A critical Analysis of a piece of Advertising

Max Cunnane

5th School

The piece of advertising that I am studying came from a wholesale booklet, the advert I feel is targeting people that are going to be buying large quantities, for re-sale. The advert is trying to sell a drink, they call a stimulation drink. These have become increasingly popular in recent years, and the same people that make the controversial Red Bull also make this drink, Red Devil. These drinks are usually drunk by teenagers, they are also used by a lot of amateur sports players as they give a sharp burst of energy.

The advert consists of just four colours, black, red, silver and a small bit of white. The majority of the Advert is black and red, I feel that these colours are defiantly colours that are associated with the adjectives devilish or evil. Even though this to most people isn’t very attractive, there is a certain amount of excitement to it and therefore is in a subconscious sort of way is appealing to the devil inside everyone. Overall I feel that this part of the advert is more appealing to men than women. I say this because I feel that men would be more entice to notice, these devilish colours and try and associate themselves with them where as women would prefer to associate themselves with pinks and greens. I self consciously talking stereotypically here, but still I think it is a valid feeling.

The companies making this drink as I said earlier are the same brand that makes Red Bull. The name Red Bull has a certain amount of punching power in it. I think that the combination of Red and Bull make us think of the old lie, that ‘The colour red infuriates bulls’. This is a daunting thought to anyone except maybe the Devil. I would be reasonable to connect the this fury to the devil, maybe suggesting that Red Devil is a step up form Red Bull. I feel that the advert is quite successful as this is the ...

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The advert is shaped in such a way that it only covers half a page. Maybe this resembles the shape of the can, however this may just be to save Britvic money. Alternatively it could just be that this was the only place left in the magazine for Britvic to advertise on. However I think that the second of these three possible reasons is the most likely.

In the background we can see a man’s face both on the can and on the advert as a whole, again linking the page with the can (resemblance). The fact that the man has been drawn on quite vaguely and we only see half his face, maybe suggesting that the drink could reveal another side to ourselves, ‘ the devil within’?! On the can itself we get a clearer picture of the mans face, looking like it has been drawn. We can see a twinkle in his eye, it would be reasonable to translate this as, “drink our drink and look at what it will give you”. Give you an extra sparkle on life, or letting you see the world as it is in a different light. The look on the mans face from what of it we can see is a look of pure adrenaline and determination. He looks as if he is competing in a high contact, high adrenaline game like rugby, he has the look as if he is about to pack down for a scrum, clash of titans. It may be implying here that the drink is good for some sports, (E.g. giving an energy burst.)

The writing in the advert is next to the can and is written laterally down the page saying in red ‘ Devilishly’ then in silver ‘Good Looking’ Maybe suggesting drink this and you will become good looking, not physically but mentally it will put u in a different frame of mind. It would be a reasonable view to see that the drink would put you in a different frame of mind and you will see everything as good looking.

There are aspects of this advert that I think aren’t successful for example some of the other more informative writing, is ridiculous. For example ‘New Modern Can Design’ I feel it would be reasonable for this part of the advert to be labelled as unsuccessful. However this could be seen as anti effective advertising, which is when the advertising techniques are so obvious that they stick in our minds, which is the aim overall of advertising anyway. Another perspective on the same piece of writing is that it is just there to make the ‘ Devilishly Good Looking’ Stand out more.

A good piece of advertising should tell a story that gets into a views head and touches them on a personal level, thus enforcing them to link the two subjects together. Good advertising is what large multi national companies dream of, however I do no feel that this particular piece of advertising is overly effective.

Max Cunnane