The colours are repeated over and over again in places like the braids in the girl’s hair and the highlighted words. They also are bright and eye catching. These colours are also the same colours on the container of the product that helps the buyer know what there’re looking for.
The font is quite bold and large. Its all written in capitals and looks like it’s been handwritten, but it also bears a slight resemblances to graffiti. The world also thinks that its teenagers that like destroying property and drawing graffiti so this also shows that this advert is also meant to be for teenagers.
Also there are certain words such as ‘Oxy Duo Pads’ and ‘Spots are wiped out.’ First of all these groups of words are highlighted. This also refers to teenagers because it is them who use highlights often in school.
The picture of the Oxy Duo Pad container is there twice because it will make sure people can distinguish their product in the mists of hundreds of other cosmetics and people tend to remember a picture more than a name.
The girl also plays a large part in this advertisement. She obviously has no acne and this is a major part in the advertisement because it proves that the product works. The difference between the girl and her parents are also highly noticeable.
The parents are in the background, out of focus and only concentrating on the television. You can see that the advertisement implies that this is boring and is not the way you should be going with your life. The girl however is right at the front of the picture and is staring right at us. This catches the attention of a possible customer. She is reading a book called ‘Work Your Way Around The World,’ and is saying that she is ‘Planning for the Future.’
By doing all this, the advertisement tries to say that this is what you should be doing and instead of being like the girl’s parents whole are dull and boring you can be like the girl and explore the wide world. They also say that to do this you need to use Oxy Duo Pads and have absolutely no acne.
Teenagers say that they do not want to be dull and boring, so they believe the advertisement and also want to be in the position of the girl where you can go and explore the big Wide World. The advertisement as said earlier says that to do this you must have no acne and to do that you must buy Oxy Duo Pads.
Copy
Since the target audience is teenagers, the writing is clearly aimed at them. You can tell by words such as ‘Pores’ and ‘Medicated’ since they are used often in school science lessons and all teenagers understand their meaning.
Also, colloquial words such as ‘faceful’ and ‘wiped out’ are used mostly by teenagers and therefore will understand the advertisement better than anyone else.
At another point in the copy it says ‘clears the dead skin, grease and grime.’ This could also be a way to try and frighten the reader into buying Oxy Duo Pads. Nobody wants to have acne and making it seem very dirty and disgusting by saying ‘grease and grime’ will make people even more desperate to try to get rid of their acne and as a result will make them go out to buy Oxy Duo Pads.
Furthermore there is very little text to read. This is because teenagers are said to have a very short attention span and so the shorter the text is the better.
In addition at the end of the copy it says ‘Spots? Oxycute ‘em!’
‘Oxycute’ is a play on word of executes and refers to the Bacteria that are present in your skin and how to get rid of them. Execute is a very harsh word and the advertisement makes it seem that the Bacteria deserve to by punished by executing them. They tell you the only way to do this are to use Oxy Duo Pads.
Conclusion
I personally did not like the advert since I am not interested in cosmetics but I also feel that overall the advertisement was a success, but there could have been lots of improvements. The female readers might not like it because of her dress sense. Through I know it’s to remind the reader of the colour, it still is not very attractive.
The advertisement could have appealed to males as well by maybe having a beautiful looking girl or a girl wearing something sexy. Because of the plainness of her makeup and clothes it doesn’t make much impression with male readers and could have made a better impression on the female readers.
Though it is a good advert, it is easy to see that we are being manipulated and are seeing only one side of the argument.
For example, the advert says that their product will get rid of spot, but they fail to mention that it will dry up your skin over a long period of time of extensive usage.
On the whole I feel the advertisement was a success and would have easily brought in lots of buyers.
Malavarayan Koshalavarman
