Analysis Of Magazine Advert A MAGAZINE ADVERT IS A PIECE OF ARTWORK THAT CREATES AWARENESS OF A SPECIFIC ARTIST, I HAVE ANALYSED A FEW OF THEM.

Plan B Here is Plan B’s magazine advert, as you can see the overall structure and design of it is quite simple. The house colours are red white and black, by choosing these specific colours focus this piece of artwork to stand out and be eye-catching to an audience member. Also by having these colours throughout the theme of this whole entire album, existing fans will instantly recognise this as being Plan B.

There are only two main different fonts of text, again keeping it very simple yet effective, both fonts and easy to read, the heading is bold and to the point where as the subheading is slightly smaller yet still clear. The smaller text is less relevant yet still easy to see.

The actually content of the advert is also simple, it advertises Plan B with just a mid shot of himself, album cover, name of album, his name and some reviews. Simple yet effective. However if you do look into more depth with the image Plan B is surrounded by black, darkness; is music has melancholic undertones, his lyrics are ominous or explicit: there is something sinister, hidden, about him. As Plan B is looking to his left, half of his face isn’t exposed; this again suggests that there are deeper, darker facets to his music, clandestine elements to his smooth style.

This advert is simple, yet it does what it is suppose to do, advertise the artist in a ‘non pushy’ way. It also goes quite well with the type of music genre Plan B records, relaxed.

Kings Of Leon Although the genre is not instantly recognizable just from the image used, you can clearly see that it’s not a

fancy poppy magazine advert, and with the iconography of a band such as the Kings of Leon, it is recognizable that this advert is for an ‘indie’ genre. The main image consists of a quarter of each band members face worked in with the overall image of an eagle. Not only does this symbolize the band as a close group/family, it also symbolizes their success and ability similar to an eagle ‘soaring through the skies.’ I can see that the image intends to give a serious effect on it’s viewer as the eyes of both artists and the owl are staring right at you as you look at the advert.

The colours of the advert are surprisingly gloomy, which a sepia style of effect to it. I feel that this has been purposely done to emphasise the seriousness of the advert rather than choosing bright flashy colours to just catch the eye of the reader, this represents that rather than grabbing every chance possible to attract the attention of more fans as a specific goal, it shows that the Kings of Leon rather have a different aim, such as to effect it’s viewers instead of constantly pleasing them with easy to listen commercial music.

The font also works well with the message which the advert is trying to portray, a style of serif font has been used, which shows it’s seriousness and quality rather than a flashy message with curly text. Finally in the bottom left I can see how the advert has included the logo of the distributor ‘play.com’ this has been done purposely to increase sales for both the distributor and the band, if a reader is to view the advert they may be very interested and the advert may achieve it’s goal on a specific reader, making them feel like they would enjoy and would like to buy the album, however the advert then needs something to push the reader to actually make action of this thought and to buy the album, in this case it is the use of the distributors logo to do so. This logo which is also very well known instantly informs the reader where to purchase the album from, the next time the reader is on the PC or see’s this logo, it may then action them to either buy the album from their website, or trigger their memory about the advert, which then reminds them that they wanted to purchase it.

KasabianKasabian debut album / Digipacks is yet another Digipacks cover which consists of the Rock genre convention colours of black and white, which inspires the magazine advertisement to follow the same colour scheme to create consistency/synergy. Therefore, in other words the artwork of the advertisement is the same as the art work of the Digipack itself. The text on this advertisement is extremely clear because it is in a considerably large, bold font – especially the title ‘Kasabian’ which is in the biggest text because it is the main advertising tool which appeals to the audience’s eye.

Also, the text is clear because there is a clear contrast of the white text on the black background, which makes for the advertisement artwork to be very simplistic, however simplistic is a common recurrence that I have noticed throughout analysis Rock advertisements and Digipack covers. Because the advertisement is basic, the audience can quickly get the information they require from the advertisement without spending too long looking for the information on a complex, messy advertisement.

Information which is included on the advertisement for example is the website ‘kasabian.co.uk’ where it is obvious to the reader that there will be further information on the band’s website if they’re genuinely interested in the band, or require more information. Another common recurrence in magazine advertisements that I have noticed is that they usually include the band’s most popular/well known song to tempt people to buy the Digipack. This method attracts a wider audience because lots of people will have heard most band’s biggest songs in the charts, and not heard the others, therefore advertising that that one big song is included attracts a lot more people to buying the Digipack itself.