The modern understanding of the American dream and success is closely associated with the idea that successful people follow a unique lifestyle full of pleasures and comfort. This idea is closely correlated with the vision that modern successful people pay much attention to gadgets and different mobile devices because their success depends on sharing a lot of information typical for the digital era. The Huffy Corporation chooses to focus on the promotion of the opposite ideals while associating the successful lifestyle with the pleasure of riding bicycles as the pattern for the effective advertisement. The Huffy advertisement published in Good Housekeeping attracts the female readers because it supports the idea of the successful lifestyle full of such pleasures as riding the trendy bicycle while opposing these pleasures to the modern focus on gadgets as the symbols of the modern digital era. To understand the reasons why the Huffy advertisement published in the magazine for women is effective to evoke the consumers’ interest, it is necessary to analyze the magazine’s ideal reader; such features of the advertisement as the color, format, content, layout, and rhetorical elements; and evaluate the advertisement within the context of Good Housekeeping magazine.
The ideal reader of Good Housekeeping is the successful woman aged 25-45 years who has the family and lives in harmony with herself and the world. This woman is white, or she can be African American, Asian, and of the Hispanic origin, as it can be stated referring to the magazine’s materials. The woman’s religion does not matter. The ideal reader’s job is part-time, without references to the profession because this woman can balance the work and housekeeping. The ideal female reader prefers to spend much time creating comfortable conditions for her family, and she likes to spend much time with relatives.
To sell such a product as a yellow-pink trendy bicycle successfully, the designers focus on the advertisement’s color scheme, format, content, layout, and rhetorical elements to draw the audience’s attention to the advertisement. Referring to the Huffy advertisement’s format, it is necessary to note that it is the print advertisement based on the principle of analogy. While discussing the advertisement’s layout, it is necessary to note that the illustration takes most of the advertisement when the caption is presented in the upper right corner. The main female character is depicted in the foreground, and the other people and buildings are depicted at the background. This technique makes the reader pay attention to priorities.
One of the most important features is the color scheme. Dark purple and violet colors which are associated with the mysteries and fantasies are used as dominating ones. They serve as the perfect contrasting background to represent the bright yellow-pink bicycle. This approach adds to the advertisement’s content, which presents the woman with a bicycle in the background of gadget-like buildings. These fantastic objects catch the readers’ attention and make them focus on the caption: “When’s the last time an app blew wind through your hair?”. The woman seems to speak these words and be happier than the mobile users in this fantastic world typical for the digital era.
Pathos and ethos are used by designers to attract readers. The appeal to the female readers’ emotions is based on the opposition between the woman and the other persons in the advertisement. The reader is expected to focus on the invasion of mobile technologies and to choose the path of riding the bright bicycle. Ethos is used with references to the company’s logo and caption because Huffy is one of the most reputable producers of bicycles.
Referring to the context of the magazine, it is possible to note that the advertisement can be chosen to be published because it draws the readers’ attention due to its impressive color scheme and focuses on the principles of the successful lifestyle. Furthermore, the advertisement meets the audience’s needs while proposing the variants to have more fun and entertain oneself. As a result, the Huffy advertisement can be discussed as successful because it creates a striking effect, manipulates the readers’ expectations, and accentuates the idea of the happy life full of pleasures.
They discussed and analyzed Huffy advertisement, which is designed to promote the new model of a bicycle can be discussed as eye-catching and rather effective because of its associations with the mystery and fantastic elements. Thus, the advertisement meets the needs of the magazine’s ideal female readers who are focused on finding ways to spend time with the family and have more fun. The analysis of the advertisement’s color, format, layout, and used rhetorical elements to demonstrate that the advertisement attracts the readers’ attention without references to the concepts of race, gender, and age. Thus, the Huffy advertisement can be discussed as rather successful because of using the play of contrasting colors, images, and concepts while presenting the thought-provoking message associated with the idea of the people’s successful lifestyle.
OPTIC Analysis
Image Title: Huffy: Still Your Ride
O – The advertisement represents the young African American woman using the bright yellow-pink bicycle for the night ride in the world of digital technologies.
P – The female appears as separated from the other people locating at the background. She holds the bicycle and helmet. The dominated colors are violet and purple, and the yellow-pink bicycle is in contrast to them. The represented buildings are gadget-like and fantastic.
T – The title “Huffy: Still Your Ride” suggests that Huffy proposes good products for riding, such as bicycles, with which your ride is usually comfortable or ‘still.’ The caption states: “When’s the last time an app blew wind through your hair?”, and it means that it is more reasonable and enjoyable to ride bicycles to feel the wind in the hair instead of focusing on new applications to have some fun.
I – Such parts as the female character, the bicycle and helmet, and their colors add to each other and create a positive mood of happiness, satisfaction, and pleasure of riding with vivid emotions. However, this emotion is accentuated with the focus on the contrast between the dark purple digital environments typical for the people at the background and the bright yellow bicycle used by the woman.
C – The designer could focus on demonstrating the trend to ride stylish bicycles as opposed to the trend of choosing applications and using gadgets typical for the digital era.
Selecting Ads for Analysis:
- I selected Reader’s Digest, The New Yorker, and Good Housekeeping because they are read in my family. I focused on many advertisements in Good Housekeeping.
- I am a regular reader of Reader’s Digest. The other magazines are read in my family.
- I found such patterns as a lifestyle, healthy diet, fashion, luxury, care, beauty, and comfort.
- I focused on the lifestyle because the advertisements are vivid and promote the ideals of the American dream and success.
- I selected the advertisement for the Huffy products because it is ‘fantastic’ and associated with the ideals of the person’s successful lifestyle.
Inside the Ad
- The advertisement is about the modern young woman using the bicycle in the world of high technologies.
- The advertisement evokes positive associations related to the opportunity to ride a bicycle in the busy world while following the trends.
- The Huffy bicycles are promoted. However, the viewer can identify the product during a few seconds because of observing many gadgets in the background. The product can be identified with the help of the logo and slogan.
- A woman and pairs of persons appear in the advertisement. The woman holds the bicycle and helmet. The gadgets appear as ‘buildings’ in the advertisement.
- The advertisement represents the night, and it can be the fantasy associated with the modernity or fantastic future. The environment is the quay of the river with many gadget-like buildings.
- The advertisement serves to persuade that the focus on mobile devices and applications cannot provide the person with the feeling of the real wind in the hair, and the process of riding a bicycle is a good alternative to finding apps.
- The main female character feels satisfaction while using the bicycle. She demonstrates her pleasure associated with using the bicycle instead of having gadgets. The other characters can share the advantages of using applications.
- The female character and the product are in the focus of the camera, but they are left-sided to demonstrate the quay in perspective. The advertisement demonstrates the right choice made by the female in the foreground and false choices made by the persons appearing at the background.
- About the reader, the main character is depicted on the left. About each other, the background characters are grouped in pairs. About the physical environment, all the characters are on the quay, observing the gadgets on the left and the river on the right. About the product, the female character is placed on the left.
- The main character is the young African American female who is neatly dressed in casual clothes. She can be discussed as belonging to the upper-middle class. The background characters are young males and females. The pose of the main character demonstrates her self-confidence. The other characters interact with each other as good acquaintances.
- Dark and light tones of violet, purple, and pink dominate this advertisement. They are used to accentuate the depicted night and lights produced by the gadgets’ screens.
- The advertisement assumes that today, readers prefer to use many attractive gadgets and focus on innovations.
- The advertisement is associated with the debates on the generation of young people who focus on their mobile devices instead of choosing traditional hiking, traveling, or riding to enjoy themselves.
- The bright bicycle is depicted in contrast to the night environment, and it is perceived as the right vivid choice in the digital era to contribute to the readers’ focus on innovative goods.
- The advertisement can mean that to follow the lifestyle of a modern successful person living in the digital era; it is impossible to focus only on applications because the process of riding the bright trendy bicycle is also the enjoyable healthy experience.
