Induction Production: advertising campaign
Written Evaluation:

CODES & CONVENTIONS:

My advert for “SHOCK” perfume is aimed towards 16-20 year old females, with an interest in the “Gothic” genre. I feel my advert would appeal to my target audience.

The model I used is young, beautiful, stylish; wearing lots of rings, and slightly gothic herself, suggesting to the audience that by buying my perfume they are buying into her glamorous lifestyle, and becoming part of something, which interests most people, especially people who are interested in the “gothic” or “emo” culture, as it is suggested they are on the outside and want to belong, but to something they will be accepted in.

The model is the main focus of the picture, as i wanted all the focus to be on her, and her beauty. This is why i decided to place her on a plain background rather than having a setting. Also the dark background adds an air of mystery which is typical to the horror genre.

I also wanted a large amount of focus to be on the product, which is an orb shaped glass bottle positioned in the models hand. The products bottle is highlighted the most in the picture, making the readers eye drawn to it. This also adds contrast and texture to the advert. As does, the subtle use of colour tinting.

The slogan “The Power Of Shock” is strong, and would hopefully stick in the audiences head. I used electric blue as a colour in my advert, as i thought the “electricity” of the colour, went well with the words, “power” and “shock” as they are all to do with electricity. Also the use of the word “power”, might persuade the audience to buy my product, as it suggests that perhaps by wearing this perfume you will be stronger as a person, or have power over people, which are traits you may not of possessed before.

The model is staring straight into the camera, giving the impression that she is looking at you. This eye contact automatically draws the reader in. As does the rings she is wearing, which sparkle. The rings also help to draw the readers eye to the product, as her hands are positioned around the orb.

The text font used is quite gothic, therefore it supports the genre i chose for my deisgn. I used different fonts and sizes so that it was easy to differentiate between the product name and slogan. However the slogan could suggest that “shock” is the brand name, and “the power of shock” is the product name, therefore this perfume could be in a collection, which all have similar advertisments. It is beneficial having similar adverts for a line of products, as it is more likely to stay in the consumers mind, and thus you are therefore more likely to sell your product.

When designing my advertisement i chose the gothic/horror genre, as it is something that typically interests my target audience. I could have also choosen the video game genre, or a cartoon genre, as my product is aimed at teenagers who are stereotyped as “Goths”, “Scene Kids” or “Emos”. These groups of people are generally into comic book characters, such as “Spiderman” and “The Hulk”, or cartoons such as “Pokemon” and “Ben 10”.

REPRESENTATION:
The advertisement has a sort of fantasy feel to it. As the model looks like she could be a fairy or elf. The veins on her shoulders and arms that are made prominent, add to the fantasy genre, and make the model look like she could be a character from “Pans Labyrinth”. This is not a genre i intended to focus on, however i think it works quite well with the gothic/horror genre. This fairytale fantasy theme suggest to the reader that if they buy this perfume they can delve into their own fantasy world, and be who they want to be. This could appeal to my audience, as teenage girls like to experiment and change who they are, so a product that suggests they can be whoever they want to be, would appeal to them.

The social group represented in my advertisement is similar to that of my target audience. The model is perhaps late teens early twenties. The makeup used is quite “gothic” or “emo”. As are her dark nails. As the social group represented is the same as my audience, the audience is more likely to buy my product, than if i had used a completly different group. Such as; female sports players. They are also more likely to buy my product, as the advertisement suggests that it is something they can relate to. And teenage girls aren’t going to buy something, that doesn’t appeal to them.


TARGET AUDIENCE:

My advertisement for “SHOCK” perfume is aimed specifically towards females between the ages of 16 and 20. When designing my advert I kept in mind the lifestyle, interests and aspirations of my audience, so that I could make sure my advert was audience specific, and effective.

When choosing my product and audience, I focused on people who are interested in the rock/gothic genre of music, and who would probably be stereotyped as “Gothic” or “Emo”. People who are stereotyped this way tend to wear skinny jeans, band teeshirts and converses, or lots of black and long coats. I kept this is mind when picking an image for my advert, as I didn’t want to use an image that my audience wouldn’t like, or couldn’t relate to.

This made it easy to choose a specific type of genre for my advert. I choose the Gothic/Horror genre. I also thought it went quite well with my product name and slogan, as teenagers interested in this genre, normally dress and act the way they do, to rebel or to shock adults and other teenagers.

When designing my advert i tried not to use colous that are typically thought to be “girls colours”. As alot of girls in my target audience, don’t normally wear these colours, such as pink and light blue, and they can tend to be quite tom boyish. However i wanted to make sure that it was obvious that my product was aimed at females. So i not only used a female model but i used blue and purple, for the colour contrast.

EVALUATION:
I think one of the main strengths of my advertisement, is the image used. I think its quite a powerful image, as the girls eyes automatically catch your eye, and keep your attention. However i think that perhaps i could of improved my advert by focusing more on a better slogan. I think my slogan has meaning, yet with a product name like “SHOCK...” i could of come up with something better, or more memorable.
Also i could of improved my products bottle, by making the label on it more realistic, however i wasn’t very good at using photoshop. Originally there was no label on the orb at all, but i felt that this made it look like my advert didn’t have the product in it, which i didn’t think was very effective.

However i think my advert is good, as it looks like it could belong to a large advert campaign for a line of perfumes, which means this advert could be followed up by numerous others, which added together all tell a story.

On a whole i think my advert is effective and audience specific, however it could be improved.