A is especially bright and different with a ‘kids’ font style and wobbly border.
B is more of a formal Vauxhall ad; the layout is such that they could slip the A A Clark info in at the bottom. While A is a lot more focused on A A Clark, for instance the name and details are much bigger and has a map to their garage, it does have a large Vauxhall logo in the corner to establish their make.
A of course is twice the size of B, which I think is because free papers have higher circulation rates and therefore adverts cost more.
In A there are six small pictures of various cars, which take up about the same amount of room as the pig. In B there are three larger pictures of similar cars, which draw in your eyes more than A’s. The pictured cars have the same ‘shiny’ graphical style, which makes them look very clean and like they’re speeding along under the sun. They’ve both got an imaginative selection of different coloured cars that really look good, especially with this ‘shine’ and none clash with the red.
It seems that A has the emphasis on how cheep the cars are and what money you save; it doesn’t tell you anything about the actual cars you’re supposed to be buying. On the other hand B tells you lots of information about what luxury accessories and offers the cars come with.
Both the ads have slogans; A says “Cars might fly?… …fly out the door that is!” next to a large picture of a sleeping winged pig. This is a pun of the phrase “pigs might fly” but I don’t think it’s particularly funny. It’s followed up by “So don’t get caught napping! Get down and check out our low prices on New & Nearly New cars before the price of bacon goes up!” which also isn’t funny. B has the heading “Want to put the fun back into driving? Go straight to Vauxhall.” although that has the same basic message I think it sounds cleverer, is more to the point and doesn’t waste any space compared to the other. It At the bottom of B there is a small Vauxhall logo and the words “A century in motion” and the homonym; “Vauxhall’s centenary. A great deal to celebrate.” which means both that there is a lot to celebrate and that to celebrate they’re giving people a good deal. I think that it is witty and works well.
Because A is more casual I think it’s aimed at younger readers. But they are both local papers so they will probably have a similar wide age range of readers, so I think it was a bad move. A tries and is attractive, but it fails to give the right impression and so it looks a bit immature. B actually says that you have to be at least nineteen to benefit from free insurance, but other than that I think it applies to anyone.
While I except that A is really eye catching and that it does it’s job in that sense, I don’t really think it does it’s job in the advertising sense; it tries to be persuasive but for me it would just put me off. B just tells you the solid facts, while A tells you a load of figures and boasts about their good value prices and how much you save. They could be true but they certainly don’t have to be, sure B does quote prices but it just says the amount and moves on, it doesn’t try to say that they’re amazing or anything, which is why I prefer it. If I really wanted a car I would look at B and see all the facts laid out for me. It does its job entirely and on top of that it’s humorous. Adverts really don’t need to tell us that products are better than other peoples, just the truth.
