Shire

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...

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...ith 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.