The hovis advertisement appeals to various audience types. Macho, heterosexual, working males are targeted with the image but also dieters, health conscious types of any age and any ages that the Hovis Bread appeals to. The thong sets a comical tone and is a comical attempt to target the audience. This advert is to advertise and promote the brand of bread which in this case is Hovis. The image is of a shaven headed young male with a bare chest and a tough physical image. The builder has denim jeans that are ripped around the bottom. I can tell from this that the builder would usually follow fashion trends.
The builder also wears rigger steel capped working boots and a strong leather working belt. Personification of the belt is just like the man himself – strong and macho. The builder also wears a pink thong which undermines the whole anchorage of the message and subverts to a new perspective – feminine touch and is unusual to wear it. The builder is shown in this way as it shows the thong and the effect of the message. The thong in turn questions his gender such as the builder’s bum but this then changes with the position of the thong. This shows connotations of macho and masculine like real man.
The picture is shown in a grey background which emphasises the builder in the front of the picture and not the background which is also blurred out. The loaf is situated in the bottom right corner and emphasises the statement underneath ‘25% less carbs but you’ll never guess’ and is in a more central position than the builder. The language in the advert is informal and was seen in a gossip column of a magazine. It is a first person text to try and put the message through for the hovis bread.
The text also shows abbreviations such as ‘carbs’ for carbohydrates but also abbreviates words such as ‘I’d.. ‘ to try and get across to the male readers of the advert. The advert also uses unfinished sentences such as ‘tasted as good as regular hovis, I’d.. ,’ this is to try and get across the point that the thong finishes the sentence for him as that stands out the most. Connotations are also used, the connotations of the builder are macho, masculine, builder’s bum but these connotations change when the thong is seen. The text used for the language is bold with middle sized text and a white writing to stand out in the black background.
Overall, the Hovis bread advert appeals to many different audiences and appeals in many different ways such as the builder, the different colour used, the objects the builder is wearing, the loaf of bread and its position and the different types of language used. I have done this essay based on these five subjects commenting on each subject. The advert targets the audiences perfectly as women read gossip magazines but the bread is to attract men to make them buy it. I believe that the advert is effective and as it shows a unusual image and describes the product very well.
