Discussing the advertising of the Peugeot 607.

GCSE Media Studies

ADVERTISING COURSEWORK

ENGLISH

ROCKY KALAM

11.05

ENGLISH

MR. CORNALL

ADVERTISING-

“The activity of attracting public attention to a product or business, as by paid announcements in the print, broadcast, or electronic media.
The business of designing and writing advertisements.
Advertisements considered as a group: This paper takes no advertising.”

TAKEN FROM DICTIONARY.COM

One of the many ideas behind advertising is to create awareness of a particular new product. To do this effectively the designers of the advert use various techniques. These include a varied selection of colours, images and text. Personally, I find that the most effective adverts are the ones that contain a deeper meaning.

I am going to analyse various adverts to see how the designers employ these methods to advertise their products.

PEUGEOT 607:

This is an advert taken out of the newspaper “ The Sunday mercury” and it is an effective advert that advertises the manufacturers new model Peugeot, the 607. If we look firstly at the newspaper this advert is printed in we can understand the type of audience the manufacturers are aiming the new car at. The Sunday Mercury is a newspaper written to appeal to the more business-like tabloid readers. So naturally an advert printed in a newspaper such as this will be aimed at the more sophisticated reader. Close analysis of the advert shows themes that support this idea.

The message of this advert involves the idea that this new model car is upgraded model, which is more suited to the sophisticated driver. The advert itself mainly comprises of a giant image. This suggests that the advert was designed to grab the attention of the reader of the newspaper.

The advert shows the picture of the product, the car. But also there is a puzzling image of an attractive female. The idea is that the image of the female grabs the attention of the reader. This advert appears to be aimed at the male readers. This is evident in many ways. For example, the driver of the car is male, which implies that more males would prefer this car rather than females. Also the advertising tactic is also male orientated. The female figure used is to attract the attention of the male readers. The impression given of by these little subtleties is that the advert is aimed at a higher percentage of male readers than female. The use of colour is interesting. As you can see refreshing tones are used. They signify the pleasure in driving the vehicle. The drive almost becomes magical as the colours used are mystical themselves. This creates the whole magical atmosphere in the readers mind. As the advert is aimed at males, the image of the female is used to grab the attention of the readers.

This is a preview of the whole essay

At this point the advert has successfully gained interest of the reader towards the advert. Notice how the image of the female is very puzzling. Again this is another tactic used by the designer of the advert. As a tactic it is successful as it forces the reader to look elsewhere in the advert in order to find solutions to why the image is puzzling and what is the message behind it. As the advert has been printed in a newspaper the reader has time to think about the advert and analyse in greater detail than if a driver-by saw the advert on a billboard. The advert is laid out with this fact in mind. This is evident as the text is very small, only a person who looks at the advert for a long period of time would be able to read the text. The colours used for the text still follow the pattern of cool and refreshing tones. However, it doesn’t stand out. I feel that the advert was designed this way because the designer didn’t want the text to be the first noticeable thing in the advert. The reason behind this is because in order for the advert to be effective, the interest of the reader needs to remain on the advert. So a larger image is an effective way of grabbing the attention of the reader whilst a slightly puzzling image is effective in keeping the attention of the reader focused on the advert.

The message of the advert relieves he reader of the puzzle behind the image of the female. The female and the text refer to the manufacturers product, which is on the other side of the advert. At this point it becomes noticeable that there are no buildings, no animals or trees in the advert. It is just a plain road with a mysterious skyline. This is a visual metaphor. The idea is that driving this vehicle is like being in love. Time around you stops and it is just the car, which you love and the road. The female represents a figure similar to the character Cupid. She is holding a bow and her sheath contains arrows. However she hasn’t fired an arrow at the driver in order for him to fall in love with the car. This is because the driver has fallen victim to the charms of the car. This is the idea behind the advert. Once the reader has understood these ideas the message has become clear. However, if the advert is analysed more carefully, the little techniques used by the designer become clear. For example, I noticed how there is clear film of smoke covering the road. I understand this to be an attempt to create a more heavenly atmosphere. Also the road doesn’t appear to be going to any particular direction, just back to its origin. Again another tactic employed by the designer. It emphasises the fact that the driver, bound by his love of the car doesn’t care about his destination as long as he can just drive the car.

This is a very effective advert in order to emphasise a new product, which is aimed at the male members of society. The intentions of the designers were to advertise this new model and also interest a more sophisticated market to the classy edition of the car.

JAGUAR XK8

My next advert is for the car Jaguar XK8 taken from the “what car” magazine. The idea of the magazine in which this advert is published in is to advertise the brand of Jaguar. In this advert Jaguar have tried to distinguish this new model from the old. The concept behind this new Jaguar is its advance in technological capability.

The advert is divided into two A4 sheets. The fact that it is advertised in a magazine is important because the advert can contain more textual information, which in this case it does. On the left hand side of the advert there is a very large image of the product, the new Jaguar. The image has been captured in such a way that gives the impression of raw speed and aggression. Past knowledge of the Jaguar brand has showed that its cars are mainly aimed at businessmen and women. To enforce the idea of speed in the reader’s minds, the background scene around the image of the car has been smeared across the advert. This simple technique, known as futurism, has allowed the image of the car to seem as though it is travelling at high speeds. Although the manufacturers want this new model Jaguar to seem more technologically advanced than previous models, they still wanted the old qualities such as sleek body shapes and luxury designs to be evident. Also, the trademarks of the Jaguar Company, which include traditions such as elegance and sophistication. This basic knowledge of the company allows us to assess more improvements made on this new design.

The second page of the advert consists of text, small images of the new car, the name and cost of the car and jaguars symbol, a wild cat that the company has been named after. The colour usage on this half of the advert consists of a simple contrast of colour. As you can see, black writing has been used on a white background. This is a method used by designer to make selected text to stand out. In this case it is used by the designers to stand out and draw the reader’s attention to certain information. The small images of the car are taking from different angles, which accentuate the trademark design of that jaguar brand. These include elegant interiors, cat-like design and sophisticated machinery. Again it is another technique used by the designers. In this case, it is used to provide the reassurance that the new model still follows the successful qualities that make a jaguar a car to be desired. The main concept behind this is to make the reader desire the car and its beauty.

The textual message itself is spread across the two pages in a symmetrical manner. On the left hand side there is light coloured writing on top of a dark background. On the right hand side it is dark coloured writing on a light background. This is another way to attract the reader’s attention to certain information. The message it self reads as

“It’s why people stop and look before crossing the road”

Again this enforces the idea of technological advancement and superior design. The mental image created is of a fast car speeding past but it’s beautiful features still reaming to stand out. The image on the advert shows this.

The message given across by this advert is that this new jaguar is different from all other cars. Its unique qualities will turn heads whilst you drive by. This is the message the designers are trying to show. I think this advert is successful in showing the class and sophistication of a Jaguar. It is effective in making the car seem more for the upper-class members of society. I say upper class due to the fact that this jaguar has kept another tradition, its heavy price. Compared to the advert for the Peugeot, this advert is trying to achieve much less. The manufacturers of the Peugeot are trying to make their new car appeal to wider range of people than their previous model. Whilst Jaguar are trying to advertise a new model, which is still aimed at the normal members of society that can afford such a car.

Both adverts are however successful in what they are designed to do, create awareness of the new product. Both adverts employ the same methods but their message is different. I believe that an advert that contains a deep message will always prevail over adverts that don’t. These two adverts are evident of this opinion.