Magazine Ads From Mobile Technology example essay topic

Adam ReussEnglish 151 Hil and 02/13/05 Visual Evaluation and Comparison: Analyzing the Advertisement Industry The main goal of advertising is to motivate or persuade people to buy a particular product or service, and among the media used to accomplish this are; radio, television, newspapers, and most importantly, magazines. In order for advertisements to successfully portray a product, they must be directed to the appropriate intended audience. In Rolling Stone and YM magazine, there are two advertisements that display a very attractive person gazing and posing to the viewer. In advertising, we are bombarded by images that have become standard in defining beauty and what is acceptable, and we often don't realize it. In both of the ads, the person is gazing at the viewer with a look that says "this is the phone for the cool people".

Both ads are for mobile service technology, and each ad is very different from the other. The use of celebrities in advertising is very common. When advertisers choose a spokesperson to promote their product, they use three basic categories of source attributes, which include: appearance, target audience, and slogans. Both of these ads are equally effective in their own unique way.

It is important to analyze the effectiveness of these celebrities in advertising in order to gain a better understanding of spokesperson endorsements. The first ad in Rolling Stone is for Boost mobile, a cell phone service connected with Motorola who appeals to the urban youth. In the ad, a very well known man poses with the cellular phone in his hand as he smirks at the viewer. The popular man is rap star Ludacris, a clear spokesperson for the target audience.

Ludacris is in a profile pose with all of his jewelry that shines throughout the black background. The phone is also shining very brightly to stand in with the "bling" to make it seem as if the phone is in the same high class as the jewelry that Ludacris proudly wears. Motorola uses a plain black background with two simple images; Ludacris using the phone and the phone itself. On the second image of the phone, there is a mirror-like reflection of the phone to make it seem illuminating to the viewer.

The text on the advertisement says in a huge font "send hot beats to your phone" and then in a smaller, yet still large font "before you turn the page". This intrigues the magazine reader, because it is telling them to get these sweet ring tones before they turn the page. In the comfort of their own surroundings, whoever is reading this advertisement can order a ring tone by reading the smaller font below the huge white text. In the second ad, YM has offered its own mobile service an "extreme makeover". The girl portrayed in this is an animated girl holding a red y mobile phone on the bottom of the ad. There are graphics on the bottom of the ad surrounding the red cellular phone that display some of the options that the consumer can purchase such as: college graphics, accessories, screen savers, games, etc.

All throughout the rest of the ad is text with some graphics and a very colorful background. The text is simply listing the new improvements to the y mobile device. It lists the new ring tones, how easy the improvements are, the new content, and much more. The logo is the bullet for each one of these topics on the list to remind the viewer exactly what and whose product they are buying. On the right side of the ad, there is a list of all of the songs that the viewer can download and have as their ring tone. The background is very colorful, easily targeting a young teenage girl who probably is in the middle to upper middle class who could afford all of these accessories to go along with their phone.

The background color is a mixture of dark and light purple with a light green blotted on random places. This almost makes the ad look like a cartoon in a way and not trying to sell something. Advertising has come to conform to a strict set of codes about beauty. A product isn't even necessary in an ad and sometimes isn't included. Advertisers and viewers are so heavily reliant on images that define for us a certain "normal look", that we don't even seek to find out about the product. Advertisements are communicators of culturally defined concepts such as success, love, sexuality, popularity, and normalcy.

The body image is mainly being shown by Ludacris with all of his expensive clothes and jewelry, but the young animated girl also shows it. The girl is wearing the same colors as the advertisement itself. Her purple earrings and purple tank top perfectly match the background of y mobile services. Her green eyes could indirectly make you look at the bullets because they are surrounded by a green background. Rolling Stone magazine and YM magazine have very different target audiences due to their different context.

In Rolling Stone, one would find articles about music, movies, politics, and many graphic details about all of those. In YM magazine, the reader would usually read about the top ten cutest boys in the U.S. A or some other article closely related. YM would attract to a reader who probably is not old enough to probably buy a subscription, but old enough to know how to ask their parents for the products. Rolling Stone would go for an audience filled with eighteen to thirty year old males who are intrigued by a spokesperson that they see in the ad. There is not that much of a difference in seeing a famous spokesperson wearing a good amount of "bling" and a very colorful character showing their future consumers what is cool to wear, use, or do.

Each of these ads have their own slogans that give the viewer a cool saying to remind them of what they will purchase. With Boosts' "Where you at?" to y mobile's "What's happening on your phone?" Boost mobile uses slang to talk directly to their target audience who would normally talk slang in the urban areas. Mobile uses "What's happening on your phone?" to indirectly tell the young teenage girl to stock up on everything to make her phone the coolest in the school. This is a very good technique to use if a company would want to differentiate kids like that. Magazines, in general, are usually geared towards a specific audience with distinct interests. Therefore, the ads need to be carefully designed to attract the attentions of the magazine reader.

These ads were very carefully designed to the final touch. One with a simple black background embracing the shiny phone along with the "bling" compared to the very colorful entertaining background that decorates the advertisement to make it look fun. This very concept is well displayed in the two selected, yet very different, magazine ads from mobile technology. Advertising is defined as the action of attracting the public's attention to a product or business.

These two advertisements have attracted their own viewer to their product and hope that 1% of viewers purchase the product. As potential buyers of goods and services, Americans are constantly bombarded with advertising gimmicks in all print and broadcast mediums to the point where we have become jaded to the sales pitches that surround us. Each advertisement has been equally effective in reaching out to their target audience and selling the product. The unfavorable aspects of advertising result when the advertisers use questionable techniques to influence their consumers.