Language and Power- Adverts
I have decided to look at adverts that feature in magazines aimed for teenage girls and young women (Sugar, Bliss and Look),I intend to pick out three cosmetic adverts to anaylse under their graphology, lexis, gender, references and target audience, firstly i will start with the Barry M Eye Make Up advert from Look magazine:
Barry M Advert
Graphology,Lexis and Target Audience:
There is a medium close up of a girl wearing an interesting make up combination, this breaks the conventions of typical make up use, as most people aren’t daring enough to experiement to the extremes. To the right of the girl there is a picture of the make up used and the website is placed vertically next to this image, this is done so that the audience immediatley connect the two and hopefully then go on to buy the products online. The rest of the background is black with a pink flowery theme faded out across the page and at the top there is a masthead displaying the play on words ‘Glamoureyes’ which phonetically sounds like ‘Glamourize’ .
Other than this, not much lexis is used, this shows that the advert is based on the visual aspects used, to sell this. This makes sense as make up is about appearance not words. I believe the target audience for this is teenage girls, as the girl featured is shown to have make up that could been worn out and teenagers commonly enjoy experiementing with their look, i can also determine the audience by the shops in which the make up is sold, superdrug and boots are high street brands which are affordable and teenagers, typically don’t have a lot of money to spend.
Maybelline Make Up
Graphology, Target Audience and Lexis:
This advert features a girl wearing neutral make up, posing in a medium shot, looking straight at the camera, there is a column along the right side, displaying the shades of the foundations and a description of the make up itself. At the bottom of the page there is the brand with its slogan, which shows that it is of less importance compared to the make up.
The lexis used is simple, yet descriptive it uses words like ‘perfectly’, ‘perfection’ and ‘perfecting’ this is also known as the rule of three used in persuasive pieces, therefore this advert is aimed at girls going for perfection and would like an even complexion from a light foundation- exactly what the paragraph describes.
Plamer's Lip Balm
