Magazine Advertisement Analysis

Magazine Advertisement Analysis

Product advertising in magazines is a very popular and successful way of selling products. As there are an unlimited variety of magazines which cover thousands of different topics, it is common for music artists to advertise their upcoming albums or tours in magazines that are aimed at the same audience as the artists are. In relation to music advertisements only, the genre of music created by the artists will effect the appearance and display of the advertisements; for example, a magazine advertisement for a folk band such as Mumford & Sons would be dramatically different to a magazine advertisement for an electro pop artist such as Lady Gaga.

For this task, I have chosen to analyse the magazine advertisement for Gorillaz most recent album, Plastic Beach. This album could arguably fit into a range of different genres, such as pop, alternative rock and hip hop. The fact that this band produce many varieties of sound means that they will appeal to a more wider audience.

The main image consists of a surreal, animated beach, with no image of the actual band. The animated factor is most suitable for this particular band as although the vocals and sounds are made by real people, the band 'members' are invented animation characters. The majority of colours used in the advert are mainly quite warm colours: bold reds, yellows, oranges and greens are used to portray the time of day in this imaginary scene, which presumably is dusk. The colour scheme of the overall advert is very cohesive, as the top of the advert starts with quite a light, dirty orange background which then blends nicely into the black sea at the bottom of the advert.

The font used for the name of the band and album name is wavy, which could link in with the fact it is written over water. The wavy form in the lettering could signify the ripples and waves on the metaphorical 'beach'. The colour of the writing is a simple white colour which emphasises the words as they stand out more being placed on an abstract black background. The words 'THE NEW ALBUM: OUT NOW' are written at the bottom of the advert which means that this is the last bit of the text the reader will see. This is written again in a very bold white font, which makes it stand out more.

The relationship with the text and the image coincide nicely. There is enough text on the advert to inform the audience about the album, and the bold image compliments the abstract text. As the background image has plenty of colour and meaning, which means the whole advert is not over simplified with the small amount of text. As the Gorillaz are already an extremely popular group and have safely established themselves as successful artists in the music industry, the recognisable animated characters aren't featured on the front of the advert as the bands name alone is a immediately recognised.

Although the advert is fairly simple, it explains alot about the institutional context of the band. The lack of information and, as mentioned previously, no images of the actual band portray a sense of already esteemed accomplishment, as the band clearly feel they are popular and have a wide enough fan base to be able to not display the actual band on the advert, which is very rare. The potential target audience for this band is quite mixed, as the animated band may appeal to younger music listeners but the content of the lyrics and the variation of music sound would be more likely to appeal to an older, presumably male audience. As the members of the band are portrayed as animations, the female fan base would not be as large compared to a band such as Westlife, who consist of 5 good looking males who tent to sing songs in relation to female issues; whereas Gorillaz do not.