Advertisement comparison

Kamran Ali 10.1

Coursework

Year 10 Media Coursework

We see advertising in every corner of the world, and get bombarded by hundreds of thousands of adverts wherever we go, whatever we do. Some adverts rely on the product alone; others try to exploit our subconscious fears. These things, plus the message that they convey, are important factors that make the product sell. These businesses use many forms of media, such as Radio, Television, Internet, Adverts, and salesmen.

I have chosen 2 full page advertisements from glossy women’s magazines. The first advertisement is from the Cosmopolitan Magazine, it a perfume ad from Burberry.

The second advertisement is also a perfume advertisement, also from the Cosmopolitan Magazine. This advert is by the company Issey Miyake.

Both of these adverts are perfume adverts, and show the product against dramatic lights in the background, which match the colours of the product, and yet subtle in look.

Looking at the Burberry advertisement, you can see that the bottle is very “squarish”, and the edges are defined strongly. The lettering below the bottle says “Burberry Brit”, which shows the British influence. The bottle has a design on it, its 5 stripes, running across and down the bottle, perpendicular to each other. This reflects the “British Influence” on the bottle, since the British Flag has Coloured stripes on it too. Also there are redlines running in the background, which represent the British flag, since it has red lines on it. This advert is heavily relying on the stripes and squares theme, which when you put them together often form a square sign in your head….this adverts lettering also has the square fonts, which reflect on the design.

The company (Burberry) are not using their brand to sell the product; they are using the design of the product to make it sell, because the brand is written in a very small font. This product is very made for people who are British, and/or proud to be/be in Britain, since the design promotes the union jack really well. At the top, it says “Live from London”, which is saying that this is straight from London; for those people who are not, they can still use the product, which broadens the Target Audience Spectrum, more on that later.

This advert ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

This advert is reminiscent of something that is very clean, and sterile, yet powerful, because the lighting is clear white, but the bottle is leaving a pretty dark shadow, since the bottle seems like it has no content in it. This subconsciously makes the person think that this product is leaving a shadow when it is clearly transparent, which makes the person think in awe.

The target audience is women, since most people would associate Red/Pinks with women and girls. But what shows that this is for women, is the fact that right at the bottom, in the same squarish font, it says “A new fragrance for women”, which obviously points to women.

This product is really motivating the viewer to feel that this product is really for women, who are in proud Londoners, or follow London fashions.

I think that this advert as a whole is really powerful, yet simply since it is showing that powerful, vibrant images can be imprinted on the mind with such a simple design. The way that the lighting is implemented is also really good, because from the top to the mid-bottom; its all white, then where the “false shadow” is shown, the sides (where the shadow shouldn’t be) begin to show the colour pink; which in reality would not be there, so the way they have implemented this simple technique is really quite good.

The second advertisement, Issey Miyake, is also a perfume advertisement. I personally like this one because the (again, but this time better implemented) lighting effects are good, and math the product. The bottle is made up of 3 shapes, a Sphere, A long Cone, and a circular base. This bottle basically looks like an extended cone, and is placed on a blue-ish pane of glass.

The shape of his bottle is quite strange since you don’t see many perfume bottles in this extended cone shape, and they have emphasised this by putting lights at the side so that there is light on only one side of the bottle, so the vertical lines are more obvious, making the bottle look very long.

The brand is very like French words that people think is that the brand is a French brand, which it is. It says “New From Paris” which is showing that it really is. They have shown their opinion that it is new, and potential consumers can think that this is the new product and they will go and buy it.

The shape very resembles a male body part, but this is very subconscious, and not very noticeable at a single glance, but subconsciously, it is sending a sensual message to females.

Near the lid, some of the content seems to be used, which shows that the advertiser has made the product seem so irresistible, that some of it was used before its picture was even taken. This shows potential buyers that this is a very irresistible product, and is very good.

The target audience is women, sine the way that they have shown it. Also the colours are very mellow, and very “girlish”, so women can relate to it. I think that this product is more for the older woman, sine the shape of the bottle is really puts this message across.

These 2 perfumes are advertised in the following similar ways:

The lighting is very white, and bright
They both show the country of origin very clearly.
They have relied on the product itself to make it sell, rather than showing its brand, the brand is show in a small font at the bottom, which shows this.
They have coloured parts of the picture with the colour very lightly, and those same colours are used on the product itself.

The contrasts in the 2 adverts are:

The Burberry advert has their (the advertiser’s) opinions written on the advert, whereas the Issey Miyake advert does not have their (the advertiser’s) opinions on the product. A prime example is that on the Burberry one, it says “Live From London”, but if you get rid of the opinion “Live” it just leaves it as “From London”, which means that the product is made in London. But in the Issey Miyake advert it just says “Paris”, which shows that the product is from Paris.
The Burberry product consists of a Square Bottle, and a Square Bottle Top, but the Issey Miyake product consists of 2 shapes, a Sphere and Flattened Cone for the Bottle Top, and a Flattened Cone for the Bottle. This is perhaps to show that the Issey Miyake perfume is more diverse, and caters for more people, since different people like different shapes. But the Burberry Bottle is simply heavily biased towards the Square design. Perhaps this is to show that they follow their own standard, so people will have to bend towards “their” standars (in this case, the product is so good, that people will have to compare with the product, not compare the product.), which gives the product a more “superior feel.”

This concludes my Essay on “Media” for English. I hope that you enjoyed reading my essay.

Kamran Ali