For my Advertisements I have chosen two adverts selling cars to two very different target audiences. My first is an advert for the Toyota Corolla; this advert is in the “S:2” Sunday express supplement, this magazine is stereotypically read by middle class couples. This advert is laid out on a double page spread to make readers focus on the product and not be drawn to other visible adverts from other companies. It focuses on visual humour with surprisingly little text and no pseudo science, which is the strategy typically used by car manufacturers to sell their products.
It shows a typical street corner in Camden, London, with a blurred commuter crowd giving the impression these people are moving quickly and lead fast paced lives. There is a man standing on the corner holding a sign saying “golf sale” with an arrow pointing to the right hand side of the scene This leads your eye over to the right and provides a baseline for the humour. There is another man standing over to the right of the scene also holding a sign, his says “Corolla” with an arrow pointing to the Corolla he is standing next to. At the bottom right of the page an easy to read “no-nonsense” font it states simply: “New Corolla.
A car to be proud of” ,it uses the concept that the car is something to be proud of, this is humorously portrayed by the sign it implies that this man sees his car as something so important he must tell all that it is his and it is better than their car. The advert is subtly coloured using a washed out effect to help emphasise the red of the Corolla sign and the other man’s “golf sale” sign. The golf sale sign is pointing to the right hand side of the scene. This draws the eye across the pages to the “Corolla” sign, which, as well as providing a humorous element, indicates the position of the product on the page.
The layout follows a standard left to right diagonal down slope drawing the readers eyes to the final, and most important points, the product and tagline which, of course, are the most agonised over components of the ad as they are the bit advertisers want the reader to remember. Another point on this advert is that there is very little copy, the only copy the ad contains are: the tagline, the company’s slogan; “the car in front is a Toyota” and a contact number/website address plus the legal warning on the recording of calls.
There is also a small rectangle proclaiming this “What Car’s” car of the year. It does not, strangely, contain a price for the object, which gives a feeling of intrigue to the reader, exactly how much does this product cost? Etc; I believe this helps the ad stick in peoples minds and cause them to think about it, not only when they are looking at the ad, but also later when something makes them wonder why there was no price and makes them want to find out.
Overall, I feel that this advert is successfully aimed at young single men and women whose cars are more than just a vehicle; they consider them something to be proud of. My second advert is also trying to sell a car but it is of a very different type and this is evidence of a different target audience in that the whole advert differs so much from that made by Toyota. Like the first ad it is from the “S:2” Sunday express supplement. This second advert is produced for Volvo, it contains a stylised block-colour illustrated man and woman in two different situations.
The first shows the woman standing in the extreme foreground, hands on hips facing the man, who is laying on a bed, seemingly on his side patting the space next to him as if inviting her into his bed. The second scene is shown inside a picture, in the larger scene, it shows the man sitting on the car and the woman standing close to him; they appear to be talking. Although the smaller scene appears inside the larger one, it extends beyond it into a large light, blank area and when it does this the image of the car, the product, changes from a modern illustrative style to a photograph of the real car.
This advert contains much more copy than the previous ad, it uses pseudo-science to try to impress and bewilder the reader and give the impression that there is nothing better equipped on the road today. The tagline of this advert: “before you have kids, practice” ,written in bold text hints at the sexual nature of the images causing a connection between this product and the bedroom, the main area of interest for most 20 year olds, this again leaves the reader with an image to take with them.
This causes the ad to stick in their minds and be recalled at a completely unconnected moment. Unlike the first advert this one does contain a price within the copy although it is still very small and not easily noticed. The Volvo slogan “for life” is included in the bottom left hand corner along with a rpm gauge, which creates the impression of high performance. In conclusion these ads are more similar than they first appear and yet the different target audiences cause subtle differences which cannot be ignored.
