THE ELEMENTS OF AN ADVERTISEMENT
The PURPOSE of an advertisement is to sell a product or a service. It may be witty or humorous but this is not intended to entertain consumers but to bring about a sale. It certainly uses persuasive strategies of every sort. The macro purpose of selling the product is accomplished by related tasks an advertisement must perform. In analysing advertisements, you must pay attention to the way they accomplish these tasks.
The tasks include:
· Providing product information
This sometimes includes the price of the product and details on where to buy it. This is conveyed in factual language.
· Promoting the features of the product
Here, claims are usually made that the product has special features that make it better than rival products. The language used often includes hyperbole and diction that ‘talks up’ the product.
· Grabbing the consumer’s interest in the product
Whether it’s a print or audio-visual advertisement, it needs to grab the consumer’s interest or their ‘eyeballs’ and take attention away from other products. This usually involves intriguing headlines and attractive visual elements. They LURE the consumer’s interest.
· Arousing the consumer’s desire for the product
You’ve probably felt the effects of this, ordering a product online immediately after having seen an ad for it. The consumer’s desire is usually generated through the use of emotive and evocative language that appeals to our five senses. Visual elements too play a role in arousing our desire for the product.
· Targeting and reaching out to specific classes of consumers
The targeted consumer—young or mature, middle class or upper class, male or female, liberal or conservative—can be known by the type of language used by the ad, the style of the visual elements, and by the type of information that is promoted.
· Constructing an image for the company, brand or product
Always be aware of how advertisements work to construct an image for the product, brand or the manufacturer. The kind of language used—plain, sophisticated, elegant—and the values linked to the product (for e.g. efficiency, beauty, versatility) present a certain image of the brand or its makers. The style of the ad too and the tone of language adds to our idea of the product and its maker.
· Countering any prevailing negative notions of the product, brand or company
Sometimes, companies target new markets, and thus have to exchange their old image for a new one. Also, when they lose their market position due to changes in consumer tastes and needs or new innovations, advertisements have to do the job of shedding adverse views of the brand or product.
HOW TO ANALYSE AN ADVERTISEMENT
Let’s use the Ford advertisement as a model to guide us through the moves we need to make in analysing an advertisement. It’s a fairly simple but typical advertisement and thus will serve us well for an introductory exploration.
START BY ASKING AND ANSWERING QUESTIONS and making notes as you go along.
Your questions should be a combination of generic questions to ask about advertisements and also some that are specific to the advertisement you’re analysing.
READ THE ADVERTISEMENT AS IF IT WERE A POEM—think about the effects or possible purpose of choices the ad makes in the use of language, tone, diction. Scour the text for symbols (both visual and verbal elements) and ponder their significance in terms of the claims being made about the product or brand. Look at how the various elements are arranged—which ones are foregrounded and gain attention, and which ones are given less prominence, and why. As with poems, try to identify the message of the advertisement.
What is being advertised: a brand name or a specific product?
The headline “Ford sets the fashion” suggests that the ad-maker is interested in a corporate or brand image. But a specific Ford model is mentioned in the subhead, the Zephyr, so it is also a product advertisement.
What image is being constructed of the brand and the product?
The header “Ford sets the fashion” tells us that the Ford company prizes its image as a style trend setter. It is at the front line of auto design and style. The tone of the header is also declarative as conveyed by its making a short emphatic statement, suggesting the company is confident of itself as an auto manufacturer. The alliteration of “f” in “Ford” and “fashion” in the header adds a sense of verbal elegance, which is reinforced by the use of a cursive font style that imitates calligraphic writing. The company name is written with a distinctive, somewhat flamboyant style that suggests strength.
Although strong, the company would also like itself to be thought of as fleet-footed and light, perhaps even carefree. The word “Zephyr” that is used to name the car is a literary word for a light breeze, which adds to the brand’s association with style and refinement. While the word “Ford” has a font with a masculine, angular scrawl, the word “Zephyr” uses traditional feminine cursive writing style. It’s as if the company wants the consumer to see it as containing both ideal masculine and feminine qualities. The product name “Zephyr” is also angled upwards to suggest that this car is ready to take off to the skies!
That same need to strike a balance between traditional male and female values can be seen in the contrast between the feminine cursive font of “Zephyr” and the masculine, serif, all-caps style of the words “Monte Carlo Rally Winner”. The product information of the car being a rally winner too highlights its qualities as traditional male qualities of being tough and strong.
Who is the targeted audience or consumer?
Ford appears to be wanting to sell the Zephyr to women. Women have been used in ads to sell cars—usually they are used as symbols to signify the virility of the men who drive the cars and to suggest that the cars will draw women to the male drivers. However here, the body copy tells us that the car is for the woman herself: “Whatever the occasion, whatever the company, my Zephyr-Six is styled to take me there with dignity and distinction.”
In addition, the woman model looms large over the advertisement, even blocking out the body of the Zephyr from view.
However the female consumers being targeted are not from the middle or lower classes. Ford is aiming for the upper class woman consumer. This is evident from the styling of the female model. If you can’t tell that she is wearing a very expensive evening dress, the caption on the left bottom side that tells us that her “dress” is by “Ronald Peterson” makes the point that this is a designer outfit. The woman’s posture, her facial expression as well as the harsh styling of her hair depicts her as somewhat snobbish or arrogant, full of a sense of her own superiority. In addition the tagline of the ad, that Ford offers “five-star motoring” and the dress style of the woman suggest that she is possibly an opera singer, literally a star. Hence this is a car meant for the elite women of society, especially those with exceptional taste and aesthetic credential.
Unlike other car advertisements of the time, the Ford Zephyr is not being promoted as a car that signifies the independence of women, that gives them agency as drivers to go where they please. The woman here wants a car that will “take [her]” to destinations she needs to go to. Rather than drive, she is a passive auto consumer being taken around by the car. She is concerned about how she appears and needs a car that will transport her “with dignity and distinction”. Hence it is a car associated with conservative style rather than with liberal values such as the freedom of women. The woman is only interested in the way the car is “styled”, as evident in the body copy.
Why is the company crest placed at the top corner of the add rather than its usual appearance in the bottom corner of advertisements?
Usually, crests or heraldry and company logos placed in advertisements serve simply to identify the brand/company name. These can thus be placed at the bottom because the top parts of the ad would have already identified the company or brand.
In this advertisement however, the crest is placed prominently at the top because it conveys information about how the Ford company had been royally appointed as “motor car manufacturers” by none other than the “late King George VI”. This thus doesn’t just identify the company but conveys its high status, its connection to the British Crown, drawing attention to its aristocratic history and its upper class appeal.
How does the advertisement lure the viewer/consumer?
The woman’s regal demeanour, posture and designer style certainly catches our eye, but it is the way she is stretched over the entire ad, dominating it, almost phallic in her towering leanness, that lends drama to the ad and piques our curiousity. The empty space at the top of the ad further forces us to notice the woman. Even more intriguing, the car seems to be dwarfed by the woman. However the contrasting solid blackness of the car then takes our eye off the woman and focusses it on the product information contained in the body copy.
EXAMPLE 2
Below is a 1960s’ American Pontiac car advertisement. Take note of its details and try to answer the questions posed in the above Ford advertisement before reading the analysis below.
For a clearer image, look here: https://www.pinterest.at/pin/249598004335199089/
What is being advertised: a brand name or a specific product?
Both the Pontiac auto brand and the specific model, Grand Prix, are being promoted here. This is evident in the way the brand and product names are coupled in the bottom right hand corner signature as “Pontiac Grand Prix”. In addition, one line beneath the picture of the car refers to the “Pontiac Motor Division” of the General Motors Corporation. The logo however emphasises the product. Although the car dominates the advertisement, firmly positioned in the centre, the ‘speakers’ of the body copy are the engineers and designers from the “Pontiac Motor Division” of the General Motors Corporation: “We made that!”, they say. This shows that the advertiser General Motors wants to highlight not just the product but the Pontiac brand in general, personifying the brand and giving it a speaking role.
What image is being constructed of the brand and the product?
The brand and the product are being presented as ‘posh’ and stylish. This impression is given through the use of setting, which offers an aura of affluence and elegant style. The car has driven up to a hotel driveway and is picking up a woman who emerges from the hotel shopping arcade. The hotel’s architecture is classical, complete with turrets, columns and decorated pediments, suggesting an old-world glamour. The Pontiac Grand Prix is also associated with a genteel culture through the formal dress style and courteous behaviour of the couple.
The image of the brand comes across more strongly in the language and tone of the body copy. It’s clear that the Pontiac folks want to be associated with elegant, quiet, even conservative style. In the body copy they say that they enjoy seeing the “small admiring shake of the head” and “the pursed lips of judicious approval”. Movements such as pursed lips and small shake of the head suggest that the company does not want to be associated with flamboyant style but with subtlety. They also compare themselves to being “like a doting parent” and “flush[ing] a little with pleased pride”. The company wants to project itself as caring for its customers and their needs, but also wants to be seen as placing a premium on aesthetic values. The contrast between how they’d like to “shout” that “it’s a Grand Prix and it comes with a 306-bhp Trophy V-8 and easy chair bucket seats and a console and just take another look at those utterly clean lines” but actually end up “babbl[ing] silently” again brands them as going for control and balance in their design and style. The references to the “30-bhp Trophy V-8”, “easy chair bucket seats” and “utterly clean lines” are a quiet nod to the Pontiac as being a modern car despite all the nods to old-world design (the hotel architecture).
There is also a tension with the brand wanting to pitch itself as exclusive and yet as also being popular with the masses. Despite all the signs noted above of the car as being ‘posh’ and quiet in its appeal, the body copy also wants the readers to know that “There are GPs all over the place”, which means that it’s not only a select group of people who buy the car. As the header says, they are “perfectly normal”.
Who is the targeted audience or consumer?
The advertiser appears to be targeting young people who are moving upwards socially, perhaps the educated, professional class. The male driver of the car, who is the owner, could be a doctor or lawyer, as suggested by his formal wear. He is also young, as is the woman. There are no children on the scene, either. The ad seems to be targeting young courting couples or newly marrieds.
I would argue that young men on the way up the social ladder are being targeted as the ad keeps promoting the car as something that will win other people’s admiration. Even in the visual composition of the scene, we see a young woman on the ground floor and another woman on the upper floor looking enviously at the car and the couple. The body copy also repeatedly mentions signs of admiration and approval. It is young and upwardly mobile people who seek reassurance from others, not those who have arrived. The header “Your pulse rate goes up whenever you see one of these? Relax—you’re perfectly normal” also plays to the desire of the upwardly mobile to belong to a community of successful people, telling them their desire for the car is “normal,” that is, in sync with their peers.
How does the advertisement lure the viewer/consumer?
The picture, which appears to be an illustration in watercolour, plays the main role in drawing viewers to the advertisement. The colours--the wash of blue with areas of white, and luscious greenery, including palm trees everywhere—attract our attention and suggest an exotic coastal location. Visual excitement is also added by the contrast between natural forms of trees and old-world architectural imagery versus the sleek modern lines of fancy cars. In addition, a visual story is immediately apparent, telling of romance--a man has turned up, who is possibly courting a woman as suggested by the eager way he leans forward when he sees her; upstairs, on the upper floor, we see another young couple chatting. The woman too is equally eager and happy to see the man, but behind her another woman directs a sneaky glance at her. There is drama, intrigue, romance, youth that is used to lure the reader to the advertisement and to evoke desire in the consumer for the product. Working together with the emotive language of the body copy, the visual scene with its romantic blues and the shine of the car appeals to our emotions and evokes feelings of pleasure.
How has context shaped the content and style of the advertisement?
This is a 1960s’ advertisement and reflects the dominant gender ideas of that era. Hence the driver of the car is presented as male whereas the female is the passive one, who has to be given a ride. The middle class of that time saw the ability of a man to provide well for wife and children as a hallmark of success. Hence the car is being associated with luxurious living (seen in the hotel, the shopping, the large size of the car, the Florida lush tropical vegetation) and the woman is seen in the so-called ‘ideal’ role of going shopping rather than working.
Looking back today, the 1960s is seen as a time of ‘flower power’, when the emphasis was on love, romance, sex and pleasure. The advertisement appeals to that set of values. Sex and romance are hinted at in the presence of two young couples in the illustration. But even the language of the Pontiac makers in the body copy emphasises the value of love, for e.g. in the way the makers see themselves as “doting parents” who have made this car from love, not just for the buyers, but from love of design and art. Attempts are made to depict the car as an object of love rather than a machine or something associated with commerce. The language and content of the body copy as well as the header uses the ‘soft sell’ approach rather than the ‘hard sell’. Hence the header is in small font and placed in the lower third of the advertisement rather than screaming at the top of the advertisement. It’s a long header too, and more personable in tone than the generic advertisement, again emphasising care and concern, emotion, underplaying the commercial function of an advertisement.