How does the presentation of an advert target its audience?

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Liam Atkinson

How does the presentation of an advert target its audience?

Advertisements are basically a way of communicating with the consumer. Companies thrive on the effectiveness of their advertisements as they need to be attractive in order to entice the public into reading them thus enticing them into buying a product. In advertisements, companies always make their product sound phenomenal and make it out to be the best. Also, usually in beauty or food advertisements, the product is enhanced even more by scientific jargon e.g. amino peptide complex, bifidus digestivum and zinc formula all pop up in certain advertisements. Advertising agencies use this to make their product sound sophisticated, complex and to baffle the consumer into thinking that the product is some scientific innovation that will improve their life one hundred percent. Consumers fall into this trap and this is how the industry thrives, through aspiration and disappointment.

Lighting and digital imagery also play a vital part in the fight to win custom from consumers. Up lighting on a dark background for example would make certain products slightly shadowed and secretive, thus, subliminally invoking the basic human instinct of curiosity. However, conversely certain down lit products could look warm, attractive and inviting. Photographers would use down lighting in order to give products implications of luxury and comfort, or in a food advert to make ice cream or another frozen desert shimmer and to look as if radiating light.

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Advertisements spring up in everyday life, on advertisement boards, on bus shelters, in shop windows and so on. We are subconsciously processing everything we see and this is what advertisers play on. Lots of red is usually used in adverts as this is the first colour the retina transmits. Digital effects are usually used to improve images making them look practically perfect and also different colour schemes and images are used to capture the right target audience.  

I have chosen to analyse two contrasting food advertisements. These are the “Hello Mr Chips” Hellman’s Mayonnaise and the Grove Fresh ...

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