Cocaine advertisement.

Cocaine advertisement

The advert that I have decided to analyse is a cocaine advert. The reason why I decided to choose this is because it shows what typical teenagers think about the effects of cocaine and to make you think just how wrong they are. I found this advert in Match (a football magazine).

You can see that all of the people in the advert are teenagers. They are of mixed sexes. The class of the teenagers are very similar because each of the teenagers wears similar clothes (i.e. the men wearing jeans, tee-shirts and jumpers and the women wearing black clothes). All the men look like they’re having a good time but the women have a very serious expression because each of them realises the consequences of taking drugs. The advert is rather stereotypical; the men think that drugs should be taken just for a laugh, and the women knowing what the consequences.

The objects, which feature prominently in the ad, are the teenagers themselves and their opinions of taking cocaine. This symbolises what stereotypical teenagers actually think about the effects of cocaine. The ad is set at a disco/party. You know this because you can see disco lights in the background and people dancing. This is trying to symbolise that most teenagers take drugs at parties/discos. This advert is unusual because it is not trying to sell the reader a product; instead it is trying to tell you NOT to take cocaine. It is trying to advertise the National Drugs Helpline. The number of the Help-line is shown at the bottom right of the advert. The number is shown in a bigger font and in a different colour-yellow.

The ad has a lot of colour because it symbolises party/disco lights where most teenagers take drugs although black and white have been used a lot. This is where the teenagers give their opinion about cocaine when they are wearing black clothes and what they think of drugs in white writing.

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The elements in the ad aren’t in focus because this ad tells you not take cocaine so they are not going to show pictures of cocaine. However, the number to call to help you stop taking drugs in focus. The image in relation to the overall design of the ad is relatively small because the ad is based on what teenagers know about drugs and if they show an image of drugs this may send out the wrong the message to the reader. The object is to advertise a Help-Line about drugs. The ad is divided into eight sections; each section has a different teenager’s opinion about cocaine and its effect. The ad is spread over two pages.

The brand name is very easy to understand. To me, it says that if you are having a problem and/or you want to give up drugs you can call the Help-line and they will give confidential advice. The slogan is ‘One night. One club. One question: What do you know about cocaine?’ The slogan is trying to make you think what do you actually know about cocaine and may make you think twice about taking cocaine again. The slogan relates to what the ad is advertising because as I mentioned before it makes the person whose reading it to think what do they actually know and what they might have been told is a lot of rubbish, which would make them call up the Help-line and find out the actual facts about drugs.

The font is the same throughout the ad but the size is different. The main question asked in the ad is ‘what do you know about cocaine?’ This is put in a bigger font size in the whole ad and it goes through both pages to make it stand out. The colour of the font is white throughout the ad apart from the drugs Help-line, which is in yellow writing on a black background. This is because it is trying to make the number stand out at you in the dark. This could also symbolise the fact the most people take drugs in the dark or the colour black could symbolise death. The typography used on the word ‘helpline’ has a question mark replacing the letter P. This is used to catch the reader’s attention if they are skim reading the ad and once the reader’s attention has been caught, the phone number is directly under the question mark.

The telephone number is in a larger size font than the website. This is because the advertiser wants the reader to use the phone and explain their problems and have assistance with what they can do. If they made the website stand out most teenagers could go onto it but then think ‘I have better things to do.’ However, they do want to have a website for people who may feel more comfortable going on the Internet, but the whole point of the ad is to advertise the Help-line.

This ad is definitely aimed at teenagers or people who are in their early twenties. This is because the ad has got pictures of teenagers and what they think of drugs. There is a good chance that the teenagers who take drugs can relate to this ad because the opinions of the men in the advert are common opinions on what most teenagers think of the effects of drugs. You can also easily tell the ad is aimed for teenagers because the pictures are taken at a disco, the main place where teenagers go. Not only that but you can also see teenagers in the background drinking and dancing.

The overall message of the ad is quite simple; don’t take cocaine and if you

are not sure what the effects of them are, call the National Drugs Helpline and

who will tell you all the facts. The lifestyles that the ad seems to suggest

after you have cocaine this can cause you being scruffy, getting paranoid weeks after taking cocaine and you can’t sleep hence the women’s opinion of drugs in the ad. The message that the ad is trying to get across to the reader is don’t believe what your friends say about drugs and find out the actual facts before you take them.

By Andrew Feldman