Textual Ananlysis of Advertising

1.

One advert I feel that uses humour as a way of targeting people is the Evian water advert. In this advert babies are shown to be using roller-skates; throughout the advertisement they complete various jumps and tricks. I could see Evian targeting people with young children as they may find this entertaining. I find this meeting the need to nurture, as there are various babies in this advert. The initial scene of the advert has the Evian logo with the statement “Lets observe the effect of Evian on your body” This is suggesting that if you drink this brand of water, you will be able to do everything that the babies are, also it is promoting the idea that anything can be possible, no matter how illogical. 

I believe the target audience from Young & Rubicam's 4Cs model would possibly be the group of Mainstreamers, as Evian is a very well known brand of water and very popular to most people. I feel as though this advert with make the mainstreamer feel as though they are part of a group due to the amount of people who drink this brand of water. 


2.

This advert is part of a campaign from Nike called #MakeItCount, this campaign uses different successful athletes to show the audience that this is the brand to use if you want to be as successful as these different people. Nike's main logo is 'Just Do It', the use of language shows that it is not a question, it is a command, Nike is telling you to do whatever this 'it' is in your life, don't procrastinate about it, just get it over with. The word 'Just' connotes an idea that whatever activity you are doing is simple, that it doesn't take much effort. The word 'Do' represents actually putting in work and doing something. Due to this slogans short length, it is easier to remember than most other brands, in my opinion, I would say that this statement is much more recognisable than Adidas, which is 'Impossible Is Nothing'. I could see this brand fitting into the lifestyle of the aspirer, as the core need for the aspirer is for status. They may be able to get the status they want from using this brand. 

3.

The advert that I find most shocking is for a campaign to stop smoking, in the advertisement it shows a man smoking a cigarette, as he smokes the end of the cigarette expands and shows what looks like a tumour of some kind. I feel as though people may not react the same way if nothing was shown, people may not have seen the effects smoking has before this.  I understand that a lot of campaigns feel as though they need to be shocking or no one will stop, I feel as though this one oversteps a mark and is quite disgusting. People could view this as a way of showing people what actually happens. But people from a different cultural background may understand that it is trying to stop people smoking, but if the man in the advertisement doesn't seem to care about what is happening, why should they change anything they do?

I could see this fitting into the choices a utopian would follow, as they want to make the world a better place, they may see this as a way to help people as a way of gaining enlightenment. 

4.

This advert is for a cleaning powder, in the advert a woman is shown to be excited over washing-up powder, this has the ideology that women need to be the perfect house-wife and do all of the cleaning around the house while the man is out at work. On the woman's hand a wedding ring is easily seen, once again promoting the idea of  the women having the majority of the house duties. In the bottom right-hand corner, there is a statement that Tide can also be used to clean dishes. I think due to the time period this is from, stereotypes were a natural thing, they weren't really seen as being offensive. Women were expected to do this type of job as people may have found it strange and unusual for a woman to be in a job that pays. There is also the stereotype that men cannot do washing up, men were seen to be simple and not able to multi-task. So this advert shows stereotypes to both genders. I think this was targeted towards young females, maybe just married as they will start doing the household jobs in the new family house.

5.

Many people will understand Volvo's reference to the childhood fairytale 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'. Volvo have decided to use this as a link as the car they are advertising only allows for seven people. In the top right-hand corner, next to the logo, says the text 'The new volvo XC90. With seven seats, sorry' this will produce some kind of nostalgia for the audience as they will either be familiar with this fairytale from when they were a child or possibly if they have their own children. The main image is a woman dressed as snow white, holding her hand out as a sign of hitch-hiking, due to the fact she would not have been able to fit in the car. Volvo have still kept an aspect of nature, as instead of placing snow white in a busy city, she is seen near fields which is also a key reference to the Snow White film, as she hides in the woods from her step-mother. 

6.

For this advert, L'oreal have chosen to use Cheryl as their elite person, Cheryl has been classed as the nation's sweetheart, so it is suitable for her to be used for such a high end product. Cheryl has many connotations that follow her, including the obvious, fame, status. luxury and respect. I believe L'oreal have chosen to use Cheryl as they would also like to be seen as these things, they don't want to be seen as a throw-away brand, they are seen as luxury due to the popularity of their products. L'oreal has always kept their prices reasonable as a way to ensure that even the lower end of the income/status model could still involve themselves with this brand.

Many young women aspire to look like Cheryl as she is known for her beauty, I believe this could persuade people to buy this product, as is people want to be like her, they will want to use the same products.

7.

This Gillette advertisement mainly uses the aspect of reward to promote their product. The advert uses a simplistic layout and little colour to ensure that everything is made to look simple, the main text of the advert is 'Go ahead. Make yourself more comfortable.' promoting the idea that something as routine as shaving shouldn't be a hard thing to do. Gillette's slogan is 'The best a man can get', this in itself allows people to feel as though they are being rewarded, if it has been branded as the best, I believe the category of the succeeder, they believe they should reward themselves that could be more expensive as a treat for doing something good. The aspirer is driven by other people's perceptions of them, so they would want to have the best to ensure people think that way of them. This advert also uses elite persons as a way to show that different celebrities are supporting the product, the brand have chosen many successful athletes from various sports, to ensure that fans are certain sports are represented in this advert.