to the most macho of men, those who are perhaps wild and free like the Captain, and who can appreciate a drink that at least makes them feel as wild…