Choose two different magazine advertisements and compare the way in which they target their audience The two advertisements I have chosen are a Lexus GS advert and a Sharps bedroom advert. I will write about each advert separately and then compare them afterwards. In the Lexus advert the focal point is the car.
The photographer has taken a close up to make it seem bigger. The car looks visually attractive and is positioned to make it look inviting. In the photo the car is the only object there which suggests it is the sole thing the audience needs. Also the colour darkens as you look down the page which leads the reader to the information. The symbol of an award the Lexus GS received (in the bottom left of the page) would impress the audience and would help convince them that the Lexus GS is a high quality car.
The first words the reader sees are the slogan ‘ Takes you miles away in seconds’ which suggests the car will take you to another world which links further down the page when it says ‘ A world of unimaginable tranquillity’. ‘ Effortless drive’ implies that unlike most cars travelling in the Lexus GS is no hassle. ‘ The Lexus GS must surely be the quickest way to away from it all’ is an informal tone as if a friend is recommending it to you and the Lexus GS helps you escape from the stress of modern life, simply driving in it is like taking a holiday. ‘ Pursuit of perfection’ implies the car is perfect or closer to perfection than any other car.
There are words in the language such as engaging agility, pleasurable, sheer power and tranquillity to make the audience think the Lexus GS has all the features they could possibly want in a car. The advert imply the Lexus GS is far more advanced than other cars by saying ‘ After starting the engine you’d be forgiven for thinking nothing has happened at all’. ‘ The Lexus GS.’ implies that the name of the car is all they need to know because that is how astounding it is. The target audience are wealthy middle class people.
This is because the Lexus GS is a luxurious high quality car which is implied throughout the copy. In the second advert about Sharps bedrooms the photographs of the bedrooms look spacious, colourful, organised, modern and attractive to make it inviting and so that the audience could see themselves living there. The bedrooms are quite tidy but not too tidy to make it look like someone is already living there. All the photographs of the bedrooms are close ups. The logo stands out well from the picture. The photograph has been taken on a sunny day to make it look more visually attractive to the reader.
The contact information stands out, especially the phone number which is in a bigger font than the information surrounding it. ‘ For a bedroom that’s exclusively yours, come to sharps’ implies that there is already a bedroom made for the reader. ‘ Designed exclusively around you’ implies that the bedroom will fit your personality and style. ‘ We can transform your space’ suggests that your bedrooms can look like one in the photo and have the same qualities. ‘ Britain’s leading bedroom specialist’ suggests they can design bedrooms better than anyone else and that they are the experts.
‘ Whatever your style, whatever your space’ implies that they can make the bedroom exactly how you would want it as well as the repetition emphasising the flexibility of the company. ‘ Sharps bedroom that’s perfect for you’ implies that the only way you can get a perfect bedroom is by going to Sharps. The target audience is middle class people in particular families because they are most likely to be interested in bedrooms. The adverts are quite similar in many ways. Both adverts imply they are the best at what they do and their products are the best you can buy. They engage the reader by using words such as ‘ you’ and ‘ your’.
They use different font styles and sizes to make certain words stand out. They both display contact information in different colours to the background and enlarge the phone number so it stands out and makes sure readers who want to know more can easily locate the phone number. They both write the slogan in a big font and place it in the top left of the advert so that it stands out. They put the logo in a different font style so that it is highlighted. The photographs are shot at an angle to make them look bigger and so that more in each photograph are seen.
Both of the adverts use an informal tone so they seem friendly. In both of the adverts copy they mention features which the reader would find important so they find it more interesting. The adverts also have many differences. The Sharps advert has no border surrounding it however there is plenty of white space in the middle to separate the three photographs and provide a contrast for the writing. Also the Lexus GS advert is more focused on the car itself rather than the company whilst the Sharps bedrooms advert is more focused on the company rather than the product.
The background and car of the Lexus GS advert is more likely attracted to males because it uses more masculine colours such as metallic blue. The Lexus GS is a more successful advert because the graphic is much more eye catching and effective with one big photograph of the Lexus GS rather than 3 small photographs of bedrooms in the Sharps bedrooms advert. The white border surrounding the advert even more emphasises the photograph of the Lexus GS making it look more glamorous furthermore this would be better at attracting readers from a distance. The slogan of the Lexus GS advert is much bigger than that of the Sharps bedrooms advert in addition to that the contrast between the slogan and background is much better on the Lexus GS advert than the Sharps bedrooms advert. The Lexus GS advert uses a much better range of vocabulary such as ‘ sheer power’ and ‘ engaging agility’ rather than the Sharps bedrooms advert which uses words such as ‘ unique’ and ‘ exclusively’.
