Advertisement is a form of non personal communication of which the main purpose is to entice sales. It also promotes sales of ideas, services and goods to corporate or the general public. There are several forms of advertisement, which include print media, television, radio and the internet.
Advertisements are effective as they are intended to communicate with the consumers and thereby persuading them. In addition to this, advertisements contribute ideally to the economic growth of the country.
There are several factors to look for when placing an advertisement. Some of the se factors include; age, gender and class of the targeted group or audience.
The only hurdle in choosing the most effective form of an advert is the cost involved. Advertisements have a lot of impact to the general public and as such, the corporate world has developed advertising as a common trend especially when new products are being introduced in the market.
With reference to the provided picture this paper will assess how the advert creates meaning through language, typography, color and image. In addition to this, the paper will establish who the advert is targeted at and how gender, class, race and age are represented. The image entails language techniques. There are several language techniques that can be used in an advertisement.
However, in order to reach a great number of people, most businesses use the descriptive language technique. The given advertisement tends to describe a person who is not afraid of failing in anything he does but hates loosing. As such, Thierry Henry is an iconic figure in the world of football and as he is commonly known to do, he tries everything in football to ensure that his team prospers.
This means that the advert urges the subjects of the target group to do everything they have to do so long as they do not lose. The iconic figure of Thierry Henry, as used in the advert, shows a person who has put his fear behind and thereby showing the willingness to try new ideas to become successful.
The use of image also describes a person who is hopeful though having doubts. However, the introduction of the dominant Reebok sign at the bottom of the advertisement heightens the tone of the advert and as such, urges the subjects of the target group to put doubts behind them and move on with new ideas.
Despite Thierry Henry being an iconic figure, the mood as shown by his face signifies a person who rarely tries new ideas and is now regretful in regard to why he did not try them out. The tone of the message, that is, the use of bold and light colored writings signifies that one should not give up and move on in new ideas.
The image is instructive because it instructs the targeted group on what to do so as not to have any regrets upon incorporation of new ideas. In addition to this, the writing can be said to be instructive as it tends to instructs us to develop and try out new ideas in our day to day activities.
The image also instructs the targeted group on what to follow in order to ensure success in all their endeavors. Moreover, the image coupled with the writings instructs the targeted group that, for them to succeed; they must never be afraid of failing and must always hate losing when it comes to implementation of new ideas.
The image is emotive because, coupling Thierry Henry’s image and the iconic sign of the Reebok brand, which has been a commanding company in the sports world; it creates emotion of hope and happiness. By looking at the image, a sense of hope is imparted on the targeted group such that, if they adapt the message as conveyed, they will indeed have a better future.
Furthermore, the image, as portrayed by the mood on Thierry Henry’s face, depicts emotion of fear in regard to what will happen if the targeted group adapt the conveyed message, ‘I do not fear to fail but am afraid to lose’, but still become unsuccessful.
The image of Thierry Henry depicts a person who is having regrets as to why he never tried out new ideas in life. The effectiveness of language techniques is effective depending on the audience being targeted by the advertisement (Freeman 2000).
The notion of symbolism technique is used in the advertisement. The use of Reebok sign as well as Thierry Henry’s image can be attributed to the use of symbolism and as such, it has proved effective as the main idea behind the advert is passed. For the subjects of the targeted group not regret later in life, they ought not to signify any fear in regard to failure.
Rather, they should always develop an attitude of winning in everything, just like Reebok company and Thierry Henry does, that is, they are usually not afraid to fail but commonly, they are not afraid to fail but they hate losing.
The image also symbolizes two kinds of life; a life where one is full of regrets because he never tried out new ideas and a life whereby a person is happy and hopeful and anticipates facing the future because he tried out new ideas which later turned out well for him. Further, the image also signifies a great deal of contrast. As such, the mood of Thierry Henry contrasts with the tone and the message being conveyed.
Another technique utilized in the advertisement is typography. Some words have been highlighted in an effort towards emphasizing the importance in the information being portrayed to the targeted group. The image also uses two images, that is, two contrasting images of iconic figure of Thierry Henry entailing different structural appearances and sizes.
This notion indeed symbolizes the two distinct kinds of lives that the two people are living. One of the images is big and visible to symbolize a person who is full of hope and ready to face the future. On the other hand, the second image not that big. In addition to this, the second picture is not substantially visible and this symbolizes a person who has lost all hope for the future due to the decisions he has made in his past.
In the advert, words are written such that different color tones are able to put a great deal of emphasis. Some of the words have been highlighted in bold to depict a hopeful and happy person who is ready to face the future with confidence. This is very important because it brings out the importance of the message to the subjects of the targeted group (Lewis 2007).
The factors considered when choosing the typography to use is the age, gender and class of the targeted group. The image targets a group of young men and women who have just completed the education system and are not sure of what kind of decisions to make in order to facilitate an appealing future.
The image portrays to the target group the kind of life they will get depending on the kind of decisions they make today and how it will affect their future. In addition to this the image creates awareness, that is, it conveys to them that the decisions they make today will affect the kind of life that they will have tomorrow and as such, this helps them not regret making some decisions.
Another important technique used is color. This technique has been used to captures the attention of the targeted group. In any advertisement, the use of color attracts sights and as such, message portrayed by the image is conveniently passed to a great number of people. In the advert, words have been highlighted with color and this makes the writings attractive to the targeted group.
The targeted group is assumed to be in a kind of dilemma. They are faced with a difficulty of choosing the right decisions to face the future. The image is used to inform the targeted group about how important it is to make informed choices.
The image as well as the writings signifies how risky it is if informed choices are not made and how one will regret not making some choices in the future. The image captures both the positive and negative aspects of the future and displays them all in the same image.
The class of the targeted group is assumed to be young men and women who don’t know yet how to go about their lives and need someone who will show them the direction to take so that their future will not be entailed with regrets. By looking at the image the young men and women will discover that if they don’t make the right decisions presently, it will not be possible to make them at a future date.
On the other hand, the advertisement considers the young from all races. This is because it does not include limiting attributes in the message. The use of a man in the advert seems to discriminate the female gender but with a greater insight into the advert, it is that the female gender is very much considered. This is shown y the generalized writing.
When making an advertisement vital to ensure that the designer establishes the targeted group/audience and as such, it will be very easy to make the suitable advertisement (Freeman 2000). The type of advertisement differs considering such factors as age, gender, race and class. Some of the advertisements are racist in nature and as such, they cannot be subjected to some geographic regions (Freeman 2000).
The advert has a distinct feature since it identifies the brand that is being advertised to the targeted group. The distinct feature is the use of the brand logo in the image and an arrow point towards it hence making it more visible. The brand logo also uses different colors from the rest of the image hence making it more conspicuous.
The brand uses known media personalities and iconic sports brand; Thierry Henry and Reebok sign, in order to attract the attention of the targeted group.
The use of known media personalities is very important because it attracts the attention of a great number of individuals and hence making an advertising strategy more effective (Lewis 2007). As such it is a very effective strategy because; by attracting the targeted group, it passes the intended message, that is, I am not afraid to fail but I am afraid to lose.
In the image, the background used represents the past which is known coming into a future which is unknown to the target group. The use of distinct features in advertising is very important because it blends with the expectations of the targeted group to convey the message intended to be passed more effectively (Lewis, 2007).
The use of both aspects of the future in the image is also very important because it tells the targeted group the need of making informed choices when it comes to decisions pertaining their lives in the near future.
The use of images in advertising is the most effective because, according to many researchers, a picture is worth a thousand words (Saussure 2011). In addition to this, an image is the most effective type of advertisement because it brings out the sense in which all human being are always attracted to what they see around them (Barthes 2003).
It is very important to choose distinct colors which are bright of which they attract the human eye and help in passing the message intended to be passed across to the targeted group/audience.
From this analysis, it is clear that the use of images in brand advertisement is the most effective type of advertisement because it helps in the passing of the intended message to the target group/audience.
Also we see that the use of distinct color in the image is very effective because by this we see that when one uses the bright colors, they attract the human eye and in the process passing on the intended message to the target group/audience.
The use of more than one language, topology and color techniques in advertisement is also very important because it help in the passing of the message intended more effectively as compared to the other types of advertisements.
References
Barthes, R (2003), Mythologies, John Wiley and Sons, London, UK
Freeman, D (2000), Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching, Oxford University Press London, UK:. Huddersfield, UK
Lewis, J (2007), Typography: Design and Practice, Jeremy Mills Publishing,
Saussure, F (2011), Course in General Linguistics, Columbia University Press, New York