What exactly is media? Media is communication. Media is different ways of communicating with the public. We see media everywhere we go, on the streets, on TV and even at school. An example of media and one I will be focussing on in this essay is advertising, adverts such as the ones we see on posters and billboards. These adverts affect our everyday life because it influences us in our decisions. For example if a product is being sold, depending on the way the product is advertised can relate to whether or not a consumer decides to purchase the product. Advertisements are usually a persuasive piece that tries to get people to buy a product. I am going to compare two advertisements. They are two advertising posters, which I have obtained from the Internet and both of them are related to retailing drinks. Both of the adverts are similar but at the same time different.
The first advert is one of the famous drink Coco Cola and the second is of another drink, Fanta. These are the products that I will be assessing. The slogan for is an important part to a product and is usually placed on every advertisement. The slogan for Coco Cola is ‘always the real thing’, peculiarly on the poster we do not actually see it. This is strange because usually a slogan is put on adverts so the consumer sees it and has something to remember the product by. It is usually catchy and relates to the product in some way. The same goes for the other advert with Fanta. We do not see a slogan there at all. It seems that the adverts limit what they show to the consumer. It is obvious that the slogans have been left out of the pictures deliberately for a purpose. Maybe the slogans do not need to be shown because the two products that I am assessing are already too recognisable, or maybe the slogans would have destroyed the image and there was no place for them to be placed in.
In both adverts there are no words only pictures. This could be because the picture is meant to say it all. Both posters rely on their picture to sell their product. They believe that the picture, which is used, is enough to sell their product. By placing an image in people’s heads they have conducted a way of selling their product through pictures and not words.
The image, which is used in the Coco Cola advert, is a close up of a cartoon polar bear family sharing a Coke. In the Fanta advert it is similar but the family are real and in the background whilst the product in this case a Fanta drink is close up and of a bigger capacity. In the Coke advert it symbolises a human family and that coke can be drank anywhere, the way the polar bears are cuddled up suggests that there is warmth even though we know that polar bears are found in the North Pole, which has the coldest climates. The Fanta advert is in a different part of the earth because we see here that it is of a sunnier climate.
The people are on the beach to symbolise that the drink is associated with summer, which means that Fanta is the best drink to serve when it’s hot. The picture of the family in the background shows compassion and symbolises that the drink is suitable for all the family. The water dripping off the bottle shows us that it is mouth-watering and satisfying. Both adverts say more in their pictures than what could have said if it had been written. These adverts are only a little bit different from each other.
They both have the product in the picture and a family represented in there. The only thing that’s different is the place where the images are placed. In the coke picture it is cold and chilling this is probably to represent December when it is winter and is associated with Christmas, whilst on the other advert it represents a much hotter climate to associate with the summer time. Coke aims their target audience on people and families when it is around Christmas time because they believe that this is more profitable and Fanta aim it on families when it is around the summer.
Both ads are trying to put their product as their most important item in their pictures and they do this by their choice of colour and they way they place their items. Once again there is a huge difference in the two posters depending on colour. On the Coke poster we see that the main colour used is blue. There is a contrast of the two colours blue and white. The blue is even shaded in to match the colour of the white polar bears. This colour is to represent the night.
The fact that there is a darker background puts the bears and the drink in much clearer perspective and it helps us see the coke in the polar bear’s hands more. In the Fanta ad it is much different colours. There are a lot of bright colours such as yellow, orange, blue and green blended in to make a better picture, but this is all faded into the background so that the picture of the Fanta shows up more. These are all happy colours and reflect on the mood of the consumer. The colours also blend in with the actual Fanta drink colour. This is probably so every time someone sees the seaside or the beach the colours would remind him or her of the Fanta drink.
The target audience for both of the ads is probably Families and people of all ages, mostly adults because they spend more, and want a satisfying drink for the whole family, which they can all enjoy. I can tell this because in each pictures there is a type of family displayed in them. The only thing different is that the adverts are aimed at these types of people at different times. As the Coke advert is aiming more at people like this at around Christmas time and Fanta is aiming at people at summer.
Both adverts are unique and successful in their own ways. They do reflect to the people that they are aiming to sell their product to and they both do make me want to by a drink that will satisfy my first. The drink that I would choose though is the one I prefer which is the Coco Cola advert because of the simple fact that there are cartoon animals. The thought of animals taking a coke, opening it and then sharing it with their family just makes me laugh and persuades me that if the people that made the advert put this much thought into the advert just to make me smile then the drink must be good. Also because I already recognise the product from previous ads, I have what people in the business department call customer brand loyalty. The Fanta advert is good as well because of the colour scheme.
