I have chosen a few still shots from the advert, to explain how they have used techniques, such as the angles of the shots, and tried to get details of the car across to the customer, such as how safe it is. All of the stills that I have chosen are very sinister, as I want to stick to this side of the advert. The first still that I have is the man getting his coat. There is a dark shadowy figure in the background of the shot, and we cannot make out what the man is actually doing. This shot is low key, and they have it like this because it is more imposing, as the shadows make the shot look like something out of a horror movie. It is also of a low angle, looking up at the man, and this adds to the effect of the shot, as we don’t immediately know what the shot is. The man has hard lighting surrounding him, so that he looks very sinister and is different to the front of the shot, which is soft lighting. The second still that I have chosen is when they have arrived in the town, as this again links in with the sinister theme throughout the advert. In this shot, it is at eye level and is low key, which creates a shadow around the car, and also to the left and right of the car it is very dark, and this links in with the image of the car, it being safe. The third shot that I have chosen is about half way through the advert, and in this shot there is a man in a tunnel with a fairly large shadow on the wall behind him. It uses intertextuality, as it uses parts from a Hitchcock film, which make it like a horror movie, “The Third Man”. The shot is at a low angle, which makes the shadow of the man elongated, creating a better effect for the shot. Also the fact that it is a low key shot, adds to the overall sinister theme of the shot. The next shot is also of a man, but thus time there is a very large shadow that is over the car, and onto the wall. This shot indicates how safe the car is, as they are away from the outside world, and that nothing in the outside world can hurt them in any way. We don’t find out what the man was doing, or who he was. The low angle shot makes the shadow very big on the wall, which totally overpowers the car.
The second to last shot that I have chosen to use is when the car is in the arches, and this like all of the other shots that I have chosen is very dark and menacing. The low key shot causes there to be light above the car, which creates darkness in the arches, and the car becomes shadowy. The light overall surrounds the car, as though it is moving away from the light and into the dark which creates a creepy atmosphere.
The final shot that I have chosen is totally different to the rest of the shots, because it has nothing sinister or dark about it. It is of the new born baby, and this is the point where the viewer realises that the advert wasn’t in fact sinister at all, but they were rushing for the birth of the baby. Nearly the entire screen is filled with the baby screaming, and the colour of it, pink, hits you as the rest of the advert has mainly been dark colours such as black and grey. This links is with the idea of there being a new generation of cars, as there the baby is a new generation of the family, as in the voice over they say, “
The sound throughout the whole of the advert is mostly no-diegetic, as there is only music and a woman saying a voice over. The music that they have chosen is slow and mysterious, as this links in with the sinister effect that they want to get across. Also the woman figure adds an element of calmness to the creepy music and the actual advert itself, as she have a very motherly and soothing voice.
The advert that I chosen for the still image is from ‘What Car?’ magazine, and it is advertising ‘Auto Glym’, which is a polish for cars. It is spread across a whole A4 page, and is in full colour. I think that the advert as a whole is aimed at males, who are up to date with cars, and know a lot about them. It is also aimed at more middle to upper class people, as the picture of the car is very expensive. Also they have chosen to put the advert in a car magazine reflects on the target audience, of people who know about, and are interested in, cars.
The main focal point of the advert is the silver Aston Martin Vanquish, but also in the picture it has a another two cars and a man standing next to the gleaming car with a bottle of Auto Glym and a cloth, suggesting that he has just polished the car with the advertised product. The actual car on the picture is positioned so that the light will reflect off of it in such a way that it will shine more. It makes it look as thought the polish has made it look that good, which it may have done, but the light just adds to the whole effect that they are trying to make. Also they may have chosen the colour silver, as it is more of a shiny colour before they even put the polish on, then it has a better outcome afterwards. They have also chosen the Aston Martin Vanquish to show how good their product really is, as it as an expensive car. So if they use the polish on those cars, and have been doing for the “last thirty years” then the readers should use it on their cars.
The other pictures that are in the advert are the range of products, which are situated in between the copy, and the logo, which is in the bottom right of the advert. They have the logo in the bottom right, because it is the last thing that the reader will see, as it is next to the end of the text. It also stands out from the rest of the text, as it is surrounded by a red box, with white writing in the middle saying the words “Auto Glym” all in capital letters. The picture of the products is surrounded by the copy, with some on the left and some on the right. This creates a gap in the text, which emphasises the products, and also they catch your eye when you are reading the copy. To the left of the copy there are also two symbols with small-print underneath each of them, and these authenticate how good the actual product is, and that it is actually used by Aston Martin for polishing their cars.
There isn’t a large amount of copy in this advert, although there is some, and it is all in the bottom half of the advert. They have it all in the bottom half because the main feature on the page is the image above it, where it is more eye catching when a reader is looking through the magazine. Just underneath the image, there are two sentences that are in bold writing, and a larger font than the rest of the copy. It says that even though this is the “most advanced car Aston Martin has ever made”, that they still are using the same polish that they did when the car wasn’t as technologically advanced. This is trying to influence what people will think of the polish, and the wonders that it can do for their car. It makes the reader think ‘If Aston Martin use it, why shouldn’t I?’ This is a very good persuasive technique that they use as Aston Martin has a good reputation, and are also made in Britain so again it could persuade the reader that it really is a good product to use. The rest of the copy is in two paragraphs at each side of the picture of the products. The use of positive modifiers, such as “Innovative” and “unique” show the high standards of the car, and so by Aston Martin using Auto Glym polish on there cars the polish must be of a very high quality. The pun “Steve Bray has taken quite a shine to Aston Martins” adds an element of comedy to the advertisement. It implies that he likes Aston Martins as a car, when in reality he puts the final gloss on each car before it goes for sale. The idea of him polishing the cars before they go to sale links in with the image of him standing next to the gleaming new V12 Vanquish after using the Auto Glym on it. The copy also has a lot of words that are aimed at fairly well educated people, who know a decent amount about cars. The sentence “Most technologically advanced car polish” makes the polish sound as though it has been tested on for years to get the perfect solution to polish your car. Also “It’s one tradition you don’t want to change” links in with the fact that Aston Martin haven’t changed the polish that they use in thirty years, so why do you need to use any other polish than Auto Glym. Even though Aston Martin have made huge technological advances, they still use the same polish that they have always done. It uses direct address, so that it relates to the reader personally, and makes it as though the advert is talking to them and not anybody else.
I think that the advert as a whole uses some good persuasive techniques to make the reader buy their product, such as by using the new Aston Martin car to sell it, and by relating to what the consumers wants and what they like. I also think that because it is in a car magazine, the way they have set it out is more effective than if they had put it in any other kind of magazine.
Both of the adverts that I have looked at provide many different aspects and features of how to advertise a product. Some of the aspects that are different in each are that the still image has only one single frame to deal with, whereas a moving image advert has many frames. This causes the still image to have a main focal point on the page, which is usually a picture, or a large title and sometimes both. Yet on the moving image advert they can use many different details to catch the attention of the customer. Also due to the fact that they only have one frame to deal with, the still image has to have a fair amount of text to explain what the product is about, but the moving image advert can have a range of things to explain itself, from a voice over, such as in the advert I have studied, to different images. They are just a few of the differences between the two styles of advertising. Both of these adverts’ on a whole, I feel, work very well about explaining to, yet also catching the attention of, the customer. They both put across the advantages of what the product is in a way that is accessible to the target audience that they have chosen.
