The mood completely changes in my second example, ‘Glow, by JLO’. Straight away we can see that it is aimed at a more mature audience. There is a photo of the upper half of Jennifer Lopez’s body, taking up most of the advert.
To keep focus on the clean feel of the advertisement she is wearing nothing and her hair is tied away from her face. Her body is positioned to face away from the camera, but has her head turned around so that she is looking towards us. The colour scheme is very neutral with the usage of gold’s, creams and whites. The advert generally has a romantic, calm feel about it, which is a contract to the previous advert as it portrayed a more crazy vibe. Yet again the product illustration is in the bottom-right of the page and we can see clearly from this that the colours of the advert match the colours of the product. Using a celebrity for the photo promotes the product further, she is an icon and consumers are lead to believe that if they bought this product they too could be like Jennifer Lopez.
In my final advert, promoting aftershave for men, ‘Eternity’, we are drawn instantly to the male and female in the photo. They are very intimate, and this is the big selling point for the product as they are going for the idea that ‘sex sells’. Men will believe that in buying this product they can become this man, in the way that woman will be attracted to them. Unlike the previous adverts, this product illustration is in the bottom-left of the advert and is not particularly noticeable, this is probably because men would be convinced about this aftershave before seeing the bottle, and unlike women, men are not usually concerned about the appearance just as long as it does its job.
Copy (the written text) is especially important when talking about perfumes, the name of a perfume or fragrance can effect whether or not it is purchased, making it a very important aspect of the marketing. In my first advert, one aimed at young girls, the name ‘So…what’ gives a carefree style to the advertisement instantly. The slogan ‘fragrance with attitude’ adds to this, it tells the reader that by purchasing this product, true or not, that they will have instant attitude. The bottom of the page gives us the website address and details of where the product can be bought. In my second advert the style of writing changes immediately, it is more formal and informative, its slogan ‘Fresh Body. Sexy Body. Clean Body’, is very catchy with the short sentences it uses, it also sums up the perfume well. The name ‘Glow by Jlo’ uses rhyme to make it easy to remember, this is using clever physiological techniques so that the name of the product stays in the potential buyers head, which is always a main aim in advertising. A sentence used to explain the product uses very positive language to promote it ‘leave your skin soft, nourished and irresistibly sexy’ would make anybody want to try it out and see for themselves if it really could make them like Jennifer Lopez, they are also working along the lines that ‘sex sells’ as they state that it would make them ‘irresistibly sexy’ which in these times that woman are under great pressure from the media to look perfect, will make the product much more appealing.
In my final advert, very little copy is used but the product name ‘Eternity’ has a very strong subliminal message. Maybe this is because men are more persuaded by the imagery where as woman are much more persuaded by the written explanation. It practically sums up the visuals in the advert in one word. Eternity means forever, and that’s exactly what is being implied in this advert. If you buy this fragrance you will have everlasting love. Also the brand name is made very obvious, probably because everybody has heard of Calvin Klein and many people only buy products for their brand name anyway.
Graphics, such as lettering and logos are similarly important, style of writing can influence all types of things, simple, and plain text can imply calm, clean and more mature things whereas wacky text can give a more outgoing, younger feel to the advert. The latter is obvious in my first advert; the product name is in large, curvy font. It follows along with the ‘carefree’ theme very well; it looks very trendy and stylish. White is only used for the graphics in this advertisement; making them stand out an awful lot as the remainder of it uses dark, bold colours.
The logo of this perfume, used both on the product and in the visuals on the advert, work well together, the logo on the front of the spray bottle, is the silhouette of the visual. At the bottom of the page, there is a small piece of copy telling people where the product can be purchased, this, again is in white font but a lot smaller, and less noticeable. In my second advert, the graphics are a lot calmer. The main title is not particularly noticeable, yet it still looks good. They are very classy and effectively aimed at the target audience. The font sizes are varied, making the text easier to read. Important parts are written in bold, making it stand out more. In my final advert, the font and graphics in general are very basic. The main title is in capitals, this being the first thing you see, and the make is in black on a white background. The logo and details on the product are identical to those on the advertisement, they are kept simple and straight to the point, as men don’t normally look for details, they just want key information.
From the analysis of my three adverts, we can see they are targeted at very different audiences. Designers use a range of colour, slogans and models to aim their product at a particular group of people. My first advert is obviously aimed at young teenage girls, around 11-14, who want their ‘carefree’ image to be displayed in their perfume, unlike my second advert where neutral colours are shown to imply maturity, bright, bold colours give across a young feeling. In my third advert, masculinity is publicized with the use of blacks and whites, this advert is probably aimed at middle-aged men who want to excite their lives, maybe with romance and love.
After looking at three examples of advertisements that I have found that the media is very influential over what product we as consumers purchase. They use many different ways to persuade the different target audiences that they are appealing to, which I realised when I investigated the adverts for male and female perfumes. The media influence how we live our lives in even the most subtle of ways, and this has been proved in the way in which I have evaluated and analysed the advertisements for perfume.
Kate McCulloch 10N