I am analysing the genre of advertising. The first advertisement that I am analysing is print, and the second is moving image. These media advertisements will be compared to each other over selling techniques and their effectiveness. The print advertisement is based on ‘Imperial Leather Bathtime’ and the moving image is based on ‘Lynx Shower Gel’. I have chosen two similar products to make the comparison easier to comprehend.
Analysis One As I have already mentioned, this advertisement is print, and is promoting ‘Imperial Leather Bathtime’. The first point to consider is the placement of the advert in general. This advert is taken from ‘Now’ magazine which is a popular magazine which many people will buy. Another important factor is the size of the advert which is A4. More people will notice this advert making awareness and therefore sales rise. The placement leads onto target audience.
The target audience is generally women, but more specifically women from the ages of fifteen to thirty. That is why the advertisement is in ‘Now’ magazine which is based around celebrity show business which appeals more to the younger generation women. This advert will appeal to the women who se it, as it is original and unique and it relates to them. The background of the advert is white foam from a hot bath, which sets an image in your mind of tranquillity and relaxation. It shows a green plastic frog on a woman’s hand to suggest an element of fun and fantasy. As this attracts your attention, you would read the writing to the left of the picture.
The writing is in slang and is messy, as if it was written in a private diary. This would draw an association from ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’, a huge hit with the women within Imperial Leather’s target audience. This then intrigues you into reading further, as all people tend to have a natural curiosity for reading personal and private thoughts. The text imitates a fairytale of kissing a frog and it turning into a handsome prince, except a modern day version.
This theme makes you think that a bath in ‘Imperial Leather Bathtime’ can be a fairy tale. The advert doesn’t contain any celebrity faces to promote the product yet it has celebrity reference, which suits the magazine better. This in my opinion is better for print advertisement. The advert refers to ‘Brad’ (Brad Pitt) who is desired by many women, this is one of the reasons why the advert is a success. The reference spurs people on to buy this to see if they can recreate the occurrence in the advert.
An air of humour is shown in this advert by the frog whose facial expression is quite comical, which interacts with the text. Below the main text is a smaller, discreet, wavy and green text which gives a relaxed feel to the reader. It uses original puns such as ‘scent-national’ which are memorable and can be related to the product. The text also uses effective adjectives which are used to describe the product in the most favourable terms – ‘velvety bubbles’, ‘rich and fragrant’.
In the bottom right hand corner of the advert there is a picture of the product. The writing on the bottle intertwines with the given slogan for the product. The slogan is ‘where will your bathtime take you?’ This implies that when you have a bath using this product you won’t only experience the fairytale above, but are able to live your own fantasy. This is the ‘X’ factor that Imperial Leather applies to essentially raise awareness and boost sales.
Analysis Two My chosen moving image example is ‘Lynx Shower Gel’. This advert was taken from ITV at seven thirty p.m. on a Saturday evening. This is prime time television when a young generation of people would be watching. The programme which was being seen was ‘Pop Stars – the rivals’, which is very popular. The advertisement was strategically placed to raise sales. The target audience of this advert is younger generation males.
This was made obvious by the story behind the advert. The advert shows a young man showering with Lynx and preparing to go out. This immediately draws the attention of young men as this specifically relates to them. It then shows the man with his arm around a woman sitting at the top of a hill. When he says to her -‘it’s a beautiful night isn’t it’, she replies ‘yes’. This is then followed by another girl saying ‘yes’ and then subsequently followed by a chain of girls with the same reply. This appeals to the younger male generation as it is a common desire. This is Lynx’s version of the ‘X’ factor. It is saying to men, use this shower gel and become irresistible to women.
This advert is very short but effective. The duration is only around ten seconds but the message Lynx wanted to portray was displayed simplistically. At the beginning of the advert is shows the man showering, it clearly displays the product to interest the viewer immediately. Music is used in the background to set the mood and atmosphere, whilst the man cleans his teeth and gels his hair. It is made obvious that the man is going on a date. The next scene shows the man with his arm around the woman, and the camera is used to show the horizon that they are looking upon. This camera tool is used to show the point of view of the participants.
There is no music, only the atmosphere of the evening air. As the man asks the woman his question and then a chain of women reply, this is very comical which is what makes the advert memorable and the product will not be forgotten. Then a powerful voiceover is heard above all other sound, (the voiceover is a voice of a young generation male which relates to the target audience) and it states the three types of shower gel. These names are memorable as well as they imply things about the product. The names are ‘Transform’, ‘Reload’ and ‘Sunshine’. This advert fails to have a slogan, which is a possible downfall of its approach to the media. The need for the slogan is great as there is not much more to link the advert with when it doesn’t have one. A possible effective slogan could be, for example, ‘It’s worth it’. This could be affective as it not only is catchy, but is a spoof of ‘Loreal’ which makes it even more memorable.
Comparison
The first advert has used similar techniques to the second and I think that the first has used these to fuller affect. The placement in ‘Imperial Leather Bathtime’ is based predominantly around their target audience whereas in ‘Lynx’ the placement was more general. ‘Imperial Leather’ has the more effective use of placement in my opinion. This is because ‘Now’ magazine is broadly read, but only by ‘Imperial Leather’s’ target audience but ‘Lynx’ has placed their advert on a channel that is just as widely watched, but not all of the viewers are their target audience and are not interested in their product.
Both adverts have an element of comedy to attract attention but yet again I feel that ‘Imperial Leather’ have used this technique to its full potential. The reason for this is that the comedy in ‘Imperial Leather’ relates souly to their target audience (predominantly women). Whereas the comedy in the ‘Lynx’ advert is more general, and can relate to more people than their target audience, but this isn’t entirely a bad thing. Some viewer’s awareness could be raised without their realisation. I think the main difference between the two adverts is that all the properties that create a good one are more specific to the target audience in ‘Imperial Leather’ and are more general in the ‘Lynx’ advert.
Conclusion
In conclusion the ‘Imperial Leather Bathtime’ advertisement is the more effective and uses techniques to their full potential to raise sales. The only possible improvement that could be made is that the text in the corner of the page could be made bigger and bolder so that is more obvious to the reader. The techniques used in the ‘Lynx’ advertisement could be improved by going into more detail about the product and to cater for the needs of their viewer. The most important would be to make the advert more specific to the audience i.e. make the comedy relate solely to their target and place it in a time slot when only their target audience would be viewing. It could also use a catchy slogan to make the product as memorable as the advert itself.
