The purpose of the second advertisement is similar in that it is trying to sell a product. It is advertising a “proofer,” (The EPSON COLOR Proofer 5000) which is the printing device used by producers of professional leaflets to check their final copies before sending them for mass printing. The leaflet is in six ages, of which four are technical information about the product and its specifications. This is highly unusual and would suggest that the advertisement is not aimed at the average consumer. The information within the leaflet talks about advances in EPSON technology that are not necessarily specific to this particular product. Therefore, the advertisement is also aiming to promote the whole EPSON range of products.
Another area where the advertismentisements differ greatly is their target audience. The first advertisement was placed in the Daily Star, a paper whose target audience is generally accepted to be the British working class. As the advertisement covers a whole page, it is almost impossible to miss it if one is reading the paper properly and thus, the target audience of the advertisement is the same as that of the newspaper itself (as opposed to a small advertisement near the sport section, where only people reading that section thoroughly would see it).
The target audience of the second advertisement is more specialised. It is difficult to believe that this advertisement would come to the attention of anyone that wasn’t interested in the kind of product that the advertisement is advertising. These people could be editors of news papers or smaller publications but would almost certainly be performing a job that would require the use of a device for checking the layout of large documents.
The way that the advertisments differ with regard to audience, also affects the language and the way that they are set out, both linguistically and graphically. The first advertisement for example, is linguistically very simple. Everything said is said very simply, employing abbreviations and many contractions to make the advertisement sound more colloquial, “You’ll be amazed by the huge range of offers…” or “750 mins & 6 months free.”
The second advertisement could not be more different. Even for someone who would consider themselves linguistically versatile, the language that the copywriter employs is of a very technical nature and unless one took an interest in the field of professional printers - or one was looking to purchase a product specifically like this, one would not understand much of the advertisement. For example, when describing the product specifications, the copywriter talks of “firmware processing speeds” and “precise levels of chromatic intensity.” This sort of specialist language proves the point made above, that the language itself is completely dictated by the target market, which in this case is of specialist nature.
As a direct result of the language the copywriter has chosen to employ, we can tell much about the message that he is trying to convey to the consumer. In the first advertisement, by using colloquial language, the copywriter is trying to lull the reader into a sense of security, giving the consumer the impression that because the advertisement is speaking in the same register of language as them, it has their interests at heart.
We can also glean important information from the chosen lexis of the second advertisement. It is obvious from first line of text on the inside page that the author is using a high register of language (to suit his intended audience). Probing deeper into the article one can see that the author feels completely comfortable using technical language and from this we can see that he is confident that his audience will understand. Another reason for this is that the copywriter hopes that the consumer will be impressed by the technical language and that they will thus believe that the copywriter is an expert in the field. This considered, the consumer is more likely to trust the copywriter’s authenticity and take their advice, to purchase the product.
Although it may be subtle, we can see examples of persuasive language being used in the both advertisements. In the first advertisement when the consumer is told to “switch to pay monthly, choose a better deal.” The writer has used the imperative forms of both verbs. This gives the reader no choice or need for a second though because they have been told that they will “switch to pay monthly.” By using this form, the copywriter has given the advertising company an air of authority and the consumer is far more likely to take notice of whatever follows.
In the second advertisement, the persuasive language used is purposefully more obvious than the first. The first piece of information that we are told is that EPSON is “already renowned for its expertise in producing photographic quality output.” This is blatant self flattery on the part of the advertiser, but more interestingly – it refers to itself in the third person. By talking about EPSON as if they were in fact not EPSON, it is supposed to trick the reader into thinking that it is actually someone else recommending the product to them, and not just a company advertising their own printer.
Typographically, the two advertisements could not be more different. The first is heavily image based with the need for detailed descriptions eliminated by short “to-the-point” statements. The traditional product descriptions are summarised by (upper case) short phrases – for example “FREE ITEMISED BILLING” or “ONLY £13.99.” The parallel pictures of the four mobile phones, directly across the middle of the page, have obviously been arranged so that the customer can compare the products easily.
The second advertisement is more complicated by comparison incorporating both graphical and textual aspects. The sub heading of each section of information is in bold and various other pieces of important information are arranged similarly. The appropriate pictures accompany the text, creating a multimedia feel to the advertisement. The mixture of graphics and text give the advertisement a good structure whilst still enticing the reader’s interest in the product.
To conclude, two very different advertisements have been examined both aiming to fulfil the same role in a very different way. That role – as with all advertisements – is to sell a product, By incorporating different techniques that the advertisers felt would be most appropriate for the target audience both advertisements seemed to have done this well.
