In order to understand how the advertisers have designed the advertisement to engage the reader’s attention, it is important to look at what those techniques are. The advertisement has wholly copied the layout of the Daily Star newspaper. The Daily Star newspaper is made up firstly of a masthead, which has an outstanding red background, with ‘Birds Eye’ written in white bold sans serif Ariel text plus the masthead is italicised. Secondly the headline which reads ‘Potato Waffles’; my red hot nights with Thai chicken’ which also has a white background with a black bold san serif text. Finally the layout has a photograph, which features a waffle on a plate with Thai chicken. At the bottom of the advertisement is the logo of Birds Eye and the slogan; ‘they’ll go with anything’.
I will now compare the similarities of the Daily Star and the advertisement. The masthead is similar because they both have the same typography, white, bold, san serif text on a red background, but the type is larger on the Birds Eye magazine advertisement. The headlines are similar, because they both have large text but the image on the advertisement is landscape, which takes up to 1/3 of the page. There is a white plate with a Potato Waffle in the central focus with chicken carefully stacked on top, decorated with herbs and spices with a finishing touch of a slice of lime. This has been laid out to make it look like naveile cuisine as this expensive style if cookery is designed to look like a work of art and is pleasing to look at, therefore will attract people to the product and be encouraged to buy the product. The headline from the Daily Star ‘for fox sake’ is similar as again it uses large, bold, san serif text, with an outstanding background colour. Also on the daily star, the final part of the layout is taken up by the image of a glamour model/actress ‘Carmen Electra’. She is half naked in the image, which takes up as main space as the headline.
Additionally to the layout playing an important role in engaging the reader, the language is also important. Like the Daily Stars headline and the Birds Eyes headline both use pun and innuendo. In the Daily Stars headline ‘for fox sake’ employs a strong pun on the word ‘fox’, this shows the reader that the newspaper is trying to use an offensive sounding word to attract the readers attention, this is also to sound humorous and witty, which creates interest and instant attraction. The Daily Star is renowned for this kind of humour and it is for this reason why the Birds Eye advertisement employs similar ideas in its headline and slogan. The Daily Star uses ‘the News, the Goss, the Pics, the Sports’; this is short and easily accessible information, which informs the reader instantly of a choice. The Daily Star attracts an audience through the use of sex based sensationalist stories. The advertisement then cleverly copied the style of the Daily Star. The whole concept of personification lies in the reader assuming that the Potato Waffle is a man and that the Thai chicken is a woman. The innuendo lies in the implied suggestion in part of the slogan ‘red hot nights’ that alludes to a sexual relationship between the Waffle (man) and the Thai chicken (women). Innuendo also lies in the time implying the same that Potato Waffle is sexually promiscuous in the headline ‘they’ll go with anything’. Of course we the reader know that this actually means that the Potato Waffle is a versatile food and can be cooked with anything.
The effects and results of this are that the aims set out in the campaign to begin with were easily realised. The languages style in coping of the tabloid newspaper has both helped to reinforce the recognisable effects of the newspaper layout and engaged the reader in an eye-catching, witty and memorable advertisement. As a result Birds Eye as a company, observed a rise in sales of Potato Waffles as well as a subsequent rise in profits.
Overall in my discussion I aimed to look at what techniques the advertisers used to promote Birds Eye Potato Waffles. Potato Waffles, as we know were not selling as well, however this campaign has been so effective, that the product has now become saleable again, and a major increase on profits. The reasons for this are illustrated in the layout, language and design of the tabloid newspaper. The language that was used in the advertisement was also copied from the newspaper, which provoked these results positively. It can also be said that both the layout and language have contributed to the advertisement having a particular effect on the consumer audience. In conclusion it is the attractive newspaper design and comic attitude, which has achieved the positive effects that this campaign set out to do.
