NA2: Newspaper Advert Analysis

My first advert I shall be analysing is by channel 5 from inside a newspaper which is advertising several television shows. Its primary colour scheme is red and white which is the same colour scheme as the channels logo which helps its appeal in terms of continuity. It also features the logo as a large centrepiece of the page making it instantly recognisable as to what’s on Channel 5. By sticking with a certain house style readers will feel like they are being catered for as well as making all of the companies adverts instantly recognisable and relatable to channel 5. When I create my advert, I shall ensure that a consistent and professional house style is used throughout my work to make my target audience enticed by my television documentary.

Red has been predominantly used in this advert as it connotes danger and excitement. By doing this, readers will naturally want to read into this advert out of curiosity due to its persuasive manor. The white used is there to connote freshness and hope which initially makes the readers’ hopeful that these programmes will be entertaining ones.  

When I construct my advert, I feel that that my connotations and denotations must be on point if I want my advert to have success. I also need it to attract my target audience of predominantly males aged 12-35, so I need to arrange my advert in a way that it represents them.

I feel that Channel 5’s advert is really impressive when it comes to representing its target audience. Its bold typography makes the advert stand out in comparison to other similar adverts. It’s not complexed but at the same time its message is very clear. They want people to see their programmes and that message is very clear from an instant glance at this advert. Its logo is a key factor in this advert as it is instantly recognisable to all television viewers. If this logo was not used similar fashion or context, it would simply not be as valuable and important. I need to ensure my advert is bold and stands out to have a similar affect to my audience.

The layout on this Channel 5 advert is modern but yet formally structured at the same time. It’s main image at the top stands out as it main programme out of the ones being advertised with the other three images having equal spacing on the bottom row. When you compare the advert for “Life after Armageddon” to the rest of the programmes you can see that it’s not in chronological order thus meaning this is their main show. By giving extra publicity to one show, it makes the layout slightly unstructured and edgy but at the same time you clearly know which show has the most importance. In an advert with that structure it is very hard to enforce a chronological order so by using one show as the main image, they do not have to worry about this as much.

I feel that in terms of representation theory, this advert represents its target audience as mainly adults read newspapers and that this advert clearly is aimed at adults. It is clearly an adult advert with adults being considered when this advert was made. Thus, this advert clearly represents its audience.

 

My second advert analysis is from Sky Sports in a newspaper. I chose this as this has a lot of similarities as to what I am aiming for. It mainly uses red and blue as its main colours as stereotypically they are the most common colours wore by football teams so instantly football fans are attracted. These are again demonstrated in the Sky Sports logo as it is mainly red and blue. You can also see that in all the badges of the teams that are playing, all of them either feature red, blue or both of them together. As my documentary is based on football, I should definitely consider using these colours to make my advert instantly appeal to football fans.

The badges of the premiership teams are used and focussed on rather than the text. This connotes football heavily as fans would rather see their clubs crest than the name of their team as it excites them and make them proud to see their team live and soon. The small font and minuscule amount of text suggests that anyone that really cares and loves football would know instantly whose playing and not even consider the text. As my documentary focusses on a low leave team, then using a badge as much as Sky Sports do I would attract less people as supposed to if I used bold text.

Similarly to the Channel 5 advert, Sky Sports does a very good job when it comes to making their advert explosive despite not featuring a lot of content. It says all that it needs to inside the advert. “This weekend” may be basic but it says all that I needs to. It just says to you that this is what’s coming up and that these teams are being featured. It represents its target audience as football fans are only interested in whose playing rather than lots of fancy unnecessary text. I will use text with mine as it’s a new show which will need explanation and a good description to it.

The layout on the Sky Sports advert is simple and effective. Its explosive border of colour makes a basic advert look like an impressive one. The fixtures are in chronological order which in this context is very necessary as otherwise fans may get confused as to what fixtures are on what dates. They are all given level spacing which shows that they want fans to watch all four matches rather than just one. As my whole advert will be on one show, layout will not be a huge issue when my advert is concerned.

In terms of representation theory, this advert is the perfect symbolisation for football fans. It has club crests, dates and a channel on there. This is literally perfect in the eyes of a football fan, being one myself I can safely say this and I know that many others share this opinion.

For my third and final analysis I shall be looking at an advert for the DVD release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens via Sainsbury's. Its primary colours are orange, white and black. The black connotes Star Wars as it is often associated with this colour. The orange and white connote Sainsbury's instantly and if you knew that this was a supermarket advert, you'd know instantly that this is a Sainsbury's advert. This is also helped by the fairly large logo for Sainsbury's on the bottom left of the poster. By maintaining a reoccurring house style, you will feel that you can instantly relax and associate this with a famous brand that everyone knows. I shall consider my house style and how best to represent my target audience when creating my own newspaper advertisements.

White has been mainly used for two reasons. The first of these is because it connotes the house style used by Sainsbury's over several generations which I have already discussed. The second of which is because white also connotes science and high-tech genres which is what genres Star Wars falls under. By double connoting you are appealing to both Star Wars lovers and informing who people who regularly shop at Sainsbury's that the latest DVD release is on sale at their supermarket of choice. 

When it comes to constructing my advert, I will make sure that both my connotations and my denotations represent my 12-30 male target audience in the best way possible. I shall therefore use easy on the eye visual images as well as minimal easy to read text.

I feel that Sainsbury's simplistic advert works very well for them when it comes to target audience representation. It's title in simplistic and it only requires the words "Out Tomorrow" outside of the advert because of how large and sell-able the brand of star wars really is. They didn't require any more text or any more detail as this simplistic advert is perfect for their middle to lower class target audience, which is similar to that in which I shall be aiming my advert to. I shall use a large Channel 5 logo on my advert in a similar way to how Sainsbury's have displayed their logo here. Audiences would not know which channel is displaying 'Life After Football' so therefore my logo will be crucial into capturing audiences and high viewing figures for 'Life After Football'. The logo will probably have a key role in the centre of my poster.

The layout is very simple and effective in Sainsbury's advert. On the grand scheme of things it is very informal but still has a formal size and structure to it. It is a regualr poster advert size and Sainsbury's do their main part of brand advertising at the top and bottom of this poster. Their advertisement for Star Wars is central as it is the main focal point of this particular advert. They are not selfish and focus their middle on Star Wars which if anything helps to increase both the publicity and popularity of both Film and Company. As I will be advertising both a TV Documentary and Channel Five, I shall use the main part of the poster for my documentary and a section in the middle or along the bottom for my Channel Five logo.

I feel this advertisement fits representation theory very well because it represents its target audience as clearly as possible. A simple advert for an averagely educated target audience in a middle to lower class publication. What could be more fitting?

This is the same sort of effect that I want to emulate.