It is clear that media plays a huge part in determining peoples choices. Media brainwashes the modern society and influencing them into buying what the media show rather than what they need. It can then conclude that media has such a powerful role into deceiving people’s needs. Its role in society is not to be underestimated. This essay will compare and contrast two advertisements promoting similar products. It will also explain in detail how the graphology, language and persuasive techniques used in these two adverts can be used to create another similar advert.
Both adverts are trying to encourage and persuade women to buy their tanning products. The detailed images used in the adverts caught my attention because they’re bright and eye catching, which is the reason I chose them, as well as the fact that the information on the advert is easy to read and structured in a way so that the eyes falls in the bolder, important titles before reading the smaller writing. The first advert was from ‘OK’ magazine, which was published in June, and was placed near the end of the magazine-probably because it wasn’t such an important advert.
The magazine is aimed at women around the UK and the advert is trying to promote the product and persuade these women to buy their self-tanning product. The language used is simple and straight forward. Advantageous promises such as “Legendary Lancaster tan without the sun” also helps attract women because it implies that they can have a wonderful tanned skin without the harmful effects of the sun. The second advert was also published in “OK” magazine, it also bares the same objective as the first magazine and the only difference is the nature of service they offer.
The first advert offers a tanning solution that can be used anywhere while the second advert advertise a tan intensifier which helps protect the skin from the sun and helps form a perfect tanned skin. Both adverts are printed on an A4 size paper. The highlights of the adverts are the background image of a woman whose skin has gained a perfect tan through the use of the product and an image of the product they are advertising.
The first advert, the self-tanning product uses a typical format which sets a woman as a background image and places its products logo in the top left of the advert. A promotion can also be seen in this advert located at the top right corner. The company tag line with a small description of the products effects has been allocated at the bottom of the promotion. There is also a photo of the makeup artist which is just above the product description along with the graphic representation of the product which helps add effect and possible points of interests for the target audience.
The font style used for the titles and sentences are fairly simple and easy to read. The second advert uses a simple format which also uses a woman as a background image and the reader will also notice discrepancies in the design used for both adverts. The product logo is now located at the top right corner. The product description and tag line is now allocated at the bottom of the page in between of the product sponsor and product image.
The simple logo ‘LANCASTER’ located at the top left side of the page and bold fonts make it easier to read at glance. This is important as most readers may be just scanning through the magazine for a page, and the use of a clear logo and font is a good way to attract the reader to the advert. Advert one has a front view image of a woman, which is the focal point. The woman is wearing a white, long-sleeved polo to show off the tanned skin she has and it is the first part of the advert the eye is drawn to.
The photographic coding of the first advert has the sun is reflecting off the woman towards the camera. Advert two is a zoomed out picture of a woman who is sailing under a calm blue sky on the water. The camera is showing the whole body of the woman which makes her the focal point. The image in this advert, like the first, has indexical meaning. The woman is wearing white bikini to show the colour or the shade of the skin ‘Now great protection and a beautiful tan is plain sailing’.
The word ‘sailing’ has been used as it connotates smoothness because the action of sailing is smooth and fast just like when the target audience imply the tan intensifier worked in an instant or applied quickly on their skin and makes it smoother. The blue sky and calm water shows that you don’t have to worry about your skin while you do some activities, for example sailing, as there is a product that can protect you from the sun. These things make the product more appealing to some people. Both adverts adapt language to advertise their products.
The slogan for the Lancaster Sun is “LEGENDARY LANCASTER TAN, WITHOUT THE SUN’ it uses alliteration, this makes the target audience remember the slogan better as is it easy to memorise and remember. It is also very clear and has connotations with a meaning relating to the subject. The word ‘Legend’ from the word ‘Legendary’ means a non historical or unverifiable story handed down by tradition from earlier times and popularly accepted as historical. This is used in the advert because the company might be known for other products and the company might be known for a long time.
It’s also saying that you could just use the Lancaster tan product instead of going out in the sun. These connotations help the slogan stay in mind and the reader will take the memory of the advert with them. In the other advert the slogan for ‘Piz Buin’ is ‘With Piz Buin, Life is better in the sun’ the writer implies that with their product life is better in the sun as their product is used for protection for the skin. Both advert uses simple vocabulary which makes it easy to understand.
Also in the first advert the writer included a special offer ‘Receive a FREE Latin Summer Beach Bag and four luxury miniature products with the purchase of any two Lancaster Sun products’ by putting this in the advert and by positioning it at the very top this captures the reader’s eyes as the word ‘FREE’ is in a different size and is bolder which attracts more people, plus including a picture of the free give away this made it more promising. In each advert, there is a small paragraph of more detailed writing near the bottom of the page.
It uses persuasive language such as ‘Take a new approach’ to encourage the audience try out their product. Both targets aim is to promote and encourage people to buy their product as that’s what the advert is about. I have attempted to adopt the same style seen in the previous two adverts to create a new advert. The layout of my own advert is somehow the same of two adverts I have analysed. As the advert is quite general in its target audience, as in anyone who is interested with beauty products, the advert should be placed anywhere in a magazines or newspaper.
The graphics show a woman sitting down with the camera focused on the whole body. I included a picture of a woman wearing white clothes to show that the skin has gained perfect tan by using the product. The layout of the advert is the same as the other two simulator-styles, with calm, light coloured background, bold and clear logo because this is a successful way of catching the reader’s attention. The slogan is ‘Perfect Summer Skin with Sunon’ and it has a border around it so it is separated from the other texts.
By using the word ‘Perfect’ this gives more positive aura to the product, which concludes that the product is alright and it would effect well. The advert includes a powerful description. “Sunon is the newest self tanning merchandise on the block”. This introduces the product to the public with maximum effect as it uses catchy words that would get the target audience’s attention such as ‘newest’ and ‘on the block’. “It has been scientifically proven to give you the fake tan you so badly crave for.
” This catches the readers’ attention as it uses words such as ‘crave’, this gives the idea that the consumer would find it nearly impossible to live without it. “Sunon has a shimmering bronze look that will leave you feeling good not only on the outside but also on the inside”. This portrays an image in the readers’ mind as it uses the word ‘shimmering’ to describe the way it looks, suggesting that it is beaming through even on daylight. “It gives you the satisfaction on worth living for…
” Finally this sums up the description as it acts like a cliff hanger therefore attracting the audience to go out and buy the product. I think that my advert is quite successful, although it could have been improved using a clever connotation as ‘LEGENDARY LANCASTER TAN, WITHOUT THE SUN’, which would make more readily stay in the mind. The image could also have been improved by adding colours to the advert itself to try and show the effect of the product I am advertising to my target audience. Also by including more information about the product this will improve the advert much better.
